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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/1912-0.txt b/1912-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ccb7074 --- /dev/null +++ b/1912-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7722 @@ +Project Gutenberg’s The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Muse of the Department + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: James Waring + +Release Date: October, 1999 [Etext #1912] +Posting Date: March 5, 2010 +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by James Waring + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont. + + MY DEAR FERDINAND,--If the chances of the world of literature + --_habent sua fata libelli_--should allow these lines to be an + enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the + trouble you have taken--you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the + King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, + Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, + Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valois--the hundred great names that form + the Aristocracy of the “Human Comedy” owe their lordly mottoes and + ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, “the Armorial of the Etudes, + devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman,” is a complete manual + of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the + arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of + friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of + the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the + Beauseants, _Pulchre sedens, melius agens_; in that of the + Espards, _Des partem leonis_; in that of the Vandenesses, _Ne se + vend_. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned + symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried + in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. + + Your old friend, + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + +On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, +infallibly attracts the traveler’s eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost +height of a chain of hills, the last of the range that gives variety to +the Nivernais. The Loire floods the flats at the foot of these slopes, +leaving a yellow alluvium that is extremely fertile, excepting in those +places where it has deluged them with sand and destroyed them forever, +by one of those terrible risings which are also incidental to the +Vistula--the Loire of the northern coast. + +The hill on which the houses of Sancerre are grouped is so far from the +river that the little river-port of Saint-Thibault thrives on the life +of Sancerre. There wine is shipped and oak staves are landed, with all +the produce brought from the upper and lower Loire. At the period when +this story begins the suspension bridges at Cosne and at Saint-Thibault +were already built. Travelers from Paris to Sancerre by the +southern road were no longer ferried across the river from Cosne to +Saint-Thibault; and this of itself is enough to show that the great +cross-shuffle of 1830 was a thing of the past, for the House of Orleans +has always had a care for substantial improvements, though somewhat +after the fashion of a husband who makes his wife presents out of her +marriage portion. + +Excepting that part of Sancerre which occupies the little plateau, the +streets are more or less steep, and the town is surrounded by slopes +known as the Great Ramparts, a name which shows that they are the +highroads of the place. + +Outside the ramparts lies a belt of vineyards. Wine forms the chief +industry and the most important trade of the country, which yields +several vintages of high-class wine full of aroma, and so nearly +resembling the wines of Burgundy, that the vulgar palate is deceived. So +Sancerre finds in the wineshops of Paris the quick market indispensable +for liquor that will not keep for more than seven or eight years. Below +the town lie a few villages, Fontenoy and Saint-Satur, almost suburbs, +reminding us by their situation of the smiling vineyards about Neuchatel +in Switzerland. + +The town still bears much of its ancient aspect; the streets are narrow +and paved with pebbles carted up from the Loire. Some old houses are to +be seen there. The citadel, a relic of military power and feudal times, +stood one of the most terrible sieges of our religious wars, when French +Calvinists far outdid the ferocious Cameronians of Walter Scott’s tales. + +The town of Sancerre, rich in its greater past, but widowed now of its +military importance, is doomed to an even less glorious future, for the +course of trade lies on the right bank of the Loire. The sketch here +given shows that Sancerre will be left more and more lonely in spite of +the two bridges connecting it with Cosne. + +Sancerre, the pride of the left bank, numbers three thousand five +hundred inhabitants at most, while at Cosne there are now more than +six thousand. Within half a century the part played by these two +towns standing opposite each other has been reversed. The advantage of +situation, however, remains with the historic town, whence the view on +every side is perfectly enchanting, where the air is deliciously pure, +the vegetation splendid, and the residents, in harmony with nature, +are friendly souls, good fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though +two-thirds of the population are Calvinists. Under such conditions, +though there are the usual disadvantages of life in a small town, and +each one lives under the officious eye which makes private life almost +a public concern, on the other hand, the spirit of township--a sort +of patriotism, which cannot indeed take the place of a love of +home--flourishes triumphantly. + +Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth to +one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an +author of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful +journalists. The district included under the municipality of Sancerre, +distressed at finding itself practically ruled by seven or eight large +landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the +electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough. +This little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was +provoked, failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of +them, as the inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others. +This result showed the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy then +suggested was to rally round a champion at the next election, in the +person of one of the two men who so gloriously represented Sancerre in +Paris circles. + +This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since 1830 +the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly that +real statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber. + +In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in +the brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, _dux femina fasti_, but +with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted in this +lady’s past life, and so entirely comprehended her future prospects, +that it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of her antecedent +career. + + + +Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized +indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local +reputation. This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris +were attaining, each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory +for one, and of fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in +reviews, signed his name to contributions to a paper that had eight +thousand subscribers; and Bianchon, already chief physician to a +hospital, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Academy of +Sciences, had just been made a professor. + +If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a +degree of blame, it might be said that George Sand created _Sandism_, so +true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. This +leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, _Sandism_ has +its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases her assumption of +superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue-stocking of sentiment; +and she is rather less of a bore, love to some extent neutralizing +literature. The most conspicuous result of George Sand’s celebrity +was to elicit the fact that France has a perfectly enormous number of +superior women, who have, however, till now been so generous as to leave +the field to the Marechal de Saxe’s granddaughter. + +The Superior Woman of Sancerre lived at La Baudraye, a town-house +and country-house in one, within ten minutes of the town, and in the +village, or, if you will, the suburb of Saint-Satur. The La Baudrayes of +the present day have, as is frequently the case, thrust themselves in, +and are but a substitute for those La Baudrayes whose name, glorious in +the Crusades, figured in the chief events of the history of Le Berry. + +The story must be told. + +In the time of Louis XIV. a certain sheriff named Milaud, whose +forefathers had been furious Calvinists, was converted at the time of +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. To encourage this movement in +one of the strong-holds of Calvinism, the King gave said Milaud a good +appointment in the “Waters and Forests,” granted him arms and the title +of Sire (or Lord) de la Baudraye, with the fief of the old and genuine +La Baudrayes. The descendants of the famous Captain la Baudraye fell, +sad to say, into one of the snares laid for heretics by the new decrees, +and were hanged--an unworthy deed of the great King’s. + +Under Louis XV. Milaud de la Baudraye, from being a mere squire, +was made Chevalier, and had influence enough to obtain for his son +a cornet’s commission in the Musketeers. This officer perished at +Fontenoy, leaving a child, to whom King Louis XVI. subsequently granted +the privileges, by patent, of a farmer-general, in remembrance of his +father’s death on the field of battle. + +This financier, a fashionable wit, great at charades, capping verses, +and posies to Chlora, lived in society, was a hanger-on to the Duc +de Nivernais, and fancied himself obliged to follow the nobility into +exile; but he took care to carry his money with him. Thus the rich +_emigre_ was able to assist more than one family of high rank. + +In 1800, tired of hoping, and perhaps tired of lending, he returned +to Sancerre, bought back La Baudraye out of a feeling of vanity and +imaginary pride, quite intelligible in a sheriff’s grandson, though +under the consulate his prospects were but slender; all the more so, +indeed, because the ex-farmer-general had small hopes of his heir’s +perpetuating the new race of La Baudraye. + +Jean Athanase Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, his only son, more than +delicate from his birth, was very evidently the child of a man whose +constitution had early been exhausted by the excesses in which rich men +indulge, who then marry at the first stage of premature old age, and +thus bring degeneracy into the highest circles of society. During the +years of the emigration Madame de la Baudraye, a girl of no fortune, +chosen for her noble birth, had patiently reared this sallow, sickly +boy, for whom she had the devoted love mothers feel for such changeling +creatures. Her death--she was a Casteran de la Tour--contributed to +bring about Monsieur de la Baudraye’s return to France. + +This Lucullus of the Milauds, when he died, left his son the fief, +stripped indeed of its fines and dues, but graced with weathercocks +bearing his coat-of-arms, a thousand louis-d’or--in 1802 a considerable +sum of money--and certain receipts for claims on very distinguished +_emigres_ enclosed in a pocketbook full of verses, with this inscription +on the wrapper, _Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas_. + +Young La Baudraye did not die, but he owed his life to habits of +monastic strictness; to the economy of action which Fontenelle preached +as the religion of the invalid; and, above all, to the air of Sancerre +and the influence of its fine elevation, whence a panorama over the +valley of the Loire may be seen extending for forty leagues. + +From 1802 to 1815 young La Baudraye added several plots to his +vineyards, and devoted himself to the culture of the vine. The +Restoration seemed to him at first so insecure that he dared not go to +Paris to claim his debts; but after Napoleon’s death he tried to +turn his father’s collection of autographs into money, though not +understanding the deep philosophy which had thus mixed up I O U’s and +copies of verses. But the winegrower lost so much time in impressing his +identity on the Duke of Navarreins “and others,” as he phrased it, +that he came back to Sancerre, to his beloved vintage, without having +obtained anything but offers of service. + +The Restoration had raised the nobility to such a degree of lustre as +made La Baudraye wish to justify his ambitions by having an heir. This +happy result of matrimony he considered doubtful, or he would not so +long have postponed the step; however, finding himself still above +ground in 1823, at the age of forty-three, a length of years which no +doctor, astrologer, or midwife would have dared to promise him, he hoped +to earn the reward of his sober life. And yet his choice showed such a +lack of prudence in regard to his frail constitution, that the malicious +wit of a country town could not help thinking it must be the result of +some deep calculation. + +Just at this time His Eminence, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Bourges, +had converted to the Catholic faith a young person, the daughter of one +of the citizen families, who were the first upholders of Calvinism, and +who, thanks to their obscurity or to some compromise with Heaven, had +escaped from the persecutions under Louis XIV. The Piedefers--a name +that was obviously one of the quaint nicknames assumed by the champions +of the Reformation--had set up as highly respectable cloth merchants. +But in the reign of Louis XVI., Abraham Piedefer fell into difficulties, +and at his death in 1786 left his two children in extreme poverty. One +of them, Tobie Piedefer, went out to the Indies, leaving the pittance +they had inherited to his elder brother. During the Revolution Moise +Piedefer bought up the nationalized land, pulled down abbeys and +churches with all the zeal of his ancestors, oddly enough, and married +a Catholic, the only daughter of a member of the Convention who had +perished on the scaffold. This ambitious Piedefer died in 1819, leaving +a little girl of remarkable beauty. This child, brought up in the +Calvinist faith, was named Dinah, in accordance with the custom in use +among the sect, of taking their Christian names from the Bible, so as to +have nothing in common with the Saints of the Roman Church. + +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer was placed by her mother in one of the best +schools in Bourges, that kept by the Demoiselles Chamarolles, and was +soon as highly distinguished for the qualities of her mind as for her +beauty; but she found herself snubbed by girls of birth and fortune, +destined by-and-by to play a greater part in the world than a mere +plebeian, the daughter of a mother who was dependent on the settlement +of Piedefer’s estate. Dinah, having raised herself for the moment above +her companions, now aimed at remaining on a level with them for the rest +of her life. She determined, therefore, to renounce Calvinism, in the +hope that the Cardinal would extend his favor to his proselyte +and interest himself in her prospects. You may from this judge of +Mademoiselle Dinah’s superiority, since at the age of seventeen she was +a convert solely from ambition. + +The Archbishop, possessed with the idea that Dinah Piedefer would adorn +society, was anxious to see her married. But every family to whom the +prelate made advances took fright at a damsel gifted with the looks of +a princess, who was reputed to be the cleverest of Mademoiselle +Chamarolles’ pupils and who, at the somewhat theatrical ceremonial of +prize-giving, always took a leading part. A thousand crowns a year, +which was as much as she could hope for from the estate of La Hautoy +when divided between the mother and daughter, would be a mere trifle in +comparison with the expenses into which a husband would be led by the +personal advantages of so brilliant a creature. + +As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la +Baudraye--for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of +the Cher--he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at +high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter’s to +take the first comer with well-lined pockets--the first _chien coiffe_, +as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to receive +Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even better pleased +to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The little gentleman +only demanded of His Eminence a formal promise to support his claims +with the President of the Council to enable him to recover his debts +from the Duc de Navarreins “and others” by a lien on their indemnities. +This method, however, seemed to the able Minister then occupying the +Pavillon Marsan rather too sharp practice, and he gave the vine-owner to +understand that his business should be attended to all in good time. + +It is easy to imagine the excitement produced in the Sancerre district +by the news of Monsieur de la Baudraye’s imprudent marriage. + +“It is quite intelligible,” said President Boirouge; “the little man was +very much startled, as I am told, at hearing that handsome young Milaud, +the Attorney-General’s deputy at Nevers, say to Monsieur de Clagny as +they were looking at the turrets of La Baudraye, ‘That will be +mine some day.’--‘But,’ says Clagny, ‘he may marry and have +children.’--‘Impossible!’--So you may imagine how such a changeling as +little La Baudraye must hate that colossal Milaud.” + +There was at Nevers a plebeian branch of the Milauds, which had grown so +rich in the cutlery trade that the present representative of that branch +had been brought up to the civil service, in which he had enjoyed the +patronage of Marchangy, now dead. + +It will be as well to eliminate from this story, in which moral +developments play the principal part, the baser material interests which +alone occupied Monsieur de la Baudraye, by briefly relating the results +of his negotiations in Paris. This will also throw light on certain +mysterious phenomena of contemporary history, and the underground +difficulties in matters of politics which hampered the Ministry at the +time of the Restoration. + + + +The promises of Ministers were so illusory that Monsieur de la Baudraye +determined on going to Paris at the time when the Cardinal’s presence +was required there by the sitting of the Chambers. + +This is how the Duc de Navarreins, the principal debtor threatened by +Monsieur de la Baudraye, got out of the scrape. + +The country gentleman, lodging at the Hotel de Mayence, Rue +Saint-Honore, near the Place Vendome, one morning received a visit from +a confidential agent of the Ministry, who was an expert in “winding up” + business. This elegant personage, who stepped out of an elegant cab, and +was dressed in the most elegant style, was requested to walk up to No. +3--that is to say, to the third floor, to a small room where he found +his provincial concocting a cup of coffee over his bedroom fire. + +“Is it to Monsieur Milaud de la Baudraye that I have the honor--” + +“Yes,” said the little man, draping himself in his dressing-gown. + +After examining this garment, the illicit offspring of an old chine +wrapper of Madame Piedefer’s and a gown of the late lamented Madame de +la Baudraye, the emissary considered the man, the dressing-gown, and +the little stove on which the milk was boiling in a tin saucepan, as so +homogeneous and characteristic, that he deemed it needless to beat about +the bush. + +“I will lay a wager, monsieur,” said he, audaciously, “that you dine for +forty sous at Hurbain’s in the Palais Royal.” + +“Pray, why?” + +“Oh, I know you, having seen you there,” replied the Parisian with +perfect gravity. “All the princes’ creditors dine there. You know that +you recover scarcely ten per cent on debts from these fine gentlemen. +I would not give you five per cent on a debt to be recovered from +the estate of the late Duc d’Orleans--nor even,” he added in a low +voice--“from MONSIEUR.” + +“So you have come to buy up the bills?” said La Baudraye, thinking +himself very clever. + +“Buy them!” said his visitor. “Why, what do you take me for? I am +Monsieur des Lupeaulx, Master of Appeals, Secretary-General to the +Ministry, and I have come to propose an arrangement.” + +“What is that?” + +“Of course, monsieur, you know the position of your debtor--” + +“Of my debtors--” + +“Well, monsieur, you understand the position of your debtors; they stand +high in the King’s good graces, but they have no money, and are obliged +to make a good show.--Again, you know the difficulties of the political +situation. The aristocracy has to be rehabilitated in the face of a very +strong force of the third estate. The King’s idea--and France does +him scant justice--is to create a peerage as a national institution +analogous to the English peerage. To realize this grand idea we need +years--and millions.--_Noblesse oblige_. The Duc de Navarreins, who is, +as you know, first gentleman of the Bedchamber to the King, does not +repudiate his debt; but he cannot--Now, be reasonable.--Consider the +state of politics. We are emerging from the pit of the Revolution.--and +you yourself are noble--He simply cannot pay--” + +“Monsieur--” + +“You are hasty,” said des Lupeaulx. “Listen. He cannot pay in money. +Well, then; you, a clever man, can take payment in favors--Royal or +Ministerial.” + +“What! When in 1793 my father put down one hundred thousand--” + +“My dear sir, recrimination is useless. Listen to a simple statement in +political arithmetic: The collectorship at Sancerre is vacant; a certain +paymaster-general of the forces has a claim on it, but he has no chance +of getting it; you have the chance--and no claim. You will get the +place. You will hold it for three months, you will then resign, and +Monsieur Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. In addition, +the Order of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on you.” + +“Well, that is something,” said the wine-grower, tempted by the money +rather than by the red ribbon. + +“But then,” said des Lupeaulx, “you must show your gratitude to His +Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your +claims on him.” + +La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months +later he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the most +agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who was of +course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife. + +As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la Baudraye +returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some other debtors. +This time he was made a Referendary under the Great Seal, Baron, and +Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the appointment as Referendary; +and then the Baron de la Baudraye called on his last remaining debtors, +and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of Appeals, with an appointment +as Royal Commissioner to a commercial association established in the +Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand francs, an absolute sinecure. So +the worthy La Baudraye, who was supposed to have committed a financial +blunder, had, in fact, done very good business in the choice of a wife. + +Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate +belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year 1827 +the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By paying +four hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to further +instalments, which compelled him to live for six years on the air as it +came, to use his own expression, he was able to purchase the estate of +Anzy on the banks of the Loire, about two leagues above Sancerre, and +its magnificent castle built by Philibert de l’Orme, the admiration of +every connoisseur, and for five centuries the property of the Uxelles +family. At last he was one of the great landowners of the province! +It is not absolutely certain that the satisfaction of knowing that an +entail had been created, by letters patent dated back to December 1820, +including the estates of Anzy, of La Baudraye, and of La Hautoy, was +any compensation to Dinah on finding herself reduced to unconfessed +penuriousness till 1835. + +This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye +explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias of +country folks will recognize in him the _land-hunger_ which becomes such +a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of avarice +displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin by a want +of balance between the interest on mortgages and the products of the +soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely laughed at the little +man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault and attending to his +business, like a merchant living on his vineyards, found the answer to +the riddle when the ant-lion seized his prey, after waiting for the day +when the extravagance of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse culminated in the +sale of that splendid property. + +Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined fortunes of +Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had been content to +accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands of La Hautoy +which she handed over to him, amounted to an acknowledged income of +about fifteen thousand francs. + +During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some +alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant +residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, pulling +down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the manor-house, +which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets and gables, +she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and lawns, and +divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under creepers. She +also made everything within doors as comfortable as their narrow +circumstances allowed. + +In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah +seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing +as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his money +matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him dignity +in his wife’s eyes during the first years of their married life--so +majestic is silence! + +The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see the +young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show herself, +nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled in her home and +had thoroughly studied the inhabitants, and, above all, her taciturn +husband. When, one spring morning in 1825, pretty Madame de la Baudraye +was first seen walking on the Mall in a blue velvet dress, with her +mother in black velvet, there was quite an excitement in Sancerre. This +dress confirmed the young woman’s reputation for superiority, brought +up, as she had been, in the capital of Le Berry. Every one was afraid +lest in entertaining this phoenix of the Department, the conversation +should not be clever enough; and, of course, everybody was constrained +in the presence of Madame de la Baudraye, who produced a sort of terror +among the woman-folk. As they admired a carpet of Indian shawl-pattern +in the La Baudraye drawing-room, a Pompadour writing-table carved and +gilt, brocade window curtains, and a Japanese bowl full of flowers on +the round table among a selection of the newest books; when they heard +the fair Dinah playing at sight, without making the smallest demur +before seating herself at the piano, the idea they conceived of her +superiority assumed vast proportions. That she might never allow herself +to become careless or the victim of bad taste, Dinah had determined to +keep herself up to the mark as to the fashions and latest developments +of luxury by an active correspondence with Anna Grossetete, her bosom +friend at Mademoiselle Chamarolles’ school. + +Anna, thanks to a fine fortune, had married the Comte de Fontaine’s +third son. Thus those ladies who visited at La Baudraye were perpetually +piqued by Dinah’s success in leading the fashion; do what they would, +they were always behind, or, as they say on the turf, distanced. + +While all these trifles gave rise to malignant envy in the ladies of +Sancerre, Dinah’s conversation and wit engendered absolute aversion. +In her ambition to keep her mind on the level of Parisian brilliancy, +Madame de la Baudraye allowed no vacuous small talk in her presence, no +old-fashioned compliments, no pointless remarks; she would never endure +the yelping of tittle-tattle, the backstairs slander which forms the +staple of talk in the country. She liked to hear of discoveries in +science or art, or the latest pieces at the theatres, the newest poems, +and by airing the cant words of the day she made a show of uttering +thoughts. + +The Abbe Duret, Cure of Sancerre, an old man of a lost type of clergy +in France, a man of the world with a liking for cards, had not dared to +indulge this taste in so liberal a district as Sancerre; he, therefore, +was delighted at Madame de la Baudraye’s coming, and they got on +together to admiration. The _sous-prefet_, one Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, +was delighted to find in Madame de la Baudraye’s drawing-room a sort +of oasis where there was a truce to provincial life. As to Monsieur de +Clagny, the Public Prosecutor, his admiration for the fair Dinah kept +him bound to Sancerre. The enthusiastic lawyer refused all promotion, +and became a quite pious adorer of this angel of grace and beauty. He +was a tall, lean man, with a minatory countenance set off by terrible +eyes in deep black circles, under enormous eyebrows; and his eloquence, +very unlike his love-making, could be incisive. + +Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the Empire +had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment that had +won him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces. Having +mixed himself up in certain important matters in Spain with generals at +that time in opposition, he had made the most of these connections to +the Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had lost, promised +him the Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him to pay for the +appointment. The frivolous spirit and light tone of the Empire had +become ponderous in Monsieur Gravier; he did not, or would not, +understand the wide difference between manners under the Restoration +and under the Empire. Still, he conceived of himself as far superior +to Monsieur de Clagny; his style was in better taste; he followed the +fashion, was to be seen in a buff waistcoat, gray trousers, and neat, +tightly-fitting coats; he wore a fashionable silk tie slipped through +a diamond ring, while the lawyer never dressed in anything but +black--coat, trousers, and waistcoat alike, and those often shabby. + +These four men were the first to go into ecstasies over Dinah’s +cultivation, good taste, and refinement, and pronounced her a woman of +most superior mind. Then the women said to each other, “Madame de la +Baudraye must laugh at us behind our back.” + +This view, which was more or less correct, kept them from visiting at La +Baudraye. Dinah, attainted and convicted of pedantry, because she +spoke grammatically, was nicknamed the Sappho of Saint-Satur. At last +everybody made insolent game of the great qualities of the woman who +had thus roused the enmity of the ladies of Sancerre. And they ended by +denying a superiority--after all, merely comparative!--which emphasized +their ignorance, and did not forgive it. Where the whole population is +hunch-backed, a straight shape is the monstrosity; Dinah was regarded as +monstrous and dangerous, and she found herself in a desert. + +Astonished at seeing the women of the neighborhood only at long +intervals, and for visits of a few minutes, Dinah asked Monsieur de +Clagny the reason of this state of things. + +“You are too superior a woman to be liked by other women,” said the +lawyer. + +Monsieur Gravier, when questioned by the forlorn fair, only, after much +entreaty, replied: + +“Well, lady fair, you are not satisfied to be merely charming. You are +clever and well educated, you know every book that comes out, you love +poetry, you are a musician, and you talk delightfully. Women cannot +forgive so much superiority.” + +Men said to Monsieur de la Baudraye: + +“You who have such a Superior Woman for a wife are very fortunate----” + And at last he himself would say: + +“I who have a Superior Woman for a wife, am very fortunate,” etc. + +Madame Piedefer, flattered through her daughter, also allowed herself to +say such things--“My daughter, who is a very Superior Woman, was writing +yesterday to Madame de Fontaine such and such a thing.” + +Those who know the world--France, Paris--know how true it is that many +celebrities are thus created. + + + +Two years later, by the end of the year 1825, Dinah de la Baudraye was +accused of not choosing to have any visitors but men; then it was said +that she did not care for women--and that was a crime. Not a thing +could she do, not her most trifling action, could escape criticism and +misrepresentation. After making every sacrifice that a well-bred woman +can make, and placing herself entirely in the right, Madame de la +Baudraye was so rash as to say to a false friend who condoled with her +on her isolation: + +“I would rather have my bowl empty than with anything in it!” + +This speech produced a terrible effect on Sancerre, and was cruelly +retorted on the Sappho of Saint-Satur when, seeing her childless after +five years of married life, _little_ de la Baudraye became a byword +for laughter. To understand this provincial witticism, readers may be +reminded of the Bailli de Ferrette--some, no doubt, having known him--of +whom it was said that he was the bravest man in Europe for daring to +walk on his legs, and who was accused of putting lead in his shoes to +save himself from being blown away. Monsieur de la Baudraye, a sallow +and almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the Bailli de +Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist had been the +Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere decency, +he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an average +man, whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would have been an +advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he walked, the little +vine-owner’s leg-pads often twisted round on to his shins, so little did +he make a secret of them, and he would thank any one who warned him of +this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and a +white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he adopted blue trousers +and boots with heels, which made Sancerre declare that he had added two +inches to his stature that he might come up to his wife’s chin. For ten +years he was always seen in the same little bottle-green coat with large +white-metal buttons, and a black stock that accentuated his cold stingy +face, lighted up by gray-blue eyes as keen and passionless as a cat’s. +Being very gentle, as men are who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he +seemed to make his wife happy by never contradicting her; he allowed +her to do the talking, and was satisfied to move with the deliberate +tenacity of an insect. + +Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired +for her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place, encouraged +their admiration by conversations, for which it was subsequently +asserted, she prepared herself beforehand. Finding herself listened to +with rapture, she soon began to listen to herself, enjoyed haranguing +her audience, and at last regarded her friends as the chorus in a +tragedy, there only to give her her cues. In fact, she had a very +fine collection of phrases and ideas, derived either from books or by +assimilating the opinions of her companions, and thus became a sort of +mechanical instrument, going off on a round of phrases as soon as some +chance remark released the spring. To do her justice, Dinah was choke +full of knowledge, and read everything, even medical books, statistics, +science, and jurisprudence; for she did not know how to spend her +days when she had reviewed her flower-beds and given her orders to the +gardener. Gifted with an excellent memory, and the talent which some +women have for hitting on the right word, she could talk on any subject +with the lucidity of a studied style. And so men came from Cosne, from +la Charite, and from Nevers, on the right bank; from Lere, Vailly, +Argent, Blancafort, and Aubigny, on the left bank, to be introduced to +Madame de la Baudraye, as they used in Switzerland, to be introduced to +Madame de Stael. Those who only once heard the round of tunes emitted by +this musical snuff-box went away amazed, and told such wonders of Dinah +as made all the women jealous for ten leagues round. + +There is an indescribable mental headiness in the admiration we inspire, +or in the effect of playing a part, which fends off criticism from +reaching the idol. An atmosphere, produced perhaps by unceasing nervous +tension, forms a sort of halo, through which the world below is seen. +How otherwise can we account for the perennial good faith which leads +to so many repeated presentments of the same effects, and the constant +ignoring of warnings given by children, such a terror to their parents, +or by husbands, so familiar as they are with the peacock airs of their +wives? Monsieur de la Baudraye had the frankness of a man who opens an +umbrella at the first drop of rain. When his wife was started on the +subject of Negro emancipation or the improvement of convict prisons, +he would take up his little blue cap and vanish without a sound, in the +certainty of being able to get to Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of +puncheons, and return an hour later to find the discussion approaching a +close. Or, if he had no business to attend to, he would go for a walk on +the Mall, whence he commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, +and take a draught of fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata +in words, or a dialectical duet. + +Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove +her devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw herself +into the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under Art, poetry +and painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the opera. Thus +she became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any treasures that +dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as so many devoted +commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had become possessed +of the Rougets’ furniture, sold at Issoudun early in 1824. She purchased +some very good things at Nivernais and the Haute-Loire. At the New +Year and on her birthday her friends never failed to give her some +curiosities. These fancies found favor in the eyes of Monsieur de la +Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of sacrificing a few crowns to his +wife’s taste. In point of fact, his land mania allowed him to think of +nothing but the estate of Anzy. + +These “antiquities” at that time cost much less than modern furniture. +By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the two +drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the ground +floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were crammed +with masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments. These +surroundings, which were called _queer_ by the neighbors, were quite in +harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the rage, struck +the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they came expecting +something unusual; and they found their expectations surpassed when, +behind a bower of flowers, they saw these catacombs full of old things, +piled up as Sommerard used to pile them--that “Old Mortality” of +furniture. And then these finds served as so many springs which, turned +on by a question, played off an essay on Jean Goujon, Michel Columb, +Germain Pilon, Boulle, Van Huysum, and Boucher, the great native painter +of Le Berry; on Clodion, the carver of wood, on Venetian mirrors, on +Brustolone, an Italian tenor who was the Michael-Angelo of boxwood +and holm oak; on the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and +seventeenth centuries, on the glazes of Bernard de Palissy, the enamels +of Petitot, the engravings of Albrecht Durer--whom she called Dur; +on illuminations on vellum, on Gothic architecture, early decorated, +flamboyant and pure--enough to turn an old man’s brain and fire a young +man with enthusiasm. + +Madame de la Baudraye, possessed with the idea of waking up Sancerre, +tried to form a so-called literary circle. The Presiding Judge, Monsieur +Boirouge, who happened to have a house and garden on his hands, part of +the Popinot-Chandier property, favored the notion of this _coterie_. +The wily Judge talked over the rules of the society with Madame de la +Baudraye; he proposed to figure as one of the founders, and to let the +house for fifteen years to the literary club. By the time it had existed +a year the members were playing dominoes, billiards, and bouillotte, and +drinking mulled wine, punch, and liqueurs. A few elegant little suppers +were then given, and some masked balls during the Carnival. As to +literature--there were the newspapers. Politics and business were +discussed. Monsieur de la Baudraye was constantly there--on his wife’s +account, as she said jestingly. + +This result deeply grieved the Superior Woman, who despaired of +Sancerre, and collected the wit of the neighborhood in her own +drawing-room. Nevertheless, and in spite of the efforts of Messieurs de +Chargeboeuf, Gravier, and de Clagny, of the Abbe Duret and the two chief +magistrates, of a young doctor, and a young Assistant Judge--all blind +admirers of Dinah’s--there were occasions when, weary of discussion, +they allowed themselves an excursion into the domain of agreeable +frivolity which constitutes the common basis of worldly conversation. +Monsieur Gravier called this “from grave to gay.” The Abbe Duret’s +rubber made another pleasing variety on the monologues of the oracle. +The three rivals, tired of keeping their minds up to the level of the +“high range of discussion”--as they called their conversation--but not +daring to confess it, would sometimes turn with ingratiating hints to +the old priest. + +“Monsieur le Cure is dying for his game,” they would say. + +The wily priest lent himself very readily to the little trick. He +protested. + +“We should lose too much by ceasing to listen to our inspired hostess!” + and so he would incite Dinah’s magnanimity to take pity at last on her +dear Abbe. + +This bold manoeuvre, a device of the Sous-prefet’s, was repeated with +so much skill that Dinah never suspected her slaves of escaping to the +prison yard, so to speak, of the cardtable; and they would leave her one +of the younger functionaries to harry. + +One young landowner, and the dandy of Sancerre, fell away from Dinah’s +good graces in consequence of some rash demonstrations. After soliciting +the honor of admission to this little circle, where he flattered himself +he could snatch the blossom from the constituted authorities who guarded +it, he was so unfortunate as to yawn in the middle of an explanation +Dinah was favoring him with--for the fourth time, it is true--of the +philosophy of Kant. Monsieur de la Thaumassiere, the grandson of the +historian of Le Berry, was thenceforth regarded as a man entirely bereft +of soul and brains. + +The three devotees _en titre_ each submitted to these exorbitant demands +on their mind and attention, in hope of a crowning triumph, when at last +Dinah should become human; for neither of them was so bold as to imagine +that Dinah would give up her innocence as a wife till she should have +lost all her illusions. In 1826, when she was surrounded by adorers, +Dinah completed her twentieth year, and the Abbe Duret kept her in +a sort of fervid Catholicism; so her worshipers had to be content to +overwhelm her with little attentions and small services, only too happy +to be taken for the carpet-knights of this sovereign lady, by strangers +admitted to spend an evening or two at La Baudraye. + +“Madame de la Baudraye is a fruit that must be left to ripen.” This was +the opinion of Monsieur Gravier, who was waiting. + +As to the lawyer, he wrote letters four pages long, to which Dinah +replied in soothing speech as she walked, leaning on his arm, round and +round the lawn after dinner. + +Madame de la Baudraye, thus guarded by three passions, and always under +the eye of her pious mother, escaped the malignity of slander. It was so +evident to all Sancerre that no two of these three men would ever leave +the third alone with Madame de la Baudraye, that their jealousy was a +comedy to the lookers-on. + +To reach Saint-Thibault from Caesar’s Gate there is a way much shorter +than that by the ramparts, down what is known in mountainous districts +as a _coursiere_, called at Sancerre _le Casse-cou_, or Break-neck +Alley. The name is significant as applied to a path down the steepest +part of the hillside, thickly strewn with stones, and shut in by the +high banks of the vineyards on each side. By way of the Break-neck the +distance from Sancerre to La Baudraye is much abridged. The ladies of +the place, jealous of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on +the Mall, looking down this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would +stop and engage in conversation--sometimes the Sous-prefet and +sometimes the Public Prosecutor--and who would listen with every sign of +impatience or uncivil absence of mind. As the turrets of La Baudraye are +visible from the Mall, many a younger man came to contemplate the abode +of Dinah while envying the ten or twelve privileged persons who might +spend their afternoons with the Queen of the neighborhood. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye was not slow to discover the advantage he, as +Dinah’s husband, held over his wife’s adorers, and he made use of them +without any disguise, obtaining a remission of taxes, and gaining two +lawsuits. In every litigation he used the Public Prosecutor’s name with +such good effect that the matter was carried no further, and, like all +undersized men, he was contentious and litigious in business, though in +the gentlest manner. + +At the same time, the more certainly guiltless she was, the less +conceivable did Madame de la Baudraye’s position seem to the prying eyes +of these women. Frequently, at the house of the Presidente de Boirouge, +the ladies of a certain age would spend a whole evening discussing +the La Baudraye household, among themselves of course. They all had +suspicions of a mystery, a secret such as always interests women who +have had some experience of life. And, in fact, at La Baudraye one of +those slow and monotonous conjugal tragedies was being played out which +would have remained for ever unknown if the merciless scalpel of the +nineteenth century, guided by the insistent demand for novelty, had not +dissected the darkest corners of the heart, or at any rate those which +the decency of past centuries left unopened. And that domestic drama +sufficiently accounts for Dinah’s immaculate virtue during her early +married life. + + + +A young lady, whose triumphs at school had been the outcome of her +pride, and whose first scheme in life had been rewarded by a victory, +was not likely to pause in such a brilliant career. Frail as Monsieur +de la Baudraye might seem, he was really an unhoped-for good match for +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer. But what was the hidden motive of this +country landowner when, at forty-four, he married a girl of seventeen; +and what could his wife make out of the bargain? This was the text of +Dinah’s first meditations. + +The little man never behaved quite as his wife expected. To begin with, +he allowed her to take the five precious acres now wasted in pleasure +grounds round La Baudraye, and paid, almost with generosity, the seven +or eight thousand francs required by Dinah for improvements in the +house, enabling her to buy the furniture at the Rougets’ sale at +Issoudun, and to redecorate her rooms in various styles--Mediaeval, +Louis XIV., and Pompadour. The young wife found it difficult to believe +that Monsieur de la Baudraye was so miserly as he was reputed, or else +she must have great influence with him. The illusion lasted a year and a +half. + +After Monsieur de la Baudraye’s second journey to Paris, Dinah +discovered in him the Artic coldness of a provincial miser whenever +money was in question. The first time she asked for supplies she played +the sweetest of the comedies of which Eve invented the secret; but +the little man put it plainly to his wife that he gave her two hundred +francs a month for her personal expenses, and paid Madame Piedefer +twelve hundred francs a year as a charge on the lands of La Hautoy, and +that this was two hundred francs a year more than was agreed to under +the marriage settlement. + +“I say nothing of the cost of housekeeping,” he said in conclusion. “You +may give your friends cake and tea in the evening, for you must have +some amusement. But I, who spent but fifteen hundred francs a year as a +bachelor, now spend six thousand, including rates and repairs, and +this is rather too much in relation to the nature of our property. A +winegrower is never sure of what his expenses may be--the making, the +duty, the casks--while the returns depend on a scorching day or a sudden +frost. Small owners, like us, whose income is far from being fixed, must +base their estimates on their minimum, for they have no means of making +up a deficit or a loss. What would become of us if a wine merchant +became bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are so many +cabbage-leaves. To live as we are living, we ought always to have +a year’s income in hand and count on no more than two-thirds of our +returns.” + +Any form of resistance is enough to make a woman vow to subdue it; Dinah +flung herself against a will of iron padded round with gentleness. She +tried to fill the little man’s soul with jealousy and alarms, but it +was stockaded with insolent confidence. He left Dinah, when he went to +Paris, with all the conviction of Medor in Angelique’s fidelity. When +she affected cold disdain, to nettle this changeling by the scorn a +courtesan sometimes shows to her “protector,” and which acts on him with +the certainty of the screw of a winepress, Monsieur de la Baudraye gazed +at his wife with fixed eyes, like those of a cat which, in the midst of +domestic broils, waits till a blow is threatened before stirring from +its place. The strange, speechless uneasiness that was perceptible under +his mute indifference almost terrified the young wife of twenty; she +could not at first understand the selfish quiescence of this man, who +might be compared to a cracked pot, and who, in order to live, regulated +his existence with the unchangeable regularity which a clockmaker +requires of a clock. So the little man always evaded his wife, while she +always hit out, as it were, ten feet above his head. + +Dinah’s fits of fury when she saw herself condemned never to escape from +La Baudraye and Sancerre are more easily imagined than described--she +who had dreamed of handling a fortune and managing the dwarf whom she, +the giant, had at first humored in order to command. In the hope of some +day making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris, she accepted +the vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view to seeing +Monsieur de la Baudraye’s name drawn from the electoral urn; for she +supposed him to be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice from Paris, +each time a step higher on the social ladder. But when she struck on the +man’s heart, it was as though she had tapped on marble! The man who had +been Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now Master of Appeals, +Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Royal Commissioner, was but a mole +throwing up its little hills round and round a vineyard! Then some +lamentations were poured into the heart of the Public Prosecutor, of the +Sous-prefet, even of Monsieur Gravier, and they all increased in +their devotion to this sublime victim; for, like all women, she never +mentioned her speculative schemes, and--again like all women--finding +such speculation vain, she ceased to speculate. + +Dinah, tossed by mental storms, was still undecided when, in the autumn +of 1827, the news was told of the purchase by the Baron de la Baudraye +of the estate of Anzy. Then the little old man showed an impulsion of +pride and glee which for a few months changed the current of his wife’s +ideas; she fancied there was a hidden vein of greatness in the man when +she found him applying for a patent of entail. In his triumph the Baron +exclaimed: + +“Dinah, you shall be a countess yet!” + +There was then a patched-up reunion between the husband and wife, such +as can never endure, and which only humiliated and fatigued a woman +whose apparent superiority was unreal, while her unseen superiority was +genuine. This whimsical medley is commoner than people think. Dinah, who +was ridiculous from the perversity of her cleverness, had really great +qualities of soul, but circumstances did not bring these rarer powers to +light, while a provincial life debased the small change of her wit from +day to day. Monsieur de la Baudraye, on the contrary, devoid of soul, of +strength, and of wit, was fated to figure as a man of character, simply +by pursuing a plan of conduct which he was too feeble to change. + + + +There was in their lives a first phase, lasting six years, during which +Dinah, alas! became utterly provincial. In Paris there are several kinds +of women: the duchess and the financier’s wife, the ambassadress and the +consul’s wife, the wife of the minister who is a minister, and of him +who is no longer a minister; then there is the lady--quite the lady--of +the right bank of the Seine and of the left. But in the country there is +but one kind of woman, and she, poor thing, is the provincial woman. + +This remark points to one of the sores of modern society. It must be +clearly understood: France in the nineteenth century is divided into two +broad zones--Paris, and the provinces. The provinces jealous of Paris; +Paris never thinking of the provinces but to demand money. Of old, Paris +was the Capital of the provinces, and the court ruled the Capital; now, +all Paris is the Court, and all the country is the town. + +However lofty, beautiful, and clever a girl born in any department of +France may be on entering life, if, like Dinah Piedefer, she marries +in the country and remains there, she inevitably becomes the provincial +woman. In spite of every determination, the commonplace of second-rate +ideas, indifference to dress, the culture of vulgar people, swamp the +sublimer essence hidden in the youthful plant; all is over, it falls +into decay. How should it be otherwise? From their earliest years +girls bred in the country see none but provincials; they cannot imagine +anything superior, their choice lies among mediocrities; provincial +fathers marry their daughters to provincial sons; crossing the races is +never thought of, and the brain inevitably degenerates, so that in many +country towns intellect is as rare as the breed is hideous. Mankind +becomes dwarfed in mind and body, for the fatal principle of conformity +of fortune governs every matrimonial alliance. Men of talent, artists, +superior brains--every bird of brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The +provincial woman, inferior in herself, is also inferior through +her husband. How is she to live happy under this crushing twofold +consciousness? + +But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and +conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and +gloomy; to reduce it, narrow it, distort it fatally. Is not one of the +most flattering unctions a woman can lay to her soul the assurance of +being something in the existence of a superior man, chosen by herself, +wittingly, as if to have some revenge on marriage, wherein her tastes +were so little consulted? But if in the country the husbands are +inferior beings, the bachelors are no less so. When a provincial wife +commits her “little sin,” she falls in love with some so-called handsome +native, some indigenous dandy, a youth who wears gloves and is supposed +to ride well; but she knows at the bottom of her soul that her fancy +is in pursuit of the commonplace, more or less well dressed. Dinah was +preserved from this danger by the idea impressed upon her of her own +superiority. Even if she had not been as carefully guarded in her early +married life as she was by her mother, whose presence never weighed upon +her till the day when she wanted to be rid of it, her pride, and her +high sense of her own destinies, would have protected her. Flattered as +she was to find herself surrounded by admirers, she saw no lover +among them. No man here realized the poetical ideal which she and Anna +Grossetete had been wont to sketch. When, stirred by the involuntary +temptations suggested by the homage she received, she asked herself, “If +I had to make a choice, who should it be?” she owned to a preference for +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a gentleman of good family, whose appearance +and manners she liked, but whose cold nature, selfishness, and narrow +ambition, never rising above a prefecture and a good marriage, repelled +her. At a word from his family, who were alarmed lest he should be +killed for an intrigue, the Vicomte had already deserted a woman he had +loved in the town where he previously had been Sous-prefet. + +Monsieur de Clagny, on the other hand, the only man whose mind appealed +to hers, whose ambition was founded on love, and who knew what love +means, Dinah thought perfectly odious. When Dinah saw herself condemned +to six years’ residence at Sancerre she was on the point of accepting +the devotion of Monsieur le Vicomte de Chargeboeuf; but he was appointed +to a prefecture and left the district. To Monsieur de Clagny’s great +satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a married man whose wife made +friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no rival to fear but Monsieur +Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the typical man of forty of whom women +make use while they laugh at him, whose hopes they intentionally and +remorselessly encourage, as we are kind to a beast of burden. In six +years, among all the men who were introduced to her from twenty leagues +round, there was not one in whose presence Dinah was conscious of the +excitement caused by personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, +by the impact of a superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, +even an unhappy one. + +Thus none of Dinah’s choicest faculties had a chance of developing; +she swallowed many insults to her pride, which was constantly suffering +under the husband who so calmly walked the stage as supernumerary in the +drama of her life. Compelled to bury her wealth of love, she showed only +the surface to the world. Now and then she would try to rouse herself, +try to form some manly resolution; but she was kept in leading strings +by the need for money. And so, slowly and in spite of the ambitious +protests and grievous recriminations of her own mind, she underwent +the provincial metamorphosis here described. Each day took with it a +fragment of her spirited determination. She had laid down a rule for the +care of her person, which she gradually departed from. Though at first +she kept up with the fashions and the little novelties of elegant life, +she was obliged to limit her purchases by the amount of her allowance. +Instead of six hats, caps, or gowns, she resigned herself to one gown +each season. She was so much admired in a certain bonnet that she made +it do duty for two seasons. So it was in everything. + +Not unfrequently her artistic sense led her to sacrifice the +requirements of her person to secure some bit of Gothic furniture. By +the seventh year she had come so low as to think it convenient to +have her morning dresses made at home by the best needlewoman in the +neighborhood; and her mother, her husband, and her friends pronounced +her charming in these inexpensive costumes which did credit to her +taste. Her ideas were imitated! As she had no standard of comparison, +Dinah fell into the snares that surround the provincial woman. If a +Parisian woman’s hips are too narrow or too full, her inventive wit and +the desire to please help to find some heroic remedy; if she has some +defect, some ugly spot, or small disfigurement, she is capable of making +it an adornment; this is often seen; but the provincial woman--never! If +her waist is too short and her figure ill balanced, well, she makes up +her mind to the worst, and her adorers--or they do not adore her--must +take her as she is, while the Parisian always insists on being taken for +what she is not. Hence the preposterous bustles, the audacious flatness, +the ridiculous fulness, the hideous outlines ingeniously displayed, to +which a whole town will become accustomed, but which are so astounding +when a provincial woman makes her appearance in Paris or among +Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim, showed it off to excess, and +never knew a dull moment when it became ridiculous; when, reduced by the +dull weariness of her life, she looked like a skeleton in clothes; and +her friends, seeing her every day, did not observe the gradual change in +her appearance. + +This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of +marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the town +is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when people meet +every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de la Baudraye, +she loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again, if she flushes +a little, that is intelligible and interesting. A little neglect is +thought charming, and her face is so carefully studied, so well known, +that slight changes are scarcely noticed, and regarded at last as +“beauty spots.” When Dinah ceased to have a new dress with a new season, +she seemed to have made a concession to the philosophy of the place. + +It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as it +is with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body if +it is not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism +most sets its stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose the +briskness which Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is used to +walk and move in a world devoid of accident or change, there is nothing +to be avoided; so in Paris she walks on as raw recruits do, never +remembering that there may be hindrances, for there are none in her +way in her native place, where she is known, where she is always in her +place, and every one makes way for her. Thus she loses all the charm of +the unforeseen. + +And have you ever noticed the effect on human beings of a life in +common? By the ineffaceable instinct of simian mimicry they all tend to +copy each other. Each one, without knowing it, acquires the gestures, +the tone of voice, the manner, the attitudes, the very countenance of +others. In six years Dinah had sunk to the pitch of the society she +lived in. As she acquired Monsieur de Clagny’s ideas she assumed his +tone of voice; she unconsciously fell into masculine manners from seeing +none but men; she fancied that by laughing at what was ridiculous in +them she was safe from catching it; but, as often happens, some hue of +what she laughed at remained in the grain. + +A Parisian woman sees so many examples of good taste that a contrary +result ensues. In Paris women learn to seize the hour and moment when +they may appear to advantage; while Madame de la Baudraye, accustomed +to take the stage, acquired an indefinable theatrical and domineering +manner, the air of a _prima donna_ coming forward on the boards, of +which ironical smiles would soon have cured her in the capital. + +But after she had acquired this stock of absurdities, and, deceived by +her worshipers, imagined them to be added graces, a moment of terrible +awakening came upon her like the fall of an avalanche from a mountain. +In one day she was crushed by a frightful comparison. + +In 1829, after the departure of Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, she was excited +by the anticipation of a little pleasure; she was expecting the Baronne +de Fontaine. Anna’s husband, who was now Director-General under the +Minister of Finance, took advantage of leave of absence on the occasion +of his father’s death to take his wife to Italy. Anna wished to spend +the day at Sancerre with her school-friend. This meeting was strangely +disastrous. Anna, who at school had been far less handsome than Dinah, +now, as Baronne de Fontaine, was a thousand times handsomer than the +Baronne de la Baudraye, in spite of her fatigue and her traveling +dress. Anna stepped out of an elegant traveling chaise loaded with Paris +milliners’ boxes, and she had with her a lady’s maid, whose airs quite +frightened Dinah. All the difference between a woman of Paris and a +provincial was at once evident to Dinah’s intelligent eye; she saw +herself as her friend saw her--and Anna found her altered beyond +recognition. Anna spent six thousand francs a year on herself alone, as +much as kept the whole household at La Baudraye. + +In twenty-four hours the friends had exchanged many confidences; and the +Parisian, seeing herself so far superior to the phoenix of Mademoiselle +Chamarolles’ school, showed her provincial friend such kindness, such +attentions, while giving her certain explanations, as were so many stabs +to Dinah, though she perfectly understood that Anna’s advantages all lay +on the surface, while her own were for ever buried. + +When Anna had left, Madame de la Baudraye, by this time two-and-twenty, +fell into the depths of despair. + +“What is it that ails you?” asked Monsieur de Clagny, seeing her so +dejected. + +“Anna,” said she, “has learned to live, while I have been learning to +endure.” + +A tragi-comedy was, in fact, being enacted in Madame de la Baudraye’s +house, in harmony with her struggles over money matters and her +successive transformations--a drama to which no one but Monsieur de +Clagny and the Abbe Duret ever knew the clue, when Dinah in sheer +idleness, or perhaps sheer vanity, revealed the secret of her anonymous +fame. + +Though a mixture of verse and prose is a monstrous anomaly in French +literature, there must be exceptions to the rule. This tale will be +one of the two instances in these Studies of violation of the laws of +narrative; for to give a just idea of the unconfessed struggle which +may excuse, though it cannot absolve Dinah, it is necessary to give an +analysis of a poem which was the outcome of her deep despair. + +Her patience and her resignation alike broken by the departure of the +Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, Dinah took the worthy Abbe’s advice to exhale +her evil thoughts in verse--a proceeding which perhaps accounts for some +poets. + +“You will find such relief as those who write epitaphs or elegies over +those whom they have lost. Pain is soothed in the heart as lines surge +up in the brain.” + +This strange production caused a great ferment in the departments of +the Allier, the Nievre, and the Cher, proud to possess a poet capable +of rivalry with the glories of Paris. _Paquita la Sevillane_, by +_Jan Diaz_, was published in the _Echo du Morvan_, a review which +for eighteen months maintained its existence in spite of provincial +indifference. Some knowing persons at Nevers declared that Jan Diaz +was making fun of the new school, just then bringing out its eccentric +verse, full of vitality and imagery, and of brilliant effects produced +by defying the Muse under pretext of adapting German, English, and +Romanesque mannerisms. + +The poem began with this ballad: + + Ah! if you knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain, + Its fervid noons, its balmy spring, + Sad daughters of the northern gloom, + Of love, of heav’n, of native home, + You never would presume to sing! + + For men are there of other mould + Than those who live in this dull cold. + And there to music low and sweet + Sevillian maids, from eve till dawn, + Dance lightly on the moonlit lawn + In satin shoes, on dainty feet. + + Ah, you would be the first to blush + Over your dancers’ romp and rush, + And your too hideous carnival, + That turns your cheeks all chill and blue, + And skips the mud in hob-nail’d shoe-- + A truly dismal festival. + + To pale-faced girls, and in a squalid room, + Paquita sang; the murky town beneath + Was Rouen whence the slender spires rise + To chew the storm with teeth. + Rouen so hideous, noisy, full of rage-- + +And here followed a magnificent description of Rouen--where Dinah had +never been--written with the affected brutality which, a little later, +inspired so many imitations of Juvenal; a contrast drawn between the +life of a manufacturing town and the careless life of Spain, between +the love of Heaven and of human beauty, and the worship of machinery, in +short, between poetry and sordid money-making. + +Then Jan Diaz accounted for Paquita’s horror of Normandy by saying: + + Seville, you see, had been her native home, + Seville, where skies are blue and evening sweet. + She, at thirteen, the sovereign of the town, + Had lovers at her feet. + + For her three Toreadors had gone to death + Or victory, the prize to be a kiss-- + One kiss from those red lips of sweetest breath-- + A longed-for touch of bliss! + +The features of the Spanish girl’s portrait have served so often as +those of the courtesan in so many self-styled _poems_, that it would be +tiresome to quote here the hundred lines of description. To judge of the +lengths to which audacity had carried Dinah, it will be enough to give +the conclusion. According to Madame de la Baudraye’s ardent pen, Paquita +was so entirely created for love that she can hardly have met with a +knight worthy of her; for + + .... In her passionate fire + Every man would have swooned from the heat, + When she at love’s feast, in her fervid desire, + As yet had but taken her seat. + +“And yet she could quit the joys of Seville, its woods and fields of +orange-trees, for a Norman soldier who won her love and carried her away +to his hearth and home. She did not weep for her Andalusia, the Soldier +was her whole joy.... But the day came when he was compelled to start +for Russia in the footsteps of the great Emperor.” + +Nothing could be more dainty than the description of the parting between +the Spanish girl and the Normandy Captain of Artillery, who, in the +delirium of passion expressed with feeling worthy of Byron, exacted from +Paquita a vow of absolute fidelity, in the Cathedral at Rouen in front +of the alter of the Blessed Virgin, who + + Though a Maid is a woman, and never forgives + When lovers are false to their vows. + +A large part of the poem was devoted to describing Paquita’s sufferings +when alone in Rouen waiting till the campaign was over; she stood +writhing at the window bars as she watched happy couples go by; she +suppressed her passion in her heart with a determination that consumed +her; she lived on narcotics, and exhausted herself in dreams. + + Almost she died, but still her heart was true; + And when at last her soldier came again, + He found her beauty ever fresh and new-- + He had not loved in vain! + +“But he, pale and frozen by the cold of Russia, chilled to the very +marrow, met his yearning fair one with a melancholy smile.” + +The whole poem was written up to this situation, which was worked out +with such vigor and boldness as too entirely justified the Abbe Duret. + +Paquita, on reaching the limits set to real love, did not, like Julie +and Heloise, throw herself into the ideal; no, she rushed into the paths +of vice, which is, no doubt, shockingly natural; but she did it without +any touch of magnificence, for lack of means, as it would be difficult +to find in Rouen men impassioned enough to place Paquita in a suitable +setting of luxury and splendor. This horrible realism, emphasized by +gloomy poetic feeling, had inspired some passages such as modern poetry +is too free with, rather too like the flayed anatomical figures known to +artists as _ecorches_. Then, by a highly philosophical revulsion, after +describing the house of ill-fame where the Andalusian ended her days, +the writer came back to the ballad at the opening: + + Paquita now is faded, shrunk, and old, + But she it was who sang: + + “If you but knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain,” etc. + +The gloomy vigor of this poem, running to about six hundred lines, +and serving as a powerful foil, to use a painter’s word, to the two +_seguidillas_ at the beginning and end, the masculine utterance of +inexpressible grief, alarmed the woman who found herself admired by +three departments, under the black cloak of the anonymous. While she +fully enjoyed the intoxicating delights of success, Dinah dreaded the +malignity of provincial society, where more than one woman, if the +secret should slip out, would certainly find points of resemblance +between the writer and Paquita. Reflection came too late; Dinah +shuddered with shame at having made “copy” of some of her woes. + +“Write no more,” said the Abbe Duret. “You will cease to be a woman; you +will be a poet.” + +Moulins, Nevers, Bourges were searched to find Jan Diaz; but Dinah was +impenetrable. To remove any evil impression, in case any unforeseen +chance should betray her name, she wrote a charming poem in two cantos +on _The Mass-Oak_, a legend of the Nivernais: + +“Once upon a time the folks of Nevers and the folks of Saint-Saulge, at +war with each other, came at daybreak to fight a battle, in which one or +other should perish, and met in the forest of Faye. And then there stood +between them, under an oak, a priest whose aspect in the morning sun was +so commanding that the foes at his bidding heard Mass as he performed it +under the oak, and at the words of the Gospel they made friends.”--The +oak is still shown in the forest of Faye. + +This poem, immeasurably superior to _Paquita la Sevillane_, was far less +admired. + +After these two attempts Madame de la Baudraye, feeling herself a poet, +had a light on her brow and a flash in her eyes that made her handsomer +than ever. She cast longing looks at Paris, aspiring to fame--and fell +back into her den of La Baudraye, her daily squabbles with her husband, +and her little circle, where everybody’s character, intentions, and +remarks were too well known not to have become a bore. Though she found +relief from her dreary life in literary work, and poetry echoed loudly +in her empty life, though she thus found an outlet for her energies, +literature increased her hatred of the gray and ponderous provincial +atmosphere. + + + +When, after the Revolution of 1830, the glory of George Sand was +reflected on Le Berry, many a town envied La Chatre the privilege of +having given birth to this rival of Madame de Stael and Camille Maupin, +and were ready to do homage to minor feminine talent. Thus there arose +in France a vast number of tenth Muses, young girls or young wives +tempted from a silent life by the bait of glory. Very strange doctrines +were proclaimed as to the part women should play in society. Though the +sound common sense which lies at the root of the French nature was not +perverted, women were suffered to express ideas and profess opinions +which they would not have owned to a few years previously. + +Monsieur de Clagny took advantage of this outbreak of freedom to +collect the works of Jan Diaz in a small volume printed by Desroziers at +Moulins. He wrote a little notice of the author, too early snatched from +the world of letters, which was amusing to those who were in the secret, +but which even then had not the merit of novelty. Such practical jokes, +capital so long as the author remains unknown, fall rather flat if +subsequently the poet stands confessed. + +From this point of view, however, the memoir of Jan Diaz, born at +Bourges in 1807, the son of a Spanish prisoner, may very likely some +day deceive the compiler of some _Universal Biography_. Nothing is +overlooked; neither the names of the professors at the Bourges College, +nor those of his deceased schoolfellows, such as Lousteau, Bianchon, and +other famous natives of the province, who, it is said, knew the dreamy, +melancholy boy, and his precocious bent towards poetry. An elegy called +_Tristesse_ (Melancholy), written at school; the two poems _Paquita la +Sevillane_ and _Le Chene de la Messe_; three sonnets, a description of +the Cathedral and the House of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, with a tale +called _Carola_, published as the work he was engaged on at the time +of his death, constituted the whole of these literary remains; and the +poet’s last hours, full of misery and despair, could not fail to wring +the hearts of the feeling public of the Nievre, the Bourbonnais, the +Cher, and the Morvan, where he died near Chateau-Chinon, unknown to all, +even to the woman he had loved! + +Of this little yellow paper volume two hundred copies were printed; +one hundred and fifty were sold--about fifty in each department. This +average of tender and poetic souls in three departments of France is +enough to revive the enthusiasm of writers as to the _Furia Francese_, +which nowadays is more apt to expend itself in business than in books. + +When Monsieur de Clagny had given away a certain number of copies, +Dinah still had seven or eight, wrapped up in the newspapers which had +published notices of the work. Twenty copies forwarded to the Paris +papers were swamped in the editors’ offices. Nathan was taken in as well +as several of his fellow-countrymen of Le Berry, and wrote an article on +the great man, in which he credited him with all the fine qualities we +discover in those who are dead and buried. + +Lousteau, warned by his fellow-schoolfellows, who could not remember Jan +Diaz, waited for information from Sancerre, and learned that Jan Diaz +was a pseudonym assumed by a woman. + +Then, in and around Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye became the rage; she +was the future rival of George Sand. From Sancerre to Bourges a poem was +praised which, at any other time, would certainly have been hooted. The +provincial public--like every French public, perhaps--does not share the +love of the King of the French for the happy medium: it lifts you to the +skies or drags you in the mud. + +By this time the good Abbe, Madame de la Baudraye’s counselor, was dead; +he would certainly have prevented her rushing into public life. But +three years of work without recognition weighed on Dinah’s soul, and +she accepted the clatter of fame as a substitute for her disappointed +ambitions. Poetry and dreams of celebrity, which had lulled her grief +since her meeting with Anna Grossetete, no longer sufficed to exhaust +the activity of her morbid heart. The Abbe Duret, who had talked of the +world when the voice of religion was impotent, who understood Dinah, and +promised her a happy future by assuring her that God would compensate +her for her sufferings bravely endured,--this good old man could no +longer stand between the opening to sin and the handsome young woman he +had called his daughter. + +The wise old priest had more than once endeavored to enlighten Dinah +as to her husband’s character, telling her that the man could hate; but +women are not ready to believe in such force in weak natures, and hatred +is too constantly in action not to be a vital force. Dinah, finding her +husband incapable of love, denied him the power to hate. + +“Do not confound hatred and vengeance,” said the Abbe. “They are two +different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is +the outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does +not hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all +their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. So beware +of offending Monsieur de la Baudraye; he would forgive an infidelity, +because he could make capital of it, but he would be doubly implacable +if you should touch him on the spot so cruelly wounded by Monsieur +Milaud of Nevers, and would make your life unendurable.” + +Now, at the time when the whole countryside--Nevers and Sancerre, Le +Morvan and Le Berry--was priding itself on Madame de la Baudraye, and +lauding her under the name of Jan Diaz, “little La Baudraye” felt her +glory a mortal blow. He alone knew the secret source of _Paquita la +Sevillane_. When this terrible work was spoken of, everybody said of +Dinah--“Poor woman! Poor soul!” + +The women rejoiced in being able to pity her who had so long oppressed +them; never had Dinah seemed to stand higher in the eyes of the +neighborhood. + +The shriveled old man, more wrinkled, yellower, feebler than ever, gave +no sign; but Dinah sometimes detected in his eyes, as he looked at her, +a sort of icy venom which gave the lie to his increased politeness +and gentleness. She understood at last that this was not, as she had +supposed, a mere domestic squabble; but when she forced an explanation +with her “insect,” as Monsieur Gravier called him, she found the cold, +hard impassibility of steel. She flew into a passion; she reproached +him for her life these eleven years past; she made--intentionally--what +women call a scene. But “little La Baudraye” sat in an armchair with his +eyes shut, and listened phlegmatically to the storm. And, as usual, the +dwarf got the better of his wife. Dinah saw that she had done wrong in +writing; she vowed never to write another line, and she kept her vow. + +Then was there desolation in the Sancerrois. + +“Why did not Madame de la Baudraye compose any more verses?” was the +universal cry. + +At this time Madame de la Baudraye had no enemies; every one rushed to +see her, not a week passed without fresh introductions. The wife of the +presiding judge, an august _bourgeoise_, _nee_ Popinot-Chandier, desired +her son, a youth of two-and-twenty, to pay his humble respects to La +Baudraye, and flattered herself that she might see her Gatien in the +good graces of this Superior Woman.--The words Superior Woman had +superseded the absurd nickname of _The Sappho of Saint-Satur_.--This +lady, who for nine years had led the opposition, was so delighted at the +good reception accorded to her son, that she became loud in her praises +of the Muse of Sancerre. + +“After all,” she exclaimed, in reply to a tirade from Madame de Clagny, +who hated her husband’s supposed mistress, “she is the handsomest and +cleverest woman in the whole province!” + +After scrambling through so many brambles and setting off on so many +different roads, after dreaming of love in splendor and scenting the +darkest dramas, thinking such terrible joys would be cheaply purchased +so weary was she of her dreary existence, one day Dinah fell into the +pit she had sworn to avoid. Seeing Monsieur de Clagny always sacrificing +himself, and at last refusing a high appointment in Paris, where his +family wanted to see him, she said to herself, “He loves me!” She +vanquished her repulsion, and seemed willing to reward so much +constancy. + +It was to this impulse of generosity on her part that a coalition was +due, formed in Sancerre to secure the return of Monsieur de Clagny at +the next elections. Madame de la Baudraye had dreamed of going to Paris +in the wake of the new deputy. + +But, in spite of the most solemn promises, the hundred and fifty votes +to be recorded in favor of this adorer of the lovely Dinah--who hoped +to see this defender of the widow and the orphan wearing the gown of the +Keeper of the Seals--figured as an imposing minority of fifty votes. The +jealousy of the President de Boirouge, and Monsieur Gravier’s hatred, +for he believed in the candidate’s supremacy in Dinah’s heart, had been +worked upon by a young Sous-prefet; and for this worthy deed the allies +got the young man made a prefet elsewhere. + +“I shall never cease to regret,” said he, as he quitted Sancerre, “that +I did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would have +made my triumph complete!” + +The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on +the surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the +indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to +Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask +she had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day, +increased her hope of finding herself a widow? + +The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have +understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another +woman, had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la +Baudraye, she had indulged the hope of becoming a mother. Between those +miserable disputes over household matters and the melancholy conviction +as to her fate, quite a long time had elapsed. Then, when she had looked +for consolation, the consoler, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had left her. +Thus, the overwhelming temptation which commonly causes women to sin had +hitherto been absent. For if there are, after all, some women who make +straight for unfaithfulness, are there not many more who cling to hope, +and do not fall till they have wandered long in a labyrinth of secret +woes? + +Such was Dinah. She had so little impulse to fail in her duty, that she +did not care enough for Monsieur de Clagny to forgive him his defeat. + +Then the move to the Chateau d’Anzy, the rearrangement of her collected +treasures and curiosities, which derived added value from the splendid +setting which Philibert de Lorme seemed to have planned on purpose for +this museum, occupied her for several months, giving her leisure to +meditate one of those decisive steps that startle the public, ignorant +of the motives which, however, it sometimes discovers by dint of gossip +and suppositions. + +Madame de la Baudraye had been greatly struck by the reputation of +Lousteau, who was regarded as a lady’s man of the first water in +consequence of his intimacies among actresses; she was anxious to know +him; she read his books, and was fired with enthusiasm, less perhaps for +his talents than for his successes with women; and to attract him to the +country, she started the notion that it was obligatory on Sancerre to +return one of its great men at the elections. She made Gatien Boirouge +write to the great physician Bianchon, whom he claimed as a cousin +through the Popinots. Then she persuaded an old friend of the departed +Madame Lousteau to stir up the journalist’s ambitions by letting him +know that certain persons in Sancerre were firmly bent on electing a +deputy from among the distinguished men in Paris. + +Tired of her commonplace neighbors, Madame de la Baudraye would thus at +last meet really illustrious men, and might give her fall the lustre of +fame. + +Neither Lousteau nor Bianchon replied; they were waiting perhaps till +the holidays. Bianchon, who had won his professor’s chair the year +before after a brilliant contest, could not leave his lectures. + +In the month of September, when the vintage was at its height, the two +Parisians arrived in their native province, and found it absorbed in the +unremitting toil of the wine-crop of 1836; there could therefore be +no public demonstration in their favor. “We have fallen flat,” said +Lousteau to his companion, in the slang of the stage. + +In 1836, Lousteau, worn by sixteen years of struggle in the Capital, +and aged quite as much by pleasure as by penury, hard work, and +disappointments, looked eight-and-forty, though he was no more than +thirty-seven. He was already bald, and had assumed a Byronic air in +harmony with his early decay and the lines furrowed in his face +by over-indulgence in champagne. He ascribed these signs-manual of +dissipation to the severities of a literary life, declaring that the +Press was murderous; and he gave it to be understood that it consumed +superior talents, so as to lend a grace to his exhaustion. In his native +town he thought proper to exaggerate his affected contempt of life and +his spurious misanthropy. Still, his eyes could flash with fire like +a volcano supposed to be extinct, and he endeavored, by dressing +fashionably, to make up for the lack of youth that might strike a +woman’s eye. + +Horace Bianchon, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, was fat and +burly, as beseems a fashionable physician, with a patriarchal air, his +hair thick and long, a prominent brow, the frame of a hard worker, and +the calm expression of a philosopher. This somewhat prosaic personality +set off his more frivolous companion to advantage. + + + +The two great men remained unrecognized during a whole morning at the +inn where they had put up, and it was only by chance that Monsieur de +Clagny heard of their arrival. Madame de la Baudraye, in despair at +this, despatched Gatien Boirouge, who had no vineyards, to beg the two +gentlemen to spend a few days at the Chateau d’Anzy. For the last +year Dinah had played the chatelaine, and spent the winter only at La +Baudraye. Monsieur Gravier, the Public Prosecutor, the Presiding Judge, +and Gatien Boirouge combined to give a banquet to the great men, to meet +the literary personages of the town. + +On hearing that the beautiful Madame de la Baudraye was Jan Diaz, +the Parisians went to spend three days at Anzy, fetched in a sort of +wagonette driven by Gatien himself. The young man, under a genuine +illusion, spoke of Madame de la Baudraye not only as the handsomest +woman in those parts, a woman so superior that she might give George +Sand a qualm, but as a woman who would produce a great sensation in +Paris. Hence the extreme though suppressed astonishment of Doctor +Bianchon and the waggish journalist when they beheld, on the garden +steps of Anzy, a lady dressed in thin black cashmere with a deep tucker, +in effect like a riding-habit cut short, for they quite understood the +pretentiousness of such extreme simplicity. Dinah also wore a black +velvet cap, like that in the portrait of Raphael, and below it her hair +fell in thick curls. This attire showed off a rather pretty figure, fine +eyes, and handsome eyelids somewhat faded by the weariful life that has +been described. In Le Berry the singularity of this _artistic_ costume +was a cloak for the romantic affectations of the Superior Woman. + +On seeing the affectations of their too amiable hostess--which were, +indeed, affectations of soul and mind--the friends glanced at each +other, and put on a deeply serious expression to listen to Madame de la +Baudraye, who made them a set speech of thanks for coming to cheer the +monotony of her days. Dinah walked her guests round and round the +lawn, ornamented with large vases of flowers, which lay in front of the +Chateau d’Anzy. + +“How is it,” said Lousteau, the practical joker, “that so handsome a +woman as you, and apparently so superior, should have remained buried in +the country? What do you do to make life endurable?” + +“Ah! that is the crux,” said the lady. “It is unendurable. Utter despair +or dull resignation--there is no third alternative; that is the arid +soil in which our existence is rooted, and on which a thousand stagnant +ideas fall; they cannot fertilize the ground, but they supply food +for the etiolated flowers of our desert souls. Never believe in +indifference! Indifference is either despair or resignation. Then each +woman takes up the pursuit which, according to her character, seems to +promise some amusement. Some rush into jam-making and washing, household +management, the rural joys of the vintage or the harvest, bottling +fruit, embroidering handkerchiefs, the cares of motherhood, the +intrigues of a country town. Others torment a much-enduring piano, +which, at the end of seven years, sounds like an old kettle, and ends +its asthmatic life at the Chateau d’Anzy. Some pious dames talk over the +different brands of the Word of God--the Abbe Fritaud as compared with +the Abbe Guinard. They play cards in the evening, dance with the same +partners for twelve years running, in the same rooms, at the same dates. +This delightful life is varied by solemn walks on the Mall, visits of +politeness among the women, who ask each other where they bought their +gowns. + +“Conversation is bounded on the south by remarks on the intrigues lying +hidden under the stagnant water of provincial life, on the north by +proposed marriages, on the west by jealousies, and on the east by sour +remarks. + +“And so,” she went on, striking an attitude, “you see a woman wrinkled +at nine-and-twenty, ten years before the time fixed by the rules of +Doctor Bianchon, a woman whose skin is ruined at an early age, who turns +as yellow as a quince when she is yellow at all--we have seen some turn +green. When we have reached that point, we try to justify our normal +condition; then we turn and rend the terrible passion of Paris with +teeth as sharp as rat’s teeth. We have Puritan women here, sour enough +to tear the laces of Parisian finery, and eat out all the poetry of your +Parisian beauties, who undermine the happiness of others while they cry +up their walnuts and rancid bacon, glorify this squalid mouse-hole, +and the dingy color and conventual small of our delightful life at +Sancerre.” + +“I admire such courage, madame,” said Bianchon. “When we have to +endure such misfortunes, it is well to have the wit to make a virtue of +necessity.” + +Amazed at the brilliant move by which Dinah thus placed provincial life +at the mercy of her guests, in anticipation of their sarcasms, Gatien +Boirouge nudged Lousteau’s elbow, with a glance and a smile, which said: + +“Well! did I say too much?” + +“But, madame,” said Lousteau, “you are proving that we are still in +Paris. I shall steal this gem of description; it will be worth ten +thousand francs to me in an article.” + +“Oh, monsieur,” she retorted, “never trust provincial women.” + +“And why not?” said Lousteau. + +Madame de la Baudraye was wily enough--an innocent form of cunning, to +be sure--to show the two Parisians, one of whom she would choose to be +her conquerer, the snare into which he would fall, reflecting that she +would have the upper hand at the moment when he should cease to see it. + +“When you first come,” said she, “you laugh at us. Then when you have +forgotten the impression of Paris brilliancy, and see us in our own +sphere, you pay court to us, if only as a pastime. And you, who are +famous for your past passions, will be the object of attentions which +will flatter you. Then take care!” cried Dinah, with a coquettish +gesture, raising herself above provincial absurdities and Lousteau’s +irony by her own sarcastic speech. “When a poor little country-bred +woman has an eccentric passion for some superior man, some Parisian +who has wandered into the provinces, it is to her something more than a +sentiment; she makes it her occupation and part of all her life. There +is nothing more dangerous than the attachment of such a woman; she +compares, she studies, she reflects, she dreams; and she will not give +up her dream, she thinks still of the man she loves when he has ceased +to think of her. + +“Now one of the catastrophes that weigh most heavily on a woman in the +provinces is that abrupt termination of her passion which is so often +seen in England. In the country, a life under minute observation as keen +as an Indian’s compels a woman either to keep on the rails or to start +aside like a steam engine wrecked by an obstacle. The strategies of +love, the coquetting which form half the composition of a Parisian +woman, are utterly unknown here.” + +“That is true,” said Lousteau. “There is in a country-bred woman’s heart +a store of surprises, as in some toys.” + +“Dear me!” Dinah went on, “a woman will have spoken to you three times +in the course of a winter, and without your knowing it, you will be +lodged in her heart. Then comes a picnic, an excursion, what not, and +all is said--or, if you prefer it, all is done! This conduct, which +seems odd to unobserving persons, is really very natural. A poet, such +as you are, or a philosopher, an observer, like Doctor Bianchon, instead +of vilifying the provincial woman and believing her depraved, would be +able to guess the wonderful unrevealed poetry, every chapter, in short, +of the sweet romance of which the last phrase falls to the benefit of +some happy sub-lieutenant or some provincial bigwig.” + +“The provincial women I have met in Paris,” said Lousteau, “were, in +fact, rapid in their proceedings--” + +“My word, they are strange,” said the lady, giving a significant shrug +of her shoulders. + +“They are like the playgoers who book for the second performance, +feeling sure that the piece will not fail,” replied the journalist. + +“And what is the cause of all these woes?” asked Bianchon. + +“Paris is the monster that brings us grief,” replied the Superior +Woman. “The evil is seven leagues round, and devastates the whole +land. Provincial life is not self-existent. It is only when a nation is +divided into fifty minor states that each can have a physiognomy of its +own, and then a woman reflects the glory of the sphere where she reigns. +This social phenomenon, I am told, may be seen in Italy, Switzerland, +and Germany; but in France, as in every country where there is but +one capital, a dead level of manners must necessarily result from +centralization.” + +“Then you would say that manners could only recover their individuality +and native distinction by the formation of a federation of French states +into one empire?” said Lousteau. + +“That is hardly to be wished, for France would have to conquer too many +countries,” said Bianchon. + +“This misfortune is unknown in England,” exclaimed Dinah. “London does +not exert such tyranny as that by which Paris oppresses France--for +which, indeed, French ingenuity will at last find a remedy; however, it +has a worse disease in its vile hypocrisy, which is a far greater evil!” + +“The English aristocracy,” said Lousteau, hastening to put a word in, +for he foresaw a Byronic paragraph, “has the advantage over ours +of assimilating every form of superiority; it lives in the midst of +magnificent parks; it is in London for no more than two months. It lives +in the country, flourishing there, and making it flourish.” + +“Yes,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “London is the capital of trade and +speculation and the centre of government. The aristocracy hold a ‘mote’ +there for sixty days only; it gives and takes the passwords of the day, +looks in on the legislative cookery, reviews the girls to marry, the +carriages to be sold, exchanges greetings, and is away again; and is so +far from amusing, that it cannot bear itself for more than the few days +known as ‘the season.’” + +“Hence,” said Lousteau, hoping to stop this nimble tongue by an epigram, +“in Perfidious Albion, as the _Constitutionnel_ has it, you may happen +to meet a charming woman in any part of the kingdom.” + +“But charming _English_ women!” replied Madame de la Baudraye with +a smile. “Here is my mother, I will introduce you,” said she, seeing +Madame Piedefer coming towards them. + +Having introduced the two Paris lions to the ambitious skeleton that +called itself woman under the name of Madame Piedefer--a tall, lean +personage, with a red face, teeth that were doubtfully genuine, and hair +that was undoubtedly dyed, Dinah left her visitors to themselves for a +few minutes. + +“Well,” said Gatien to Lousteau, “what do you think of her?” + +“I think that the clever woman of Sancerre is simply the greatest +chatterbox,” replied the journalist. + +“A woman who wants to see you deputy!” cried Gatien. “An angel!” + +“Forgive me, I forgot you were in love with her,” said Lousteau. +“Forgive the cynicism of an old scamp.--Ask Bianchon; I have no +illusions left. I see things as they are. The woman has evidently dried +up her mother like a partridge left to roast at too fierce a fire.” + +Gatien de Boirouge contrived to let Madame de la Baudraye know what +the journalist had said of her in the course of the dinner, which was +copious, not to say splendid, and the lady took care not to talk +too much while it was proceeding. This lack of conversation betrayed +Gatien’s indiscretion. Etienne tried to regain his footing, but all +Dinah’s advances were directed to Bianchon. + +However, half-way through the evening, the Baroness was gracious to +Lousteau again. Have you never observed what great meanness may +be committed for small ends? Thus the haughty Dinah, who would not +sacrifice herself for a fool, who in the depths of the country led such +a wretched life of struggles, of suppressed rebellion, of unuttered +poetry, who to get away from Lousteau had climbed the highest and +steepest peak of her scorn, and who would not have come down if she +had seen the sham Byron at her feet, suddenly stepped off it as she +recollected her album. + +Madame de la Baudraye had caught the mania for autographs; she possessed +an oblong volume which deserved the name of album better than most, as +two-thirds of the pages were still blank. The Baronne de Fontaine, who +had kept it for three months, had with great difficulty obtained a line +from Rossini, six bars written by Meyerbeer, the four lines that Victor +Hugo writes in every album, a verse from Lamartine, a few words from +Beranger, _Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart d’Ulysse_ (the first +words of _Telemaque_) written by George Sand, Scribe’s famous lines on +the Umbrella, a sentence from Charles Nodier, an outline of distance by +Jules Dupre, the signature of David d’Angers, and three notes written +by Hector Berlioz. Monsieur de Clagny, during a visit to Paris, added a +song by Lacenaire--a much coveted autograph, two lines from Fieschi, and +an extremely short note from Napoleon, which were pasted on to pages of +the album. Then Monsieur Gravier, in the course of a tour, had persuaded +Mademoiselle Mars to write her name on this album, with Mademoiselles +Georges, Taglioni, and Grisi, and some distinguished actors, such as +Frederick Lemaitre, Monrose, Bouffe, Rubini, Lablache, Nourrit, and +Arnal; for he knew a set of old fellows brought up in the seraglio, as +they phrased it, who did him this favor. + +This beginning of a collection was all the more precious to Dinah +because she was the only person for ten leagues round who owned an +album. Within the last two years, however, several young ladies had +acquired such books, in which they made their friends and acquaintances +write more or less absurd quotations or sentiments. You who spend your +lives in collecting autographs, simple and happy souls, like Dutch tulip +fanciers, you will excuse Dinah when, in her fear of not keeping her +guests more than two days, she begged Bianchon to enrich the volume she +handed to him with a few lines of his writing. + +The doctor made Lousteau smile by showing him this sentence on the first +page: + + “What makes the populace dangerous is that it has in its pocket an + absolution for every crime. + + “J. B. DE CLAGNY.” + + +“We will second the man who is brave enough to plead in favor of the +Monarchy,” Desplein’s great pupil whispered to Lousteau, and he wrote +below: + + “The distinction between Napoleon and a water-carrier is evident + only to Society; Nature takes no account of it. Thus Democracy, + which resists inequality, constantly appeals to Nature. + + H. BIANCHON.” + + +“Ah!” cried Dinah, amazed, “you rich men take a gold piece out of your +purse as poor men bring out a farthing.... I do not know,” she went +on, turning to Lousteau, “whether it is taking an unfair advantage of a +guest to hope for a few lines--” + +“Nay, madame, you flatter me. Bianchon is a great man, but I am too +insignificant!--Twenty years hence my name will be more difficult to +identify than that of the Public Prosecutor whose axiom, written in your +album, will designate him as an obscurer Montesquieu. And I should +want at least twenty-four hours to improvise some sufficiently bitter +reflections, for I could only describe what I feel.” + +“I wish you needed a fortnight,” said Madame de la Baudraye graciously, +as she handed him the book. “I should keep you here all the longer.” + + + +At five next morning all the party in the Chateau d’Anzy were astir, +little La Baudraye having arranged a day’s sport for the Parisians--less +for their pleasure than to gratify his own conceit. He was delighted to +make them walk over the twelve hundred acres of waste land that he +was intending to reclaim, an undertaking that would cost some hundred +thousand francs, but which might yield an increase of thirty to sixty +thousand francs a year in the returns of the estate of Anzy. + +“Do you know why the Public Prosecutor has not come out with us?” asked +Gatien Boirouge of Monsieur Gravier. + +“Why he told us that he was obliged to sit to-day; the minor cases are +before the Court,” replied the other. + +“And did you believe that?” cried Gatien. “Well, my papa said to me, +‘Monsieur Lebas will not join you early, for Monsieur de Clagny has +begged him as his deputy to sit for him!’” + +“Indeed!” said Gravier, changing countenance. “And Monsieur de la +Baudraye is gone to La Charite!” + +“But why do you meddle in such matters?” said Bianchon to Gatien. + +“Horace is right,” said Lousteau. “I cannot imagine why you trouble your +heads so much about each other; you waste your time in frivolities.” + +Horace Bianchon looked at Etienne Lousteau, as much as to say +that newspaper epigrams and the satire of the “funny column” were +incomprehensible at Sancerre. + +On reaching a copse, Monsieur Gravier left the two great men and Gatien, +under the guidance of a keeper, to make their way through a little +ravine. + +“Well, we must wait for Monsieur Gravier,” said Bianchon, when they had +reached a clearing. + +“You may be a great physician,” said Gatien, “but you are ignorant of +provincial life. You mean to wait for Monsieur Gravier?--By this time +he is running like a hare, in spite of his little round stomach; he is +within twenty minutes of Anzy by now----” Gatien looked at his watch. +“Good! he will be just in time.” + +“Where?” + +“At the chateau for breakfast,” replied Gatien. “Do you suppose I could +rest easy if Madame de la Baudraye were alone with Monsieur de Clagny? +There are two of them now; they will keep an eye on each other. Dinah +will be well guarded.” + +“Ah, ha! Then Madame de la Baudraye has not yet made up her mind?” said +Lousteau. + +“So mamma thinks. For my part, I am afraid that Monsieur de Clagny has +at last succeeded in bewitching Madame de la Baudraye. If he has been +able to show her that he had any chance of putting on the robes of the +Keeper of the Seals, he may have hidden his moleskin complexion, his +terrible eyes, his touzled mane, his voice like a hoarse crier’s, his +bony figure, like that of a starveling poet, and have assumed all the +charms of Adonis. If Dinah sees Monsieur de Clagny as Attorney-General, +she may see him as a handsome youth. Eloquence has great +privileges.--Besides, Madame de la Baudraye is full of ambition. She +does not like Sancerre, and dreams of the glories of Paris.” + +“But what interest have you in all this?” said Lousteau. “If she is in +love with the Public Prosecutor!--Ah! you think she will not love him +for long, and you hope to succeed him.” + +“You who live in Paris,” said Gatien, “meet as many different women as +there are days in the year. But at Sancerre, where there are not half +a dozen, and where, of those six, five set up for the most extravagant +virtue, when the handsomest of them all keeps you at an infinite +distance by looks as scornful as though she were of the blood royal, a +young man of two-and-twenty may surely be allowed to make a guess at her +secrets, since she must then treat him with some consideration.” + +“Consideration! So that is what you call it in these parts?” said the +journalist with a smile. + +“I should suppose Madame de la Baudraye to have too much good taste to +trouble her head about that ugly ape,” said Bianchon. + +“Horace,” said Lousteau, “look here, O learned interpreter of human +nature, let us lay a trap for the Public Prosecutor; we shall be doing +our friend Gatien a service, and get a laugh out of it. I do not love +Public Prosecutors.” + +“You have a keen intuition of destiny,” said Horace. “But what can we +do?” + +“Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives +caught out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible +circumstances.--Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la Baudraye +and de Clagny will make.” + +“Not amiss!” said Bianchon; “one or the other must surely, by look or +gesture--” + +“I know a newspaper editor,” Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien, “who, +anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but such as +tell the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to pieces; of +wives boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to read, hoping +that sheer fear will keep her faithful--satisfied with that humble +alternative, poor man! ‘You see, my dear, to what the smallest error may +lead you!’ says he, epitomizing Arnolfe’s address to Agnes.” + +“Madame de la Baudraye is quite guiltless; this youth sees double,” + said Bianchon. “Madame Piedefer seems to me far too pious to invite her +daughter’s lover to the Chateau d’Anzy. Madame de la Baudraye would have +to hoodwink her mother, her husband, her maid, and her mother’s maid; +that is too much to do. I acquit her.” + +“Well with more reason because her husband never ‘quits her,’” said +Gatien, laughing at his own wit. + +“We can easily remember two or three stories that will make Dinah +quake,” said Lousteau. “Young man--and you too, Bianchon--let me beg you +to maintain a stern demeanor; be thorough diplomatists, an easy manner +without exaggeration, and watch the faces of the two criminals, you +know, without seeming to do so--out of the corner of your eye, or in a +glass, on the sly. This morning we will hunt the hare, this evening we +will hunt the Public Prosecutor.” + +The evening began with a triumph for Lousteau, who returned the album to +the lady with this elegy written in it: + + +SPLEEN + + You ask for verse from me, the feeble prey + Of this self-seeking world, a waif and stray + With none to whom to cling; + From me--unhappy, purblind, hopeless devil! + Who e’en in what is good see only evil + In any earthly thing! + + This page, the pastime of a dame so fair, + May not reflect the shadow of my care, + For all things have their place. + Of love, to ladies bright, the poet sings, + Of joy, and balls, and dress, and dainty things-- + Nay, or of God and Grace. + + It were a bitter jest to bid the pen + Of one so worn with life, so hating men, + Depict a scene of joy. + Would you exult in sight to one born blind, + Or--cruel! of a mother’s love remind + Some hapless orphan boy? + + When cold despair has gripped a heart still fond, + When there is no young heart that will respond + To it in love, the future is a lie. + If there is none to weep when he is sad, + And share his woe, a man were better dead!-- + And so I soon must die. + + Give me your pity! often I blaspheme + The sacred name of God. Does it not seem + That I was born in vain? + Why should I bless him? Or why thank Him, since + He might have made me handsome, rich, a prince-- + And I am poor and plain? + +ETIENNE LOUSTEAU. September 1836, Chateau d’Anzy. + + +“And you have written those verses since yesterday?” cried Clagny in a +suspicious tone. + +“Dear me, yes, as I was following the game; it is only too evident! I +would gladly have done something better for madame.” + +“The verses are exquisite!” cried Dinah, casting up her eyes to heaven. + +“They are, alas! the expression of a too genuine feeling,” replied +Lousteau, in a tone of deep dejection. + +The reader will, of course, have guessed that the journalist had stored +these lines in his memory for ten years at least, for he had written +them at the time of the Restoration in disgust at being unable to get +on. Madame de la Baudraye gazed at him with such pity as the woes of +genius inspire; and Monsieur de Clagny, who caught her expression, +turned in hatred against this sham _Jeune Malade_ (the name of an +Elegy written by Millevoye). He sat down to backgammon with the cure +of Sancerre. The Presiding Judge’s son was so extremely obliging as to +place a lamp near the two players in such a way as that the light +fell full on Madame de la Baudraye, who took up her work; she was +embroidering in coarse wool a wicker-plait paper-basket. The three +conspirators sat close at hand. + +“For whom are you decorating that pretty basket, madame?” said Lousteau. +“For some charity lottery, perhaps?” + +“No,” she said, “I think there is too much display in charity done to +the sound of a trumpet.” + +“You are very indiscreet,” said Monsieur Gravier. + +“Can there be any indiscretion,” said Lousteau, “in inquiring who the +happy mortal may be in whose room that basket is to stand?” + +“There is no happy mortal in the case,” said Dinah; “it is for Monsieur +de la Baudraye.” + +The Public Prosecutor looked slily at Madame de la Baudraye and her +work, as if he had said to himself, “I have lost my paper-basket!” + +“Why, madame, may we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, happy +in her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors are red +and black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope that +twelve years after, my wife’s embroidered baskets may still be for me.” + +“And why should they not be for you?” said the lady, fixing her fine +gray eyes, full of invitation, on Etienne’s face. + +“Parisians believe in nothing,” said the lawyer bitterly. “The virtue of +women is doubted above all things with terrible insolence. Yes, for some +time past the books you have written, you Paris authors, your farces, +your dramas, all your atrocious literature, turn on adultery--” + +“Come, come, Monsieur the Public Prosecutor,” retorted Etienne, +laughing, “I left you to play your game in peace, I did not attack you, +and here you are bringing an indictment against me. On my honor as a +journalist, I have launched above a hundred articles against the writers +you speak of; but I confess that in attacking them it was to attempt +something like criticism. Be just; if you condemn them, you must condemn +Homer, whose _Iliad_ turns on Helen of Troy; you must condemn Milton’s +_Paradise Lost_. Eve and her serpent seem to me a pretty little case of +symbolical adultery; you must suppress the Psalms of David, inspired by +the highly adulterous love affairs of that Louis XIV. of Judah; you must +make a bonfire of _Mithridate, le Tartuffe, l’Ecole des Femmes, Phedre, +Andromaque, le Mariage de Figaro_, Dante’s _Inferno_, Petrarch’s +Sonnets, all the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the romances of the +Middle Ages, the History of France, and of Rome, etc., etc. Excepting +Bossuet’s _Histoire des Variations_ and Pascal’s _Provinciales_, I do +not think there are many books left to read if you insist on eliminating +all those in which illicit love is mentioned.” + +“Much loss that would be!” said Monsieur de Clagny. + +Etienne, nettled by the superior air assumed by Monsieur de Clagny, +wanted to infuriate him by one of those cold-drawn jests which consist +in defending an opinion in which we have no belief, simply to rouse the +wrath of a poor man who argues in good faith; a regular journalist’s +pleasantry. + +“If we take up the political attitude into which you would force +yourself,” he went on, without heeding the lawyer’s remark, “and assume +the part of Public Prosecutor of all the ages--for every Government +has its public ministry--well, the Catholic religion is infected at its +fountain-head by a startling instance of illegal union. In the opinion +of King Herod, and of Pilate as representing the Roman Empire, Joseph’s +wife figured as an adulteress, since, by her avowal, Joseph was not +the father of Jesus. The heathen judge could no more recognize the +Immaculate Conception than you yourself would admit the possibility of +such a miracle if a new religion should nowadays be preached as based +on a similar mystery. Do you suppose that a judge and jury in a police +court would give credence to the operation of the Holy Ghost! And yet +who can venture to assert that God will never again redeem mankind? Is +it any better now than it was under Tiberius?” + +“Your argument is blasphemy,” said Monsieur de Clagny. + +“I grant it,” said the journalist, “but not with malicious intent. +You cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he +sentenced Jesus, and Anytus--who spoke for the aristocratic party at +Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented +established social interests which held themselves legitimate, invested +with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves. Pilate and +Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public prosecutors +who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle; who, at this +day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms against the +throne as established by the revolution of July, and the innovators +who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under pretence of +organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the great families +of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals; to those ancient +aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of the Mountain; and if +their followers had been victorious, they would have produced a little +‘ninety-three’ in the Roman Empire or in Attica.” + +“What are you trying to come to, monsieur?” asked the lawyer. + +“To adultery!--For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe may +very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in adultery; as +we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is an epitome +of the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never had the least +intention of constituting that camel-driver His Prophet.” + +“If there were many men like you in France--and there are more than +enough, unfortunately--all government would be impossible.” + +“And there would be no religion at all,” said Madame Piedefer, who had +been making strangely wry faces all through this discussion. + +“You are paining them very much,” said Bianchon to Lousteau in an +undertone. “Do not talk of religion; you are saying things that are +enough to upset them.” + +“If I were a writer or a romancer,” said Monsieur Gravier, “I should +take the side of the luckless husbands. I, who have seen many things, +and strange things too, know that among the ranks of deceived husbands +there are some whose attitude is not devoid of energy, men who, at a +crisis, can be very dramatic, to use one of your words, monsieur,” he +said, addressing Etienne. + +“You are very right, my dear Monsieur Gravier,” said Lousteau. “I never +thought that deceived husbands were ridiculous; on the contrary, I think +highly of them--” + +“Do you not think a husband’s confidence a sublime thing?” said +Bianchon. “He believes in his wife, he does not suspect her, he trusts +her implicitly. But if he is so weak as to trust her, you make game of +him; if he is jealous and suspicious, you hate him; what, then, I ask +you, is the happy medium for a man of spirit?” + +“If Monsieur de Clagny had not just expressed such vehement disapproval +of the immorality of stories in which the matrimonial compact is +violated, I could tell you of a husband’s revenge,” said Lousteau. + +Monsieur de Clagny threw the dice with a convulsive jerk, and dared not +look up at the journalist. + +“A story, from you!” cried Madame de la Baudraye. “I should hardly have +dared to hope for such a treat--” + +“It is not my story, madame; I am not clever enough to invent such a +tragedy. It was told me--and how delightfully!--by one of our greatest +writers, the finest literary musician of our day, Charles Nodier.” + +“Well, tell it,” said Dinah. “I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have +no comparison to fear.” + +“Not long after the 18th Brumaire,” Etienne began, “there was, as +you know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee. The First Consul, +anxious before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations +with the rebel chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, while +combining his plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of Italian +diplomacy, he also set the Machiavelian springs of the police in +movement, Fouche then being at its head. And none of these means were +superfluous to stifle the fire of war then blaring in the West. + +“At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the +Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between certain +magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the Royalist +party. The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he landed--for +he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner. However, as a man +of practical intelligence, he had calculated all the risks of the +undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, and the men told +off to take him were afraid of blundering. + +“The Chevalier de Beauvoir--I now remember his name--had studied +his part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, +persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly that +he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the spies +had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too minute. In +this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an arbitrary act +than to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister attached great +importance. In those days of liberty the agents of the powers in +authority cared little enough for what we now regard as _legal_. The +Chevalier was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until the superior +officials should come to some decision as to his identity. He had not +long to wait for it; orders were given to guard the prisoner closely in +spite of his denials. + +“The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to further +orders, to the Castle of l’Escarpe, a name which sufficiently indicates +its situation. This fortress, perched on very high rocks, has precipices +for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep and dangerous +paths; and, like every ancient castle, its principal gate has a +drawbridge over a wide moat. The commandant of this prison, delighted +to have charge of a man of family whose manners were most agreeable, +who expressed himself well, and seemed highly educated, received the +Chevalier as a godsend; he offered him the freedom of the place on +parole, that they might together the better defy its dulness. The +prisoner was more than content. + +“Beauvoir was a loyal gentleman, but, unfortunately, he was also a very +handsome youth. He had attractive features, a dashing air, a pleasing +address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full of +enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable leader +of guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant gave his +prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his table, and +at first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This officer was a +Corsican and married; his wife was pretty and charming, and he thought +her, perhaps, not to be trusted--at any rate, he was as jealous as a +Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The lady took a fancy +to Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his taste; perhaps they +loved! Love in a prison is quick work. Did they commit some imprudence? +Was the sentiment they entertained something warmer than the superficial +gallantry which is almost a duty of men towards women? + +“Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the +story; it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself +justified in treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir was +placed in the dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and fettered +in accordance with the time-honored traditions of the treatment lavished +on captives. His cell, under the fortress-yard, was vaulted with hard +stone, the walls were of desperate thickness; the tower overlooked the +precipice. + +“When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of +escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort and +the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the trifles +which in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours and the +days; he studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he became +absorbed in himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine; then, +at the end of a fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible malady, that +fever for liberty, which drives prisoners to those heroic efforts of +which the prodigious achievements seem to us impossible, though true, +and which my friend the doctor” (and he turned to Bianchon) “would +perhaps ascribe to some unknown forces too recondite for his +physiological analysis to detect, some mysteries of the human will of +which the obscurity baffles science.” + +Bianchon shook his head in negation. + +“Beauvoir was eating his heart out, for death alone could set him +free. One morning the turnkey, whose duty it was to bring him his food, +instead of leaving him when he had given him his meagre pittance, stood +with his arms folded, looking at him with strange meaning. Conversation +between them was brief, and the warder never began it. The Chevalier +was therefore greatly surprised when the man said to him: ‘Of course, +monsieur, you know your own business when you insist on being always +called Monsieur Lebrun, or citizen Lebrun. It is no concern of mine; +ascertaining your name is no part of my duty. It is all the same to +me whether you call yourself Peter or Paul. If every man minds his own +business, the cows will not stray. At the same time, _I_ know,’ said he, +with a wink, ‘that you are Monsieur Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier +de Beauvoir, and cousin to Madame la Duchesse de Maille.--Heh?’ he added +after a short silence, during which he looked at his prisoner. + +“Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine +that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known. + +“‘Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I +gain by that?’ said he. + +“‘Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,’ replied the jailer in an +undertone. ‘I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a minute! +If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot out of +hand. So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than will just +earn the money.--Look here,’ said he, taking a small file out of his +pocket, ‘this is your key; with this you can cut through one of your +bars. By the Mass, but it will not be any easy job,’ he went on, +glancing at the narrow loophole that let daylight into the dungeon. + +“It was in a splayed recess under the deep cornice that ran round the +top of the tower, between the brackets that supported the embrasures. + +“‘Monsieur,’ said the man, ‘you must take care to saw through the iron +low enough to get your body through.’ + +“‘I will get through, never fear,’ said the prisoner. + +“‘But high enough to leave a stanchion to fasten a cord to,’ the warder +went on. + +“‘And where is the cord?’ asked Beauvoir. + +“‘Here,’ said the man, throwing down a knotted rope. ‘It is made of +raveled linen, that you may be supposed to have contrived it yourself, +and it is long enough. When you have got to the bottom knot, let +yourself drop gently, and the rest you must manage for yourself. You +will probably find a carriage somewhere in the neighborhood, and friends +looking out for you. But I know nothing about that.--I need not remind +you that there is a man-at-arms to the right of the tower. You will take +care, of course, to choose a dark night, and wait till the sentinel is +asleep. You must take your chance of being shot; but--’ + +“‘All right! All right! At least I shall not rot here,’ cried the young +man. + +“‘Well, that may happen nevertheless,’ replied the jailer, with a stupid +expression. + +“Beauvoir thought this was merely one of the aimless remarks that such +folks indulge in. The hope of freedom filled him with such joy that he +could not be troubled to consider the words of a man who was no more +than a better sort of peasant. He set to work at once, and had filed +the bars through in the course of the day. Fearing a visit from the +Governor, he stopped up the breaches with bread crumb rubbed in rust +to make it look like iron; he hid his rope, and waited for a favorable +night with the intensity of anticipation, the deep anguish of soul that +makes a prisoner’s life dramatic. + +“At last, one murky night, an autumn night, he finished cutting through +the bars, tied the cord firmly to the stump, and perched himself on the +sill outside, holding on by one hand to the piece of iron remaining. +Then he waited for the darkest hour of the night, when the sentinels +would probably be asleep; this would be not long before dawn. He knew +the hours of their rounds, the length of each watch, every detail with +which prisoners, almost involuntarily, become familiar. He waited till +the moment when one of the men-at-arms had spent two-thirds of his watch +and gone into his box for shelter from the fog. Then, feeling sure that +the chances were at the best for his escape, he let himself down knot by +knot, hanging between earth and sky, and clinging to his rope with the +strength of a giant. All was well. At the last knot but one, just as he +was about to let himself drop, a prudent impulse led him to feel for +the ground with his feet, and he found no footing. The predicament +was awkward for a man bathed in sweat, tired, and perplexed, and in a +position where his life was at stake on even chances. He was about to +risk it, when a trivial incident stopped him; his hat fell off; happily, +he listened for the noise it must make in striking the ground, and he +heard not a sound. + +“The prisoner felt vaguely suspicious as to this state of affairs. He +began to wonder whether the Commandant had not laid a trap for him--but +if so, why? Torn by doubts, he almost resolved to postpone the attempt +till another night. At any rate, he would wait for the first gleam of +day, when it would still not be impossible to escape. His great strength +enabled him to climb up again to his window; still, he was almost +exhausted by the time he gained the sill, where he crouched on the +lookout, exactly like a cat on the parapet of a gutter. Before long, by +the pale light of dawn, he perceived as he waved the rope that there +was a little interval of a hundred feet between the lowest knot and the +pointed rocks below. + +“‘Thank you, my friend, the Governor!’ said he, with characteristic +coolness. Then, after a brief meditation on this skilfully-planned +revenge, he thought it wise to return to his cell. + +“He laid his outer clothes conspicuously on the bed, left the rope +outside to make it seem that he had fallen, and hid himself behind the +door to await the arrival of the treacherous turnkey, arming himself +with one of the iron bars he had filed out. The jailer, who returned +rather earlier than usual to secure the dead man’s leavings, opened the +door, whistling as he came in; but when he was at arm’s length, Beauvoir +hit him such a tremendous blow on the head that the wretch fell in a +heap without a cry; the bar had cracked his skull. + +“The Chevalier hastily stripped him and put on his clothes, mimicked his +walk, and, thanks to the early hour and the undoubting confidence of the +warders of the great gate, he walked out and away.” + +It did not seem to strike either the lawyer or Madame de la Baudraye +that there was in this narrative the least allusion that should apply +to them. Those in the little plot looked inquiringly at each other, +evidently surprised at the perfect coolness of the two supposed lovers. + +“Oh! I can tell you a better story than that,” said Bianchon. + +“Let us hear,” said the audience, at a sign from Lousteau, conveying +that Bianchon had a reputation as a story-teller. + +Among the stock of narratives he had in store, for every clever man +has a fund of anecdotes as Madame de la Baudraye had a collection of +phrases, the doctor chose that which is known as _La Grande Breteche_, +and is so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the +_Gymnase-Dramatique_ under the title of _Valentine_. So it is not +necessary to repeat it here, though it was then new to the inhabitants +of the Chateau d’Anzy. And it was told with the same finish of gesture +and tone which had won such praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle +des Touches’ supper-party he had told it for the first time. The final +picture of the Spanish grandee, starved to death where he stood in the +cupboard walled up by Madame de Merret’s husband, and that husband’s +last word as he replied to his wife’s entreaty, “You swore on that +crucifix that there was no one in that closet!” produced their full +effect. There was a silent minute, highly flattering to Bianchon. + +“Do you know, gentlemen,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “love must be +a mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a +position?” + +“I, who have certainly seen some strange things in the course of my +life,” said Gravier, “was cognizant in Spain of an adventure of the same +kind.” + +“You come forward after two great performers,” said Madame de la +Baudraye, with coquettish flattery, as she glanced at the two Parisians. +“But never mind--proceed.” + +“Some little time after his entry into Madrid,” said the +Receiver-General, “the Grand Duke of Berg invited the magnates of the +capital to an entertainment given to the newly conquered city by the +French army. In spite of the splendor of the affair, the Spaniards were +not very cheerful; their ladies hardly danced at all, and most of the +company sat down to cards. The gardens of the Duke’s palace were so +brilliantly illuminated, that the ladies could walk about in as perfect +safety as in broad daylight. The fete was of imperial magnificence. +Nothing was grudged to give the Spaniards a high idea of the Emperor, if +they were to measure him by the standard of his officers. + +“In an arbor near the house, between one and two in the morning, a party +of French officers were discussing the chances of war, and the not too +hopeful outlook prognosticated by the conduct of the Spaniards present +at that grand ball. + +“‘I can only tell you,’ said the surgeon-major of the company of which I +was paymaster, ‘I applied formally to Prince Murat only yesterday to +be recalled. Without being afraid exactly of leaving my bones in the +Peninsula, I would rather dress the wounds made by our worthy neighbors +the Germans. Their weapons do not run quite so deep into the body as +these Castilian daggers. Besides, a certain dread of Spain is, with +me, a sort of superstition. From my earliest youth I have read Spanish +books, and a heap of gloomy romances and tales of adventures in this +country have given me a serious prejudice against its manners and +customs. + +“‘Well, now, since my arrival in Madrid, I have already been, not +indeed the hero, but the accomplice of a dangerous intrigue, as dark and +mysterious as any romance by Lady (Mrs.) Radcliffe. I am apt to attend +to my presentiments, and I am off to-morrow. Murat will not refuse me +leave, for, thanks to our varied services, we always have influential +friends.’ + +“‘Since you mean to cut your stick, tell us what’s up,’ said an old +Republican colonel, who cared not a rap for Imperial gentility and +choice language. + +“The surgeon-major looked about him cautiously, as if to make sure +who were his audience, and being satisfied that no Spaniard was within +hearing, he said: + +“‘We are none but Frenchmen--then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. About +six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at night, +after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few yards from +mine. We had come away together from the Quartermaster-General’s, where +we had played rather high at _bouillotte_. Suddenly, at the corner of a +narrow high-street, two strangers, or rather, two demons, rushed upon me +and flung a large cloak round my head and arms. I yelled out, as you may +suppose, like a dog that is thrashed, but the cloth smothered my voice, +and I was lifted into a chaise with dexterous rapidity. When my two +companions released me from the cloak, I heard these dreadful words +spoken by a woman, in bad French: + +“‘“If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very +least suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will stab +you without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.--Now, I will tell +you why you have been carried off. If you will take the trouble to put +your hand out in this direction, you will find your case of instruments +lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to your rooms, in your +name. You will need them. We are taking you to a house that you may +save the honor of a lady who is about to give birth to a child that +she wishes to place in this gentleman’s keeping without her husband’s +knowledge. Though monsieur rarely leaves his wife, with whom he is +still passionately in love, watching over her with all the vigilance +of Spanish jealousy, she had succeeded in concealing her condition; he +believes her to be ill. You must bring the child into the world. The +dangers of this enterprise do not concern us: only, you must obey us, +otherwise the lover, who is sitting opposite to you in this carriage, +and who does not understand a word of French, will kill you on the least +rash movement.” + +“‘“And who are you?” I asked, feeling for the speaker’s hand, for her +arm was inside the sleeve of a soldier’s uniform. + +“‘“I am my lady’s waiting-woman,” said she, “and ready to reward you +with my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our +necessities.” + +“‘“Gladly,” said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a perilous +adventure. + +“‘Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure of +the girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her tone +of voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the first +to accept all the chances of this strange act of kidnapping, for she +kept silence very obligingly, and the coach had not been more than ten +minutes on the way when she accepted and returned a very satisfactory +kiss. The lover, who sat opposite to me, took no offence at an +occasional quite involuntary kick; as he did not understand French, I +conclude he paid no heed to them. + +“‘“I can be your mistress on one condition only,” said the woman, in +reply to the nonsense I poured into her ear, carried away by the fervor +of an improvised passion, to which everything was unpropitious. + +“‘“And what is it?” + +“‘“That you will never attempt to find out whose servant I am. If I am +to go to you, it must be at night, and you must receive me in the dark.” + +“‘“Very good,” said I. + +“‘We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden +wall. + +“‘“You must allow me to bandage your eyes,” said the maid. “You can lean +on my arm, and I will lead you.” + +“‘She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot at +the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously fitted +to the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who had sat +opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was slender, +and who walked with an elegant jauntiness’--_meneho_, as they call it,” + Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, “a word which describes +the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of their dress +that shall be nameless.--‘The waiting-woman’--it is the surgeon-major +who is speaking,” the narrator went on--“‘led me along the gravel walks +of a large garden, till at a certain spot she stopped. From the louder +sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we were close to the house. +“Now silence!” said she in a whisper, “and mind what you are about. Do +not overlook any of my signals; I cannot speak without terrible +danger for both of us, and at this moment your life is of the first +importance.” Then she added: “My mistress is in a room on the ground +floor. To get into it we must pass through her husband’s room and close +to his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and follow me closely, so as not +to knock against the furniture or tread anywhere but on the carpets I +laid down.” + +“‘Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much +delay. + +“‘The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of +the house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl’s light hand +removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, badly +lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous husband +had fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack, as it were. + +“‘On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with +a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and +flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her +mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it: I never saw +finer limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string +thrown on the fire. The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her +legs by setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both hands +she held on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with every +vein painfully swelled. She might have been a criminal undergoing +torture. But she did not utter a cry; there was not a sound, all +three speechless and motionless. The husband snored with reassuring +regularity. I wanted to study the waiting-woman’s face, but she had +put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our drive, and +I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a pleasingly rounded +figure. + +“‘The lover threw some towels over his mistress’ legs and folded the +muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady +with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once +before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I +turned to the maid in order to tell her this. Instantly the suspicious +stranger drew his dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the +woman, who explained in a word or two to him in a low voice. On hearing +my opinion, a quick, slight shudder ran through him from head to foot +like a lightning flash; I fancied I could see him turn pale under his +black velvet mask. + +“‘The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in +despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some +glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her +head negatively. I understood that I was not to drink anything in spite +of the dreadful thirst that parched my throat. The lover was thirsty +too; he took an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, and drank +it off. + +“‘At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed +me that now was the time to operate. I summoned all my courage, and in +about an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting +it up to extract it. The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, +understanding that I had saved the mother’s life. Large tears fell on +his cloak. The woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted +animal, and was bathed in sweat. + +“‘At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her +husband’s room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard the +rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain. We all +paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the eyeholes of +their masks, gave each other a look that said, “If he wakes, shall we +kill him?” + +“‘At that instant I put out my hand to take the glass of lemonade the +Spaniard had drunk of. He, thinking that I was about to take one of the +full glasses, sprang forward like a cat, and laid his long dagger over +the two poisoned goblets, leaving me his own, and signing to me to drink +what was left. So much was conveyed by this quick action, and it was +so full of good feeling, that I forgave him his atrocious schemes for +killing me, and thus burying every trace of this event. + +“‘After two hours of care and alarms, the maid and I put her mistress +to bed. The lover, forced into so perilous an adventure, had, to provide +means in case of having to fly, a packet of diamonds stuck to paper; +these he put into my pocket without my knowing it; and I may add +parenthetically, that as I was ignorant of the Spaniard’s magnificent +gift, my servant stole the jewels the day after, and went off with a +perfect fortune. + +“‘I whispered my instructions to the waiting-woman as to the further +care of her patient, and wanted to be gone. The maid remained with her +mistress, which was not very reassuring, but I was on my guard. The +lover made a bundle of the dead infant and the blood-stained clothes, +tying it up tightly, and hiding it under his cloak; he passed his hand +over my eyes as if to bid me to see nothing, and signed to me to take +hold of the skirt of his coat. He went first out of the room, and I +followed, not without a parting glance at my lady of an hour. She, +seeing the Spaniard had gone out, snatched off her mask and showed me an +exquisite face. + +“‘When I found myself in the garden, in the open air, I confess that I +breathed as if a heavy load had been lifted from my breast. I followed +my guide at a respectful distance, watching his least movement with keen +attention. Having reached the little door, he took my hand and pressed a +seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen him wearing on a finger +of his left hand, and I gave him to understand that this significant +sign would be obeyed. In the street two horses were waiting; we each +mounted one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held his own between his teeth, +for his right hand held the bloodstained bundle, and we went off at +lightning speed. + +“‘I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we +came by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard +fled towards the Atocha gate.’ + +“‘And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman was +whom you had attended?’ the Colonel asked of the surgeon. + +“‘One thing only,’ he replied. ‘When I turned the unknown lady over, I +happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as +a lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.’--At this instant the rash +speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his, followed +his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes shone through +a clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object of our attention, +the man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A young captain rushed +in pursuit. + +“‘By Heaven!’ cried the surgeon, ‘that basilisk stare has chilled me +through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take +leave of you; you will bury me here!’ + +“‘What a fool you are!’ exclaimed Colonel Hulot. ‘Falcon is on the track +of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to account.’ + +“‘Well,’ cried one and another, seeing the captain return quite out of +breath. + +“‘The devil’s in it,’ said Falcon; ‘the man went through a wall, I +believe! As I do not suppose that he is a wizard, I fancy he must belong +to the house! He knows every corner and turning, and easily escaped.’ + +“‘I am done for,’ said the surgeon, in a gloomy voice. + +“‘Come, come, keep calm, Bega,’ said I (his name was Bega), ‘we will sit +on watch with you till you leave. We will not leave you this evening.’ + +“In point of fact, three young officers who had been losing at play went +home with the surgeon to his lodgings, and one of us offered to stay +with him. + +“Within two days Bega had obtained his recall to France; he made +arrangements to travel with a lady to whom Murat had given a strong +escort, and had just finished dinner with a party of friends, when +his servant came to say that a young lady wished to speak to him. +The surgeon and the three officers went down suspecting mischief. The +stranger could only say, ‘Be on your guard--’ when she dropped down +dead. It was the waiting-woman, who, finding she had been poisoned, had +hoped to arrive in time to warn her lover. + +“‘Devil take it!’ cried Captain Falcon, ‘that is what I call love! No +woman on earth but a Spaniard can run about with a dose of poison in her +inside!’ + +“Bega remained strangely pensive. To drown the dark presentiments that +haunted him, he sat down to table again, and with his companions drank +immoderately. The whole party went early to bed, half drunk. + +“In the middle of the night the hapless Bega was aroused by the sharp +rattle of the curtain rings pulled violently along the rods. He sat up +in bed, in the mechanical trepidation which we all feel on waking with +such a start. He saw standing before him a Spaniard wrapped in a cloak, +who fixed on him the same burning gaze that he had seen through the +bushes. + +“Bega shouted out, ‘Help, help, come at once, friends!’ But the Spaniard +answered his cry of distress with a bitter laugh.--‘Opium grows for +all!’ said he. + +“Having thus pronounced sentence as it were, the stranger pointed to the +three other men sleeping soundly, took from under his cloak the arm of +a woman, freshly amputated, and held it out to Bega, pointing to a mole +like that he had so rashly described. ‘Is it the same?’ he asked. By +the light of the lantern the man had set on the bed, Bega recognized the +arm, and his speechless amazement was answer enough. + +“Without waiting for further information, the lady’s husband stabbed him +to the heart.” + +“You must tell that to the marines!” said Lousteau. “It needs their +robust faith to swallow it! Can you tell me which told the tale, the +dead man or the Spaniard?” + +“Monsieur,” replied the Receiver-General, “I nursed poor Bega, who died +five days after in dreadful suffering.--That is not the end. + +“At the time of the expedition sent out to restore Ferdinand VII. I was +appointed to a place in Spain; but, happily for me, I got no further +than Tours when I was promised the post of Receiver here at Sancerre. On +the eve of setting out I was at a ball at Madame de Listomere’s, where +we were to meet several Spaniards of high rank. On rising from the +card-table, I saw a Spanish grandee, an _afrancesado_ in exile, who had +been about a fortnight in Touraine. He had arrived very late at this +ball--his first appearance in society--accompanied by his wife, whose +right arm was perfectly motionless. Everybody made way in silence for +this couple, whom we all watched with some excitement. Imagine a picture +by Murillo come to life. Under black and hollow brows the man’s eyes +were like a fixed blaze; his face looked dried up, his bald skull was +red, and his frame was a terror to behold, he was so emaciated. His +wife--no, you cannot imagine her. Her figure had the supple swing for +which the Spaniards created the word _meneho_; though pale, she was +still beautiful; her complexion was dazzlingly fair--a rare thing in +a Spaniard; and her gaze, full of the Spanish sun, fell on you like a +stream of melted lead. + +“‘Madame,’ said I to her, towards the end of the evening, ‘what +occurrence led to the loss of your arm?’ + +“‘I lost it in the war of independence,’ said she.” + +“Spain is a strange country,” said Madame de la Baudraye. “It still +shows traces of Arab manners.” + +“Oh!” said the journalist, laughing, “the mania for cutting off arms +is an old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our +newspaper hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the +Spanish stage so early as 1570--” + +“Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?” said Monsieur +Gravier, nettled by Lousteau’s impertinent tone. + +“Quite incapable of such a thing,” said the journalist with grave irony. + +“Pooh!” said Bianchon, “the inventions of romances and play-writers are +quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real life, +as the events of real life are made use of on the stage or adapted to a +tale. I have seen the comedy of _Tartufe_ played out--with the exception +of the close; Orgon’s eyes could not be opened to the truth.” + +“And the tragi-comedy of _Adolphe_ by Benjamin Constant is constantly +enacted,” cried Lousteau. + +“And do you suppose,” asked Madame de la Baudraye, “that such adventures +as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and in France?” + +“Dear me!” cried Clagny, “of the ten or twelve startling crimes that are +annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with circumstances +at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing them in romantic +details. Indeed, is not this proved by the reports in the _Gazette des +Tribunaux_--the Police news--in my opinion, one of the worst abuses of +the Press? This newspaper, which was started only in 1826 or ‘27, was +not in existence when I began my professional career, and the facts of +the crime I am about to speak of were not known beyond the limits of the +department where it was committed. + +“In the quarter of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours a woman whose husband +had disappeared at the time when the army of the Loire was disbanded, +and who had mourned him deeply, was conspicuous for her excess of +devotion. When the mission priests went through all the provinces to +restore the crosses that had been destroyed and to efface the traces +of revolutionary impiety, this widow was one of their most zealous +proselytes, she carried a cross and nailed to it a silver heart pierced +by an arrow; and, for a long time after, she went every evening to pray +at the foot of the cross which was erected behind the Cathedral apse. + +“At last, overwhelmed by remorse, she confessed to a horrible crime. She +had killed her husband, as Fualdes was murdered, by bleeding him; she +had salted the body and packed it in pieces into old casks, exactly as +if it have been pork; and for a long time she had taken a piece every +morning and thrown it into the Loire. Her confessor consulted his +superiors, and told her that it would be his duty to inform the +public prosecutor. The woman awaited the action of the Law. The public +prosecutor and the examining judge, on examining the cellar, found the +husband’s head still in pickle in one of the casks.--‘Wretched woman,’ +said the judge to the accused, ‘since you were so barbarous as to throw +your husband’s body into the river, why did you not get rid of the head? +Then there would have been no proof.’ + +“‘I often tried, monsieur,’ said she, ‘but it was too heavy.’” + +“Well, and what became of the woman?” asked the two Parisians. + +“She was sentenced and executed at Tours,” replied the lawyer; “but her +repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her monstrous +crime.” + +“And do you suppose, said Bianchon, “that we know all the tragedies that +are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public never +lifts?--It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to judge of +crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to intervene as +the police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart of the matter.” + +“The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor,” said +Madame de la Baudraye guilelessly, “that the crime would sometimes seem +almost excusable if the accused could tell all.” + +This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had +told, left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah’s position. + +At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place +in the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, candle +in hand, for mysterious conversations. + +Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this +entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye’s innocence +to light. + +“But, after all,” said Lousteau, “our hostess’ serenity may indicate +deep depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public +Prosecutor looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La +Baudraye should be put in pickle----” + +“He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the +course of the night?” said Gatien. + +“We will know!” cried Monsieur Gravier. + +In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are +considered admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur +Gravier, who had seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on +the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The +ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with +the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of a +door by means of two little flattened pills of wax, fixed so high up, or +so low down, that the trick is never suspected. If the gallant comes out +of his own door and opens the other, the broken hair tells the tale. + +When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist, +the receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and +silently fastened up the two doors, agreeing to come again at five +in the morning to examine the state of the fastenings. Imagine their +astonishment and Gatien’s delight when all four, candle in hand, and +with hardly any clothes on, came to look at the hairs, and found them in +perfect preservation on both doors. + +“Is it the same wax?” asked Monsieur Gravier. + +“Are they the same hairs?” asked Lousteau. + +“Yes,” replied Gatien. + +“This quite alters the matter!” cried Lousteau. “You have been beating +the bush for a will-o’-the-wisp.” + +Monsieur Gravier and Gatien exchanged questioning glances which were +meant to convey, “Is there not something offensive to us in that speech? +Ought we to laugh or to be angry?” + +“If Dinah is virtuous,” said the journalist in a whisper to Bianchon, +“she is worth an effort on my part to pluck the fruit of her first +love.” + +The idea of carrying by storm a fortress that had for nine years stood +out against the besiegers of Sancerre smiled on Lousteau. + +With this notion in his head, he was the first to go down and into the +garden, hoping to meet his hostess. And this chance fell out all the +more easily because Madame de la Baudraye on her part wished to converse +with her critic. Half such chances are planned. + +“You were out shooting yesterday, monsieur,” said Madame de la Baudraye. +“This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any new +amusement; unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you may +study more of our provincial life than you can see here, for you have +made but one mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying about the +handsomest girl in the world is not less true of the poor provincial +woman!” + +“That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech I +made simply to make him confess that he adored you,” said Etienne. +“Your silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout the +evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we never +commit in Paris.--What can I say? I do not flatter myself that you +will understand me. In fact, I laid a plot for the telling of all those +stories yesterday solely to see whether I could rouse you and Monsieur +de Clagny to a pang of remorse.--Oh! be quite easy; your innocence is +fully proved. + +“If you had the slightest fancy for that estimable magistrate, you would +have lost all your value in my eyes.--I love perfection. + +“You do not, you cannot love that cold, dried-up, taciturn little +usurer on wine casks and land, who would leave any man in the lurch for +twenty-five centimes on a renewal. Oh, I have fully recognized Monsieur +de la Baudraye’s similarity to a Parisian bill-discounter; their nature +is identical.--At eight-and-twenty, handsome, well conducted, and +childless--I assure you, madame, I never saw the problem of virtue more +admirably expressed.--The author of _Paquita la Sevillane_ must have +dreamed many dreams! + +“I can speak of such things without the hypocritical gloss lent them by +young men, for I am old before my time. I have no illusions left. Can a +man have any illusions in the trade I follow?” + +By opening the game in this tone, Lousteau cut out all excursions in the +_Pays de Tendre_, where genuine passion beats the bush so long; he went +straight to the point and placed himself in a position to force the +offer of what women often make a man pray for, for years; witness the +hapless Public Prosecutor, to whom the greatest favor had consisted +in clasping Dinah’s hand to his heart more tenderly than usual as they +walked, happy man! + +And Madame de la Baudraye, to be true to her reputation as a Superior +Woman, tried to console the Manfred of the Press by prophesying such a +future of love as he had not had in his mind. + +“You have sought pleasure,” said she, “but you have never loved. Believe +me, true love often comes late in life. Remember Monsieur de Gentz, who +fell in love in his old age with Fanny Ellsler, and left the Revolution +of July to take its course while he attended the dancer’s rehearsals.” + +“It seems to me unlikely,” replied Lousteau. “I can still believe in +love, but I have ceased to believe in woman. There are in me, I suppose, +certain defects which hinder me from being loved, for I have often been +thrown over. Perhaps I have too strong a feeling for the ideal--like all +men who have looked too closely into reality----” + +Madame de la Baudraye at last heard the mind of a man who, flung into +the wittiest Parisian circles, represented to her its most daring +axioms, its almost artless depravity, its advanced convictions; who, if +he were not really superior, acted superiority extremely well. Etienne, +performing before Dinah, had all the success of a first night. _Paquita_ +of Sancerre scented the storms, the atmosphere of Paris. She spent one +of the most delightful days of her life with Lousteau and Bianchon, who +told her strange tales about the great men of the day, the anecdotes +which will some day form the _Ana_ of our century; sayings and doings +that were the common talk of Paris, but quite new to her. + +Of course, Lousteau spoke very ill of the great female celebrity of Le +Berry, with the obvious intention of flattering Madame de la Baudraye +and leading her into literary confidences, by suggesting that she could +rival so great a writer. This praise intoxicated Madame de la Baudraye; +and Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Gravier, and Gatien, all thought her +warmer in her manner to Etienne than she had been on the previous day. +Dinah’s three _attaches_ greatly regretted having all gone to Sancerre +to blow the trumpet in honor of the evening at Anzy; nothing, to hear +them, had ever been so brilliant. The Hours had fled on feet so light +that none had marked their pace. The two Parisians they spoke of as +perfect prodigies. + +These exaggerated reports loudly proclaimed on the Mall brought +sixteen persons to Anzy that evening, some in family coaches, some in +wagonettes, and a few bachelors on hired saddle horses. By about seven +o’clock this provincial company had made a more or less graceful entry +into the huge Anzy drawing-room, which Dinah, warned of the invasion, +had lighted up, giving it all the lustre it was capable of by taking +the holland covers off the handsome furniture, for she regarded this +assembly as one of her great triumphs. Lousteau, Bianchon, and Dinah +exchanged meaning looks as they studied the attitudes and listened to +the speeches of these visitors, attracted by curiosity. + +What invalided ribbons, what ancestral laces, what ancient flowers, +more imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some perennial +caps! The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon’s cousin, exchanged a few +words with the doctor, from whom she extracted some “advice gratis” + by expatiating on certain pains in the chest, which she declared were +nervous, but which he ascribed to chronic indigestion. + +“Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the +English do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an +English malady,” Bianchon replied very gravely. + +“He is certainly a great physician,” said the Presidente, coming back to +Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the Mayor’s +wife. + +“They say,” replied Madame de Clagny behind her fan, “that Dinah sent +for him, not so much with a view to the elections as to ascertain why +she has no children.” + +In the first excitement of this success, Lousteau introduced the great +doctor as the only possible candidate at the ensuing elections. But +Bianchon, to the great satisfaction of the new Sous-prefet, remarked +that it seemed to him almost impossible to give up science in favor of +politics. + +“Only a physician without a practice,” said he, “could care to be +returned as a deputy. Nominate statesmen, thinkers, men whose knowledge +is universal, and who are capable of placing themselves on the high +level which a legislator should occupy. That is what is lacking in our +Chambers, and what our country needs.” + +Two or three young ladies, some of the younger men, and the elder women +stared at Lousteau as if he were a mountebank. + +“Monsieur Gatien Boirouge declares that Monsieur Lousteau makes twenty +thousand francs a year by his writings,” observed the Mayor’s wife to +Madame de Clagny. “Can you believe it?” + +“Is it possible? Why, a Public Prosecutor gets but a thousand crowns!” + +“Monsieur Gatien,” said Madame Chandier, “get Monsieur Lousteau to talk +a little louder. I have not heard him yet.” + +“What pretty boots he wears,” said Mademoiselle Chandier to her brother, +“and how they shine!” + +“Yes--patent leather.” + +“Why haven’t you the same?” + +Lousteau began to feel that he was too much on show, and saw in the +manners of the good townsfolk indications of the desires that had +brought them there. + +“What trick can I play them?” thought he. + +At this moment the footman, so called--a farm-servant put into +livery--brought in the letters and papers, and among them a packet +of proof, which the journalist left for Bianchon; for Madame de la +Baudraye, on seeing the parcel, of which the form and string were +obviously from the printers, exclaimed: + +“What, does literature pursue you even here?” + +“Not literature,” replied he, “but a review in which I am now finishing +a story to come out ten days hence. I have reached the stage of ‘_To +be concluded in our next_,’ so I was obliged to give my address to +the printer. Oh, we eat very hard-earned bread at the hands of these +speculators in black and white! I will give you a description of these +editors of magazines.” + +“When will the conversation begin?” Madame de Clagny asked of Dinah, as +one might ask, “When do the fireworks go off?” + +“I fancied we should hear some amusing stories,” said Madame Popinot to +her cousin, the Presidente Boirouge. + +At this moment, when the good folks of Sancerre were beginning to murmur +like an impatient pit, Lousteau observed that Bianchon was lost in +meditation inspired by the wrapper round the proofs. + +“What is it?” asked Etienne. + +“Why, here is the most fascinating romance possible on some spoiled +proof used to wrap yours in. Here, read it. _Olympia, or Roman +Revenge_.” + +“Let us see,” said Lousteau, taking the sheet the doctor held out to +him, and he read aloud as follows:-- + + 240 OLYMPIA + + cavern. Rinaldo, indignant at his + companions’ cowardice, for they had + no courage but in the open field, and + dared not venture into Rome, looked + at them with scorn. + + “Then I go alone?” said he. He + seemed to reflect, and then he went + on: “You are poor wretches. I shall + proceed alone, and have the rich + booty to myself.--You hear me! + Farewell.” + + “My Captain,” said Lamberti, “if + you should be captured without + having succeeded?” + + “God protects me!” said Rinaldo, + pointing to the sky. + + With these words he went out, + and on his way he met the steward + +“That is the end of the page,” said Lousteau, to whom every one had +listened devoutly. + +“He is reading his work to us,” said Gatien to Madame Popinot-Chandier’s +son. + +“From the first word, ladies,” said the journalist, jumping at an +opportunity of mystifying the natives, “it is evident that the brigands +are in a cave. But how careless romancers of that date were as to +details which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied under +the name of ‘local color.’ If the robbers were in a cavern, instead of +pointing to the sky he ought to have pointed to the vault above him.--In +spite of this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man of spirit, and his +appeal to God is quite Italian. There must have been a touch of local +color in this romance. Why, what with brigands, and a cavern, and +one Lamberti who could foresee future possibilities--there is a whole +melodrama in that page. Add to these elements a little intrigue, a +peasant maiden with her hair dressed high, short skirts, and a hundred +or so of bad couplets.--Oh! the public will crowd to see it! And then +Rinaldo--how well the name suits Lafont! By giving him black whiskers, +tightly-fitting trousers, a cloak, a moustache, a pistol, and a peaked +hat--if the manager of the Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to +pay for a few newspaper articles, that would secure fifty performances, +and six thousand francs for the author’s rights, if only I were to cry +it up in my columns. + +“To proceed:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + The Duchess of Bracciano found + her glove. Adolphe, who had brought + her back to the orange grove, might + certainly have supposed that there + was some purpose in her forgetful- + ness, for at this moment the arbor + was deserted. The sound of the fes- + tivities was audible in the distance. + The puppet show that had been + promised had attracted all the + guests to the ballroom. Never had + Olympia looked more beautiful. + Her lover’s eyes met hers with an + answering glow, and they under- + stood each other. There was a mo- + ment of silence, delicious to their + souls, and impossible to describe. + They sat down on the same bench + where they had sat in the presence + of the Cavaliere Paluzzi and the + +“Devil take it! Our Rinaldo has vanished!” cried Lousteau. “But a +literary man once started by this page would make rapid progress in +the comprehension of the plot. The Duchesse Olympia is a lady who could +intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor.” + +“Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an +office, the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom, +it is impossible to discern in Olympia--” Bianchon began. + +“A woman of thirty,” Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing +some all too medical term. + +“Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty,” the doctor went on, “for an +Italian woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty.” + +“From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed,” said +Lousteau. “And this Cavaliere Paluzzi--what a man!--The style is weak in +these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise Office, +and wrote the novel to pay his tailor!” + +“In his time,” said Bianchon, “the censor flourished; you must show as +much indulgence to a man who underwent the ordeal by scissors in 1805 as +to those who went to the scaffold in 1793.” + +“Do you understand in the least?” asked Madame Gorju timidly of Madame +de Clagny. + +The Public Prosecutor’s wife, who, to use a phrase of Monsieur +Gravier’s, might have put a Cossack to flight in 1814, straightened +herself in her chair like a horseman in his stirrups, and made a face at +her neighbor, conveying, “They are looking at us; we must smile as if we +understood.” + +“Charming!” said the Mayoress to Gatien. “Pray go on, Monsieur +Lousteau.” + +Lousteau looked at the two women, two Indian idols, and contrived to +keep his countenance. He thought it desirable to say, “Attention!” + before going on as follows:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 209 + + dress rustled in the silence. Sud + denly Cardinal Borborigano stood + before the Duchess. + + “His face was gloomy, his brow + was dark with clouds, and a bitter + smile lurked in his wrinkles. + + “Madame,” said he, “you are under + suspicion. If you are guilty, fly. If + you are not, still fly; because, + whether criminal or innocent, you + will find it easier to defend yourself + from a distance.” + + “I thank your Eminence for your + solicitude,” said she. “The Duke of + Bracciano will reappear when I find + it needful to prove that he is alive.” + +“Cardinal Borborigano!” exclaimed Bianchon. “By the Pope’s keys! If you +do not agree with me that there is a magnificent creation in the very +name, if at those words _dress rustled in the silence_ you do not feel +all the poetry thrown into the part of Schedoni by Mrs. Radcliffe in +_The Black Penitent_, you do not deserve to read a romance.” + +“For my part,” said Dinah, who had some pity on the eighteen faces +gazing up at Lousteau, “I see how the story is progressing. I know it +all. I am in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose wife, +as bold as she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a +volcano. Every night, at every kiss, she says to herself, ‘All will be +discovered!’” + +“Can you see her,” said Lousteau, “clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her +arms, to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?--Adolphe I see +as a well-made young man, but not clever--the sort of man an Italian +woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do not know, +but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by Pixerecourt. +Or we can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the background like a +figure in one of Victor Hugo’s plays.” + +“He, perhaps, is the husband,” exclaimed Madame de la Baudraye. + +“Do you understand anything of it all?” Madame Piedefer asked of the +Presidente. + +“Why, it is charming!” said Dinah to her mother. + +All the good folks of Sancerre sat with eyes as large as five-franc +pieces. + +“Go on, I beg,” said the hostess. + +Lousteau went on:-- + + 210 OLYMPIA + + “Your key----” + + “Have you lost it?” + + “It is in the arbor.” + + “Let us hasten.” + + “Can the Cardinal have taken it?” + + “No, here it is.” + + “What danger we have escaped!” + + Olympia looked at the key, and + fancied she recognized it as her own. + But Rinaldo had changed it; his + cunning had triumphed; he had the + right key. Like a modern Cartouche, + he was no less skilful than bold, + and suspecting that nothing but a + vast treasure could require a duchess + to carry it constantly at her belt. + +“Guess!” cried Lousteau. “The corresponding page is not here. We must +look to page 212 to relieve our anxiety.” + + 212 OLYMPIA + + “If the key had been lost?” + + “He would now be a dead man.” + + “Dead? But ought you not to + grant the last request he made, and + to give him his liberty on the con- + ditions----” + + “You do not know him.” + + “But--” + + “Silence! I took you for my + lover, not for my confessor.” + + Adolphe was silent. + +“And then comes an exquisite galloping goat, a tail-piece drawn by +Normand, and cut by Duplat.--the names are signed,” said Lousteau. + +“Well, and then?” said such of the audience as understood. + +“That is the end of the chapter,” said Lousteau. “The fact of this +tailpiece changes my views as to the authorship. To have his book got +up, under the Empire, with vignettes engraved on wood, the writer must +have been a Councillor of State, or Madame Barthelemy-Hadot, or the late +lamented Desforges, or Sewrin.” + +“‘Adolphe was silent.’--Ah!” cried Bianchon, “the Duchess must have been +under thirty.” + +“If there is no more, invent a conclusion,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + +“You see,” said Lousteau, “the waste sheet has been printed fair on +one side only. In printer’s lingo, it is a back sheet, or, to make it +clearer, the other side which would have to be printed is covered all +over with pages printed one above another, all experiments in making +up. It would take too long to explain to you all the complications of a +making-up sheet; but you may understand that it will show no more trace +of the first twelve pages that were printed on it than you would in the +least remember the first stroke of the bastinado if a Pasha condemned +you to have fifty on the soles of your feet.” + +“I am quite bewildered,” said Madame Popinot-Chandier to Monsieur +Gravier. “I am vainly trying to connect the Councillor of State, the +Cardinal, the key, and the making-up----” + +“You have not the key to the jest,” said Monsieur Gravier. “Well! no +more have I, fair lady, if that can comfort you.” + +“But here is another sheet,” said Bianchon, hunting on the table where +the proofs had been laid. + +“Capital!” said Lousteau, “and it is complete and uninjured. It is +signed IV.; J, Second Edition. Ladies, the figure IV. means that this +is part of the fourth volume. The letter J, the tenth letter of the +alphabet, shows that this is the tenth sheet. And it is perfectly clear +to me, that in spite of any publisher’s tricks, this romance in four +duodecimo volumes, had a great success, since it came to a second +edition.--We will read on and find a clue to the mystery. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 21 + + corridor; but finding that he was + pursued by the Duchess’ people + +“Oh, get along!” + +“But,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “some important events have taken +place between your waste sheet and this page.” + +“This complete sheet, madame, this precious made-up sheet. But does the +waste sheet in which the Duchess forgets her gloves in the arbor belong +to the fourth volume? Well, deuce take it--to proceed. + + Rinaldo saw no safer refuge than to + make forthwith for the cellar where + the treasures of the Bracciano fam- + ily no doubt lay hid. As light of + foot as Camilla sung by the Latin + poet, he flew to the entrance to the + Baths of Vespasian. The torchlight + already flickered on the walls when + Rinaldo, with the readiness be- + stowed on him by nature, discovered + the door concealed in the stone- + work, and suddenly vanished. A + hideous thought then flashed on + Rinaldo’s brain like lightning rend- + ing a cloud: He was imprisoned! + He felt the wall with uneasy haste + +“Yes, this made-up sheet follows the waste sheet. The last page of the +damaged sheet was 212, and this is 217. In fact, since Rinaldo, who +in the earlier fragment stole the key of the Duchess’ treasure by +exchanging it for another very much like it, is now--on the made-up +sheet--in the palace of the Dukes of Bracciano, the story seems to me to +be advancing to a conclusion of some kind. I hope it is as clear to you +as it is to me.--I understand that the festivities are over, the lovers +have returned to the Bracciano Palace; it is night--one o’clock in the +morning. Rinaldo will have a good time.” + +“And Adolphe too!” said President Boirouge, who was considered rather +free in his speech. + +“And the style!” said Bianchon.--“Rinaldo, who saw _no better refuge +than to make for the cellar_.” + +“It is quite clear that neither Maradan, nor Treuttel and Wurtz, +nor Doguereau, were the printers,” said Lousteau, “for they employed +correctors who revised the proofs, a luxury in which our publishers +might very well indulge, and the writers of the present day, would +benefit greatly. Some scrubby pamphlet printer on the Quay--” + +“What quay?” a lady asked of her neighbor. “They spoke of baths--” + +“Pray go on,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + +“At any rate, it is not by a councillor,” said Bianchon. + +“It may be by Madame Hadot,” replied Lousteau. + +“What has Madame Hadot of La Charite to do with it?” the Presidente +asked of her son. + +“This Madame Hadot, my dear friend,” the hostess answered, “was an +authoress, who lived at the time of the Consulate.” + +“What, did women write in the Emperor’s time?” asked Madame +Popinot-Chandier. + +“What of Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael?” cried the Public +Prosecutor, piqued on Dinah’s account by this remark. + +“To be sure!” + +“I beg you to go on,” said Madame de la Baudraye to Lousteau. + +Lousteau went on saying: “Page 218. + + 218 OLYMPIA + + and gave a shriek of despair when + he had vainly sought any trace of a + secret spring. It was impossible to + ignore the horrible truth. The door, + cleverly constructed to serve the + vengeful purposes of the Duchess, + could not be opened from within. + Rinaldo laid his cheek against the + wall in various spots; nowhere + could he feel the warmer air from + the passage. He had hoped he + might find a crack that would show + him where there was an opening in + the wall, but nothing, nothing! The + whole seemed to be of one block of + marble. + + Then he gave a hollow roar like + that of a hyaena---- + +“Well, we fancied that the cry of the hyaena was a recent invention +of our own!” said Lousteau, “and here it was already known to the +literature of the Empire. It is even introduced with a certain skill in +natural history, as we see in the word _hollow_.” + +“Make no more comments, monsieur,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + +“There, you see!” cried Bianchon. “Interest, the romantic demon, has you +by the collar, as he had me a while ago.” + +“Read on,” cried de Clagny, “I understand.” + +“What a coxcomb!” said the Presiding Judge in a whisper to his neighbor +the Sous-prefet. + +“He wants to please Madame de la Baudraye,” replied the new Sous-prefet. + +“Well, then I will read straight on,” said Lousteau solemnly. + +Everybody listened in dead silence. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + A deep groan answered Rinaldo’s + cry, but in his alarm he took it for + an echo, so weak and hollow was + the sound. It could not proceed + from any human breast. + + “Santa Maria!” said the voice. + + “If I stir from this spot I shall + never find it again,” thought Ri- + naldo, when he had recovered his + usual presence of mind. “If I knock, + I shall be discovered. What am I + to do?” + + “Who is here?” asked the voice. + + “Hallo!” cried the brigand; “do + the toads here talk?” + + “I am the Duke of Bracciano. + Whoever you may be, if you are not + a follower of the Duchess’, in the + name of all the saints, come towards + me.” + + 220 OLYMPIA + + “I should have to know where to + find you, Monsieur le Duc,” said Ri- + naldo, with the insolence of a man + who knows himself to be necessary. + + “I can see you, my friend, for my + eyes are accustomed to the darkness. + Listen: walk straight forward-- + good; now turn to the left--come + on--this way. There, we are close + to each other.” + + Rinaldo putting out his hands as + a precaution, touched some iron + bars. + + “I am being deceived,” cried the + bandit. + + “No, you are touching my cage. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 221 + + Sit down on a broken shaft of por- + phyry that is there.” + + “How can the Duke of Bracciano + be in a cage?” asked the brigand. + + “My friend, I have been here for + thirty months, standing up, unable + to sit down----But you, who are + you?” + + “I am Rinaldo, prince of the Cam- + pagna, the chief of four-and-twenty + brave men whom the law describes + as miscreants, whom all the ladies + admire, and whom judges hang in + obedience to an old habit.” + + “God be praised! I am saved. + An honest man would have been + afraid, whereas I am sure of coming + to an understanding with you,” + cried the Duke. “Oh, my worthy + + 222 OLYMPIA + + deliverer, you must be armed to the + teeth.” + + “_E verissimo_” (most true). + + “Do you happen to have--” + + “Yes, files, pincers--_Corpo di + Bacco_! I came to borrow the treas- + ures of the Bracciani on a long + loan.” + + “You will earn a handsome share + of them very legitimately, my good + Rinaldo, and we may possibly go + man hunting together--” + + “You surprise me, Eccellenza!” + + “Listen to me, Rinaldo. I will + say nothing of the craving for + vengeance that gnaws at my heart. + I have been here for thirty months + --you too are Italian--you will un- + OR ROMAN REVENGE 223 + + derstand me! Alas, my friend, my + fatigue and my horrible incarcera- + tion are nothing in comparison + with the rage that devours my soul. + The Duchess of Bracciano is still + one of the most beautiful women in + Rome. I loved her well enough to + be jealous--” + + “You, her husband!” + + “Yes, I was wrong, no doubt.” + + “It is not the correct thing, to be + sure,” said Rinaldo. + + “My jealousy was roused by the + Duchess’ conduct,” the Duke went + on. “The event proved me right. A + young Frenchman fell in love with + Olympia, and she loved him. I had + proofs of their reciprocal affection + +“Pray excuse me, ladies,” said Lousteau, “but I find it impossible to go +on without remarking to you how direct this Empire literature is, going +to the point without any details, a characteristic, as it seems to me, +of a primitive time. The literature of that period holds a place between +the summaries of chapters in _Telemaque_ and the categorical reports of +a public office. It had ideas, but refrained from expressing them, +it was so scornful! It was observant, but would not communicate its +observations to any one, it was so miserly! Nobody but Fouche ever +mentioned what he had observed. ‘At that time,’ to quote the words +of one of the most imbecile critics in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, +‘literature was content with a clear sketch and the simple outline of +all antique statues. It did not dance over its periods.’--I should think +not! It had no periods to dance over. It had no words to play with. You +were plainly told that Lubin loved Toinette; that Toinette did not love +Lubin; that Lubin killed Toinette and the police caught Lubin, who was +put in prison, tried at the assizes, and guillotined.--A strong sketch, +a clear outline! What a noble drama! Well, in these days the barbarians +make words sparkle.” + +“Like a hair in a frost,” said Monsieur de Clagny. + +“So those are the airs you affect?”[*] retorted Lousteau. + + [*] The rendering given above is only intended to link the + various speeches into coherence; it has no resemblance with + the French. In the original, “Font chatoyer les _mots_.” + + “Et quelquefois les _morts_,” dit Monsieur de Clagny. + + “Ah! Lousteau! vous vous donnez de ces R-la (airs-la).” + + Literally: “And sometimes the dead.”--“Ah, are those the airs you + assume?”--the play on the insertion of the letter R (_mots, + morts_) has no meaning in English. + +“What can he mean?” asked Madame de Clagny, puzzled by this vile pun. + +“I seem to be walking in the dark,” replied the Mayoress. + +“The jest would be lost in an explanation,” remarked Gatien. + +“Nowadays,” Lousteau went on, “a novelist draws characters, and instead +of a ‘simple outline,’ he unveils the human heart and gives you some +interest either in Lubin or in Toinette.” + +“For my part, I am alarmed at the progress of public knowledge in the +matter of literature,” said Bianchon. “Like the Russians, beaten by +Charles XII., who at least learned the art of war, the reader has +learned the art of writing. Formerly all that was expected of a romance +was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared for that, +not even the author; as to ideas--zero; as to local color--_non est_. +By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, and complete +information; he insists on the five literary senses--Invention, Style, +Thought, Learning, and Feeling. Then some criticism commenting on +everything. The critic, incapable of inventing anything but calumny, +pronounces every work that proceeds from a not perfect brain to be +deformed. Some magicians, as Walter Scott, for instance, having appeared +in the world, who combined all the five literary senses, such writers +as had but one--wit or learning, style or feeling--these cripples, these +acephalous, maimed or purblind creatures--in a literary sense--have +taken to shrieking that all is lost, and have preached a crusade against +men who were spoiling the business, or have denounced their works.” + +“The history of your last literary quarrel!” Dinah observed. + +“For pity’s sake, come back to the Duke of Bracciano,” cried Monsieur de +Clagny. + +To the despair of all the company, Lousteau went on with the made-up +sheet. + + 224 OLYMPIA + + I then wished to make sure of my + misfortune that I might be avenged + under the protection of Providence + and the Law. The Duchess guessed + my intentions. We were at war in + our purposes before we fought with + poison in our hands. We tried to + tempt each other to such confidence + as we could not feel, I to induce her + to drink a potion, she to get posses- + sion of me. She was a woman, and + she won the day; for women have a + snare more than we men. I fell into + it--I was happy; but I awoke next + day in this iron cage. All through + the day I bellowed with rage in the + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 225 + + darkness of this cellar, over which + is the Duchess’ bedroom. At night + an ingenious counterpoise acting as + a lift raised me through the floor, + and I saw the Duchess in her lover’s + arms. She threw me a piece of + bread, my daily pittance. + + “Thus have I lived for thirty + months! From this marble prison + my cries can reach no ear. There is + no chance for me. I will hope no + more. Indeed, the Duchess’ room is + at the furthest end of the palace, + and when I am carried up there + none can hear my voice. Each time + I see my wife she shows me the + + 226 OLYMPIA + + poison I had prepared for her and + her lover. I crave it for myself, but + she will not let me die; she gives + me bread, and I eat it. + + “I have done well to eat and live; + I had not reckoned on robbers!” + + “Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools + the honest men are asleep, we are + wide awake.” + + “Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall + be yours; we will share my treasure + like brothers; I would give you + everything--even to my Duchy----” + + “Eccellenza, procure from the + Pope an absolution _in articulo mor- + tis_. It would be of more use to me + in my walk of life.” + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 227 + + “What you will. Only file + through the bars of my cage and + lend me your dagger. We have but + little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my + teeth were but files!--I have tried + to eat through this iron.” + + “Eccellenza,” said Rinaldo, “I + have already filed through one bar.” + + “You are a god!” + + “Your wife was at the fete given + by the Princess Villaviciosa. She + brought home her little Frenchman; + she is drunk with love.--You have + plenty of time.” + + “Have you done?” + + “Yes.” + + 228 OLYMPIA + + “Your dagger?” said the Duke + eagerly to the brigand. + + “Here it is.” + + “Good. I hear the clatter of the + spring.” + + “Do not forget me!” cried the + robber, who knew what gratitude + was. + + “No more than my father,” cried + the Duke. + + “Good-bye!” said Rinaldo. “Lord! + How he flies up!” he added to him- + self as the Duke disappeared.--“No + more than his father! If that is + all he means to do for me.--And I + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 229 + + had sworn a vow never to injure a + woman!” + + But let us leave the robber for a + moment to his meditations and go + up, like the Duke, to the rooms in + the palace. + +“Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank,” said the +journalist. “Then there are two more blank pages before we come to the +word it is such a joy to write when one is unhappily so happy as to be a +novelist--_Conclusion_! + + CONCLUSION + + Never had the Duchess been more + lovely; she came from her bath + clothed like a goddess, and on seeing + + 234 OLYMPIA + + Adolphe voluptuously reclining on + piles of cushions-- + + “You are beautiful,” said she. + + “And so are you, Olympia!” + + “And you still love me?” + + “More and more,” said he. + + “Ah, none but a Frenchman + knows how to love!” cried the + Duchess. “Do you love me well to- + night?” + + “Yes.” + + “Then come!” + + And with an impulse of love and + hate--whether it was that Cardinal + Borborigano had reminded her of + her husband, or that she felt un- + wonted passion to display, she + pressed the springs and held out her + arms. + +“That is all,” said Lousteau, “for the foreman has torn off the rest in +wrapping up my proofs. But it is enough to show that the author was full +of promise.” + +“I cannot make head or tail of it,” said Gatien Boirouge, who was the +first to break the silence of the party from Sancerre. + +“Nor I,” replied Monsieur Gravier. + +“And yet it is a novel of the time of the Empire,” said Lousteau. + +“By the way in which the brigand is made to speak,” said Monsieur +Gravier, “it is evident that the author knew nothing of Italy. Banditti +do not allow themselves such graceful conceits.” + +Madame Gorju came up to Bianchon, seeing him pensive, and with a glance +towards her daughter Mademoiselle Euphemie Gorju, the owner of a fairly +good fortune--“What a rhodomontade!” said she. “The prescriptions you +write are worth more than all that rubbish.” + +The Mayoress had elaborately worked up this speech, which, in her +opinion, showed strong judgment. + +“Well, madame, we must be lenient, we have but twenty pages out of a +thousand,” said Bianchon, looking at Mademoiselle Gorju, whose figure +threatened terrible things after the birth of her first child. + +“Well, Monsieur de Clagny,” said Lousteau, “we were talking yesterday +of the forms of revenge invented by husbands. What do you say to those +invented by wives?” + +“I say,” replied the Public Prosecutor, “that the romance is not by +a Councillor of State, but by a woman. For extravagant inventions the +imagination of women far outdoes that of men; witness _Frankenstein_ by +Mrs. Shelley, _Leone Leoni_ by George Sand, the works of Anne Radcliffe, +and the _Nouveau Promethee_ (New Prometheus) of Camille de Maupin.” + +Dinah looked steadily at Monsieur de Clagny, making him feel, by an +expression that gave him a chill, that in spite of the illustrious +examples he had quoted, she regarded this as a reflection on _Paquita la +Sevillane_. + +“Pooh!” said little Baudraye, “the Duke of Bracciano, whom his wife puts +into a cage, and to whom she shows herself every night in the arms of +her lover, will kill her--and do you call that revenge?--Our laws and +our society are far more cruel.” + +“Why, little La Baudraye is talking!” said Monsieur Boirouge to his +wife. + +“Why, the woman is left to live on a small allowance, the world turns +its back on her, she has no more finery, and no respect paid her--the +two things which, in my opinion, are the sum-total of woman,” said the +little old man. + +“But she has happiness!” said Madame de la Baudraye sententiously. + +“No,” said the master of the house, lighting his candle to go to bed, +“for she has a lover.” + +“For a man who thinks of nothing but his vine-stocks and poles, he has +some spunk,” said Lousteau. + +“Well, he must have something!” replied Bianchon. + +Madame de la Baudraye, the only person who could hear Bianchon’s +remark, laughed so knowingly, and at the same time so bitterly, that the +physician could guess the mystery of this woman’s life; her premature +wrinkles had been puzzling him all day. + +But Dinah did not guess, on her part, the ominous prophecy contained for +her in her husband’s little speech, which her kind old Abbe Duret, if he +had been alive, would not have failed to elucidate. Little La Baudraye +had detected in Dinah’s eyes, when she glanced at the journalist +returning the ball of his jests, that swift and luminous flash of +tenderness which gilds the gleam of a woman’s eye when prudence is cast +to the winds, and she is fairly carried away. Dinah paid no more heed to +her husband’s hint to her to observe the proprieties than Lousteau had +done to Dinah’s significant warnings on the day of his arrival. + +Any other man than Bianchon would have been surprised at Lousteau’s +immediate success; but he was so much the doctor, that he was not even +nettled at Dinah’s marked preference for the newspaper-rather than the +prescription-writer! In fact, Dinah, herself famous, was naturally +more alive to wit than to fame. Love generally prefers contrast to +similitude. Everything was against the physician--his frankness, his +simplicity, and his profession. And this is why: Women who want +to love--and Dinah wanted to love as much as to be loved--have an +instinctive aversion for men who are devoted to an absorbing +occupation; in spite of superiority, they are all women in the matter +of encroachment. Lousteau, a poet and journalist, and a libertine with +a veneer of misanthropy, had that tinsel of the intellect, and led +the half-idle life that attracts women. The blunt good sense and keen +insight of the really great man weighed upon Dinah, who would not +confess her own smallness even to herself. She said in her mind--“The +doctor is perhaps the better man, but I do not like him.” + +Then, again, she reflected on his professional duties, wondering whether +a woman could ever be anything but a _subject_ to a medical man, who saw +so many subjects in the course of a day’s work. The first sentence of +the aphorism written by Bianchon in her album was a medical observation +striking so directly at woman, that Dinah could not fail to be hit by +it. And then Bianchon was leaving on the morrow; his practice required +his return. What woman, short of having Cupid’s mythological dart in her +heart, could decide in so short a time? + +These little things, which lead to such great catastrophes--having been +seen in a mass by Bianchon, he pronounced the verdict he had come to as +to Madame de la Baudraye in a few words to Lousteau, to the journalist’s +great amazement. + +While the two friends stood talking together, a storm was gathering in +the Sancerre circle, who could not in the least understand Lousteau’s +paraphrases and commentaries, and who vented it on their hostess. Far +from finding in his talk the romance which the Public Prosecutor, the +Sous-prefet, the Presiding Judge, and his deputy, Lebas, had discovered +there--to say nothing of Monsieur de la Baudraye and Dinah--the ladies +now gathered round the tea-table, took the matter as a practical joke, +and accused the Muse of Sancerre of having a finger in it. They had all +looked forward to a delightful evening, and had all strained in vain +every faculty of their mind. Nothing makes provincial folks so angry as +the notion of having been a laughing-stock for Paris folks. + +Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, “Do go and talk +to the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior.” + +Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah’s great superiority over the best +women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were graceful, +her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight--in short, she stood +out against this background of old faces, shy and ill-dressed girls, +like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of Paris faded from his +brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial surroundings; and while he +had too much imagination to remain unimpressed by the royal splendor +of this chateau, the beautiful carvings, and the antique beauty of the +rooms, he had also too much experience to overlook the value of the +personality which completed this gem of the Renaissance. So by the time +the visitors from Sancerre had taken their leave one by one--for +they had an hour’s drive before them--when no one remained in the +drawing-room but Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Lebas, Gatien, and +Monsieur Gravier, who were all to sleep at Anzy--the journalist had +already changed his mind about Dinah. His opinion had gone through the +evolution that Madame de la Baudraye had so audaciously prophesied at +their first meeting. + +“Ah, what things they will say about us on the drive home!” cried the +mistress of the house, as she returned to the drawing-room after seeing +the President and the Presidente to their carriage with Madame and +Mademoiselle Popinot-Chandier. + +The rest of the evening had its pleasant side. In the intimacy of a +small party each one brought to the conversation his contribution +of epigrams on the figure the visitors from Sancerre had cut during +Lousteau’s comments on the paper wrapped round the proofs. + +“My dear fellow,” said Bianchon to Lousteau as they went to bed--they +had an enormous room with two beds in it--“you will be the happy man of +this woman’s choice--_nee_ Piedefer!” + +“Do you think so?” + +“It is quite natural. You are supposed here to have had many mistresses +in Paris; and to a woman there is something indescribably inviting in a +man whom other women favor--something attractive and fascinating; is it +that she prides herself on being longer remembered than all the rest? +that she appeals to his experience, as a sick man will pay more to +a famous physician? or that she is flattered by the revival of a +world-worn heart?” + +“Vanity and the senses count for so much in love affairs,” said +Lousteau, “that there may be some truth in all those hypotheses. +However, if I remain, it will be in consequence of the certificate +of innocence, without ignorance, that you have given Dinah. She is +handsome, is she not?” + +“Love will make her beautiful,” said the doctor. “And, after all, she +will be a rich widow some day or other! And a child would secure her the +life-interest in the Master of La Baudraye’s fortune--” + +“Why, it is quite an act of virtue to make love to her,” said Lousteau, +rolling himself up in the bed-clothes, “and to-morrow, with your +help--yes, to-morrow, I--well, good-night.” + +On the following day, Madame de la Baudraye, to whom her husband had six +months since given a pair of horses, which he also used in the fields, +and an old carriage that rattled on the road, decided that she would +take Bianchon so far on his way as Cosne, where he would get into the +Lyons diligence as it passed through. She also took her mother and +Lousteau, but she intended to drop her mother at La Baudraye, to go on +to Cosne with the two Parisians, and return alone with Etienne. She +was elegantly dressed, as the journalist at once perceived--bronze kid +boots, gray silk stockings, a muslin dress, a green silk scarf with +shaded fringe at the ends, and a pretty black lace bonnet with flowers +in it. As to Lousteau, the wretch had assumed his war-paint--patent +leather boots, trousers of English kerseymere with pleats in front, +a very open waistcoat showing a particularly fine shirt and the black +brocade waterfall of his handsome cravat, and a very thin, very short +black riding-coat. + +Monsieur de Clagny and Monsieur Gravier looked at each other, feeling +rather silly as they beheld the two Parisians in the carriage, while +they, like two simpletons, were left standing at the foot of the steps. +Monsieur de la Baudraye, who stood at the top waving his little hand in +a little farewell to the doctor, could not forbear from smiling as he +heard Monsieur de Clagny say to Monsieur Gravier: + +“You should have escorted them on horseback.” + +At this juncture, Gatien, riding Monsieur de la Baudraye’s quiet little +mare, came out of the side road from the stables and joined the party in +the chaise. + +“Ah, good,” said the Receiver-General, “the boy has mounted guard.” + +“What a bore!” cried Dinah as she saw Gatien. “In thirteen years--for I +have been married nearly thirteen years--I have never had three hours’ +liberty. + +“Married, madame?” said the journalist with a smile. “You remind me of +a saying of Michaud’s--he was so witty! He was setting out for the Holy +Land, and his friends were remonstrating with him, urging his age, +and the perils of such an expedition. ‘And then,’ said one, ‘you are +married.’--‘Married!’ said he, ‘so little married.’” + +Even the rigid Madame Piedefer could not repress a smile. + +“I should not be surprised to see Monsieur de Clagny mounted on my pony +to complete the escort,” said Dinah. + +“Well, if the Public Prosecutor does not pursue us, you can get rid +of this little fellow at Sancerre. Bianchon must, of course, have left +something behind on his table--the notes for the first lecture of his +course--and you can ask Gatien to go back to Anzy to fetch it.” + +This simple little plot put Madame de la Baudraye into high spirits. +From the road between Anzy to Sancerre, a glorious landscape frequently +comes into view, of the noble stretches of the Loire, looking like +a lake, and it was got over very pleasantly, for Dinah was happy in +finding herself well understood. Love was discussed in theory, a subject +allowing lovers _in petto_ to take the measure, as it were, of each +other’s heart. The journalist took a tone of refined corruption to prove +that love obeys no law, that the character of the lovers gives infinite +variety to its incidents, that the circumstances of social life add to +the multiplicity of its manifestations, that in love all is possible and +true, and that any given woman, after resisting every temptation and the +seductions of the most passionate lover, may be carried off her feet in +the course of a few hours by a fancy, an internal whirlwind of which God +alone would ever know the secret! + +“Why,” said he, “is not that the key to all the adventures we have +talked over these three days past?” + +For these three days, indeed, Dinah’s lively imagination had been +full of the most insidious romances, and the conversation of the two +Parisians had affected the woman as the most mischievous reading might +have done. Lousteau watched the effects of this clever manoeuvre, to +seize the moment when his prey, whose readiness to be caught was hidden +under the abstraction caused by irresolution, should be quite dizzy. + +Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce was +duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his room +at Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; Madame +Piedefer went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went on to +Cosne alone with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the lady, +Bianchon riding backwards. The two friends talked affectionately +and with deep compassion for the fate of this choice nature so ill +understood and in the midst of such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon +served Lousteau well by making fun of the Public Prosecutor, of Monsieur +Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a tone of such genuine contempt in +his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye dared not take the part of her +adorers. + +“I perfectly understand the position you have maintained,” said the +doctor as they crossed the Loire. “You were inaccessible excepting to +that brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those +men, it is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early +stage of life, is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined +woman. To you, now, love is indispensable.” + +“Indispensable!” cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. “Do you +mean that you prescribe love to me?” + +“If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be +hideous,” replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone. + +“Monsieur!” said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened. + +“Forgive my friend,” said Lousteau, half jestingly. “He is always the +medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he +is quite disinterested--it is for your sake only that he speaks--as is +evident, since he is starting in an hour--” + +At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with +the arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye. +Gules, a pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three +cross-crosslets argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared +azure, chained or. The ironical motto, _Deo sic patet fides et +hominibus_, had been inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier the +satirical. + +“Let us get out; they will come and find us,” said the Baroness, +desiring her coachman to keep watch. + +Dinah took Bianchon’s arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the +Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The +physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau a +good turn. + +“You have been attracted by Etienne,” said Bianchon to Dinah; “he has +appealed strongly to your imagination; last night we were talking about +you.--He loves you. But he is frivolous, and difficult to hold; his +poverty compels him to live in Paris, while everything condemns you to +live at Sancerre.--Take a lofty view of life. Make Lousteau your friend; +do not ask too much of him; he will come three times a year to spend a +few days with you, and you will owe to him your beauty, happiness, and +fortune. Monsieur de la Baudraye may live to be a hundred; but he might +die in a few days if he should leave off the flannel winding-sheet in +which he swathes himself. So run no risks, be prudent both of you.--Say +not a work--I have read your heart.” + +Madame de la Baudraye was defenceless under this serried attack, and in +the presence of a man who spoke at once as a doctor, a confessor, and +confidential friend. + +“Indeed!” said she. “Can you suppose that any woman would care to +compete with a journalist’s mistresses?--Monsieur Lousteau strikes me as +agreeable and witty; but he is _blase_, etc., etc.----” + +Dinah had turned back, and was obliged to check the flow of words by +which she tried to disguise her intentions; for Etienne, who seemed to +be studying progress in Cosne, was coming to meet them. + +“Believe me,” said Bianchon, “what he wants is to be truly loved; and if +he alters his course of life, it will be to the benefit of his talent.” + +Dinah’s coachman hurried up breathlessly to say that the diligence had +come in, and they walked on quickly, Madame de la Baudraye between the +two men. + +“Good-bye, my children!” said Bianchon, before they got into the town, +“you have my blessing!” + +He released Madame de la Baudraye’s hand from his arm, and allowed +Lousteau to draw it into his, with a tender look, as he pressed it +to his heart. What a difference to Dinah! Etienne’s arm thrilled +her deeply. Bianchon’s had not stirred her in the least. She and the +journalist exchanged one of those glowing looks that are more than an +avowal. + +“Only provincial women wear muslin gowns in these days,” thought +Lousteau to himself, “the only stuff which shows every crease. This +woman, who has chosen me for her lover, will make a fuss over her frock! +If she had but put on a foulard skirt, I should be happy.--What is the +meaning of these difficulties----” + +While Lousteau was wondering whether Dinah had put on a muslin gown on +purpose to protect herself by an insuperable obstacle, Bianchon, with +the help of the coachman, was seeing his luggage piled on the diligence. +Finally, he came to take leave of Dinah, who was excessively friendly +with him. + +“Go home, Madame la Baronne, leave me here--Gatien will be coming,” he +added in an undertone. “It is getting late,” said he aloud. “Good-bye!” + +“Good-bye--great man!” cried Lousteau, shaking hands with Bianchon. + +When the journalist and Madame de la Baudraye, side by side in the +rickety old chaise, had recrossed the Loire, they both were unready to +speak. In these circumstances, the first words that break the silence +are full of terrible meaning. + +“Do you know how much I love you?” said the journalist point blank. + +Victory might gratify Lousteau, but defeat could cause him no grief. +This indifference was the secret of his audacity. He took Madame de la +Baudraye’s hand as he spoke these decisive words, and pressed it in both +his; but Dinah gently released it. + +“Yes, I am as good as an actress or a _grisette_,” she said in a voice +that trembled, though she spoke lightly. “But can you suppose that a +woman who, in spite of her absurdities, has some intelligence, will have +reserved the best treasures of her heart for a man who will regard her +merely as a transient pleasure?--I am not surprised to hear from your +lips the words which so many men have said to me--but----” + +The coachman turned round. + +“Here comes Monsieur Gatien,” said he. + +“I love you, I will have you, you shall be mine, for I have never felt +for any woman the passion I have for you!” said Lousteau in her ear. + +“In spite of my will, perhaps?” said she, with a smile. + +“At least you must seem to have been assaulted to save my honor,” said +the Parisian, to whom the fatal immaculateness of clean muslin suggested +a ridiculous notion. + +Before Gatien had reached the end of the bridge, the outrageous +journalist had crumpled up Madame de la Baudraye’s muslin dress to such +an effect that she was absolutely not presentable. + +“Oh, monsieur!” she exclaimed in dignified reproof. + +“You defied me,” said the Parisian. + +But Gatien now rode up with the vehemence of a duped lover. To regain a +little of Madame de la Baudraye’s esteem, Lousteau did his best to hide +the tumbled dress from Gatien’s eyes by leaning out of the chaise to +speak to him from Dinah’s side. + +“Go back to our inn,” said he, “there is still time; the diligence does +not start for half an hour. The papers are on the table of the room +Bianchon was in; he wants them particularly, for he will be lost without +his notes for the lecture.” + +“Pray go, Gatien,” said Dinah to her young adorer, with an imperious +glance. And the boy thus commanded turned his horse and was off with a +loose rein. + +“Go quickly to La Baudraye,” cried Lousteau to the coachman. “Madame is +not well--Your mother only will know the secret of my trick,” added he, +taking his seat by Dinah. + +“You call such infamous conduct a trick?” cried Madame de la Baudraye, +swallowing down a few tears that dried up with the fire of outraged +pride. + +She leaned back in the corner of the chaise, crossed her arms, and gazed +out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at Lousteau. +The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked till they +reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to be seen +by any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and burst into +tears. + +“If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go,” + said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet. + +It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her +daughter: + +“What is the matter? What has happened?” + +“Give your daughter another dress at once,” said the audacious Parisian +in the prim old lady’s ear. + +Hearing the mad gallop of Gatien’s horse, Madame de la Baudraye fled to +her bedroom, followed by her mother. + +“There are no papers at the inn,” said Gatien to Lousteau, who went out +to meet him. + +“And you found none at the Chateau d’Anzy either?” replied Lousteau. + +“You have been making a fool of me,” said Gatien, in a cold, set voice. + +“Quite so,” replied Lousteau. “Madame de la Baudraye was greatly annoyed +by your choosing to follow her without being invited. Believe me, to +bore a woman is a bad way of courting her. Dinah has played you a trick, +and you have given her a laugh; it is more than any of you has done in +these thirteen years past. You owe that success to Bianchon, for your +cousin was the author of the Farce of the ‘Manuscript.’--Will the horse +get over it?” asked Lousteau with a laugh, while Gatien was wondering +whether to be angry or not. + +“The horse!” said Gatien. + +At this moment Madame de la Baudraye came in, dressed in a velvet gown, +and accompanied by her mother, who shot angry flashes at Lousteau. It +would have been too rash for Dinah to seem cold or severe to Lousteau +in Gatien’s presence; and Etienne, taking advantage of this, offered his +arm to the supposed Lucretia; however, she declined it. + +“Do you mean to cast off a man who has vowed to live for you?” said +he, walking close beside her. “I shall stop at Sancerre and go home +to-morrow.” + +“Are you coming, mamma?” said Madame de la Baudraye to Madame Piedefer, +thus avoiding a reply to the direct challenge by which Lousteau was +forcing her to a decision. + +Lousteau handed the mother into the chaise, he helped Madame de la +Baudraye by gently taking her arm, and he and Gatien took the front +seat, leaving the saddle horse at La Baudraye. + +“You have changed your gown,” said Gatien, blunderingly, to Dinah. + +“Madame la Baronne was chilled by the cool air off the river,” replied +Lousteau. “Bianchon advised her to put on a warm dress.” + +Dinah turned as red as a poppy, and Madame Piedefer assumed a stern +expression. + +“Poor Bianchon! he is on the road to Paris. A noble soul!” said +Lousteau. + +“Oh, yes!” cried Madame de la Baudraye, “he is high-minded, full of +delicate feeling----” + +“We were in such good spirits when we set out,” said Lousteau; “now +you are overdone, and you speak to me so bitterly--why? Are you not +accustomed to being told how handsome and how clever you are? For my +part, I say boldly, before Gatien, I give up Paris; I mean to stay at +Sancerre and swell the number of your _cavalieri serventi_. I feel so +young again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and all +its wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.--Yes, my +life seems in a way purified.” + +Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at +last there was a moment when this serpent’s rhodomontade was really so +inspired by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas of +which the meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response +in Dinah’s heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to +crown Lousteau’s joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he +made Madame de la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so +seriously compromise her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is +finally committed. + +As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in +the middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set +off the facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying: + +“When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they +do not love, they cannot forgive anything--not even our virtues.--Do you +forgive me,” he added in Madame de la Baudraye’s ear, and pressing her +arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help smiling. + +All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in the +most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus +giving vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy +abstraction of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness. + +After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother left +the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then remarked to +Monsieur de Clagny: + +“Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a muslin +gown came home in a velvet?” + +“As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a +brass nail and was torn all the way down,” replied Lousteau. + +“Oh!” exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such +different explanations. + +The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it +as a hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left Dinah’s +three adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then Gatien +was cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur Gravier and +Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the return from Cosne +Lousteau had been alone with Dinah, and even more so on hearing the +two versions explaining the lady’s change of dress. And the three +discomfited gentlemen were in a very awkward position for the rest of +the evening. + +Next day each, on various business, was obliged to leave Anzy; Dinah +remained with her mother, Lousteau, and her husband. The annoyance +vented by the three victims gave rise to an organized rebellion in +Sancerre. The surrender of the Muse of Le Berry, of the Nivernais, +and of Morvan was the cause of a perfect hue and cry of slander, evil +report, and various guesses in which the story of the muslin gown held a +prominent place. No dress Dinah had ever worn had been so much commented +on, or was half as interesting to the girls, who could not conceive what +the connection might be, that made the married women laugh, between love +and a muslin gown. + +The Presidente Boirouge, furious at her son’s discomfiture, forgot +the praise she had lavished on the poem of _Paquita_, and fulminated +terrific condemnation on the woman who could publish such a disgraceful +work. + +“The wretched woman commits every crime she writes about,” said she. +“Perhaps she will come to the same end as her heroine!” + +Dinah’s fate among the good folks of Sancerre was like that of Marechal +Soult in the opposition newspapers; as long as he is minister he lost +the battle of Toulouse; whenever he is out of the Government he won it! +While she was virtuous, Dinah was a match for Camille de Maupin, a +rival of the most famous women; but as soon as she was happy, she was an +_unhappy creature_. + +Monsieur de Clagny was her valiant champion; he went several times to +the Chateau d’Anzy to acquire the right to contradict the rumors current +as to the woman he still faithfully adored, even in her fall; and he +maintained that she and Lousteau were engaged together on some great +work. But the lawyer was laughed to scorn. + +The month of October was lovely; autumn is the finest season in the +valley of the Loire; but in 1836 it was unusually glorious. Nature +seemed to aid and abet Dinah, who, as Bianchon had predicted, gradually +developed a heart-felt passion. In one month she was an altered +woman. She was surprised to find in herself so many inert and dormant +qualities, hitherto in abeyance. To her Lousteau seemed an angel; for +heart-love, the crowning need of a great nature, had made a new woman +of her. Dinah was alive! She had found an outlet for her powers, she +saw undreamed-of vistas in the future--in short, she was happy, happy +without alarms or hindrances. The vast castle, the gardens, the park, +the forest, favored love. + +Lousteau found in Madame de la Baudraye an artlessness, nay, if you +will, an innocence of mind which made her very original; there was much +more of the unexpected and winning in her than in a girl. Lousteau was +quite alive to a form of flattery which in most women is assumed, but +which in Dinah was genuine; she really learned from him the ways of +love; he really was the first to reign in her heart. And, indeed, he +took the trouble to be exceedingly amiable. + +Men, like women, have a stock in hand of recitatives, of _cantabile_, +of _nocturnes_, airs and refrains--shall we say of recipes, although we +speak of love--which each one believes to be exclusively his own. Men +who have reached Lousteau’s age try to distribute the “movements” + of this repertoire through the whole opera of a passion. Lousteau, +regarding this adventure with Dinah as a mere temporary connection, was +eager to stamp himself on her memory in indelible lines; and during that +beautiful October he was prodigal of his most entrancing melodies and +most elaborate _barcarolles_. In fact, he exhausted every resource of +the stage management of love, to use an expression borrowed from the +theatrical dictionary, and admirably descriptive of his manoeuvres. + +“If that woman ever forgets me!” he would sometimes say to himself as +they returned together from a long walk in the woods, “I will owe her no +grudge--she will have found something better.” + +When two beings have sung together all the duets of that enchanting +score, and still love each other, it may be said that they love truly. + +Lousteau, however, had not time to repeat himself, for he was to leave +Anzy in the early days of November. His paper required his presence +in Paris. Before breakfast, on the day before he was to leave, the +journalist and Dinah saw the master of the house come in with an artist +from Nevers, who restored carvings of all kinds. + +“What are you going to do?” asked Lousteau. “What is to be done to the +chateau?” + +“This is what I am going to do,” said the little man, leading Lousteau, +the local artist, and Dinah out on the terrace. + +He pointed out, on the front of the building, a shield supported by two +sirens, not unlike that which may be seen on the arcade, now closed, +through which there used to be a passage from the Quai des Tuileries to +the courtyard of the old Louvre, and over which the words may still be +seen, “_Bibliotheque du Cabinet du Roi_.” This shield bore the arms of +the noble House of Uxelles, namely, Or and gules party per fess, with +two lions or, dexter and sinister as supporters. Above, a knight’s +helm, mantled of the tincture of the shield, and surmounted by a ducal +coronet. Motto, _Cy paroist!_ A proud and sonorous device. + +“I want to put my own coat of arms in the place of that of the Uxelles; +and as they are repeated six times on the two fronts and the two wings, +it is not a trifling affair.” + +“Your arms, so new, and since 1830!” exclaimed Dinah. + +“Have I not created an entail?” + +“I could understand it if you had children,” said the journalist. + +“Oh!” said the old man, “Madame de la Baudraye is still young; there is +no time lost.” + +This allusion made Lousteau smile; he did not understand Monsieur de la +Baudraye. + +“There, Didine!” said he in Dinah’s ear, “what a waste of remorse!” + +Dinah begged him to give her one day more, and the lovers parted after +the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a +piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn +pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her! + +Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau, in +the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and little +La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in her +drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and Gravier, +she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn: + +“I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been +loved for my own sake.” + +And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his +feelings, on the end of his base passions, and so forth. Of Dinah’s +three worshipers, Monsieur de Clagny only said to her: “I love you, come +what may”--and Dinah accepted him as her confidant, lavished on him all +the marks of friendship which women can devise for the Gurths who are +ready thus to wear the collar of gilded slavery. + + + +In Paris once more, Lousteau had, in a few weeks, lost the impression of +the happy time he had spent at the Chateau d’Anzy. This is why: Lousteau +lived by his pen. + +In this century, especially since the triumph of the _bourgeoisie_--the +commonplace, money-saving citizen--who takes good care not to imitate +Francis I. or Louis XIV.--to live by the pen is a form of penal +servitude to which a galley-slave would prefer death. To live by the pen +means to create--to create to-day, and to-morrow, and incessantly--or +to seem to create; and the imitation costs as dear as the reality. So, +besides his daily contribution to a newspaper, which was like the +stone of Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing down on to the +feather of his pen, Etienne worked for three or four literary magazines. +Still, do not be alarmed; he put no artistic conscientiousness into his +work. This man of Sancerre had a facility, a carelessness, if you call +it so, which ranked him with those writers who are mere scriveners, +literary hacks. In Paris, in our day, hack-work cuts a man off from +every pretension to a literary position. When he can do no more, or no +longer cares for advancement, the man who can write becomes a journalist +and a hack. + +The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in +every walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career, +publishers and authors, all make much of these writers of the ready +pen. Lousteau, a thorough man about town, lived at scarcely any expense +beyond paying his rent. He had boxes at all the theatres; the sale of +the books he reviewed or left unreviewed paid for his gloves; and he +would say to those authors who published at their own expense, “I have +your book always in my hands!” He took toll from vanity in the form of +drawings or pictures. Every day had its engagements to dinner, every +night its theatre, every morning was filled up with callers, visits, +and lounging. His serial in the paper, two novels a year for weekly +magazines, and his miscellaneous articles were the tax he paid for this +easy-going life. And yet, to reach this position, Etienne had struggled +for ten years. + +At the present time, known to the literary world, liked for the good or +the mischief he did with equally facile good humor, he let himself float +with the stream, never caring for the future. He ruled a little set +of newcomers, he had friendships--or rather, habits of fifteen years’ +standing, and men with whom he supped, and dined, and indulged his wit. +He earned from seven to eight hundred francs a month, a sum which +he found quite insufficient for the prodigality peculiar to the +impecunious. Indeed, Lousteau found himself now just as hard up as when, +on first appearing in Paris, he had said to himself, “If I had but five +hundred francs a month, I should be rich!” + +The cause of this phenomenon was as follows: Lousteau lived in the Rue +des Martyrs in pretty ground-floor rooms with a garden, and splendidly +furnished. When he settled there in 1833 he had come to an agreement +with an upholsterer that kept his pocket money low for a long time. +These rooms were let for twelve hundred francs. The months of January, +April, July, and October were, as he phrased it, his indigent months. +The rent and the porter’s account cleaned him out. Lousteau took no +fewer hackney cabs, spend a hundred francs in breakfasts all the same, +smoked thirty francs’ worth of cigars, and could never refuse the +mistress of a day a dinner or a new dress. He thus dipped so deeply into +the fluctuating earnings of the following months, that he could no more +find a hundred francs on his chimney-piece now, when he was making seven +or eight hundred francs a month, than he could in 1822, when he was +hardly getting two hundred. + +Tired, sometimes, by the incessant vicissitudes of a literary life, and +as much bored by amusement as a courtesan, Lousteau would get out of the +tideway and sit on the bank, and say to one and another of his intimate +allies--Nathan or Bixiou, as they sat smoking in his scrap of garden, +looking out on an evergreen lawn as big as a dinner-table: + +“What will be the end of us? White hairs are giving us respectful +hints!” + +“Lord! we shall marry when we choose to give as much thought to the +matter as we give to a drama or a novel,” said Nathan. + +“And Florine?” retorted Bixiou. + +“Oh, we all have a Florine,” said Etienne, flinging away the end of his +cigar and thinking of Madame Schontz. + +Madame Schontz was a pretty enough woman to put a very high price on the +interest on her beauty, while reserving absolute ownership for Lousteau, +the man of her heart. Like all those women who get the name in Paris of +_Lorettes_, from the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette, round about +which they dwell, she lived in the Rue Flechier, a stone’s throw from +Lousteau. This lady took a pride and delight in teasing her friends by +boasting of having a Wit for her lover. + +These details of Lousteau’s life and fortune are indispensable, for this +penury and this bohemian existence of a man to whom Parisian luxury +had become a necessity, were fated to have a cruel influence on Dinah’s +life. Those to whom the bohemia of Paris is familiar will now understand +how it was that, by the end of a fortnight, the journalist, up to his +ears in the literary environment, could laugh about his Baroness with +his friends and even with Madame Schontz. To such readers as regard such +things as utterly mean, it is almost useless to make excuses which they +will not accept. + +“What did you do at Sancerre?” asked Bixiou the first time he met +Lousteau. + +“I did good service to three worthy provincials--a Receiver-General +of Taxes, a little cousin of his, and a Public Prosecutor, who for ten +years had been dancing round and round one of the hundred ‘Tenth Muses’ +who adorn the Departments,” said he. “But they had no more dared +to touch her than we touch a decorated cream at dessert till some +strong-minded person has made a hole in it.” + +“Poor boy!” said Bixiou. “I said you had gone to Sancerre to turn +Pegasus out to grass.” + +“Your joke is as stupid as my Muse is handsome,” retorted Lousteau. “Ask +Bianchon, my dear fellow.” + +“A Muse and a Poet! A homoeopathic cure then!” said Bixiou. + +On the tenth day Lousteau received a letter with the Sancerre post-mark. + +“Good! very good!” said Lousteau. + +“‘Beloved friend, idol of my heart and soul----’ twenty pages of it! all +at one sitting, and dated midnight! She writes when she finds herself +alone. Poor woman! Ah, ha! And a postscript-- + +“‘I dare not ask you to write to me as I write, every day; still, I +hope to have a few lines from my dear one every week, to relieve my +mind.’--What a pity to burn it all! it is really well written,” said +Lousteau to himself, as he threw the ten sheets of paper into the fire +after having read them. “That woman was born to reel off copy!” + +Lousteau was not much afraid of Madame Schontz, who really loved him for +himself, but he had supplanted a friend in the heart of a Marquise. This +Marquise, a lady nowise coy, sometimes dropped in unexpectedly at his +rooms in the evening, arriving veiled in a hackney coach; and she, as a +literary woman, allowed herself to hunt through all his drawers. + +A week later, Lousteau, who hardly remembered Dinah, was startled by +another budget from Sancerre--eight leaves, sixteen pages! He heard a +woman’s step; he thought it announced a search from the Marquise, and +tossed these rapturous and entrancing proofs of affections into the +fire--unread! + +“A woman’s letter!” exclaimed Madame Schontz, as she came in. “The +paper, the wax, are scented--” + +“Here you are, sir,” said a porter from the coach office, setting down +two huge hampers in the ante-room. “Carriage paid. Please to sign my +book.” + +“Carriage paid!” cried Madame Schontz. “It must have come from +Sancerre.” + +“Yes, madame,” said the porter. + +“Your Tenth Muse is a remarkably intelligent woman,” said the courtesan, +opening one of the hampers, while Lousteau was writing his name. “I like +a Muse who understands housekeeping, and who can make game pies as well +as blots. And, oh! what beautiful flowers!” she went on, opening the +second hamper. “Why, you could get none finer in Paris!--And here, and +here! A hare, partridges, half a roebuck!--We will ask your friends +and have a famous dinner, for Athalie has a special talent for dressing +venison.” + +Lousteau wrote to Dinah; but instead of writing from the heart, he +was clever. The letter was all the more insidious; it was like one of +Mirabeau’s letters to Sophie. The style of a true lover is transparent. +It is a clear stream which allows the bottom of the heart to be seen +between two banks, bright with the trifles of existence, and covered +with the flowers of the soul that blossom afresh every day, full of +intoxicating beauty--but only for two beings. As soon as a love letter +has any charm for a third reader, it is beyond doubt the product of the +head, not of the heart. But a woman will always be beguiled; she always +believes herself to be the determining cause of this flow of wit. + +By the end of December Lousteau had ceased to read Dinah’s letters; they +lay in a heap in a drawer of his chest that was never locked, under his +shirts, which they scented. + +Then one of those chances came to Lousteau which such bohemians ought +to clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz, +who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her one +morning on business. + +“My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying.” + +“I can marry very often, happily, my dear.” + +“When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I +need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got +into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is an +honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it dark. +He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he will +give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he has +three other children; but--and it is not a bad idea--he will add a +hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the +damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des Lombards----” + +“Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?” + +“Dead.” + +“What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue +des Lombards.” + +“But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the +seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy +caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless, +the man entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business--A +judgment from heaven, I call it!” + +“Where did you hear the story?” + +“From Malaga; the notary is her _milord_.” + +“What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder, +Florentine’s first friend?” + +“Just so. Malaga, whose ‘fancy’ is a little tomtit of a fiddler of +eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. Besides, +she has no cause to do him an ill turn.--Indeed, Monsieur Cardot wants a +man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will be proud to have a +famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel yourself all over.--You will +pay your debts, you will have twelve thousand francs a year, and be a +father without any trouble on your part; what do you say to that to the +good? And, after all, you only marry a very consolable widow. There is +an income of fifty thousand francs in the house, and the value of the +connection, so in due time you may look forward to not less than fifteen +thousand francs a year more for your share, and you will enter a family +holding a fine political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old +Camusot, the depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre.” + +“Yes,” said Lousteau, “old Camusot married little Daddy Cardot’s eldest +daughter, and they had high times together!” + +“Well!” Madame Schontz went on, “and Madame Cardot, the notary’s wife, +was a Chiffreville--manufacturers of chemical products, the aristocracy +of these days! Potash, I tell you! Still, this is the unpleasant side of +the matter. You will have a terrible mother-in-law, a woman capable of +killing her daughter if she knew--! This Cardot woman is a bigot; she +has lips like two faded narrow pink ribbons. + +“A man of the town like you would never pass muster with that woman, +who, in her well-meaning way, will spy out your bachelor life and know +every fact of the past. However, Cardot says he means to exert his +paternal authority. The poor man will be obliged to do the civil to his +wife for some days; a woman made of wood, my dear fellow; Malaga, who +has seen her, calls her a penitential scrubber. Cardot is a man of +forty; he will be mayor of his district, and perhaps be elected deputy. +He is prepared to give in lieu of the hundred thousand francs a nice +little house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, with a forecourt and a garden, +which cost him no more than sixty thousand at the time of the July +overthrow; he would sell, and that would be an opportunity for you to +go and come at the house, to see the daughter, and be civil to the +mother.--And it would give you a look of property in Madame Cardot’s +eyes. You would be housed like a prince in that little mansion. Then, +by Camusot’s interest, you may get an appointment as librarian to some +public office where there is no library.--Well, and then if you invest +your money in backing up a newspaper, you will get ten thousand francs +a year on it, you can earn six, your librarianship will bring you in +four.--Can you do better for yourself? + +“If you were to marry a lamb without spot, it might be a light woman by +the end of two years. What is the damage?--an anticipated dividend! It +is quite the fashion. + +“Take my word for it, you can do no better than come to dine with Malaga +to-morrow. You will meet your father-in-law; he will know the secret has +been let out--by Malaga, with whom he cannot be angry--and then you are +master of the situation. As to your wife!--Why her misconduct leaves you +as free as a bachelor----” + +“Your language is as blunt as a cannon ball.” + +“I love you for your own sake, that is all--and I can reason. Well! why +do you stand there like a wax image of Abd-el-Kader? There is nothing to +meditate over. Marriage is heads or tails--well, you have tossed heads +up.” + +“You shall have my reply to-morrow,” said Lousteau. + +“I would sooner have it at once; Malaga will write you up to-night.” + +“Well, then, yes.” + +Lousteau spent the evening in writing a long letter to the Marquise, +giving her the reasons which compelled him to marry; his constant +poverty, the torpor of his imagination, his white hairs, his moral and +physical exhaustion--in short, four pages of arguments.--“As to Dinah, +I will send her a circular announcing the marriage,” said he to himself. +“As Bixiou says, I have not my match for knowing how to dock the tail of +a passion.” + +Lousteau, who at first had been on some ceremony with himself, by next +day had come to the point of dreading lest the marriage should not come +off. He was pressingly civil to the notary. + +“I knew monsieur your father,” said he, “at Florentine’s, so I may well +know you here, at Mademoiselle Turquet’s. Like father, like son. A very +good fellow and a philosopher, was little Daddy Cardot--excuse me, +we always called him so. At that time, Florine, Florentine, Tullia, +Coralie, and Mariette were the five fingers of your hand, so to +speak--it is fifteen years ago. My follies, as you may suppose, are a +thing of the past.--In those days it was pleasure that ran away with me; +now I am ambitious; but, in our day, to get on at all a man must be +free from debt, have a good income, a wife, and a family. If I pay taxes +enough to qualify me, I may be a deputy yet, like any other man.” + +Maitre Cardot appreciated this profession of faith. Lousteau had laid +himself out to please and the notary liked him, feeling himself more +at his ease, as may be easily imagined, with a man who had known his +father’s secrets than he would have been with another. On the following +day Lousteau was introduced to the Cardot family as the purchaser of the +house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, and three days later he dined there. + +Cardot lived in an old house near the Place du Chatelet. In this house +everything was “good.” Economy covered every scrap of gilding with green +gauze; all the furniture wore holland covers. Though it was impossible +to feel a shade of uneasiness as to the wealth of the inhabitants, at +the end of half an hour no one could suppress a yawn. Boredom perched +in every nook; the curtains hung dolefully; the dining-room was like +Harpagon’s. Even if Lousteau had not known all about Malaga, he could +have guessed that the notary’s real life was spent elsewhere. + +The journalist saw a tall, fair girl with blue eyes, at once shy and +languishing. The elder brother took a fancy to him; he was the fourth +clerk in the office, but strongly attracted by the snares of literary +fame, though destined to succeed his father. The younger sister was +twelve years old. Lousteau, assuming a little Jesuitical air, played +the Monarchist and Churchman for the benefit of the mother, was quite +smooth, deliberate, and complimentary. + +Within three weeks of their introduction, at his fourth dinner there, +Felicie Cardot, who had been watching Lousteau out of the corner of her +eye, carried him a cup of coffee where he stood in the window recess, +and said in a low voice, with tears in her eyes: + +“I will devote my whole life, monsieur, to thanking you for your +sacrifice in favor of a poor girl----” + +Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her +accent, her attitude. “She would make a good man happy,” thought he, +pressing her hand in reply. + +Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before +him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was +most delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the wily +notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no tie +that could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie. + +“You may perhaps think I go rather too far,” said the bigot to the +journalist; “but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one +must think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to +be rid of their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges +forward his daughter’s marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only +point on which we differ.--Though with a man like you, monsieur, a +literary man whose youth has been preserved by hard work from the moral +shipwreck now so prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you would be +the first to laugh at me if I looked for a husband for my daughter with +my eyes shut. I know you are not an innocent, and I should be very sorry +for my Felicie if you were” (this was said in a whisper); “but if you +had any _liaison_--For instance, monsieur, you have heard of Madame +Roguin, the wife of a notary who, unhappily for our faculty, was sadly +notorious. Madame Roguin has, ever since 1820, been kept by a banker--” + +“Yes, du Tillet,” replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he +recollected how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du +Tillet. + +“Yes.--Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at the +thought that Madame du Tillet’s fate might be your child’s? At her age, +and _nee_ de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and more. +Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who had such +a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, you take her +and leave her.--There is no danger, in my opinion, from women of that +stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one down and another +to come on!--But a woman who has sinned against duty must hug her sin, +her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can ever have an excuse. +At least, that is the view I hold of a respectable woman’s fall, and +that is what makes it so terrible----” + +Instead of looking for the meaning of these speeches, Etienne made a +jest of them at Malaga’s, whither he went with his father-in-law elect; +for the notary and the journalist were the best of friends. + +Lousteau had already given himself the airs of a person of importance; +his life at last was to have a purpose; he was in luck’s way, and in +a few days would be the owner of a delightful little house in the Rue +Saint-Lazare; he was going to be married to a charming woman, he would +have about twenty thousand francs a year, and could give the reins to +his ambition; the young lady loved him, and he would be connected with +several respectable families. In short, he was in full sail on the blue +waters of hope. + + + +Madame Cardot had expressed a wish to see the prints for _Gil Blas_, one +of the illustrated volumes which the French publishers were at that time +bringing out, and Lousteau had taken the first numbers for the lady’s +inspection. The lawyer’s wife had a scheme of her own, she had borrowed +the book merely to return it; she wanted an excuse for walking in on her +future son-in-law quite unexpectedly. The sight of those bachelor rooms, +which her husband had described as charming, would tell her more, she +thought, as to Lousteau’s habits of life than any information she could +pick up. Her sister-in-law, Madame Camusot, who knew nothing of the +fateful secret, was terrified at such a marriage for her niece. Monsieur +Camusot, a Councillor of the Supreme Court, old Camusot’s son by his +first marriage, had given his step-mother, who was Cardot’s sister, a +far from flattering account of the journalist. + +Lousteau, clever as he was, did not think it strange that the wife of +a rich notary should wish to inspect a volume costing fifteen francs +before deciding on the purchase. Your clever man never condescends to +study the middle-class, who escape his ken by this want of attention; +and while he is making game of them, they are at leisure to throttle +him. + +So one day early in January 1837, Madame Cardot and her daughter took +a hackney coach and went to the Rue des Martyrs to return the parts +of _Gil Blas_ to Felicie’s betrothed, both delighted at the thought of +seeing Lousteau’s rooms. These domiciliary visitations are not unusual +in the old citizen class. The porter at the front gate was not in; but +his daughter, on being informed by the worthy lady that she was in the +presence of Monsieur Lousteau’s future mother-in-law and bride, handed +over the key of the apartment--all the more readily because Madame +Cardot placed a gold piece in her hand. + +It was by this time about noon, the hour at which the journalist would +return from breakfasting at the Cafe Anglais. As he crossed the open +space between the Church of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the Rue des +Martyrs, Lousteau happened to look at a hired coach that was toiling up +the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, and he fancied it was a dream when he +saw the face of Dinah! He stood frozen to the spot when, on reaching his +house, he beheld his Didine at the coach door. + +“What has brought you here?” he inquired.--He adopted the familiar _tu_. +The formality of _vous_ was out of the question to a woman he must get +rid of. + +“Why, my love,” cried she, “have you not read my letters?” + +“Certainly I have,” said Lousteau. + +“Well, then?” + +“Well, then?” + +“You are a father,” replied the country lady. + +“Faugh!” cried he, disregarding the barbarity of such an exclamation. +“Well,” thought he to himself, “she must be prepared for the blow.” + +He signed to the coachman to wait, gave his hand to Madame de la +Baudraye, and left the man with the chaise full of trunks, vowing that +he would send away _illico_, as he said to himself, the woman and her +luggage, back to the place she had come from. + +“Monsieur, monsieur,” called out little Pamela. + +The child had some sense, and felt that three women must not be allowed +to meet in a bachelor’s rooms. + +“Well, well!” said Lousteau, dragging Dinah along. + +Pamela concluded that the lady must be some relation; however, she +added: + +“The key is in the door; your mother-in-law is there.” + +In his agitation, while Madame de la Baudraye was pouring out a flood of +words, Etienne understood the child to say, “Mother is there,” the only +circumstance that suggested itself as possible, and he went in. + +Felicie and her mother, who were by this time in the bed-room, crept +into a corner on seeing Etienne enter with a woman. + +“At last, Etienne, my dearest, I am yours for life!” cried Dinah, +throwing her arms round his neck, and clasping him closely, while he +took the key from the outside of the door. “Life is a perpetual anguish +to me in that house at Anzy. I could bear it no longer; and when +the time came for me to proclaim my happiness--well, I had not the +courage.--Here I am, your wife with your child! And you have not written +to me; you have left me two months without a line.” + +“But, Dinah, you place me in the greatest difficulty--” + +“Do you love me?” + +“How can I do otherwise than love you?--But would you not have been +wiser to remain at Sancerre?--I am in the most abject poverty, and I +fear to drag you into it--” + +“Your misery will be paradise to me. I only ask to live here, never to +go out--” + +“Good God! that is all very fine in words, but--” Dinah sat down and +melted into tears as she heard this speech, roughly spoken. + +Lousteau could not resist this distress. He clasped the Baroness in his +arms and kissed her. + +“Do not cry, Didine!” said he; and, as he uttered the words, he saw in +the mirror the figure of Madame Cardot, looking at him from the further +end of the rooms. “Come, Didine, go with Pamela and get your trunks +unloaded,” said he in her ear. “Go; do not cry; we will be happy!” + +He led her to the door, and then came back to divert the storm. + +“Monsieur,” said Madame Cardot, “I congratulate myself on having +resolved to see for myself the home of the man who was to have been my +son-in-law. If my daughter were to die of it, she should never be the +wife of such a man as you. You must devote yourself to making your +Didine happy, monsieur.” + +And the virtuous lady walked out, followed by Felicie, who was crying +too, for she had become accustomed to Etienne. The dreadful Madame +Cardot got into her hackney-coach again, staring insolently at the +hapless Dinah, in whose heart the sting still rankled of “that is all +very fine in words”; but who, nevertheless, like every woman in love, +believed in the murmured, “Do not cry, Didine!” + +Lousteau, who was not lacking in the sort of decision which grows out of +the vicissitudes of a storm-tossed life, reflected thus: + +“Didine is high-minded; when once she knows of my proposed marriage, +she will sacrifice herself for my future prospects, and I know how I can +manage to let her know.” Delighted at having hit on a trick of which the +success seemed certain, he danced round to a familiar tune: + +“_Larifla, fla, fla!_--And Didine once out of the way,” he went +on, talking to himself, “I will treat Maman Cardot to a call and a +novelette: I have seduced her Felicie at Saint-Eustache--Felicie, guilty +through passion, bears in her bosom the pledge of our affection--and +_larifla, fla, fla!_ the father _Ergo_, the notary, his wife, and his +daughter are caught, nabbed----” + +And, to her great amazement, Dinah discovered Etienne performing a +prohibited dance. + +“Your arrival and our happiness have turned my head with joy,” said he, +to explain this crazy mood. + +“And I had fancied you had ceased to love me!” exclaimed the poor woman, +dropping the handbag she was carrying, and weeping with joy as she sank +into a chair. + +“Make yourself at home, my darling,” said Etienne, laughing in his +sleeve; “I must write two lines to excuse myself from a bachelor party, +for I mean to devote myself to you. Give your orders; you are at home.” + +Etienne wrote to Bixiou: + + “MY DEAR BOY,--My Baroness has dropped into my arms, and will be + fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar + stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase. I rely + on you to come here, like one of Moliere’s old men, to scold your + nephew Leandre for his folly, while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in + my bedroom; you must work on her feelings; strike hard, be brutal, + offensive. I, you understand, shall express my blind devotion, and + shall seem to be deaf, so that you may have to shout at me. + + “Come, if you can, at seven o’clock. + + “Yours, + + “E. LOUSTEAU.” + + +Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who, in all +Paris, most delighted in such practical jokes--in the slang of artists, +a _“charge”_--Lousteau made a great show of settling the Muse of +Sancerre in his apartment. He busied himself in arranging the luggage +she had brought, and informed her as to the persons and ways of the +house with such perfect good faith, and a glee which overflowed in kind +words and caresses, that Dinah believed herself the best-beloved woman +in the world. These rooms, where everything bore the stamp of fashion, +pleased her far better than her old chateau. + +Pamela Migeon, the intelligent damsel of fourteen, was questioned by +the journalist as to whether she would like to be waiting-maid to the +imposing Baroness. Pamela, perfectly enchanted, entered on her duties at +once, by going off to order dinner from a restaurant on the boulevard. +Dinah was able to judge of the extreme poverty that lay hidden under the +purely superficial elegance of this bachelor home when she found none +of the necessaries of life. As she took possession of the closets and +drawers, she indulged in the fondest dreams; she would alter Etienne’s +habits, she would make him home-keeping, she would fill his cup of +domestic happiness. + +The novelty of the position hid its disastrous side; Dinah regarded +reciprocated love as the absolution of her sin; she did not yet look +beyond the walls of these rooms. Pamela, whose wits were as sharp as +those of a _lorette_, went straight to Madame Schontz to beg the loan of +some plate, telling her what had happened to Lousteau. After making +the child welcome to all she had, Madame Schontz went off to her friend +Malaga, that Cardot might be warned of the catastrophe that had befallen +his future son-in-law. + +The journalist, not in the least uneasy about the crisis as affecting +his marriage, was more and more charming to the lady from the provinces. +The dinner was the occasion of the delightful child’s-play of lovers set +at liberty, and happy to be free. When they had had their coffee, and +Lousteau was sitting in front of the fire, Dinah on his knee, Pamela ran +in with a scared face. + +“Here is Monsieur Bixiou!” said she. + +“Go into the bedroom,” said the journalist to his mistress; “I will soon +get rid of him. He is one of my most intimate friends, and I shall have +to explain to him my new start in life.” + +“Oh, ho! dinner for two, and a blue velvet bonnet!” cried Bixiou. “I +am off.--Ah! that is what comes of marrying--one must go through some +partings. How rich one feels when one begins to move one’s sticks, heh?” + +“Who talks of marrying?” said Lousteau. + +“What! are you not going to be married, then?” cried Bixiou. + +“No!” + +“No? My word, what next? Are you making a fool of yourself, if you +please?--What!--You, who, by the mercy of Heaven, have come across +twenty thousand francs a year, and a house, and a wife connected with +all the first families of the better middle class--a wife, in short, out +of the Rue des Lombards--” + +“That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!” + +“Be off? I have a friend’s privileges, and I shall take every advantage +of them.--What has come over you?” + +“What has ‘come over’ me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother, and +we are going to live together happily to the end of our days.--You would +have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now.” + +“Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this +woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place +she came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs +in Paris? She will wound all your vanities. Have you forgotten what a +provincial is? She will bore you as much when she is happy as when she +is sad; she will have as great a talent for escaping grace as a Parisian +has in inventing it. + +“Lousteau, listen to me. That a passion should lead you to forget to +some extent the times in which we live, is conceivable; but I, my dear +fellow, have not the mythological bandage over my eyes.--Well, then +consider your position. For fifteen years you have been tossing in the +literary world; you are no longer young, you have padded the hoof till +your soles are worn through!--Yes, my boy, you turn your socks under +like a street urchin to hide the holes, so that the legs cover the +heels! In short, the joke is too stale. Your excuses are more familiar +than a patent medicine--” + +“I may say to you, like the Regent to Cardinal Dubois, ‘That is kicking +enough!’” said Lousteau, laughing. + +“Oh, venerable young man,” replied Bixiou, “the iron has touched the +sore to the quick. You are worn out, aren’t you? Well, then; in the +heyday of youth, under the pressure of penury, what have you done? You +are not in the front rank, and you have not a thousand francs of your +own. That is the sum-total of the situation. Can you, in the decline of +your powers, support a family by your pen, when your wife, if she is an +honest woman, will not have at her command the resources of the woman +of the streets, who can extract her thousand-franc note from the depths +where milord keeps it safe? You are rushing into the lowest depths of +the social theatre. + +“And this is only the financial side. Now, consider the political +position. We are struggling in an essentially _bourgeois_ age, in which +honor, virtue, high-mindedness, talent, learning--genius, in short, is +summed up in paying your way, owing nobody anything, and conducting +your affairs with judgment. Be steady, be respectable, have a wife, and +children, pay your rent and taxes, serve in the National Guard, and be +on the same pattern as all the men of your company--then you may indulge +in the loftiest pretensions, rise to the Ministry!--and you have the +best chances possible, since you are no Montmorency. You were preparing +to fulfil all the conditions insisted on for turning out a political +personage, you are capable of every mean trick that is necessary in +office, even of pretending to be commonplace--you would have acted it to +the life. And just for a woman, who will leave you in the lurch--the +end of every eternal passion--in three, five, or seven years--after +exhausting your last physical and intellectual powers, you turn your +back on the sacred Hearth, on the Rue des Lombards, on a political +career, on thirty thousand francs per annum, on respectability and +respect!--Ought that to be the end of a man who has done with illusions? + +“If you had kept a pot boiling for some actress who gave you your fun +for it--well; that is what you may call a cabinet matter. But to live +with another man’s wife? It is a draft at sight on disaster; it is +bolting the bitter pills of vice with none of the gilding.” + +“That will do. One word answers it all; I love Madame de la Baudraye, +and prefer her to every fortune, to every position the world can +offer.--I may have been carried away by a gust of ambition, but +everything must give way to the joy of being a father.” + +“Ah, ha! you have a fancy for paternity? But, wretched man, we are the +fathers only of our legitimate children. What is a brat that does not +bear your name? The last chapter of the romance.--Your child will be +taken from you! We have seen that story in twenty plays these ten years +past. + +“Society, my dear boy, will drop upon you sooner or later. Read +_Adolphe_ once more.--Dear me! I fancy I can see you when you and +she are used to each other;--I see you dejected, hang-dog, bereft of +position and fortune, and fighting like the shareholders of a bogus +company when they are tricked by a director!--Your director is +happiness.” + +“Say no more, Bixiou.” + +“But I have only just begun,” said Bixiou. “Listen, my dear boy. +Marriage has been out of favor for some time past; but, apart from the +advantages it offers in being the only recognized way of certifying +heredity, as it affords a good-looking young man, though penniless, the +opportunity of making his fortune in two months, it survives in spite +of disadvantages. And there is not the man living who would not repent, +sooner or later, of having, by his own fault, lost the chance of +marrying thirty thousand francs a year.” + +“You won’t understand me,” cried Lousteau, in a voice of exasperation. +“Go away--she is there----” + +“I beg your pardon; why did you not tell me sooner?--You are of age, and +so is she,” he added in a lower voice, but loud enough to be heard by +Dinah. “She will make you repent bitterly of your happiness!----” + +“If it is a folly, I intend to commit it.--Good-bye.” + +“A man gone overboard!” cried Bixiou. + +“Devil take those friends who think they have a right to preach to you,” + said Lousteau, opening the door of the bedroom, where he found Madame de +la Baudraye sunk in an armchair and dabbing her eyes with an embroidered +handkerchief. + +“Oh, why did I come here?” sobbed she. “Good Heavens, why +indeed?--Etienne, I am not so provincial as you think me.--You are +making a fool of me.” + +“Darling angel,” replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting her +from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, “we +have both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While I was +loving you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married here, but I +refused.--Oh! I was extremely distressed----” + +“I am going,” cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to +the door. + +“You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune so +lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired creature, +with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself with a +stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the score of +bigotry--” + +Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau’s ear: + +“Madame Schontz!” + +Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out. + +“It is all over with you, my dear,” said the woman. “Cardot does not +mean to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady +made a scene--something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude, +the head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk’s deputy for two years, +agrees to take the girl with the business.” + +“Mean wretch!” exclaimed Lousteau. “What! in two hours he has made up +his mind?” + +“Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead +man’s little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from +overhearing a few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary +relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The +clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend mass! +A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and Cardot +will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense financial +concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been waked from a +sweet dream.” + +“I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--” + +“And a mistress,” said Madame Schontz, smiling. “Here you are, more than +married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to get +home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes nor +your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I will be +faithful to him and cut Malaga’s acquaintance. + +“Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse,” she went +on. “Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?” she +exclaimed. “You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she +only needs Lady Dudley’s turban!” + +“What is it now?” asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the rustle +of a silk dress and the murmur of a woman’s voice. + +“It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.--I have just +had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off my +marriage----” + +“So that was the party which you gave up?” + +“Yes.” + +“Oh, I will be more than your wife--I am your slave, I give you my +life,” said the poor deluded creature. “I did not believe I could love +you more than I did!--Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your whole +life?” + +“Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine.” + +“Swear to me,” said she, “that only death shall divide us.” + +Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating +prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment where +he had taken the lorette’s farewell kiss, and that of the drawing-room, +where the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a succession of shocks, +Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye’s precarious health, his +fine fortune, and Bianchon’s remark about Dinah, “She will be a rich +widow!” and he said to himself, “I would a hundred times rather have +Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than Felicie!” + +His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play +the farce of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean +self-interestedness and his false vehemence of passion had disastrous +results. Madame de la Baudraye, when she set out from Sancerre for +Paris, had intended to live in rooms of her own quite near to Lousteau; +but the proofs of devotion her lover had given her by giving up such +brilliant prospects, and yet more the perfect happiness of the first +days of their illicit union, kept her from mentioning such a parting. +The second day was to be--and indeed was--a high festival, in which such +a suggestion proposed to “her angel” would have been a discordant note. + +Lousteau, on his part, anxious to make Dinah feel herself dependent +on him, kept her in a state of constant intoxication by incessant +amusement. These circumstances hindered two persons so clever as these +were from avoiding the slough into which they fell--that of a life in +common, a piece of folly of which, unfortunately, many instances may be +seen in Paris in literary circles. + +And thus was the whole programme played out of a provincial amour, so +satirically described by Lousteau to Madame de la Baudraye--a fact which +neither he nor she remembered. Passion is born a deaf-mute. + + + +This winter in Paris was to Madame de la Baudraye all that the month of +October had been at Sancerre. Etienne, to initiate “his wife” into Paris +life, varied this honeymoon by evenings at the play, where Dinah would +only go to the stage box. At first Madame de la Baudraye preserved some +remnants of her countrified modesty; she was afraid of being seen; she +hid her happiness. She would say: + +“Monsieur de Clagny or Monsieur Gravier may have followed me to Paris.” + She was afraid on Sancerre even in Paris. + +Lousteau, who was excessively vain, educated Dinah, took her to the best +dressmakers, and pointed out to her the most fashionable women, advising +her to take them as models for imitation. And Madame de la Baudraye’s +provincial appearance was soon a thing of the past. Lousteau, when his +friends met him, was congratulated on his conquest. + +All through that season Etienne wrote little and got very much into +debt, though Dinah, who was proud, bought all her clothes out of her +savings, and fancied she had not been the smallest expense to her +beloved. By the end of three months Dinah was acclimatized; she had +reveled in the music at the Italian opera; she knew the pieces “on” at +all theatres, and the actors and jests of the day; she had become +inured to this life of perpetual excitement, this rapid torrent in which +everything is forgotten. She no longer craned her neck or stood with her +nose in the air, like an image of Amazement, at the constant surprises +that Paris has for a stranger. She had learned to breathe that witty, +vitalizing, teeming atmosphere where clever people feel themselves in +their element, and which they can no longer bear to quit. + +One morning, as she read the papers, for Lousteau had them all, two +lines carried her back to Sancerre and the past, two lines that seemed +not unfamiliar--as follows: + +“Monsieur le Baron de Clagny, Public Prosecutor to the Criminal Court +at Sancerre, has been appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor to the Supreme +Court in Paris.” + +“How well that worthy lawyer loves you!” said the journalist, smiling. + +“Poor man!” said she. “What did I tell you? He is following me.” + +Etienne and Dinah were just then at the most dazzling and fervid stage +of a passion when each is perfectly accustomed to the other, and yet +love has not lost its freshness and relish. The lovers know each other +well, but all is not yet understood; they have not been a second time +to the same secret haunts of the soul; they have not studied each other +till they know, as they must later, the very thought, word, and gesture +that responds to every event, the greatest and the smallest. Enchantment +reigns; there are no collisions, no differences of opinion, no cold +looks. Their two souls are always on the same side. And Dinah would +speak the magical words, emphasized by the yet more magical expression +and looks which every woman can use under such circumstances. + +“When you cease to love me, kill me.--If you should cease to love me, I +believe I could kill you first and myself after.” + +To this sweet exaggeration, Lousteau would reply: + +“All I ask of God is to see you as constant as I shall be. It is you who +will desert me!” + +“My love is supreme.” + +“Supreme,” echoed Lousteau. “Come, now? Suppose I am dragged away to +a bachelor party, and find there one of my former mistresses, and she +makes fun of me; I, out of vanity, behave as if I were free, and do not +come in here till next morning--would you still love me?” + +“A woman is only sure of being loved when she is preferred; and if you +came back to me, if--Oh! you make me understand what the happiness would +be of forgiving the man I adore.” + +“Well, then, I am truly loved for the first time in my life!” cried +Lousteau. + +“At last you understand that!” said she. + +Lousteau proposed that they should each write a letter setting forth the +reasons which would compel them to end by suicide. Once in possession +of such a document, each might kill the other without danger in case of +infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither wrote the letter. + +The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would +deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice +everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la +Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke. + +Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the power +derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which both +lovers put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her modesty, +her masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to ambitious souls, +which formed the basis of her character. Lousteau involuntarily held +her in high esteem. As a Parisian, Dinah was superior to the most +fascinating courtesan; she could be as amusing and as witty as Malaga; +but her extensive information, her habits of mind, her vast reading +enabled her to generalize her wit, while the Florines and the Schontzes +exerted theirs over a very narrow circle. + +“There is in Dinah,” said Etienne to Bixiou, “the stuff to make both a +Ninon and a De Stael.” + +“A woman who combines an encyclopaedia and a seraglio is very +dangerous,” replied the mocking spirit. + +When the expected infant became a visible fact, Madame de la Baudraye +would be seen no more; but before shutting herself up, never to go out +unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first +performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the +minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as constituting +“all Paris.” Dinah, who had never been at a first night’s performance, +was very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time arrived at such +a pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in her misconduct; +she exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the world; she was +determined to look it in the face without turning her head aside. + +She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate +looks and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave +her an expression of refinement, and her black hair in smooth bands +enhanced her pallor. Her brilliant gray eyes looked finer than ever, +set in dark rings. But a terribly distressing incident awaited her. By a +very simple chance, the box given to the journalist, on the first tier, +was next to that which Anna Grossetete had taken. The two intimate +friends did not even bow; neither chose to acknowledge the other. At +the end of the first act Lousteau left his seat, abandoning Dinah to the +fire of eyes, the glare of opera-glasses; while the Baronne de Fontaine +and the Comtesse Marie de Vandenesse, who accompanied her, received some +of the most distinguished men of fashion. + +Dinah’s solitude was all the more distressing because she had not +the art of putting a good face to the matter by examining the company +through her opera-glass. In vain did she try to assume a dignified and +thoughtful attitude, and fix her eyes on vacancy; she was overpoweringly +conscious of being the object of general attention; she could not +disguise her discomfort, and lapsed a little into provincialism, +displaying her handkerchief and making involuntary movements of which +she had almost cured herself. At last, between the second and third +acts, a man had himself admitted to Dinah’s box! It was Monsieur de +Clagny. + +“I am happy to see you, to tell you how much I am pleased by your +promotion,” said she. + +“Oh! Madame, for whom should I come to Paris----?” + +“What!” said she. “Have I anything to do with your appointment?” + +“Everything,” said he. “Since you left Sancerre, it had become +intolerable to me; I was dying--” + +“Your sincere friendship does me good,” replied she, holding out her +hand. “I am in a position to make much of my true friends; I now know +their value.--I feared I must have lost your esteem, but the proof you +have given me by this visit touches me more deeply than your ten years’ +attachment.” + +“You are an object of curiosity to the whole house,” said the lawyer. +“Oh! my dear, is this a part for you to be playing? Could you not be +happy and yet remain honored?--I have just heard that you are Monsieur +Etienne Lousteau’s mistress, that you live together as man and +wife!--You have broken for ever with society; even if you should some +day marry your lover, the time will come when you will feel the want +of the respectability you now despise. Ought you not to be in a home of +your own with your mother, who loves you well enough to protect you with +her aegis?--Appearances at least would be saved.” + +“I am in the wrong to have come here,” replied she, “that is all.--I +have bid farewell to all the advantages which the world confers on women +who know how to reconcile happiness and the proprieties. My abnegation +is so complete that I only wish I could clear a vast space about me to +make a desert of my love, full of God, of _him_, and of myself.--We +have made too many sacrifices on both sides not to be united--united by +disgrace if you will, but indissolubly one. I am happy; so happy that I +can love freely, my friend, and confide in you more than of old--for I +need a friend.” + +The lawyer was magnanimous, nay, truly great. To this declaration, in +which Dinah’s soul thrilled, he replied in heartrending tones: + +“I wanted to go to see you, to be sure that you were loved: I shall now +be easy and no longer alarmed as to your future.--But will your lover +appreciate the magnitude of your sacrifice; is there any gratitude in +his affection?” + +“Come to the Rue des Martyrs and you will see!” + +“Yes, I will call,” he replied. “I have already passed your door without +daring to inquire for you.--You do not yet know the literary world. +There are glorious exceptions, no doubt; but these men of letters drag +terrible evils in their train; among these I account publicity as one +of the greatest, for it blights everything. A woman may commit herself +with--” + +“With a Public Prosecutor?” the Baronne put in with a smile. + +“Well!--and then after a rupture there is still something to fall back +on; the world has known nothing. But with a more or less famous man the +public is thoroughly informed. Why look there! What an example you have +close at hand! You are sitting back to back with the Comtesse Marie +Vandenesse, who was within an ace of committing the utmost folly for a +more celebrated man than Lousteau--for Nathan--and now they do not even +recognize each other. After going to the very edge of the precipice, the +Countess was saved, no one knows how; she neither left her husband nor +her house; but as a famous man was scorned, she was the talk of the town +for a whole winter. But her husband’s great fortune, great name, +and high position, but for the admirable management of that true +statesman--whose conduct to his wife, they say, was perfect--she would +have been ruined; in her position no other woman would have remained +respected as she is.” + +“And how was Sancerre when you came away?” asked Madame de la Baudraye, +to change the subject. + +“Monsieur de la Baudraye announced that your expected confinement after +so many years made it necessary that it should take place in Paris, +and that he had insisted on your going to be attended by the first +physicians,” replied Monsieur de Clagny, guessing what it was that Dinah +most wanted to know. “And so, in spite of the commotion to which your +departure gave rise, you still have your legal status.” + +“Why!” she exclaimed, “can Monsieur de la Baudraye still hope----” + +“Your husband, madame, did what he always does--made a little +calculation.” + +The lawyer left the box when the journalist returned, bowing with +dignity. + +“You are a greater hit than the piece,” said Etienne to Dinah. + +This brief triumph brought greater happiness to the poor woman than she +had ever known in the whole of her provincial existence; still, as they +left the theatre she was very grave. + +“What ails you, my Didine?” asked Lousteau. + +“I am wondering how a woman succeeds in conquering the world?” + +“There are two ways. One is by being Madame de Stael, the other is by +having two hundred thousand francs a year.” + +“Society,” said she, “asserts its hold on us by appealing to our vanity, +our love of appearances.--Pooh! We will be philosophers!” + + + +That evening was the last gleam of the delusive well-being in which +Madame de la Baudraye had lived since coming to Paris. Three days later +she observed a cloud on Lousteau’s brow as he walked round the little +garden-plot smoking a cigar. This woman, who had acquired from her +husband the habit and the pleasure of never owing anybody a sou, was +informed that the household was penniless, with two quarters’ rent +owing, and on the eve, in fact, of an execution. + +This reality of Paris life pierced Dinah’s heart like a thorn; she +repented of having tempted Etienne into the extravagances of love. It is +so difficult to pass from pleasure to work, that happiness has wrecked +more poems than sorrows ever helped to flow in sparkling jets. +Dinah, happy in seeing Etienne taking his ease, smoking a cigar after +breakfast, his face beaming as he basked like a lizard in the sunshine, +could not summon up courage enough to make herself the bum-bailiff of a +magazine. + +It struck her that through the worthy Migeon, Pamela’s father, she might +pawn the few jewels she possessed, on which her “uncle,” for she was +learning to talk the slang of the town, advanced her nine hundred +francs. She kept three hundred for her baby-clothes and the expenses +of her illness, and joyfully presented the sum due to Lousteau, who was +ploughing, furrow by furrow, or, if you will, line by line, through a +novel for a periodical. + +“Dearest heart,” said she, “finish your novel without making any +sacrifice to necessity; polish the style, work up the subject.--I have +played the fine lady too long; I am going to be the housewife and attend +to business.” + +For the last four months Etienne had been taking Dinah to the Cafe Riche +to dine every day, a corner being always kept for them. The countrywoman +was in dismay at being told that five hundred francs were owing for the +last fortnight. + +“What! we have been drinking wine at six francs a bottle! A sole +_Normande_ costs five francs!--and twenty centimes for a roll?” she +exclaimed, as she looked through the bill Lousteau showed her. + +“Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at a +restaurant or by a cook,” said Lousteau. + +“Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a prince.” + +Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two servants’ +rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her mother, begging +her to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand francs. She received +two trunks full of linen, some plate, and two thousand francs, sent by +the hand of an honest and pious cook recommended her by her mother. + +Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur +de Clagny came to call at four o’clock, after coming out of court, and +found Madame de la Baudraye making a little cap. The sight of this proud +and ambitious woman, whose mind was so accomplished, and who had queened +it so well at the Chateau d’Anzy, now condescending to household cares +and sewing for the coming infant, moved the poor lawyer, who had just +left the bench. And as he saw the pricks on one of the taper fingers he +had so often kissed, he understood that Madame de la Baudraye was not +merely playing at this maternal task. + +In the course of this first interview the magistrate saw to the depths +of Dinah’s soul. This perspicacity in a man so much in love was a +superhuman effort. He saw that Didine meant to be the journalist’s +guardian spirit and lead him into a nobler road; she had seen that +the difficulties of his practical life were due to some moral defects. +Between two beings united by love--in one so genuine, and in the other +so well feigned--more than one confidence had been exchanged in the +course of four months. Notwithstanding the care with which Etienne +wrapped up his true self, a word now and then had not failed to +enlighten Dinah as to the previous life of a man whose talents were +so hampered by poverty, so perverted by bad examples, so thwarted by +obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. “He will be a greater man if +life is easy to him,” said she to herself. And she strove to make him +happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by dint of such economy +and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus Dinah became +a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of her soul +towards the heights. + +“His happiness will be my absolution.” + +These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the lawyer, +accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of his +triumph, flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first performance, +had very plainly shown the lawyer what Lousteau’s purpose was. To +Etienne, Madame de la Baudraye was, to use his own phrase, “a fine +feather in his cap.” Far from preferring the joys of a shy and +mysterious passion, of hiding such exquisite happiness from the eyes of +the world, he found a vulgar satisfaction in displaying the first woman +of respectability who had ever honored him with her affection. + +The Judge, however, was for some time deceived by the attentions which +any man would lavish on any woman in Madame de la Baudraye’s situation, +and Lousteau made them doubly charming by the ingratiating ways +characteristic of men whose manners are naturally attractive. There are, +in fact, men who have something of the monkey in them by nature, and to +whom the assumption of the most engaging forms of sentiment is so easy +that the actor is not detected; and Lousteau’s natural gifts had been +fully developed on the stage on which he had hitherto figured. + +Between the months of April and July, when Dinah expected her +confinement, she discovered why it was that Lousteau had not triumphed +over poverty; he was idle and had no power of will. The brain, to be +sure, must obey its own laws; it recognizes neither the exigencies of +life nor the voice of honor; a man cannot write a great book because a +woman is dying, or to pay a discreditable debt, or to bring up a family; +at the same time, there is no great talent without a strong will. +These twin forces are requisite for the erection of the vast edifice of +personal glory. A distinguished genius keeps his brain in a productive +condition, just as the knights of old kept their weapons always ready +for battle. They conquer indolence, they deny themselves enervating +pleasures, or indulge only to a fixed limit proportioned to their +powers. This explains the life of such men as Walter Scott, Cuvier, +Voltaire, Newton, Buffon, Bayle, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Lopez de Vega, +Calderon, Boccacio, Aretino, Aristotle--in short, every man who +delighted, governed, or led his contemporaries. + +A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his +talent. Though Talent has its germ in a cultivated gift, Will means +the incessant conquest of his instincts, of proclivities subdued and +mortified, and difficulties of every kind heroically defeated. The abuse +of smoking encouraged Lousteau’s indolence. Tobacco, which can lull +grief, inevitably numbs a man’s energy. + +Then, while the cigar deteriorated him physically, criticism as a +profession morally stultified a man so easily tempted by pleasure. +Criticism is as fatal to the critic as seeing two sides to a question is +to a pleader. In these professions the judgment is undermined, the mind +loses its lucid rectitude. The writer lives by taking sides. Thus, +we may distinguish two kinds of criticism, as in painting we may +distinguish art from practical dexterity. Criticism, after the pattern +of most contemporary leader-writers, is the expression of judgments +formed at random in a more or less witty way, just as an advocate pleads +in court on the most contradictory briefs. The newspaper critic always +finds a subject to work up in the book he is discussing. Done after this +fashion, the business is well adapted to indolent brains, to men devoid +of the sublime faculty of imagination, or, possessed of it indeed, but +lacking courage to cultivate it. Every play, every book comes to their +pen as a subject, making no demand on their imagination, and of which +they simply write a report, seriously or in irony, according to the +mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever it may be, French wit can +always justify it, being admirably ready to defend either side of any +case. And conscience counts for so little, these _bravi_ have so little +value for their own words, that they will loudly praise in the greenroom +the work they tear to tatters in print. + +Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to +another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of the +new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old. Madame +de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on the +Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on the same +occasion. She admired the maxim he preached: + +“We are the attorneys of public opinion.” + +The other kind of criticism is a science. It necessitates a thorough +comprehension of each work, a lucid insight into the tendencies of the +age, the adoption of a system, and faith in fixed principles--that is to +say, a scheme of jurisprudence, a summing-up, and a verdict. The critic +is then a magistrate of ideas, the censor of his time; he fulfils a +sacred function; while in the former case he is but an acrobat who turns +somersaults for a living so long as he had a leg to stand on. Between +Claude Vignon and Lousteau lay the gulf that divides mere dexterity from +art. + +Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by +no means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She +saw Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most discreditable +compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a picture from +which sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him by saying, “He +is a poet!” so anxious was she to justify him in her own eyes. When she +thus guessed the secret of many a writer’s existence, she also guessed +that Lousteau’s pen could never be trusted to as a resource. + +Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had thought +of for her own sake. Through her mother she tried to negotiate with her +husband for an allowance, but without Etienne’s knowledge; for, as she +thought, it would be an offence to his delicate feelings, which must be +considered. A few days before the end of July, Dinah crumbled up in her +wrath the letter from her mother containing Monsieur de la Baudraye’s +ultimatum: + +“Madame de la Baudraye cannot need an allowance in Paris when she can +live in perfect luxury at her Chateau of Anzy: she may return.” + +Lousteau picked up this letter and read it. + +“I will avenge you!” said he to Dinah in the ominous tone that delights +a woman when her antipathies are flattered. + +Five days after this Bianchon and Duriau, the famous ladies’ doctor, +were engaged at Lousteau’s; for he, ever since little La Baudraye’s +reply, had been making a great display of his joy and importance over +the advent of the infant. Monsieur de Clagny and Madame Piedefer--sent +for in all haste were to be the godparents, for the cautious magistrate +feared lest Lousteau should commit some compromising blunder. Madame de +la Baudraye gave birth to a boy that might have filled a queen with envy +who hoped for an heir-presumptive. + +Bianchon and Monsieur de Clagny went off to register the child at the +Mayor’s office as the son of Monsieur and Madame de la Baudraye, unknown +to Etienne, who, on his part, rushed off to a printer’s to have this +circular set up: + + _“Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son._ + + _“Monsieur Etienne Lousteau has the pleasure of informing you of + the fact._ + + _“The mother and child are doing well.”_ + +Lousteau had already sent out sixty of these announcements when Monsieur +de Clagny, on coming to make inquiries, happened to see the list of +persons at Sancerre to whom Lousteau proposed to send this amazing +notice, written below the names of the persons in Paris to whom it was +already gone. The lawyer confiscated the list and the remainder of the +circulars, showed them to Madame Piedefer, begging her on no account to +allow Lousteau to carry on this atrocious jest, and jumped into a +cab. The devoted friend then ordered from the same printer another +announcement in the following words: + + _“Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son._ + + _“Monsieur le Baron de la Baudraye has the honor of informing you + of the fact._ + + _“Mother and child are doing well.”_ + +After seeing the proofs destroyed, the form of type, everything that +could bear witness to the existence of the former document, Monsieur de +Clagny set to work to intercept those that had been sent; in many cases +he changed them at the porter’s lodge, he got back thirty into his +own hands, and at last, after three days of hard work, only one of the +original notes existed, that, namely sent to Nathan. + +Five times had the lawyer called on the great man without finding +him. By the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an +interview, the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some +persons regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab to +which every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others +said they had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the +La Baudraye family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of +journalists; in short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a +curiosity. Florine, with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about, +stamped in the post as paid, and addressed in Etienne’s hand. So, as +soon as the judge spoke of the announcement, Nathan began to smile. + +“Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?” cried he. “That +autograph is one of those weapons which an athlete in the circus cannot +afford to lay down. That note proves that Lousteau has no heart, no +taste, no dignity; that he knows nothing of the world nor of public +morality; that he insults himself when he can find no one else to +insult.--None but the son of a provincial citizen imported from Sancerre +to become a poet, but who is only the _bravo_ of some contemptible +magazine, could ever have sent out such a circular letter, as you must +allow, monsieur. This is a document indispensable to the archives of +the age.--To-day Lousteau flatters me, to-morrow he may ask for my +head.--Excuse me, I forgot you were a judge. + +“I have gone through a passion for a lady, a great lady, as far superior +to Madame de la Baudraye as your fine feeling, monsieur, is superior to +Lousteau’s vulgar retaliation; but I would have died rather than utter +her name. A few months of her airs and graces cost me a hundred thousand +francs and my prospects for life; but I do not think the price too +high!--And I have never murmured!--If a woman betrays the secret of her +passion, it is the supreme offering of her love, but a man!--He must be +a Lousteau! + +“No, I would not give up that paper for a thousand crowns.” + +“Monsieur,” said the lawyer at last, after an eloquent battle lasting +half an hour, “I have called on fifteen or sixteen men of letters about +this affair, and can it be that you are the only one immovable by an +appeal of honor? It is not for Etienne Lousteau that I plead, but for +a woman and child, both equally ignorant of the damage done to their +fortune, their prospects, and their honor.--Who knows, monsieur, whether +you might not some day be compelled to plead for some favor of justice +for a friend, for some person whose honor was dearer to you than +your own.--It might be remembered against you that you had been +ruthless.--Can such a man as you are hesitate?” added Monsieur de +Clagny. + +“I only wished you to understand the extent of the sacrifice,” replied +Nathan, giving up the letter, as he reflected on the judge’s influence +and accepted this implied bargain. + +When the journalist’s stupid jest had been counteracted, Monsieur de +Clagny went to give him a rating in the presence of Madame Piedefer; but +he found Lousteau fuming with irritation. + +“What I did monsieur, I did with a purpose!” replied Etienne. “Monsieur +de la Baudraye has sixty thousand francs a year and refuses to make his +wife an allowance; I wished to make him feel that the child is in my +power.” + +“Yes, monsieur, I quite suspected it,” replied the lawyer. “For that +reason I readily agreed to be little Polydore’s godfather, and he is +registered as the son of the Baron and Baronne de la Baudraye; if you +have the feelings of a father, you ought to rejoice in knowing that the +child is heir to one of the finest entailed estates in France.” + +“And pray, sir, is the mother to die of hunger?” + +“Be quite easy,” said the lawyer bitterly, having dragged from Lousteau +the expression of feeling he had so long been expecting. “I will +undertake to transact the matter with Monsieur de la Baudraye.” + +Monsieur de Clagny left the house with a chill at his heart. + +Dinah, his idol, was loved for her money. Would she not, when too late, +have her eyes opened? + +“Poor woman!” said the lawyer, as he walked away. And this justice we +will do him--for to whom should justice be done unless to a Judge?--he +loved Dinah too sincerely to regard her degradation as a means of +triumph one day; he was all pity and devotion; he really loved her. + + + +The care and nursing of the infant, its cries, the quiet needed for the +mother during the first few days, and the ubiquity of Madame Piedefer, +were so entirely adverse to literary labors, that Lousteau moved up +to the three rooms taken on the first floor for the old bigot. The +journalist, obliged to go to the first performances without Dinah, and +living apart from her, found an indescribable charm in the use of his +liberty. More than once he submitted to be taken by the arm and dragged +off to some jollification; more than once he found himself at the house +of a friend’s mistress in the heart of bohemia. He again saw women +brilliantly young and splendidly dressed, in whom economy seemed treason +to their youth and power. Dinah, in spite of her striking beauty, after +nursing her baby for three months, could not stand comparison with these +perishable blossoms, so soon faded, but so showy as long as they live +rooted in opulence. + +Home life had, nevertheless, a strong attraction for Etienne. In three +months the mother and daughter, with the help of the cook from +Sancerre and of little Pamela, had given the apartment a quite changed +appearance. The journalist found his breakfast and his dinner served +with a sort of luxury. Dinah, handsome and nicely dressed, was careful +to anticipate her dear Etienne’s wishes, and he felt himself the king +of his home, where everything, even the baby, was subject to his +selfishness. Dinah’s affection was to be seen in every trifle, Lousteau +could not possibly cease the entrancing deceptions of his unreal +passion. + +Dinah, meanwhile, was aware of a source of ruin, both to her love and +to the household, in the kind of life into which Lousteau had allowed +himself to drift. At the end of ten months she weaned her baby, +installed her mother in the upstairs rooms, and restored the family +intimacy which indissolubly links a man and woman when the woman is +loving and clever. One of the most striking circumstances in Benjamin +Constant’s novel, one of the explanations of Ellenore’s desertion, is +the want of daily--or, if you will, of nightly--intercourse between +her and Adolphe. Each of the lovers has a separate home; they have both +submitted to the world and saved appearances. Ellenore, repeatedly +left to herself, is compelled to vast labors of affection to expel the +thoughts of release which captivate Adolphe when absent. The constant +exchange of glances and thoughts in domestic life gives a woman such +power that a man needs stronger reasons for desertion than she will ever +give him so long as she loves him. + +This was an entirely new phase both to Etienne and to Dinah. Dinah +intended to be indispensable; she wanted to infuse fresh energy into +this man, whose weakness smiled upon her, for she thought it a security. +She found him subjects, sketched the treatment, and at a pinch, would +write whole chapters. She revived the vitality of this dying talent by +transfusing fresh blood into his veins; she supplied him with ideas and +opinions. In short, she produced two books which were a success. More +than once she saved Lousteau’s self-esteem by dictating, correcting, or +finishing his articles when he was in despair at his own lack of ideas. +The secret of this collaboration was strictly preserved; Madame Piedefer +knew nothing of it. + +This mental galvanism was rewarded by improved pay, enabling them to +live comfortably till the end of 1838. Lousteau became used to seeing +Dinah do his work, and he paid her--as the French people say in +their vigorous lingo--in “monkey money,” nothing for her pains. This +expenditure in self-sacrifice becomes a treasure which generous souls +prize, and the more she gave the more she loved Lousteau; the time soon +came when Dinah felt that it would be too bitter a grief ever to give +him up. + +But then another child was coming, and this year was a terrible trial. +In spite of the precautions of the two women, Etienne contracted debts; +he worked himself to death to pay them off while Dinah was laid up; and, +knowing him as she did, she thought him heroic. But after this effort, +appalled at having two women, two children, and two maids on his hands, +he was incapable of the struggle to maintain a family by his pen when he +had failed to maintain even himself. So he let things take their chance. +Then the ruthless speculator exaggerated the farce of love-making at +home to secure greater liberty abroad. + +Dinah proudly endured the burden of life without support. The one idea, +“He loves me!” gave her superhuman strength. She worked as hard as +the most energetic spirits of our time. At the risk of her beauty +and health, Didine was to Lousteau what Mademoiselle Delachaux was to +Gardane in Diderot’s noble and true tale. But while sacrificing herself, +she committed the magnanimous blunder of sacrificing dress. She had her +gowns dyed, and wore nothing but black. She stank of black, as Malaga +said, making fun mercilessly of Lousteau. + +By the end of 1839, Etienne, following the example of Louis XV., had, +by dint of gradual capitulations of conscience, come to the point of +establishing a distinction between his own money and the housekeeping +money, just as Louis XV. drew the line between his privy purse and the +public moneys. He deceived Dinah as to his earnings. On discovering +this baseness, Madame de la Baudraye went through fearful tortures of +jealousy. She wanted to live two lives--the life of the world and the +life of a literary woman; she accompanied Lousteau to every first-night +performance, and could detect in him many impulses of wounded vanity, +for her black attire rubbed off, as it were, on him, clouding his brow, +and sometimes leading him to be quite brutal. He was really the woman of +the two; and he had all a woman’s exacting perversity; he would reproach +Dinah for the dowdiness of her appearance, even while benefiting by the +sacrifice, which to a mistress is so cruel--exactly like a woman who, +after sending a man through a gutter to save her honor, tells him she +“cannot bear dirt!” when he comes out. + +Dinah then found herself obliged to gather up the rather loose reins +of power by which a clever woman drives a man devoid of will. But in +so doing she could not fail to lose much of her moral lustre. Such +suspicions as she betrayed drag a woman into quarrels which lead to +disrespect, because she herself comes down from the high level on which +she had at first placed herself. Next she made some concession; Lousteau +was allowed to entertain several of his friends--Nathan, Bixiou, +Blondet, Finot, whose manners, language, and intercourse were depraving. +They tried to convince Madame de la Baudraye that her principles and +aversions were a survival of provincial prudishness; and they preached +the creed of woman’s superiority. + +Before long, her jealousy put weapons into Lousteau’s hands. During +the carnival of 1840, she disguised herself to go to the balls at the +Opera-house, and to suppers where she met courtesans, in order to keep +an eye on all Etienne’s amusements. + +On the day of Mid-Lent--or rather, at eight on the morning after--Dinah +came home from the ball in her fancy dress to go to bed. She had gone to +spy on Lousteau, who, believing her to be ill, had engaged himself for +that evening to Fanny Beaupre. The journalist, warned by a friend, had +behaved so as to deceive the poor woman, only too ready to be deceived. + +As she stepped out of the hired cab, Dinah met Monsieur de la Baudraye, +to whom the porter pointed her out. The little old man took his wife by +the arm, saying, in an icy tone: + +“So this is you, madame!” + +This sudden advent of conjugal authority, before which she felt herself +so small, and, above all, these words, almost froze the heart of +the unhappy woman caught in the costume of a _debardeur_. To escape +Etienne’s eye the more effectually, she had chosen a dress he was not +likely to detect her in. She took advantage of the mask she still had +on to escape without replying, changed her dress, and went up to her +mother’s rooms, where she found her husband waiting for her. In spite of +her assumed dignity, she blushed in the old man’s presence. + +“What do you want of me, monsieur?” she asked. “Are we not separated +forever?” + +“Actually, yes,” said Monsieur de la Baudraye. “Legally, no.” + +Madame Piedefer was telegraphing signals to her daughter, which Dinah +presently observed and understood. + +“Nothing could have brought you here but your own interests,” she said, +in a bitter tone. + +“_Our_ interests,” said the little man coldly, “for we have two +children.--Your Uncle Silas Piedefer is dead, at New York, where, after +having made and lost several fortunes in various parts of the world, he +has finally left some seven or eight hundred thousand francs--they say +twelve--but there is stock-in-trade to be sold. I am the chief in our +common interests, and act for you.” + +“Oh!” cried Dinah, “in everything that relates to business, I trust no +one but Monsieur de Clagny. He knows the law, come to terms with him; +what he does, will be done right.” + +“I have no occasion for Monsieur de Clagny,” answered Monsieur de la +Baudraye, “to take my children from you--” + +“Your children!” exclaimed Dinah. “Your children, to whom you have not +sent a sou! _Your_ children!” She burst into a loud shout of laughter; +but Monsieur de la Baudraye’s unmoved coolness threw ice on the +explosion. + +“Your mother has just brought them to show me,” he went on. “They are +charming boys. I do not intend to part from them. I shall take them to +our house at Anzy, if it were only to save them from seeing their mother +disguised like a--” + +“Silence!” said Madame de la Baudraye imperatively. “What do you want of +me that brought you here?” + +“A power of attorney to receive our Uncle Silas’ property.” + +Dinah took a pen, wrote two lines to Monsieur de Clagny, and desired her +husband to call again in the afternoon. + +At five o’clock, Monsieur de Clagny--who had been promoted to the +post of Attorney-General--enlightened Madame de la Baudraye as to her +position; still, he undertook to arrange everything by a bargain with +the old fellow, whose visit had been prompted by avarice alone. Monsieur +de la Baudraye, to whom his wife’s power of attorney was indispensable +to enable him to deal with the business as he wished, purchased it by +certain concessions. In the first place, he undertook to allow her +ten thousand francs a year so long as she found it convenient--so the +document was worded--to reside in Paris; the children, each on attaining +the age of six, were to be placed in Monsieur de la Baudraye’s keeping. +Finally, the lawyer extracted the payment of the allowance in advance. + +Little La Baudraye, who came jauntily enough to say good-bye to his wife +and _his_ children, appeared in a white india-rubber overcoat. He was +so firm on his feet, and so exactly like the La Baudraye of 1836, that +Dinah despaired of ever burying the dreadful little dwarf. From the +garden, where he was smoking a cigar, the journalist could watch +Monsieur de la Baudraye for so long as it took the little reptile to +cross the forecourt, but that was enough for Lousteau; it was plain to +him that the little man had intended to wreck every hope of his dying +that his wife might have conceived. + +This short scene made a considerable change in the writer’s secret +scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the +position. + +His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as much +as it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two sides +of the account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry quits. +Considering how small his income was, and how hardly he earned it, +Lousteau regarded himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It was, no +doubt, a favorable moment for throwing the woman over. Tired at the end +of three years of playing a comedy which never can become a habit, +he was perpetually concealing his weariness; and this fellow, who was +accustomed to disguise none of his feelings, compelled himself to wear +a smile at home like that of a debtor in the presence of his creditor. +This compulsion was every day more intolerable. + +Hitherto the immense advantages he foresaw in the future had given him +strength; but when he saw Monsieur de la Baudraye embark for the United +States, as briskly as if it were to go down to Rouen in a steamboat, he +ceased to believe in the future. + +He went in from the garden to the pretty drawing-room, where Dinah had +just taken leave of her husband. + +“Etienne,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “do you know what my lord and +master has proposed to me? In the event of my wishing to return to live +at Anzy during his absence, he has left his orders, and he hopes that my +mother’s good advice will weigh with me, and that I shall go back there +with my children.” + +“It is very good advice,” replied Lousteau drily, knowing the passionate +disclaimer that Dinah expected, and indeed begged for with her eyes. + +The tone, the words, the cold look, all hit the hapless woman so hard, +who lived only in her love, that two large tears trickled slowly down +her cheeks, while she did not speak a word, and Lousteau only saw them +when she took out her handkerchief to wipe away these two beads of +anguish. + +“What is it, Didine?” he asked, touched to the heart by this excessive +sensibility. + +“Just as I was priding myself on having won our freedom,” said she--“at +the cost of my fortune--by selling--what is most precious to a mother’s +heart--selling my children!--for he is to have them from the age of +six--and I cannot see them without going to Sancerre!--and that is +torture!--Ah, dear God! What have I done----?” + +Lousteau knelt down by her and kissed her hands with a lavish display of +coaxing and petting. + +“You do not understand me,” said he. “I blame myself, for I am not +worth such sacrifices, dear angel. I am, in a literary sense, a quite +second-rate man. If the day comes when I can no longer cut a figure at +the bottom of the newspaper, the editors will let me lie, like an old +shoe flung into the rubbish heap. Remember, we tight-rope dancers have +no retiring pension! The State would have too many clever men on its +hands if it started on such a career of beneficence. I am forty-two, and +I am as idle as a marmot. I feel it--I know it”--and he took her by the +hand--“my love can only be fatal to you. + +“As you know, at two-and-twenty I lived on Florine; but what is +excusable in a youth, what then seems smart and charming, is a disgrace +to a man of forty. Hitherto we have shared the burden of existence, and +it has not been lovely for this year and half. Out of devotion to me you +wear nothing but black, and that does me no credit.”--Dinah gave one +of those magnanimous shrugs which are worth all the words ever +spoken.--“Yes,” Etienne went on, “I know you sacrifice everything to my +whims, even your beauty. And I, with a heart worn out in past struggles, +a soul full of dark presentiments as to the future, I cannot repay your +exquisite love with an equal affection. We were very happy--without a +cloud--for a long time.--Well, then, I cannot bear to see so sweet a +poem end badly. Am I wrong?” + +Madame de la Baudraye loved Etienne so truly, that this prudence, worthy +of de Clagny, gratified her and stanched her tears. + +“He loves me for myself alone!” thought she, looking at him with smiling +eyes. + +After four years of intimacy, this woman’s love now combined every shade +of affection which our powers of analysis can discern, and which modern +society has created; one of the most remarkable men of our age, whose +death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle (Stendhal), was +the first to delineate them to perfection. + +Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be +compared to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body, and +overcomes every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from him, or +his hand laid on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A kind word or +a smile wreathed the poor woman’s soul with flowers; a fond look elated, +a cold look depressed her. When she walked, taking his arm and keeping +step with him in the street or on the boulevard, she was so entirely +absorbed in him that she lost all sense of herself. Fascinated by this +fellow’s wit, magnetized by his airs, his vices were but trivial defects +in her eyes. She loved the puffs of cigar smoke that the wind brought +into her room from the garden; she went to inhale them, and made no +wry faces, hiding herself to enjoy them. She hated the publisher or +the newspaper editor who refused Lousteau money on the ground of the +enormous advances he had had already. She deluded herself so far as to +believe that her bohemian was writing a novel, for which the payment was +to come, instead of working off a debt long since incurred. + +This, no doubt, is true love, and includes every mode of loving; the +love of the heart and of the head--passion, caprice, and taste--to +accept Beyle’s definitions. Didine loved him so wholly, that in certain +moments when her critical judgment, just by nature, and constantly +exercised since she had lived in Paris, compelled her to read to the +bottom of Lousteau’s soul, sense was still too much for reason, and +suggested excuses. + +“And what am I?” she replied. “A woman who has put herself outside the +pale. Since I have sacrificed all a woman’s honor, why should you not +sacrifice to me some of a man’s honor? Do we not live outside the limits +of social conventionality? Why not accept from me what Nathan can accept +from Florine? We will square accounts when we part, and only death can +part us--you know. My happiness is your honor, Etienne, as my constancy +and your happiness are mine. If I fail to make you happy, all is at an +end. If I cause you a pang, condemn me. + +“Our debts are paid; we have ten thousand francs a year, and between +us we can certainly make eight thousand francs a year--I will write +theatrical articles.--With fifteen hundred francs a month we shall be as +rich as Rothschild.--Be quite easy. I will have some lovely dresses, +and give you every day some gratified vanity, as on the first night of +Nathan’s play--” + +“And what about your mother, who goes to Mass every day, and wants to +bring a priest to the house and make you give up this way of life?” + +“Every one has a pet vice. You smoke, she preaches at me, poor woman! +But she takes great care of the children, she takes them out, she is +absolutely devoted, and idolizes me. Would you hinder her from crying?” + +“What will be thought of me?” + +“But we do not live for the world!” cried she, raising Etienne and +making him sit by her. “Besides, we shall be married some day--we have +the risks of a sea voyage----” + +“I never thought of that,” said Lousteau simply; and he added to +himself, “Time enough to part when little La Baudraye is safe back +again.” + + + +From that day forth Etienne lived in luxury; and Dinah, on first nights, +could hold her own with the best dressed women in Paris. Lousteau was +so fatuous as to affect, among his friends, the attitude of a man +overborne, bored to extinction, ruined by Madame de la Baudraye. + +“Oh, what would I not give to the friend who would deliver me from +Dinah! But no one ever can!” said he. “She loves me enough to throw +herself out of the window if I told her.” + +The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against +Dinah’s jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was +shamelessly unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at seeing +Dinah in such disgraceful circumstances when she might have been so +rich, and in so wretched a position at the time when her original +ambitions would have been fulfilled, came to warn her, to tell her--“You +are betrayed,” and she only replied, “I know it.” + +The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing. + +Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a +word. + +“Do you still love me?” she asked. + +“I would lose my soul for you!” he exclaimed, starting to his feet. + +The hapless man’s eyes flashed like torches, he trembled like a leaf, +his throat was rigid, his hair thrilled to the roots; he believed he was +so blessed as to be accepted as his idol’s avenger, and this poor joy +filled him with rapture. + +“Why are you so startled?” said she, making him sit down again. “That is +how I love him.” + +The lawyer understood this argument _ad hominem_. And there were tears +in the eyes of the Judge, who had just condemned a man to death! + +Lousteau’s satiety, that odious conclusion of such illicit relations, +had betrayed itself in a thousand little things, which are like grains +of sand thrown against the panes of the little magical hut where +those who love dwell and dream. These grains of sand, which grow to +be pebbles, had never been discerned by Dinah till they were as big +as rocks. Madame de la Baudraye had at last thoroughly understood +Lousteau’s character. + +“He is,” she said to her mother, “a poet, defenceless against disaster, +mean out of laziness, not for want of heart, and rather too prone to +pleasure; in short, a great cat, whom it is impossible to hate. What +would become of him without me? I hindered his marriage; he has no +prospects. His talent would perish in privations.” + +“Oh, my Dinah!” Madame Piedefer had exclaimed, “what a hell you live in! +What is the feeling that gives you strength enough to persist?” + +“I will be a mother to him!” she had replied. + +There are certain horrible situations in which we come to no decision +till the moment when our friends discern our dishonor. We accept +compromises with ourself so long as we escape a censor who comes to play +prosecutor. Monsieur de Clagny, as clumsy as a tortured man, had been +torturing Dinah. + +“To preserve my love I will be all that Madame de Pompadour was to +preserve her power,” said she to herself when Monsieur de Clagny had +left her. And this phrase sufficiently proves that her love was becoming +a burden to her, and would presently be a toil rather than a pleasure. + +The part now assumed by Dinah was horribly painful, and Lousteau made +it no easier to play. When he wanted to go out after dinner he would +perform the tenderest little farces of affection, and address Dinah in +words full of devotion; he would take her by the chain, and when he had +bruised her with it, even while he hurt her, the lordly ingrate would +say, “Did I wound you?” + +These false caresses and deceptions had degrading consequences for +Dinah, who believed in a revival of his love. The mother, alas, gave +way to the mistress with shameful readiness. She felt herself a mere +plaything in the man’s hands, and at last she confessed to herself: + +“Well, then, I will be his plaything!” finding joy in it--the rapture of +damnation. + +When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living in +solitude, she felt her courage fail. She preferred the anticipated and +inevitable miseries of this fierce intimacy to the absence of the joys, +which were all the more exquisite because they arose from the midst of +remorse, of terrible struggles with herself, of a _No_ persuaded to +be _Yes_. At every moment she seemed to come across the pool of bitter +water found in a desert, and drunk with greater relish than the traveler +would find in sipping the finest wines at a prince’s table. + +When Dinah wondered to herself at midnight: + +“Will he come home, or will he not?” she was not alive again till she +heard the familiar sound of Lousteau’s boots, and his well-known ring at +the bell. + +She would often try to restrain him by giving him pleasure; she would +hope to be a match for her rivals, and leave them no hold on that +agitated heart. How many times a day would she rehearse the tragedy of +_Le Dernier Jour d’un condamne_, saying to herself, “To-morrow we part.” + And how often would a word, a look, a kiss full of apparently artless +feeling, bring her back to the depths of her love! + +It was terrible. More than once had she meditated suicide as she paced +the little town garden where a few pale flowers bloomed. In fact, she +had not yet exhausted the vast treasure of devotion and love which a +loving woman bears in her heart. + +The romance of _Adolphe_ was her Bible, her study, for above all else +she would not be an Ellenore. She allowed herself no tears, she avoided +all the bitterness so cleverly described by the critic to whom we owe +an analysis of this striking work; whose comments indeed seemed to Dinah +almost superior to the book. And she read again and again this fine +essay by the only real critic who has written in the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_, an article now printed at the beginning of the new edition of +_Adolphe_. + +“No,” she would say to herself, as she repeated the author’s fateful +words, “no, I will not ‘give my requests the form of an order,’ I will +not ‘fly to tears as a means of revenge,’ I will not ‘condemn the things +I once approved without reservation,’ I will not ‘dog his footsteps with +a prying eye’; if he plays truant, he shall not on his return ‘see a +scornful lip, whose kiss is an unanswerable command.’ No, ‘my silence +shall not be a reproach nor my first word a quarrel.’--I will not be +like every other woman!” she went on, laying on her table the little +yellow paper volume which had already attracted Lousteau’s remark, +“What! are you studying _Adolphe_?”--“If for one day only he should +recognize my merits and say, ‘That victim never uttered a cry!’--it will +be all I ask. And besides, the others only have him for an hour; I have +him for life!” + +Thinking himself justified by his private tribunal in punishing his +wife, Monsieur de la Baudraye robbed her to achieve his cherished +enterprise of reclaiming three thousand acres of moorland, to which he +had devoted himself ever since 1836, living like a mouse. He manipulated +the property left by Monsieur Silas Piedefer so ingeniously, that he +contrived to reduce the proved value to eight hundred thousand francs, +while pocketing twelve hundred thousand. He did not announce his return; +but while his wife was enduring unspeakable woes, he was building farms, +digging trenches, and ploughing rough ground with a courage that ranked +him among the most remarkable agriculturists of the province. + +The four hundred thousand francs he had filched from his wife were spent +in three years on this undertaking, and the estate of Anzy was expected +to return seventy-two thousand francs a year of net profits after the +taxes were paid. The eight hundred thousand he invested at four and a +half per cent in the funds, buying at eighty francs, at the time of the +financial crisis brought about by the Ministry of the First of March, +as it was called. By thus securing to his wife an income of forty-eight +thousand francs he considered himself no longer in her debt. Could he +not restore the odd twelve hundred thousand as soon as the four and a +half per cents had risen above a hundred? He was now the greatest man +in Sancerre, with the exception of one--the richest proprietor in +France--whose rival he considered himself. He saw himself with an income +of a hundred and forty thousand francs, of which ninety thousand formed +the revenue from the lands he had entailed. Having calculated that +besides this net income he paid ten thousand francs in taxes, three +thousand in working expenses, ten thousand to his wife, and twelve +hundred to his mother-in-law, he would say in the literary circles of +Sancerre: + +“I am reputed miserly, and said to spend nothing; but my outlay amounts +to twenty-six thousand five hundred francs a year. And I have still to +pay for the education of my two children! I daresay it is not a pleasing +fact to the Milauds of Nevers, but the second house of La Baudraye may +yet have as noble a center as the first.--I shall most likely go to +Paris and petition the King of the French to grant me the title of +Count--Monsieur Roy is a Count--and my wife would be pleased to be +Madame la Comtesse.” + +And this was said with such splendid coolness that no one would have +dared to laugh at the little man. Only Monsieur Boirouge, the Presiding +Judge, remarked: + +“In your place, I should not be happy unless I had a daughter.” + +“Well, I shall go to Paris before long----” said the Baron. + +In the early part of 1842 Madame de la Baudraye, feeling that she was to +Lousteau no more than a reserve in the background, had again sacrificed +herself absolutely to secure his comfort; she had resumed her black +raiment, but now it was in sign of mourning, for her pleasure was +turning to remorse. She was too often put to shame not to feel the +weight of the chain, and her mother found her sunk in those moods of +meditation into which visions of the future cast unhappy souls in a sort +of torpor. + +Madame Piedefer, by the advice of her spiritual director, was on the +watch for the moment of exhaustion, which the priest told her would +inevitably supervene, and then she pleaded in behalf of the children. +She restricted herself to urging that Dinah and Lousteau should live +apart, not asking her to give him up. In real life these violent +situations are not closed as they are in books, by death or cleverly +contrived catastrophes; they end far less poetically--in disgust, in the +blighting of every flower of the soul, in the commonplace of habit, and +very often too in another passion, which robs a wife of the interest +which is traditionally ascribed to women. So, when common sense, the law +of social proprieties, family interest--all the mixed elements which, +since the Restoration, have been dignified by the mane of Public Morals, +out of sheer aversion to the name of the Catholic religion--where this +is seconded by a sense of insults a little too offensive; when the +fatigue of constant self-sacrifice has almost reached the point of +exhaustion; and when, under these circumstances, a too cruel blow--one +of those mean acts which a man never lets a woman know of unless he +believes himself to be her assured master--puts the crowning touch +to her revulsion and disenchantment, the moment has come for the +intervention of the friend who undertakes the cure. Madame Piedefer had +no great difficulty now in removing the film from her daughter’s eyes. + +She sent for Monsieur de Clagny, who completed the work by assuring +Madame de la Baudraye that if she would give up Etienne, her husband +would allow her to keep the children and to live in Paris, and would +restore her to the command of her own fortune. + +“And what a life you are leading!” said he. “With care and judgment, and +the support of some pious and charitable persons, you may have a salon +and conquer a position. Paris is not Sancerre.” + +Dinah left it to Monsieur de Clagny to negotiate a reconciliation with +the old man. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye had sold his wine well, he had sold his wool, +he had felled his timber, and, without telling his wife, he had come +to Paris to invest two hundred thousand francs in the purchase of a +delightful residence in the Rue de l’Arcade, that was being sold in +liquidation of an aristocratic House that was in difficulties. He had +been a member of the Council for the Department since 1826, and now, +paying ten thousand francs in taxes, he was doubly qualified for a +peerage under the conditions of the new legislation. + +Some time before the elections of 1842 he had put himself forward as +candidate unless he were meanwhile called to the Upper House as Peer +of France. At the same time, he asked for the title of Count, and for +promotion to the higher grade of the Legion of Honor. In the matter of +the elections, the dynastic nominations; now, in the event of Monsieur +de la Baudraye being won over to the Government, Sancerre would be +more than ever a rotten borough of royalism. Monsieur de Clagny, +whose talents and modesty were more and more highly appreciated by the +authorities, gave Monsieur de la Baudraye his support; he pointed +out that by raising this enterprising agriculturist to the peerage, a +guarantee would be offered to such important undertakings. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, then, a Count, a Peer of France, and Commander +of the Legion of Honor, was vain enough to wish to cut a figure with +a wife and handsomely appointed house.--“He wanted to enjoy life,” he +said. + +He therefore addressed a letter to his wife, dictated by Monsieur de +Clagny, begging her to live under his roof and to furnish the house, +giving play to the taste of which the evidences, he said, had charmed +him at the Chateau d’Anzy. The newly made Count pointed out to his wife +that while the interests of their property forbade his leaving Sancerre, +the education of their boys required her presence in Paris. The +accommodating husband desired Monsieur de Clagny to place sixty thousand +francs at the disposal of Madame la Comtesse for the interior decoration +of their mansion, requesting that she would have a marble tablet +inserted over the gateway with the inscription: _Hotel de la Baudraye_. + +He then accounted to his wife for the money derived from the estate of +Silas Piedefer, told her of the investment at four and a half per cent +of the eight hundred thousand francs he had brought from New York, and +allowed her that income for her expenses, including the education of the +children. As he would be compelled to stay in Paris during some part of +the session of the House of Peers, he requested his wife to reserve for +him a little suite of rooms in an _entresol_ over the kitchens. + +“Bless me! why, he is growing young again--a gentleman!--a +magnifico!--What will he become next? It is quite alarming,” said Madame +de la Baudraye. + +“He now fulfils all your wishes at the age of twenty,” replied the +lawyer. + +The comparison of her future prospects with her present position was +unendurable to Dinah. Only the day before, Anna de Fontaine had +turned her head away in order to avoid seeing her bosom friend at the +Chamarolles’ school. + +“I am a countess,” said Dinah to herself. “I shall have the peer’s blue +hammer-cloth on my carriage, and the leaders of the literary world in my +drawing-room--and I will look at her!”--And it was this little triumph +that told with all its weight at the moment of her rehabilitation, as +the world’s contempt had of old weighed on her happiness. + + + +One fine day, in May 1842, Madame de la Baudraye paid all her little +household debts and left a thousand crowns on top of the packet of +receipted bills. After sending her mother and the children away to the +Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the +house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said: + +“I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the +pleasure of your company at the _Rocher de Cancale_.” + +She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy manners +assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave of his +least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months past. + +“Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night,” said +he--_une premiere_, the slang abbreviation for a first performance. + +“Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye,” said Dinah +gravely. “I do not mean to understand such a word as _figged out_.” + +“Didine a rebel!” said he, putting his arm round her waist. + +“There is no such person as Didine; you have killed her, my dear,” she +replied, releasing herself. “I am taking you to the first performance of +_Madame la Comtesse de la Baudraye_.” + +“It is true, then, that our insect is a peer of France?” + +“The nomination is to be gazetted in this evening’s _Moniteur_, as I am +told by Monsieur de Clagny, who is promoted to the Court of Appeal.” + +“Well, it is quite right,” said the journalist. “The entomology of +society ought to be represented in the Upper House.” + +“My friend, we are parting for ever,” said Madame de la Baudraye, +trying to control the trembling of her voice. “I have dismissed the +two servants. When you go in, you will find the house in order, and no +debts. I shall always feel a mother’s affection for you, but in secret. +Let us part calmly, without a fuss, like decent people. + +“Have you had a fault to find with my conduct during the past six +years?” + +“None, but that you have spoiled my life, and wrecked my prospects,” + said he in a hard tone. “You have read Benjamin Constant’s book very +diligently; you have even studied the last critique on it; but you +have read with a woman’s eyes. Though you have one of those superior +intellects which would make a fortune of a poet, you have never dared to +take the man’s point of view. + +“That book, my dear, is of both sexes.--We agreed that books were male +or female, dark or fair. In _Adolphe_ women see nothing but Ellenore; +young men see only Adolphe; men of experience see Ellenore and Adolphe; +political men see the whole of social existence. You did not think it +necessary to read the soul of Adolphe--any more than your critic indeed, +who saw only Ellenore. What kills that poor fellow, my dear, is that +he has sacrificed his future for a woman; that he never can be what he +might have been--an ambassador, a minister, a chamberlain, a poet--and +rich. He gives up six years of his energy at that stage of his life when +a man is ready to submit to the hardships of any apprenticeship--to +a petticoat, which he outstrips in the career of ingratitude, for the +woman who has thrown over her first lover is certain sooner or later to +desert the second. Adolphe is, in fact, a tow-haired German, who has +not spirit enough to be false to Ellenore. There are Adolphes who spare +their Ellenores all ignominious quarreling and reproaches, who say to +themselves, ‘I will not talk of what I have sacrificed; I will not for +ever be showing the stump of my wrist to let that incarnate selfishness +I have made my queen,’ as Ramorny does in _The Fair Maid of Perth_. But +men like that, my dear, get cast aside. + +“Adolphe is a man of birth, an aristocratic nature, who wants to get +back into the highroad to honors and recover his social birthright, his +blighted position.--You, at this moment, are playing both parts. You +are suffering from the pangs of having lost your position, and think +yourself justified in throwing over a hapless lover whose misfortune +it has been that he fancied you so far superior as to understand that, +though a man’s heart ought to be true, his sex may be allowed to indulge +its caprices.” + +“And do you suppose that I shall not make it my business to restore to +you all you have lost by me? Be quite easy,” said Madame de la Baudraye, +astounded by this attack. “Your Ellenore is not dying; and if God +gives her life, if you amend your ways, if you give up courtesans and +actresses, we will find you a better match than a Felicie Cardot.” + +The two lovers were sullen. Lousteau affected dejection, he aimed at +appearing hard and cold; while Dinah, really distressed, listened to the +reproaches of her heart. + +“Why,” said Lousteau presently, “why not end as we ought to have +begun--hide our love from all eyes, and see each other in secret?” + +“Never!” cried the new-made Countess, with an icy look. “Do you not +comprehend that we are, after all, but finite creatures? Our feelings +seem infinite by reason of our anticipation of heaven, but here on earth +they are limited by the strength of our physical being. There are some +feeble, mean natures which may receive an endless number of wounds and +live on; but there are some more highly-tempered souls which snap at +last under repeated blows. You have--” + +“Oh! enough!” cried he. “No more copy! Your dissertation is unnecessary, +since you can justify yourself by merely saying--‘I have ceased to +love!’” + +“What!” she exclaimed in bewilderment. “Is it I who have ceased to +love?” + +“Certainly. You have calculated that I gave you more trouble, more +vexation than pleasure, and you desert your partner--” + +“I desert!----” cried she, clasping her hands. + +“Have not you yourself just said ‘Never’?” + +“Well, then, yes! _Never_,” she repeated vehemently. + +This final _Never_, spoken in the fear of falling once more under +Lousteau’s influence, was interpreted by him as the death-warrant of his +power, since Dinah remained insensible to his sarcastic scorn. + +The journalist could not suppress a tear. He was losing a sincere and +unbounded affection. He had found in Dinah the gentlest La Valliere, +the most delightful Pompadour that any egoist short of a king could hope +for; and, like a boy who has discovered that by dint of tormenting a +cockchafer he has killed it, Lousteau shed a tear. + +Madame de la Baudraye rushed out of the private room where they had been +dining, paid the bill, and fled home to the Rue de l’Arcade, scolding +herself and thinking herself a brute. + + + +Dinah, who had made her house a model of comfort, now metamorphosed +herself. This double metamorphosis cost thirty thousand francs more than +her husband had anticipated. + +The fatal accident which in 1842 deprived the House of Orleans of the +heir-presumptive having necessitated a meeting of the Chambers in August +of that year, little La Baudraye came to present his titles to the Upper +House sooner than he had expected, and then saw what his wife had +done. He was so much delighted, that he paid the thirty thousand +francs without a word, just as he had formerly paid eight thousand for +decorating La Baudraye. + +On his return from the Luxembourg, where he had been presented according +to custom by two of his peers--the Baron de Nucingen and the Marquis +de Montriveau--the new Count met the old Duc de Chaulieu, a former +creditor, walking along, umbrella in hand, while he himself sat perched +in a low chaise on which his coat-of-arms was resplendent, with the +motto, _Deo sic patet fides et hominibus_. This contrast filled his +heart with a large draught of the balm on which the middle class has +been getting drunk ever since 1840. + +Madame de la Baudraye was shocked to see her husband improved and +looking better than on the day of his marriage. The little dwarf, full +of rapturous delight, at sixty-four triumphed in the life which had so +long been denied him; in the family, which his handsome cousin Milaud of +Nevers had declared he would never have; and in his wife--who had asked +Monsieur and Madame de Clagny to dinner to meet the cure of the parish +and his two sponsors to the Chamber of Peers. He petted the children +with fatuous delight. + +The handsome display on the table met with his approval. + +“These are the fleeces of the Berry sheep,” said he, showing Monsieur de +Nucingen the dish-covers surmounted by his newly-won coronet. “They are +of silver, you see!” + +Though consumed by melancholy, which she concealed with the +determination of a really superior woman, Dinah was charming, witty, and +above all, young again in her court mourning. + +“You might declare,” cried La Baudraye to Monsieur de Nucingen with a +wave of his hand to his wife, “that the Countess was not yet thirty.” + +“Ah, ha! Matame is a voman of dirty!” replied the baron, who was +prone to time-honored remarks, which he took to be the small change of +conversation. + +“In every sense of the words,” replied the Countess. “I am, in fact, +five-and-thirty, and mean to set up a little passion--” + +“Oh, yes, my wife ruins me in curiosities and china images--” + +“She started that mania at an early age,” said the Marquis de Montriveau +with a smile. + +“Yes,” said La Baudraye, with a cold stare at the Marquis, whom he had +known at Bourges, “you know that in ‘25, ‘26, and ‘27, she picked a +million francs’ worth of treasures. Anzy is a perfect museum.” + +“What a cool hand!” thought Monsieur de Clagny, as he saw this little +country miser quite on the level of his new position. + +But misers have savings of all kinds ready for use. + +On the day after the vote on the Regency had passed the Chambers, the +little Count went back to Sancerre for the vintage and resumed his old +habits. + +In the course of that winter, the Comtesse de la Baudraye, with the +support of the Attorney-General to the Court of Appeals, tried to form a +little circle. Of course, she had an “at home” day, she made a selection +among men of mark, receiving none but those of serious purpose and ripe +years. She tried to amuse herself by going to the Opera, French and +Italian. Twice a week she appeared there with her mother and Madame de +Clagny, who was made by her husband to visit Dinah. Still, in spite of +her cleverness, her charming manners, her fashionable stylishness, she +was never really happy but with her children, on whom she lavished all +her disappointed affection. + +Worthy Monsieur de Clagny tried to recruit women for the Countess’ +circle, and he succeeded; but he was more successful among the advocates +of piety than the women of fashion. + +“And they bore her!” said he to himself with horror, as he saw his idol +matured by grief, pale from remorse, and then, in all the splendor of +recovered beauty, restored by a life of luxury and care for her boys. +This devoted friend, encouraged in his efforts by her mother and by the +cure was full of expedient. Every Wednesday he introduced some celebrity +from Germany, England, Italy, or Prussia to his dear Countess; he +spoke of her as a quite exceptional woman to people to whom she hardly +addressed two words; but she listened to them with such deep attention +that they went away fully convinced of her superiority. In Paris, Dinah +conquered by silence, as at Sancerre she had conquered by loquacity. Now +and then, some smart saying about affairs, or sarcasm on an absurdity, +betrayed a woman accustomed to deal with ideas--the woman who, four +years since, had given new life to Lousteau’s articles. + +This phase was to the poor lawyer’s hapless passion like the late season +known as the Indian summer after a sunless year. He affected to be older +than he was, to have the right to befriend Dinah without doing her +an injury, and kept himself at a distance as though he were young, +handsome, and compromising, like a man who has happiness to conceal. He +tried to keep his little attentions a profound secret, and the trifling +gifts which Dinah showed to every one; he endeavored to suggest a +dangerous meaning for his little services. + +“He plays at passion,” said the Countess, laughing. She made fun of +Monsieur de Clagny to his face, and the lawyer said, “She notices me.” + +“I impress that poor man so deeply,” said she to her mother, laughing, +“that if I would say Yes, I believe he would say No.” + +One evening Monsieur de Clagny and his wife were taking his dear +Countess home from the theatre, and she was deeply pensive. They had +been to the first performance of Leon Gozlan’s first play, _La Main +Droite et la Main Gauche_ (The Right Hand and the Left). + +“What are you thinking about?” asked the lawyer, alarmed at his idol’s +dejection. + +This deep and persistent melancholy, though disguised by the Countess, +was a perilous malady for which Monsieur de Clagny knew no remedy; for +true love is often clumsy, especially when it is not reciprocated. True +love takes its expression from the character. Now, this good man loved +after the fashion of Alceste, when Madame de la Baudraye wanted to be +loved after the manner of Philinte. The meaner side of love can never +get on with the Misanthrope’s loyalty. Thus, Dinah had taken care never +to open her heart to this man. How could she confess to him that she +sometimes regretted the slough she had left? + +She felt a void in this fashionable life; she had no one for whom to +dress, or whom to tell of her successes and triumphs. Sometimes the +memory of her wretchedness came to her, mingled with memories of +consuming joys. She would hate Lousteau for not taking any pains to +follow her; she would have liked to get tender or furious letters from +him. + +Dinah made no reply, so Monsieur de Clagny repeated the question, taking +the Countess’ hand and pressing it between his own with devout respect. + +“Will you have the right hand or the left?” said she, smiling. + +“The left,” said he, “for I suppose you mean the truth or a fib.” + +“Well, then, I saw him,” she said, speaking into the lawyer’s ear. “And +as I saw him looking so sad, so out of heart, I said to myself, Has he a +cigar? Has he any money?” + +“If you wish for the truth, I can tell it you,” said the lawyer. “He is +living as a husband with Fanny Beaupre. You have forced me to tell you +this secret; I should never have told you, for you might have suspected +me perhaps of an ungenerous motive.” + +Madame de la Baudraye grasped his hand. + +“Your husband,” said she to her chaperon, “is one of the rarest +souls!--Ah! Why----” + +She shrank into her corner, looking out of the window, but she did not +finish her sentence, of which the lawyer could guess the end: “Why had +not Lousteau a little of your husband’s generosity of heart?” + +This information served, however, to cure Dinah of her melancholy; she +threw herself into the whirl of fashion. She wished for success, and she +achieved it; still, she did not make much way with women, and found it +difficult to get introductions. + +In the month of March, Madame Piedefer’s friends the priests and +Monsieur de Clagny made a fine stroke by getting Madame de la Baudraye +appointed receiver of subscriptions for the great charitable work +founded by Madame de Carcado. Then she was commissioned to collect from +the Royal Family their donations for the benefit of the sufferers from +the earthquake at Guadeloupe. The Marquise d’Espard, to whom Monsieur +de Canalis read the list of ladies thus appointed, one evening at the +Opera, said, on hearing that of the Countess: + +“I have lived a long time in the world, and I can remember nothing finer +than the manoeuvres undertaken for the rehabilitation of Madame de la +Baudraye.” + + + +In the early spring, which, by some whim of our planets, smiled on Paris +in the first week of March in 1843, making the Champs-Elysees green and +leafy before Longchamp, Fanny Beaupre’s attache had seen Madame de la +Baudraye several times without being seen by her. More than once he +was stung to the heart by one of those promptings of jealousy and envy +familiar to those who are born and bred provincials, when he beheld +his former mistress comfortably ensconced in a handsome carriage, well +dressed, with dreamy eyes, and his two little boys, one at each window. +He accused himself with all the more virulence because he was waging +war with the sharpest poverty of all--poverty unconfessed. Like all +essentially light and frivolous natures, he cherished the singular point +of honor which consists in never derogating in the eyes of one’s own +little public, which makes men on the Bourse commit crimes to escape +expulsion from the temple of the goddess Per-cent, and has given some +criminals courage enough to perform acts of virtue. + +Lousteau dined and breakfasted and smoked as if he were a rich man. Not +for an inheritance would he have bought any but the dearest cigars, for +himself as well as for the playwright or author with whom he went into +the shop. The journalist took his walks abroad in patent leather boots; +but he was constantly afraid of an execution on goods which, to use the +bailiff’s slang, had already received the last sacrament. Fanny Beaupre +had nothing left to pawn, and her salary was pledged to pay her +debts. After exhausting every possible advance of pay from newspapers, +magazines, and publishers, Etienne knew not of what ink he could churn +gold. Gambling-houses, so ruthlessly suppressed, could no longer, as of +old, cash I O U’s drawn over the green table by beggary in despair. In +short, the journalist was reduced to such extremity that he had just +borrowed a hundred francs of the poorest of his friends, Bixiou, from +whom he had never yet asked for a franc. What distressed Lousteau was +not the fact of owing five thousand francs, but seeing himself bereft +of his elegance, and of the furniture purchased at the cost of so many +privations, and added to by Madame de la Baudraye. + +On April the 3rd, a yellow poster, torn down by the porter after +being displayed on the wall, announced the sale of a handsome suite of +furniture on the following Saturday, the day fixed for sales under +legal authority. Lousteau was taking a walk, smoking cigars, and seeking +ideas--for, in Paris, ideas are in the air, they smile on you from a +street corner, they splash up with a spurt of mud from under the wheels +of a cab! Thus loafing, he had been seeking ideas for articles, and +subjects for novels for a month past, and had found nothing but friends +who carried him off to dinner or to the play, and who intoxicated his +woes, telling him that champagne would inspire him. + +“Beware,” said the virulent Bixiou one night, the man who would at the +same moment give a comrade a hundred francs and stab him to the heart +with a sarcasm; “if you go to sleep drunk every night, one day you will +wake up mad.” + +On the day before, the Friday, the unhappy wretch, although he was +accustomed to poverty, felt like a man condemned to death. Of old he +would have said: + +“Well, the furniture is very old! I will buy new.” + +But he was incapable now of literary legerdemain. Publishers, undermined +by piracy, paid badly; the newspapers made close bargains with +hard-driven writers, as the Opera managers did with tenors that sang +flat. + +He walked on, his eye on the crowd, though seeing nothing, a cigar +in his mouth, and his hands in his pockets, every feature of his face +twitching, and an affected smile on his lips. Then he saw Madame de la +Baudraye go by in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the Rue +de la Chaussee d’Antin to drive in the Bois. + +“There is nothing else left!” said he to himself, and he went home to +smarten himself up. + +That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de +la Baudraye’s door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the +Countess--a few lines, as follows: + +“Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving +him for a moment, and at once?” + +This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used. +Madame de la Baudraye had had the word _Parce que_ engraved on a +genuine Oriental carnelian--a potent word--a woman’s word--the word that +accounts for everything, even for the Creation. + +The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was +her night in turn for her box. At the sight of this seal she turned +pale. + +“I will come,” she said, tucking the note into her dress. + +She was firm enough to conceal her agitation, and begged her mother to +see the children put to bed. She then sent for Lousteau, and received +him in a boudoir, next to the great drawing-room, with open doors. She +was going to a ball after the Opera, and was wearing a beautiful dress +of brocade in stripes alternately plain and flowered with pale blue. Her +gloves, trimmed with tassels, showed off her beautiful white arms. She +was shimmering with lace and all the dainty trifles required by fashion. +Her hair, dressed _a la Sevigne_, gave her a look of elegance; a +necklace of pearls lay on her bosom like bubbles on snow. + +“What is the matter, monsieur?” said the Countess, putting out her +foot from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. “I thought, I +hoped, I was quite forgotten.” + +“If I should reply _Never_, you would refuse to believe me,” said +Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the +flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented +the room. + +For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying Lousteau, +saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might have been. + +“You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a +plank to me--for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than one +mouthful----” said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and seeming to +yield to an overpowering impulse. “Since you see me here, it is because +my affairs are going to the devil.” + +“That is enough,” said she; “I understand.” + +There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out his +handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear. + +“How much do you want, Etienne,” she went on in motherly tones. “We are +at this moment old comrades; speak to me as you would to--to Bixiou.” + +“To save my furniture from vanishing into thin air to-morrow morning at +the auction mart, eighteen hundred francs! To repay my friends, as much +again! Three quarters’ rent to the landlord--whom you know.--My ‘uncle’ +wants five hundred francs--” + +“And you!--to live on?” + +“Oh! I have my pen----” + +“It is heavier to lift than any one could believe who reads your +articles,” said she, with a subtle smile.--“I have not such a sum as +you need, but come to-morrow at eight; the bailiff will surely wait till +nine, especially if you bring him away to pay him.” + +She must, she felt, dismiss Lousteau, who affected to be unable to look +at her; she herself felt such pity as might cut every social Gordian +knot. + +“Thank you,” she added, rising and offering her hand to Lousteau. “Your +confidence has done me good! It is long indeed since my heart has known +such joy----” + +Lousteau took her hand and pressed it tenderly to his heart. + +“A drop of water in the desert--and sent by the hand of an angel! God +always does things handsomely!” + +He spoke half in jest and half pathetically; but, believe me, as a piece +of acting it was as fine as Talma’s in his famous part of _Leicester_, +which was played throughout with touches of this kind. Dinah felt his +heart beating through his coat; it was throbbing with satisfaction, for +the journalist had had a narrow escape from the hulks of justice; but +it also beat with a very natural fire at seeing Dinah rejuvenescent and +restored by wealth. + +Madame de la Baudraye, stealing an examining glance at Etienne, saw that +his expression was in harmony with the flowers of love, which, as she +thought, had blossomed again in that throbbing heart; she tried to look +once into the eyes of the man she had loved so well, but the seething +blood rushed through her veins and mounted to her brain. Their eyes met +with the same fiery glow as had encouraged Lousteau on the Quay by the +Loire to crumple Dinah’s muslin gown. The Bohemian put his arm round her +waist, she yielded, and their cheeks were touching. + +“Here comes my mother, hide!” cried Dinah in alarm. And she hurried +forward to intercept Madame Piedefer. + +“Mamma,” said she--this word was to the stern old lady a coaxing +expression which never failed of its effect--“will you do me a great +favor? Take the carriage and go yourself to my banker, Monsieur +Mongenod, with a note I will give you, and bring back six thousand +francs. Come, come--it is an act of charity; come into my room.” + +And she dragged away her mother, who seemed very anxious to see who it +was that her daughter had been talking with in the boudoir. + +Two days afterwards, Madame Piedefer held a conference with the cure of +the parish. After listening to the lamentations of the old mother, who +was in despair, the priest said very gravely: + +“Any moral regeneration which is not based on a strong religious +sentiment, and carried out in the bosom of the Church, is built on +sand.--The many means of grace enjoined by the Catholic religion, small +as they are, and not understood, are so many dams necessary to restrain +the violence of evil promptings. Persuade your daughter to perform all +her religious duties, and we shall save her yet.” + +Within ten days of this meeting the Hotel de la Baudraye was shut +up. The Countess, the children, and her mother, in short, the whole +household, including a tutor, had gone away to Sancerre, where Dinah +intended to spend the summer. She was everything that was nice to the +Count, people said. + +And so the Muse of Sancerre had simply come back to family and married +life; but certain evil tongues declared that she had been compelled +to come back, for that the little peer’s wishes would no doubt be +fulfilled--he hoped for a little girl. + +Gatien and Monsieur Gravier lavished every care, every servile attention +on the handsome Countess. Gatien, who during Madame de la Baudraye’s +long absence had been to Paris to learn the art of _lionnerie_ or +dandyism, was supposed to have a good chance of finding favor in the +eyes of the disenchanted “Superior Woman.” Others bet on the tutor; +Madame Piedefer urged the claims of religion. + +In 1844, about the middle of June, as the Comte de la Baudraye was +taking a walk on the Mall at Sancerre with the two fine little boys, +he met Monsieur Milaud, the Public Prosecutor, who was at Sancerre on +business, and said to him: + +“These are my children, cousin.” + +“Ah, ha! so these are our children!” replied the lawyer, with a +mischievous twinkle. + + +PARIS, June 1843-August 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Beaupre, Fanny + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + + Berthier, Madame (Felicie Cardot) + Cousin Pons + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + 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 + + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cousin Pons + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + + Cardot (Parisian notary) + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de + The Member for Arcis + + Falcon, Jean + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + Grosstete (younger brother of F. Grosstete) + The Country Parson + + Hulot (Marshal) + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + A Prince of Bohemia + Cousin Betty + + Lebas + Cousin Betty + + Listomere, Baronne de + The Vicar of Tours + Cesar Birotteau + + Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + + Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor’s Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Ursule Mirouet + + Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + + Milaud + Lost Illusions + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + + Nathan, Madame Raoul + 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 Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + + Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Ronceret, Madame Fabien du + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Rouget, Jean-Jacques + A Bachelor’s Establishment + + Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + + Turquet, Marguerite + The Imaginary Mistress + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + + Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 1912-0.txt or 1912-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1912/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1912-0.zip b/1912-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7fb5ee --- /dev/null +++ b/1912-0.zip diff --git a/1912-h.zip b/1912-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..67616ca --- /dev/null +++ b/1912-h.zip diff --git a/1912-h/1912-h.htm b/1912-h/1912-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40f76f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/1912-h/1912-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8792 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Muse of the Department + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: James Waring + +Release Date: March 5, 2010 [EBook #1912] +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by James Waring + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont. + + MY DEAR FERDINAND,—If the chances of the world of literature + —<i>habent sua fata libelli</i>—should allow these lines to be an + enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the + trouble you have taken—you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the + King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, + Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, + Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valois—the hundred great names that form + the Aristocracy of the “Human Comedy” owe their lordly mottoes and + ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, “the Armorial of the Etudes, + devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman,” is a complete manual + of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the + arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of + friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of + the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the + Beauseants, <i>Pulchre sedens, melius agens</i>; in that of the + Espards, <i>Des partem leonis</i>; in that of the Vandenesses, <i>Ne se + vend</i>. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned + symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried + in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. + + Your old friend, + DE BALZAC. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT</b> </a><br /><br /> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> ADDENDUM </a> + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p> + On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, + infallibly attracts the traveler’s eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost height + of a chain of hills, the last of the range that gives variety to the + Nivernais. The Loire floods the flats at the foot of these slopes, leaving + a yellow alluvium that is extremely fertile, excepting in those places + where it has deluged them with sand and destroyed them forever, by one of + those terrible risings which are also incidental to the Vistula—the + Loire of the northern coast. + </p> + <p> + The hill on which the houses of Sancerre are grouped is so far from the + river that the little river-port of Saint-Thibault thrives on the life of + Sancerre. There wine is shipped and oak staves are landed, with all the + produce brought from the upper and lower Loire. At the period when this + story begins the suspension bridges at Cosne and at Saint-Thibault were + already built. Travelers from Paris to Sancerre by the southern road were + no longer ferried across the river from Cosne to Saint-Thibault; and this + of itself is enough to show that the great cross-shuffle of 1830 was a + thing of the past, for the House of Orleans has always had a care for + substantial improvements, though somewhat after the fashion of a husband + who makes his wife presents out of her marriage portion. + </p> + <p> + Excepting that part of Sancerre which occupies the little plateau, the + streets are more or less steep, and the town is surrounded by slopes known + as the Great Ramparts, a name which shows that they are the highroads of + the place. + </p> + <p> + Outside the ramparts lies a belt of vineyards. Wine forms the chief + industry and the most important trade of the country, which yields several + vintages of high-class wine full of aroma, and so nearly resembling the + wines of Burgundy, that the vulgar palate is deceived. So Sancerre finds + in the wineshops of Paris the quick market indispensable for liquor that + will not keep for more than seven or eight years. Below the town lie a few + villages, Fontenoy and Saint-Satur, almost suburbs, reminding us by their + situation of the smiling vineyards about Neuchatel in Switzerland. + </p> + <p> + The town still bears much of its ancient aspect; the streets are narrow + and paved with pebbles carted up from the Loire. Some old houses are to be + seen there. The citadel, a relic of military power and feudal times, stood + one of the most terrible sieges of our religious wars, when French + Calvinists far outdid the ferocious Cameronians of Walter Scott’s tales. + </p> + <p> + The town of Sancerre, rich in its greater past, but widowed now of its + military importance, is doomed to an even less glorious future, for the + course of trade lies on the right bank of the Loire. The sketch here given + shows that Sancerre will be left more and more lonely in spite of the two + bridges connecting it with Cosne. + </p> + <p> + Sancerre, the pride of the left bank, numbers three thousand five hundred + inhabitants at most, while at Cosne there are now more than six thousand. + Within half a century the part played by these two towns standing opposite + each other has been reversed. The advantage of situation, however, remains + with the historic town, whence the view on every side is perfectly + enchanting, where the air is deliciously pure, the vegetation splendid, + and the residents, in harmony with nature, are friendly souls, good + fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though two-thirds of the population are + Calvinists. Under such conditions, though there are the usual + disadvantages of life in a small town, and each one lives under the + officious eye which makes private life almost a public concern, on the + other hand, the spirit of township—a sort of patriotism, which + cannot indeed take the place of a love of home—flourishes + triumphantly. + </p> + <p> + Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth to + one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an author + of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful + journalists. The district included under the municipality of Sancerre, + distressed at finding itself practically ruled by seven or eight large + landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the + electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough. This + little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was provoked, + failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of them, as the + inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others. This result showed + the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy then suggested was to + rally round a champion at the next election, in the person of one of the + two men who so gloriously represented Sancerre in Paris circles. + </p> + <p> + This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since 1830 + the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly that real + statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber. + </p> + <p> + In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in the + brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, <i>dux femina fasti</i>, but + with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted in this + lady’s past life, and so entirely comprehended her future prospects, that + it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of her antecedent + career. + </p> + <p> + Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized + indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local reputation. + This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris were attaining, + each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory for one, and of + fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in reviews, signed his + name to contributions to a paper that had eight thousand subscribers; and + Bianchon, already chief physician to a hospital, Officer of the Legion of + Honor, and member of the Academy of Sciences, had just been made a + professor. + </p> + <p> + If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a degree + of blame, it might be said that George Sand created <i>Sandism</i>, so + true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. This + leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, <i>Sandism</i> + has its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases her assumption + of superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue-stocking of sentiment; + and she is rather less of a bore, love to some extent neutralizing + literature. The most conspicuous result of George Sand’s celebrity was to + elicit the fact that France has a perfectly enormous number of superior + women, who have, however, till now been so generous as to leave the field + to the Marechal de Saxe’s granddaughter. + </p> + <p> + The Superior Woman of Sancerre lived at La Baudraye, a town-house and + country-house in one, within ten minutes of the town, and in the village, + or, if you will, the suburb of Saint-Satur. The La Baudrayes of the + present day have, as is frequently the case, thrust themselves in, and are + but a substitute for those La Baudrayes whose name, glorious in the + Crusades, figured in the chief events of the history of Le Berry. + </p> + <p> + The story must be told. + </p> + <p> + In the time of Louis XIV. a certain sheriff named Milaud, whose + forefathers had been furious Calvinists, was converted at the time of the + Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. To encourage this movement in one of + the strong-holds of Calvinism, the King gave said Milaud a good + appointment in the “Waters and Forests,” granted him arms and the title of + Sire (or Lord) de la Baudraye, with the fief of the old and genuine La + Baudrayes. The descendants of the famous Captain la Baudraye fell, sad to + say, into one of the snares laid for heretics by the new decrees, and were + hanged—an unworthy deed of the great King’s. + </p> + <p> + Under Louis XV. Milaud de la Baudraye, from being a mere squire, was made + Chevalier, and had influence enough to obtain for his son a cornet’s + commission in the Musketeers. This officer perished at Fontenoy, leaving a + child, to whom King Louis XVI. subsequently granted the privileges, by + patent, of a farmer-general, in remembrance of his father’s death on the + field of battle. + </p> + <p> + This financier, a fashionable wit, great at charades, capping verses, and + posies to Chlora, lived in society, was a hanger-on to the Duc de + Nivernais, and fancied himself obliged to follow the nobility into exile; + but he took care to carry his money with him. Thus the rich <i>emigre</i> + was able to assist more than one family of high rank. + </p> + <p> + In 1800, tired of hoping, and perhaps tired of lending, he returned to + Sancerre, bought back La Baudraye out of a feeling of vanity and imaginary + pride, quite intelligible in a sheriff’s grandson, though under the + consulate his prospects were but slender; all the more so, indeed, because + the ex-farmer-general had small hopes of his heir’s perpetuating the new + race of La Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + Jean Athanase Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, his only son, more than + delicate from his birth, was very evidently the child of a man whose + constitution had early been exhausted by the excesses in which rich men + indulge, who then marry at the first stage of premature old age, and thus + bring degeneracy into the highest circles of society. During the years of + the emigration Madame de la Baudraye, a girl of no fortune, chosen for her + noble birth, had patiently reared this sallow, sickly boy, for whom she + had the devoted love mothers feel for such changeling creatures. Her death—she + was a Casteran de la Tour—contributed to bring about Monsieur de la + Baudraye’s return to France. + </p> + <p> + This Lucullus of the Milauds, when he died, left his son the fief, + stripped indeed of its fines and dues, but graced with weathercocks + bearing his coat-of-arms, a thousand louis-d’or—in 1802 a + considerable sum of money—and certain receipts for claims on very + distinguished <i>emigres</i> enclosed in a pocketbook full of verses, with + this inscription on the wrapper, <i>Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas</i>. + </p> + <p> + Young La Baudraye did not die, but he owed his life to habits of monastic + strictness; to the economy of action which Fontenelle preached as the + religion of the invalid; and, above all, to the air of Sancerre and the + influence of its fine elevation, whence a panorama over the valley of the + Loire may be seen extending for forty leagues. + </p> + <p> + From 1802 to 1815 young La Baudraye added several plots to his vineyards, + and devoted himself to the culture of the vine. The Restoration seemed to + him at first so insecure that he dared not go to Paris to claim his debts; + but after Napoleon’s death he tried to turn his father’s collection of + autographs into money, though not understanding the deep philosophy which + had thus mixed up I O U’s and copies of verses. But the winegrower lost so + much time in impressing his identity on the Duke of Navarreins “and + others,” as he phrased it, that he came back to Sancerre, to his beloved + vintage, without having obtained anything but offers of service. + </p> + <p> + The Restoration had raised the nobility to such a degree of lustre as made + La Baudraye wish to justify his ambitions by having an heir. This happy + result of matrimony he considered doubtful, or he would not so long have + postponed the step; however, finding himself still above ground in 1823, + at the age of forty-three, a length of years which no doctor, astrologer, + or midwife would have dared to promise him, he hoped to earn the reward of + his sober life. And yet his choice showed such a lack of prudence in + regard to his frail constitution, that the malicious wit of a country town + could not help thinking it must be the result of some deep calculation. + </p> + <p> + Just at this time His Eminence, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Bourges, had + converted to the Catholic faith a young person, the daughter of one of the + citizen families, who were the first upholders of Calvinism, and who, + thanks to their obscurity or to some compromise with Heaven, had escaped + from the persecutions under Louis XIV. The Piedefers—a name that was + obviously one of the quaint nicknames assumed by the champions of the + Reformation—had set up as highly respectable cloth merchants. But in + the reign of Louis XVI., Abraham Piedefer fell into difficulties, and at + his death in 1786 left his two children in extreme poverty. One of them, + Tobie Piedefer, went out to the Indies, leaving the pittance they had + inherited to his elder brother. During the Revolution Moise Piedefer + bought up the nationalized land, pulled down abbeys and churches with all + the zeal of his ancestors, oddly enough, and married a Catholic, the only + daughter of a member of the Convention who had perished on the scaffold. + This ambitious Piedefer died in 1819, leaving a little girl of remarkable + beauty. This child, brought up in the Calvinist faith, was named Dinah, in + accordance with the custom in use among the sect, of taking their + Christian names from the Bible, so as to have nothing in common with the + Saints of the Roman Church. + </p> + <p> + Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer was placed by her mother in one of the best + schools in Bourges, that kept by the Demoiselles Chamarolles, and was soon + as highly distinguished for the qualities of her mind as for her beauty; + but she found herself snubbed by girls of birth and fortune, destined + by-and-by to play a greater part in the world than a mere plebeian, the + daughter of a mother who was dependent on the settlement of Piedefer’s + estate. Dinah, having raised herself for the moment above her companions, + now aimed at remaining on a level with them for the rest of her life. She + determined, therefore, to renounce Calvinism, in the hope that the + Cardinal would extend his favor to his proselyte and interest himself in + her prospects. You may from this judge of Mademoiselle Dinah’s + superiority, since at the age of seventeen she was a convert solely from + ambition. + </p> + <p> + The Archbishop, possessed with the idea that Dinah Piedefer would adorn + society, was anxious to see her married. But every family to whom the + prelate made advances took fright at a damsel gifted with the looks of a + princess, who was reputed to be the cleverest of Mademoiselle Chamarolles’ + pupils and who, at the somewhat theatrical ceremonial of prize-giving, + always took a leading part. A thousand crowns a year, which was as much as + she could hope for from the estate of La Hautoy when divided between the + mother and daughter, would be a mere trifle in comparison with the + expenses into which a husband would be led by the personal advantages of + so brilliant a creature. + </p> + <p> + As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la + Baudraye—for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of + the Cher—he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at + high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter’s to take + the first comer with well-lined pockets—the first <i>chien coiffe</i>, + as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to receive + Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even better pleased + to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The little gentleman + only demanded of His Eminence a formal promise to support his claims with + the President of the Council to enable him to recover his debts from the + Duc de Navarreins “and others” by a lien on their indemnities. This + method, however, seemed to the able Minister then occupying the Pavillon + Marsan rather too sharp practice, and he gave the vine-owner to understand + that his business should be attended to all in good time. + </p> + <p> + It is easy to imagine the excitement produced in the Sancerre district by + the news of Monsieur de la Baudraye’s imprudent marriage. + </p> + <p> + “It is quite intelligible,” said President Boirouge; “the little man was + very much startled, as I am told, at hearing that handsome young Milaud, + the Attorney-General’s deputy at Nevers, say to Monsieur de Clagny as they + were looking at the turrets of La Baudraye, ‘That will be mine some day.’—‘But,’ + says Clagny, ‘he may marry and have children.’—‘Impossible!’—So + you may imagine how such a changeling as little La Baudraye must hate that + colossal Milaud.” + </p> + <p> + There was at Nevers a plebeian branch of the Milauds, which had grown so + rich in the cutlery trade that the present representative of that branch + had been brought up to the civil service, in which he had enjoyed the + patronage of Marchangy, now dead. + </p> + <p> + It will be as well to eliminate from this story, in which moral + developments play the principal part, the baser material interests which + alone occupied Monsieur de la Baudraye, by briefly relating the results of + his negotiations in Paris. This will also throw light on certain + mysterious phenomena of contemporary history, and the underground + difficulties in matters of politics which hampered the Ministry at the + time of the Restoration. + </p> + <p> + The promises of Ministers were so illusory that Monsieur de la Baudraye + determined on going to Paris at the time when the Cardinal’s presence was + required there by the sitting of the Chambers. + </p> + <p> + This is how the Duc de Navarreins, the principal debtor threatened by + Monsieur de la Baudraye, got out of the scrape. + </p> + <p> + The country gentleman, lodging at the Hotel de Mayence, Rue Saint-Honore, + near the Place Vendome, one morning received a visit from a confidential + agent of the Ministry, who was an expert in “winding up” business. This + elegant personage, who stepped out of an elegant cab, and was dressed in + the most elegant style, was requested to walk up to No. 3—that is to + say, to the third floor, to a small room where he found his provincial + concocting a cup of coffee over his bedroom fire. + </p> + <p> + “Is it to Monsieur Milaud de la Baudraye that I have the honor—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the little man, draping himself in his dressing-gown. + </p> + <p> + After examining this garment, the illicit offspring of an old chine + wrapper of Madame Piedefer’s and a gown of the late lamented Madame de la + Baudraye, the emissary considered the man, the dressing-gown, and the + little stove on which the milk was boiling in a tin saucepan, as so + homogeneous and characteristic, that he deemed it needless to beat about + the bush. + </p> + <p> + “I will lay a wager, monsieur,” said he, audaciously, “that you dine for + forty sous at Hurbain’s in the Palais Royal.” + </p> + <p> + “Pray, why?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I know you, having seen you there,” replied the Parisian with perfect + gravity. “All the princes’ creditors dine there. You know that you recover + scarcely ten per cent on debts from these fine gentlemen. I would not give + you five per cent on a debt to be recovered from the estate of the late + Duc d’Orleans—nor even,” he added in a low voice—“from + MONSIEUR.” + </p> + <p> + “So you have come to buy up the bills?” said La Baudraye, thinking himself + very clever. + </p> + <p> + “Buy them!” said his visitor. “Why, what do you take me for? I am Monsieur + des Lupeaulx, Master of Appeals, Secretary-General to the Ministry, and I + have come to propose an arrangement.” + </p> + <p> + “What is that?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course, monsieur, you know the position of your debtor—” + </p> + <p> + “Of my debtors—” + </p> + <p> + “Well, monsieur, you understand the position of your debtors; they stand + high in the King’s good graces, but they have no money, and are obliged to + make a good show.—Again, you know the difficulties of the political + situation. The aristocracy has to be rehabilitated in the face of a very + strong force of the third estate. The King’s idea—and France does + him scant justice—is to create a peerage as a national institution + analogous to the English peerage. To realize this grand idea we need years—and + millions.—<i>Noblesse oblige</i>. The Duc de Navarreins, who is, as + you know, first gentleman of the Bedchamber to the King, does not + repudiate his debt; but he cannot—Now, be reasonable.—Consider + the state of politics. We are emerging from the pit of the Revolution.—and + you yourself are noble—He simply cannot pay—” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur—” + </p> + <p> + “You are hasty,” said des Lupeaulx. “Listen. He cannot pay in money. Well, + then; you, a clever man, can take payment in favors—Royal or + Ministerial.” + </p> + <p> + “What! When in 1793 my father put down one hundred thousand—” + </p> + <p> + “My dear sir, recrimination is useless. Listen to a simple statement in + political arithmetic: The collectorship at Sancerre is vacant; a certain + paymaster-general of the forces has a claim on it, but he has no chance of + getting it; you have the chance—and no claim. You will get the + place. You will hold it for three months, you will then resign, and + Monsieur Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. In addition, the + Order of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on you.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, that is something,” said the wine-grower, tempted by the money + rather than by the red ribbon. + </p> + <p> + “But then,” said des Lupeaulx, “you must show your gratitude to His + Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your + claims on him.” + </p> + <p> + La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months later + he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the most + agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who was of + course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife. + </p> + <p> + As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la Baudraye + returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some other debtors. + This time he was made a Referendary under the Great Seal, Baron, and + Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the appointment as Referendary; + and then the Baron de la Baudraye called on his last remaining debtors, + and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of Appeals, with an appointment as + Royal Commissioner to a commercial association established in the + Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand francs, an absolute sinecure. So + the worthy La Baudraye, who was supposed to have committed a financial + blunder, had, in fact, done very good business in the choice of a wife. + </p> + <p> + Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate + belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year 1827 + the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By paying four + hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to further instalments, + which compelled him to live for six years on the air as it came, to use + his own expression, he was able to purchase the estate of Anzy on the + banks of the Loire, about two leagues above Sancerre, and its magnificent + castle built by Philibert de l’Orme, the admiration of every connoisseur, + and for five centuries the property of the Uxelles family. At last he was + one of the great landowners of the province! It is not absolutely certain + that the satisfaction of knowing that an entail had been created, by + letters patent dated back to December 1820, including the estates of Anzy, + of La Baudraye, and of La Hautoy, was any compensation to Dinah on finding + herself reduced to unconfessed penuriousness till 1835. + </p> + <p> + This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye + explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias of + country folks will recognize in him the <i>land-hunger</i> which becomes + such a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of + avarice displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin by a + want of balance between the interest on mortgages and the products of the + soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely laughed at the little man + as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault and attending to his business, + like a merchant living on his vineyards, found the answer to the riddle + when the ant-lion seized his prey, after waiting for the day when the + extravagance of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse culminated in the sale of + that splendid property. + </p> + <p> + Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined fortunes of + Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had been content to + accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands of La Hautoy which + she handed over to him, amounted to an acknowledged income of about + fifteen thousand francs. + </p> + <p> + During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some + alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant + residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, pulling + down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the manor-house, + which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets and gables, she + laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and lawns, and divided + it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under creepers. She also made + everything within doors as comfortable as their narrow circumstances + allowed. + </p> + <p> + In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah seemed + to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing as to the + recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his money matters gave + a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him dignity in his wife’s + eyes during the first years of their married life—so majestic is + silence! + </p> + <p> + The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see the + young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show herself, + nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled in her home and had + thoroughly studied the inhabitants, and, above all, her taciturn husband. + When, one spring morning in 1825, pretty Madame de la Baudraye was first + seen walking on the Mall in a blue velvet dress, with her mother in black + velvet, there was quite an excitement in Sancerre. This dress confirmed + the young woman’s reputation for superiority, brought up, as she had been, + in the capital of Le Berry. Every one was afraid lest in entertaining this + phoenix of the Department, the conversation should not be clever enough; + and, of course, everybody was constrained in the presence of Madame de la + Baudraye, who produced a sort of terror among the woman-folk. As they + admired a carpet of Indian shawl-pattern in the La Baudraye drawing-room, + a Pompadour writing-table carved and gilt, brocade window curtains, and a + Japanese bowl full of flowers on the round table among a selection of the + newest books; when they heard the fair Dinah playing at sight, without + making the smallest demur before seating herself at the piano, the idea + they conceived of her superiority assumed vast proportions. That she might + never allow herself to become careless or the victim of bad taste, Dinah + had determined to keep herself up to the mark as to the fashions and + latest developments of luxury by an active correspondence with Anna + Grossetete, her bosom friend at Mademoiselle Chamarolles’ school. + </p> + <p> + Anna, thanks to a fine fortune, had married the Comte de Fontaine’s third + son. Thus those ladies who visited at La Baudraye were perpetually piqued + by Dinah’s success in leading the fashion; do what they would, they were + always behind, or, as they say on the turf, distanced. + </p> + <p> + While all these trifles gave rise to malignant envy in the ladies of + Sancerre, Dinah’s conversation and wit engendered absolute aversion. In + her ambition to keep her mind on the level of Parisian brilliancy, Madame + de la Baudraye allowed no vacuous small talk in her presence, no + old-fashioned compliments, no pointless remarks; she would never endure + the yelping of tittle-tattle, the backstairs slander which forms the + staple of talk in the country. She liked to hear of discoveries in science + or art, or the latest pieces at the theatres, the newest poems, and by + airing the cant words of the day she made a show of uttering thoughts. + </p> + <p> + The Abbe Duret, Cure of Sancerre, an old man of a lost type of clergy in + France, a man of the world with a liking for cards, had not dared to + indulge this taste in so liberal a district as Sancerre; he, therefore, + was delighted at Madame de la Baudraye’s coming, and they got on together + to admiration. The <i>sous-prefet</i>, one Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, was + delighted to find in Madame de la Baudraye’s drawing-room a sort of oasis + where there was a truce to provincial life. As to Monsieur de Clagny, the + Public Prosecutor, his admiration for the fair Dinah kept him bound to + Sancerre. The enthusiastic lawyer refused all promotion, and became a + quite pious adorer of this angel of grace and beauty. He was a tall, lean + man, with a minatory countenance set off by terrible eyes in deep black + circles, under enormous eyebrows; and his eloquence, very unlike his + love-making, could be incisive. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the Empire + had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment that had won + him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces. Having mixed + himself up in certain important matters in Spain with generals at that + time in opposition, he had made the most of these connections to the + Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had lost, promised him the + Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him to pay for the appointment. + The frivolous spirit and light tone of the Empire had become ponderous in + Monsieur Gravier; he did not, or would not, understand the wide difference + between manners under the Restoration and under the Empire. Still, he + conceived of himself as far superior to Monsieur de Clagny; his style was + in better taste; he followed the fashion, was to be seen in a buff + waistcoat, gray trousers, and neat, tightly-fitting coats; he wore a + fashionable silk tie slipped through a diamond ring, while the lawyer + never dressed in anything but black—coat, trousers, and waistcoat + alike, and those often shabby. + </p> + <p> + These four men were the first to go into ecstasies over Dinah’s + cultivation, good taste, and refinement, and pronounced her a woman of + most superior mind. Then the women said to each other, “Madame de la + Baudraye must laugh at us behind our back.” + </p> + <p> + This view, which was more or less correct, kept them from visiting at La + Baudraye. Dinah, attainted and convicted of pedantry, because she spoke + grammatically, was nicknamed the Sappho of Saint-Satur. At last everybody + made insolent game of the great qualities of the woman who had thus roused + the enmity of the ladies of Sancerre. And they ended by denying a + superiority—after all, merely comparative!—which emphasized + their ignorance, and did not forgive it. Where the whole population is + hunch-backed, a straight shape is the monstrosity; Dinah was regarded as + monstrous and dangerous, and she found herself in a desert. + </p> + <p> + Astonished at seeing the women of the neighborhood only at long intervals, + and for visits of a few minutes, Dinah asked Monsieur de Clagny the reason + of this state of things. + </p> + <p> + “You are too superior a woman to be liked by other women,” said the + lawyer. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Gravier, when questioned by the forlorn fair, only, after much + entreaty, replied: + </p> + <p> + “Well, lady fair, you are not satisfied to be merely charming. You are + clever and well educated, you know every book that comes out, you love + poetry, you are a musician, and you talk delightfully. Women cannot + forgive so much superiority.” + </p> + <p> + Men said to Monsieur de la Baudraye: + </p> + <p> + “You who have such a Superior Woman for a wife are very fortunate——” + And at last he himself would say: + </p> + <p> + “I who have a Superior Woman for a wife, am very fortunate,” etc. + </p> + <p> + Madame Piedefer, flattered through her daughter, also allowed herself to + say such things—“My daughter, who is a very Superior Woman, was + writing yesterday to Madame de Fontaine such and such a thing.” + </p> + <p> + Those who know the world—France, Paris—know how true it is + that many celebrities are thus created. + </p> + <p> + Two years later, by the end of the year 1825, Dinah de la Baudraye was + accused of not choosing to have any visitors but men; then it was said + that she did not care for women—and that was a crime. Not a thing + could she do, not her most trifling action, could escape criticism and + misrepresentation. After making every sacrifice that a well-bred woman can + make, and placing herself entirely in the right, Madame de la Baudraye was + so rash as to say to a false friend who condoled with her on her + isolation: + </p> + <p> + “I would rather have my bowl empty than with anything in it!” + </p> + <p> + This speech produced a terrible effect on Sancerre, and was cruelly + retorted on the Sappho of Saint-Satur when, seeing her childless after + five years of married life, <i>little</i> de la Baudraye became a byword + for laughter. To understand this provincial witticism, readers may be + reminded of the Bailli de Ferrette—some, no doubt, having known him—of + whom it was said that he was the bravest man in Europe for daring to walk + on his legs, and who was accused of putting lead in his shoes to save + himself from being blown away. Monsieur de la Baudraye, a sallow and + almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the Bailli de + Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist had been the + Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere decency, + he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an average man, + whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would have been an + advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he walked, the little + vine-owner’s leg-pads often twisted round on to his shins, so little did + he make a secret of them, and he would thank any one who warned him of + this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and a + white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he adopted blue trousers and + boots with heels, which made Sancerre declare that he had added two inches + to his stature that he might come up to his wife’s chin. For ten years he + was always seen in the same little bottle-green coat with large + white-metal buttons, and a black stock that accentuated his cold stingy + face, lighted up by gray-blue eyes as keen and passionless as a cat’s. + Being very gentle, as men are who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he + seemed to make his wife happy by never contradicting her; he allowed her + to do the talking, and was satisfied to move with the deliberate tenacity + of an insect. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired for + her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place, encouraged their + admiration by conversations, for which it was subsequently asserted, she + prepared herself beforehand. Finding herself listened to with rapture, she + soon began to listen to herself, enjoyed haranguing her audience, and at + last regarded her friends as the chorus in a tragedy, there only to give + her her cues. In fact, she had a very fine collection of phrases and + ideas, derived either from books or by assimilating the opinions of her + companions, and thus became a sort of mechanical instrument, going off on + a round of phrases as soon as some chance remark released the spring. To + do her justice, Dinah was choke full of knowledge, and read everything, + even medical books, statistics, science, and jurisprudence; for she did + not know how to spend her days when she had reviewed her flower-beds and + given her orders to the gardener. Gifted with an excellent memory, and the + talent which some women have for hitting on the right word, she could talk + on any subject with the lucidity of a studied style. And so men came from + Cosne, from la Charite, and from Nevers, on the right bank; from Lere, + Vailly, Argent, Blancafort, and Aubigny, on the left bank, to be + introduced to Madame de la Baudraye, as they used in Switzerland, to be + introduced to Madame de Stael. Those who only once heard the round of + tunes emitted by this musical snuff-box went away amazed, and told such + wonders of Dinah as made all the women jealous for ten leagues round. + </p> + <p> + There is an indescribable mental headiness in the admiration we inspire, + or in the effect of playing a part, which fends off criticism from + reaching the idol. An atmosphere, produced perhaps by unceasing nervous + tension, forms a sort of halo, through which the world below is seen. How + otherwise can we account for the perennial good faith which leads to so + many repeated presentments of the same effects, and the constant ignoring + of warnings given by children, such a terror to their parents, or by + husbands, so familiar as they are with the peacock airs of their wives? + Monsieur de la Baudraye had the frankness of a man who opens an umbrella + at the first drop of rain. When his wife was started on the subject of + Negro emancipation or the improvement of convict prisons, he would take up + his little blue cap and vanish without a sound, in the certainty of being + able to get to Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of puncheons, and return + an hour later to find the discussion approaching a close. Or, if he had no + business to attend to, he would go for a walk on the Mall, whence he + commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, and take a draught of + fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata in words, or a + dialectical duet. + </p> + <p> + Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove her + devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw herself into + the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under Art, poetry and + painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the opera. Thus she + became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any treasures that dated + from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as so many devoted + commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had become possessed of + the Rougets’ furniture, sold at Issoudun early in 1824. She purchased some + very good things at Nivernais and the Haute-Loire. At the New Year and on + her birthday her friends never failed to give her some curiosities. These + fancies found favor in the eyes of Monsieur de la Baudraye; they gave him + an appearance of sacrificing a few crowns to his wife’s taste. In point of + fact, his land mania allowed him to think of nothing but the estate of + Anzy. + </p> + <p> + These “antiquities” at that time cost much less than modern furniture. By + the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the two + drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the ground + floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were crammed with + masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments. These + surroundings, which were called <i>queer</i> by the neighbors, were quite + in harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the rage, struck + the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they came expecting + something unusual; and they found their expectations surpassed when, + behind a bower of flowers, they saw these catacombs full of old things, + piled up as Sommerard used to pile them—that “Old Mortality” of + furniture. And then these finds served as so many springs which, turned on + by a question, played off an essay on Jean Goujon, Michel Columb, Germain + Pilon, Boulle, Van Huysum, and Boucher, the great native painter of Le + Berry; on Clodion, the carver of wood, on Venetian mirrors, on Brustolone, + an Italian tenor who was the Michael-Angelo of boxwood and holm oak; on + the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth + centuries, on the glazes of Bernard de Palissy, the enamels of Petitot, + the engravings of Albrecht Durer—whom she called Dur; on + illuminations on vellum, on Gothic architecture, early decorated, + flamboyant and pure—enough to turn an old man’s brain and fire a + young man with enthusiasm. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye, possessed with the idea of waking up Sancerre, + tried to form a so-called literary circle. The Presiding Judge, Monsieur + Boirouge, who happened to have a house and garden on his hands, part of + the Popinot-Chandier property, favored the notion of this <i>coterie</i>. + The wily Judge talked over the rules of the society with Madame de la + Baudraye; he proposed to figure as one of the founders, and to let the + house for fifteen years to the literary club. By the time it had existed a + year the members were playing dominoes, billiards, and bouillotte, and + drinking mulled wine, punch, and liqueurs. A few elegant little suppers + were then given, and some masked balls during the Carnival. As to + literature—there were the newspapers. Politics and business were + discussed. Monsieur de la Baudraye was constantly there—on his + wife’s account, as she said jestingly. + </p> + <p> + This result deeply grieved the Superior Woman, who despaired of Sancerre, + and collected the wit of the neighborhood in her own drawing-room. + Nevertheless, and in spite of the efforts of Messieurs de Chargeboeuf, + Gravier, and de Clagny, of the Abbe Duret and the two chief magistrates, + of a young doctor, and a young Assistant Judge—all blind admirers of + Dinah’s—there were occasions when, weary of discussion, they allowed + themselves an excursion into the domain of agreeable frivolity which + constitutes the common basis of worldly conversation. Monsieur Gravier + called this “from grave to gay.” The Abbe Duret’s rubber made another + pleasing variety on the monologues of the oracle. The three rivals, tired + of keeping their minds up to the level of the “high range of discussion”—as + they called their conversation—but not daring to confess it, would + sometimes turn with ingratiating hints to the old priest. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur le Cure is dying for his game,” they would say. + </p> + <p> + The wily priest lent himself very readily to the little trick. He + protested. + </p> + <p> + “We should lose too much by ceasing to listen to our inspired hostess!” + and so he would incite Dinah’s magnanimity to take pity at last on her + dear Abbe. + </p> + <p> + This bold manoeuvre, a device of the Sous-prefet’s, was repeated with so + much skill that Dinah never suspected her slaves of escaping to the prison + yard, so to speak, of the cardtable; and they would leave her one of the + younger functionaries to harry. + </p> + <p> + One young landowner, and the dandy of Sancerre, fell away from Dinah’s + good graces in consequence of some rash demonstrations. After soliciting + the honor of admission to this little circle, where he flattered himself + he could snatch the blossom from the constituted authorities who guarded + it, he was so unfortunate as to yawn in the middle of an explanation Dinah + was favoring him with—for the fourth time, it is true—of the + philosophy of Kant. Monsieur de la Thaumassiere, the grandson of the + historian of Le Berry, was thenceforth regarded as a man entirely bereft + of soul and brains. + </p> + <p> + The three devotees <i>en titre</i> each submitted to these exorbitant + demands on their mind and attention, in hope of a crowning triumph, when + at last Dinah should become human; for neither of them was so bold as to + imagine that Dinah would give up her innocence as a wife till she should + have lost all her illusions. In 1826, when she was surrounded by adorers, + Dinah completed her twentieth year, and the Abbe Duret kept her in a sort + of fervid Catholicism; so her worshipers had to be content to overwhelm + her with little attentions and small services, only too happy to be taken + for the carpet-knights of this sovereign lady, by strangers admitted to + spend an evening or two at La Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “Madame de la Baudraye is a fruit that must be left to ripen.” This was + the opinion of Monsieur Gravier, who was waiting. + </p> + <p> + As to the lawyer, he wrote letters four pages long, to which Dinah replied + in soothing speech as she walked, leaning on his arm, round and round the + lawn after dinner. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye, thus guarded by three passions, and always under + the eye of her pious mother, escaped the malignity of slander. It was so + evident to all Sancerre that no two of these three men would ever leave + the third alone with Madame de la Baudraye, that their jealousy was a + comedy to the lookers-on. + </p> + <p> + To reach Saint-Thibault from Caesar’s Gate there is a way much shorter + than that by the ramparts, down what is known in mountainous districts as + a <i>coursiere</i>, called at Sancerre <i>le Casse-cou</i>, or Break-neck + Alley. The name is significant as applied to a path down the steepest part + of the hillside, thickly strewn with stones, and shut in by the high banks + of the vineyards on each side. By way of the Break-neck the distance from + Sancerre to La Baudraye is much abridged. The ladies of the place, jealous + of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on the Mall, looking down + this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would stop and engage in + conversation—sometimes the Sous-prefet and sometimes the Public + Prosecutor—and who would listen with every sign of impatience or + uncivil absence of mind. As the turrets of La Baudraye are visible from + the Mall, many a younger man came to contemplate the abode of Dinah while + envying the ten or twelve privileged persons who might spend their + afternoons with the Queen of the neighborhood. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de la Baudraye was not slow to discover the advantage he, as + Dinah’s husband, held over his wife’s adorers, and he made use of them + without any disguise, obtaining a remission of taxes, and gaining two + lawsuits. In every litigation he used the Public Prosecutor’s name with + such good effect that the matter was carried no further, and, like all + undersized men, he was contentious and litigious in business, though in + the gentlest manner. + </p> + <p> + At the same time, the more certainly guiltless she was, the less + conceivable did Madame de la Baudraye’s position seem to the prying eyes + of these women. Frequently, at the house of the Presidente de Boirouge, + the ladies of a certain age would spend a whole evening discussing the La + Baudraye household, among themselves of course. They all had suspicions of + a mystery, a secret such as always interests women who have had some + experience of life. And, in fact, at La Baudraye one of those slow and + monotonous conjugal tragedies was being played out which would have + remained for ever unknown if the merciless scalpel of the nineteenth + century, guided by the insistent demand for novelty, had not dissected the + darkest corners of the heart, or at any rate those which the decency of + past centuries left unopened. And that domestic drama sufficiently + accounts for Dinah’s immaculate virtue during her early married life. + </p> + <p> + A young lady, whose triumphs at school had been the outcome of her pride, + and whose first scheme in life had been rewarded by a victory, was not + likely to pause in such a brilliant career. Frail as Monsieur de la + Baudraye might seem, he was really an unhoped-for good match for + Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer. But what was the hidden motive of this + country landowner when, at forty-four, he married a girl of seventeen; and + what could his wife make out of the bargain? This was the text of Dinah’s + first meditations. + </p> + <p> + The little man never behaved quite as his wife expected. To begin with, he + allowed her to take the five precious acres now wasted in pleasure grounds + round La Baudraye, and paid, almost with generosity, the seven or eight + thousand francs required by Dinah for improvements in the house, enabling + her to buy the furniture at the Rougets’ sale at Issoudun, and to + redecorate her rooms in various styles—Mediaeval, Louis XIV., and + Pompadour. The young wife found it difficult to believe that Monsieur de + la Baudraye was so miserly as he was reputed, or else she must have great + influence with him. The illusion lasted a year and a half. + </p> + <p> + After Monsieur de la Baudraye’s second journey to Paris, Dinah discovered + in him the Artic coldness of a provincial miser whenever money was in + question. The first time she asked for supplies she played the sweetest of + the comedies of which Eve invented the secret; but the little man put it + plainly to his wife that he gave her two hundred francs a month for her + personal expenses, and paid Madame Piedefer twelve hundred francs a year + as a charge on the lands of La Hautoy, and that this was two hundred + francs a year more than was agreed to under the marriage settlement. + </p> + <p> + “I say nothing of the cost of housekeeping,” he said in conclusion. “You + may give your friends cake and tea in the evening, for you must have some + amusement. But I, who spent but fifteen hundred francs a year as a + bachelor, now spend six thousand, including rates and repairs, and this is + rather too much in relation to the nature of our property. A winegrower is + never sure of what his expenses may be—the making, the duty, the + casks—while the returns depend on a scorching day or a sudden frost. + Small owners, like us, whose income is far from being fixed, must base + their estimates on their minimum, for they have no means of making up a + deficit or a loss. What would become of us if a wine merchant became + bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are so many cabbage-leaves. To + live as we are living, we ought always to have a year’s income in hand and + count on no more than two-thirds of our returns.” + </p> + <p> + Any form of resistance is enough to make a woman vow to subdue it; Dinah + flung herself against a will of iron padded round with gentleness. She + tried to fill the little man’s soul with jealousy and alarms, but it was + stockaded with insolent confidence. He left Dinah, when he went to Paris, + with all the conviction of Medor in Angelique’s fidelity. When she + affected cold disdain, to nettle this changeling by the scorn a courtesan + sometimes shows to her “protector,” and which acts on him with the + certainty of the screw of a winepress, Monsieur de la Baudraye gazed at + his wife with fixed eyes, like those of a cat which, in the midst of + domestic broils, waits till a blow is threatened before stirring from its + place. The strange, speechless uneasiness that was perceptible under his + mute indifference almost terrified the young wife of twenty; she could not + at first understand the selfish quiescence of this man, who might be + compared to a cracked pot, and who, in order to live, regulated his + existence with the unchangeable regularity which a clockmaker requires of + a clock. So the little man always evaded his wife, while she always hit + out, as it were, ten feet above his head. + </p> + <p> + Dinah’s fits of fury when she saw herself condemned never to escape from + La Baudraye and Sancerre are more easily imagined than described—she + who had dreamed of handling a fortune and managing the dwarf whom she, the + giant, had at first humored in order to command. In the hope of some day + making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris, she accepted the + vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view to seeing Monsieur de + la Baudraye’s name drawn from the electoral urn; for she supposed him to + be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice from Paris, each time a step + higher on the social ladder. But when she struck on the man’s heart, it + was as though she had tapped on marble! The man who had been + Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now Master of Appeals, Officer + of the Legion of Honor, and Royal Commissioner, was but a mole throwing up + its little hills round and round a vineyard! Then some lamentations were + poured into the heart of the Public Prosecutor, of the Sous-prefet, even + of Monsieur Gravier, and they all increased in their devotion to this + sublime victim; for, like all women, she never mentioned her speculative + schemes, and—again like all women—finding such speculation + vain, she ceased to speculate. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, tossed by mental storms, was still undecided when, in the autumn of + 1827, the news was told of the purchase by the Baron de la Baudraye of the + estate of Anzy. Then the little old man showed an impulsion of pride and + glee which for a few months changed the current of his wife’s ideas; she + fancied there was a hidden vein of greatness in the man when she found him + applying for a patent of entail. In his triumph the Baron exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + “Dinah, you shall be a countess yet!” + </p> + <p> + There was then a patched-up reunion between the husband and wife, such as + can never endure, and which only humiliated and fatigued a woman whose + apparent superiority was unreal, while her unseen superiority was genuine. + This whimsical medley is commoner than people think. Dinah, who was + ridiculous from the perversity of her cleverness, had really great + qualities of soul, but circumstances did not bring these rarer powers to + light, while a provincial life debased the small change of her wit from + day to day. Monsieur de la Baudraye, on the contrary, devoid of soul, of + strength, and of wit, was fated to figure as a man of character, simply by + pursuing a plan of conduct which he was too feeble to change. + </p> + <p> + There was in their lives a first phase, lasting six years, during which + Dinah, alas! became utterly provincial. In Paris there are several kinds + of women: the duchess and the financier’s wife, the ambassadress and the + consul’s wife, the wife of the minister who is a minister, and of him who + is no longer a minister; then there is the lady—quite the lady—of + the right bank of the Seine and of the left. But in the country there is + but one kind of woman, and she, poor thing, is the provincial woman. + </p> + <p> + This remark points to one of the sores of modern society. It must be + clearly understood: France in the nineteenth century is divided into two + broad zones—Paris, and the provinces. The provinces jealous of + Paris; Paris never thinking of the provinces but to demand money. Of old, + Paris was the Capital of the provinces, and the court ruled the Capital; + now, all Paris is the Court, and all the country is the town. + </p> + <p> + However lofty, beautiful, and clever a girl born in any department of + France may be on entering life, if, like Dinah Piedefer, she marries in + the country and remains there, she inevitably becomes the provincial + woman. In spite of every determination, the commonplace of second-rate + ideas, indifference to dress, the culture of vulgar people, swamp the + sublimer essence hidden in the youthful plant; all is over, it falls into + decay. How should it be otherwise? From their earliest years girls bred in + the country see none but provincials; they cannot imagine anything + superior, their choice lies among mediocrities; provincial fathers marry + their daughters to provincial sons; crossing the races is never thought + of, and the brain inevitably degenerates, so that in many country towns + intellect is as rare as the breed is hideous. Mankind becomes dwarfed in + mind and body, for the fatal principle of conformity of fortune governs + every matrimonial alliance. Men of talent, artists, superior brains—every + bird of brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The provincial woman, inferior + in herself, is also inferior through her husband. How is she to live happy + under this crushing twofold consciousness? + </p> + <p> + But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and + conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and gloomy; + to reduce it, narrow it, distort it fatally. Is not one of the most + flattering unctions a woman can lay to her soul the assurance of being + something in the existence of a superior man, chosen by herself, + wittingly, as if to have some revenge on marriage, wherein her tastes were + so little consulted? But if in the country the husbands are inferior + beings, the bachelors are no less so. When a provincial wife commits her + “little sin,” she falls in love with some so-called handsome native, some + indigenous dandy, a youth who wears gloves and is supposed to ride well; + but she knows at the bottom of her soul that her fancy is in pursuit of + the commonplace, more or less well dressed. Dinah was preserved from this + danger by the idea impressed upon her of her own superiority. Even if she + had not been as carefully guarded in her early married life as she was by + her mother, whose presence never weighed upon her till the day when she + wanted to be rid of it, her pride, and her high sense of her own + destinies, would have protected her. Flattered as she was to find herself + surrounded by admirers, she saw no lover among them. No man here realized + the poetical ideal which she and Anna Grossetete had been wont to sketch. + When, stirred by the involuntary temptations suggested by the homage she + received, she asked herself, “If I had to make a choice, who should it + be?” she owned to a preference for Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a gentleman of + good family, whose appearance and manners she liked, but whose cold + nature, selfishness, and narrow ambition, never rising above a prefecture + and a good marriage, repelled her. At a word from his family, who were + alarmed lest he should be killed for an intrigue, the Vicomte had already + deserted a woman he had loved in the town where he previously had been + Sous-prefet. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny, on the other hand, the only man whose mind appealed to + hers, whose ambition was founded on love, and who knew what love means, + Dinah thought perfectly odious. When Dinah saw herself condemned to six + years’ residence at Sancerre she was on the point of accepting the + devotion of Monsieur le Vicomte de Chargeboeuf; but he was appointed to a + prefecture and left the district. To Monsieur de Clagny’s great + satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a married man whose wife made + friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no rival to fear but Monsieur + Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the typical man of forty of whom women + make use while they laugh at him, whose hopes they intentionally and + remorselessly encourage, as we are kind to a beast of burden. In six + years, among all the men who were introduced to her from twenty leagues + round, there was not one in whose presence Dinah was conscious of the + excitement caused by personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, + by the impact of a superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, + even an unhappy one. + </p> + <p> + Thus none of Dinah’s choicest faculties had a chance of developing; she + swallowed many insults to her pride, which was constantly suffering under + the husband who so calmly walked the stage as supernumerary in the drama + of her life. Compelled to bury her wealth of love, she showed only the + surface to the world. Now and then she would try to rouse herself, try to + form some manly resolution; but she was kept in leading strings by the + need for money. And so, slowly and in spite of the ambitious protests and + grievous recriminations of her own mind, she underwent the provincial + metamorphosis here described. Each day took with it a fragment of her + spirited determination. She had laid down a rule for the care of her + person, which she gradually departed from. Though at first she kept up + with the fashions and the little novelties of elegant life, she was + obliged to limit her purchases by the amount of her allowance. Instead of + six hats, caps, or gowns, she resigned herself to one gown each season. + She was so much admired in a certain bonnet that she made it do duty for + two seasons. So it was in everything. + </p> + <p> + Not unfrequently her artistic sense led her to sacrifice the requirements + of her person to secure some bit of Gothic furniture. By the seventh year + she had come so low as to think it convenient to have her morning dresses + made at home by the best needlewoman in the neighborhood; and her mother, + her husband, and her friends pronounced her charming in these inexpensive + costumes which did credit to her taste. Her ideas were imitated! As she + had no standard of comparison, Dinah fell into the snares that surround + the provincial woman. If a Parisian woman’s hips are too narrow or too + full, her inventive wit and the desire to please help to find some heroic + remedy; if she has some defect, some ugly spot, or small disfigurement, + she is capable of making it an adornment; this is often seen; but the + provincial woman—never! If her waist is too short and her figure ill + balanced, well, she makes up her mind to the worst, and her adorers—or + they do not adore her—must take her as she is, while the Parisian + always insists on being taken for what she is not. Hence the preposterous + bustles, the audacious flatness, the ridiculous fulness, the hideous + outlines ingeniously displayed, to which a whole town will become + accustomed, but which are so astounding when a provincial woman makes her + appearance in Paris or among Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim, + showed it off to excess, and never knew a dull moment when it became + ridiculous; when, reduced by the dull weariness of her life, she looked + like a skeleton in clothes; and her friends, seeing her every day, did not + observe the gradual change in her appearance. + </p> + <p> + This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of + marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the town + is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when people meet + every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de la Baudraye, she + loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again, if she flushes a + little, that is intelligible and interesting. A little neglect is thought + charming, and her face is so carefully studied, so well known, that slight + changes are scarcely noticed, and regarded at last as “beauty spots.” When + Dinah ceased to have a new dress with a new season, she seemed to have + made a concession to the philosophy of the place. + </p> + <p> + It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as it is + with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body if it is + not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism most sets its + stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose the briskness which + Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is used to walk and move in a + world devoid of accident or change, there is nothing to be avoided; so in + Paris she walks on as raw recruits do, never remembering that there may be + hindrances, for there are none in her way in her native place, where she + is known, where she is always in her place, and every one makes way for + her. Thus she loses all the charm of the unforeseen. + </p> + <p> + And have you ever noticed the effect on human beings of a life in common? + By the ineffaceable instinct of simian mimicry they all tend to copy each + other. Each one, without knowing it, acquires the gestures, the tone of + voice, the manner, the attitudes, the very countenance of others. In six + years Dinah had sunk to the pitch of the society she lived in. As she + acquired Monsieur de Clagny’s ideas she assumed his tone of voice; she + unconsciously fell into masculine manners from seeing none but men; she + fancied that by laughing at what was ridiculous in them she was safe from + catching it; but, as often happens, some hue of what she laughed at + remained in the grain. + </p> + <p> + A Parisian woman sees so many examples of good taste that a contrary + result ensues. In Paris women learn to seize the hour and moment when they + may appear to advantage; while Madame de la Baudraye, accustomed to take + the stage, acquired an indefinable theatrical and domineering manner, the + air of a <i>prima donna</i> coming forward on the boards, of which + ironical smiles would soon have cured her in the capital. + </p> + <p> + But after she had acquired this stock of absurdities, and, deceived by her + worshipers, imagined them to be added graces, a moment of terrible + awakening came upon her like the fall of an avalanche from a mountain. In + one day she was crushed by a frightful comparison. + </p> + <p> + In 1829, after the departure of Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, she was excited + by the anticipation of a little pleasure; she was expecting the Baronne de + Fontaine. Anna’s husband, who was now Director-General under the Minister + of Finance, took advantage of leave of absence on the occasion of his + father’s death to take his wife to Italy. Anna wished to spend the day at + Sancerre with her school-friend. This meeting was strangely disastrous. + Anna, who at school had been far less handsome than Dinah, now, as Baronne + de Fontaine, was a thousand times handsomer than the Baronne de la + Baudraye, in spite of her fatigue and her traveling dress. Anna stepped + out of an elegant traveling chaise loaded with Paris milliners’ boxes, and + she had with her a lady’s maid, whose airs quite frightened Dinah. All the + difference between a woman of Paris and a provincial was at once evident + to Dinah’s intelligent eye; she saw herself as her friend saw her—and + Anna found her altered beyond recognition. Anna spent six thousand francs + a year on herself alone, as much as kept the whole household at La + Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + In twenty-four hours the friends had exchanged many confidences; and the + Parisian, seeing herself so far superior to the phoenix of Mademoiselle + Chamarolles’ school, showed her provincial friend such kindness, such + attentions, while giving her certain explanations, as were so many stabs + to Dinah, though she perfectly understood that Anna’s advantages all lay + on the surface, while her own were for ever buried. + </p> + <p> + When Anna had left, Madame de la Baudraye, by this time two-and-twenty, + fell into the depths of despair. + </p> + <p> + “What is it that ails you?” asked Monsieur de Clagny, seeing her so + dejected. + </p> + <p> + “Anna,” said she, “has learned to live, while I have been learning to + endure.” + </p> + <p> + A tragi-comedy was, in fact, being enacted in Madame de la Baudraye’s + house, in harmony with her struggles over money matters and her successive + transformations—a drama to which no one but Monsieur de Clagny and + the Abbe Duret ever knew the clue, when Dinah in sheer idleness, or + perhaps sheer vanity, revealed the secret of her anonymous fame. + </p> + <p> + Though a mixture of verse and prose is a monstrous anomaly in French + literature, there must be exceptions to the rule. This tale will be one of + the two instances in these Studies of violation of the laws of narrative; + for to give a just idea of the unconfessed struggle which may excuse, + though it cannot absolve Dinah, it is necessary to give an analysis of a + poem which was the outcome of her deep despair. + </p> + <p> + Her patience and her resignation alike broken by the departure of the + Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, Dinah took the worthy Abbe’s advice to exhale her + evil thoughts in verse—a proceeding which perhaps accounts for some + poets. + </p> + <p> + “You will find such relief as those who write epitaphs or elegies over + those whom they have lost. Pain is soothed in the heart as lines surge up + in the brain.” + </p> + <p> + This strange production caused a great ferment in the departments of the + Allier, the Nievre, and the Cher, proud to possess a poet capable of + rivalry with the glories of Paris. <i>Paquita la Sevillane</i>, by <i>Jan + Diaz</i>, was published in the <i>Echo du Morvan</i>, a review which for + eighteen months maintained its existence in spite of provincial + indifference. Some knowing persons at Nevers declared that Jan Diaz was + making fun of the new school, just then bringing out its eccentric verse, + full of vitality and imagery, and of brilliant effects produced by defying + the Muse under pretext of adapting German, English, and Romanesque + mannerisms. + </p> + <p> + The poem began with this ballad: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Ah! if you knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain, + Its fervid noons, its balmy spring, + Sad daughters of the northern gloom, + Of love, of heav’n, of native home, + You never would presume to sing! + + For men are there of other mould + Than those who live in this dull cold. + And there to music low and sweet + Sevillian maids, from eve till dawn, + Dance lightly on the moonlit lawn + In satin shoes, on dainty feet. + + Ah, you would be the first to blush + Over your dancers’ romp and rush, + And your too hideous carnival, + That turns your cheeks all chill and blue, + And skips the mud in hob-nail’d shoe— + A truly dismal festival. + + To pale-faced girls, and in a squalid room, + Paquita sang; the murky town beneath + Was Rouen whence the slender spires rise + To chew the storm with teeth. + Rouen so hideous, noisy, full of rage— +</pre> + <p> + And here followed a magnificent description of Rouen—where Dinah had + never been—written with the affected brutality which, a little + later, inspired so many imitations of Juvenal; a contrast drawn between + the life of a manufacturing town and the careless life of Spain, between + the love of Heaven and of human beauty, and the worship of machinery, in + short, between poetry and sordid money-making. + </p> + <p> + Then Jan Diaz accounted for Paquita’s horror of Normandy by saying: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Seville, you see, had been her native home, + Seville, where skies are blue and evening sweet. + She, at thirteen, the sovereign of the town, + Had lovers at her feet. + + For her three Toreadors had gone to death + Or victory, the prize to be a kiss— + One kiss from those red lips of sweetest breath— + A longed-for touch of bliss! +</pre> + <p> + The features of the Spanish girl’s portrait have served so often as those + of the courtesan in so many self-styled <i>poems</i>, that it would be + tiresome to quote here the hundred lines of description. To judge of the + lengths to which audacity had carried Dinah, it will be enough to give the + conclusion. According to Madame de la Baudraye’s ardent pen, Paquita was + so entirely created for love that she can hardly have met with a knight + worthy of her; for + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + .... In her passionate fire + Every man would have swooned from the heat, + When she at love’s feast, in her fervid desire, + As yet had but taken her seat. +</pre> + <p> + “And yet she could quit the joys of Seville, its woods and fields of + orange-trees, for a Norman soldier who won her love and carried her away + to his hearth and home. She did not weep for her Andalusia, the Soldier + was her whole joy.... But the day came when he was compelled to start for + Russia in the footsteps of the great Emperor.” + </p> + <p> + Nothing could be more dainty than the description of the parting between + the Spanish girl and the Normandy Captain of Artillery, who, in the + delirium of passion expressed with feeling worthy of Byron, exacted from + Paquita a vow of absolute fidelity, in the Cathedral at Rouen in front of + the alter of the Blessed Virgin, who + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Though a Maid is a woman, and never forgives + When lovers are false to their vows. +</pre> + <p> + A large part of the poem was devoted to describing Paquita’s sufferings + when alone in Rouen waiting till the campaign was over; she stood writhing + at the window bars as she watched happy couples go by; she suppressed her + passion in her heart with a determination that consumed her; she lived on + narcotics, and exhausted herself in dreams. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Almost she died, but still her heart was true; + And when at last her soldier came again, + He found her beauty ever fresh and new— + He had not loved in vain! +</pre> + <p> + “But he, pale and frozen by the cold of Russia, chilled to the very + marrow, met his yearning fair one with a melancholy smile.” + </p> + <p> + The whole poem was written up to this situation, which was worked out with + such vigor and boldness as too entirely justified the Abbe Duret. + </p> + <p> + Paquita, on reaching the limits set to real love, did not, like Julie and + Heloise, throw herself into the ideal; no, she rushed into the paths of + vice, which is, no doubt, shockingly natural; but she did it without any + touch of magnificence, for lack of means, as it would be difficult to find + in Rouen men impassioned enough to place Paquita in a suitable setting of + luxury and splendor. This horrible realism, emphasized by gloomy poetic + feeling, had inspired some passages such as modern poetry is too free + with, rather too like the flayed anatomical figures known to artists as <i>ecorches</i>. + Then, by a highly philosophical revulsion, after describing the house of + ill-fame where the Andalusian ended her days, the writer came back to the + ballad at the opening: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Paquita now is faded, shrunk, and old, + But she it was who sang: + + “If you but knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain,” etc. +</pre> + <p> + The gloomy vigor of this poem, running to about six hundred lines, and + serving as a powerful foil, to use a painter’s word, to the two <i>seguidillas</i> + at the beginning and end, the masculine utterance of inexpressible grief, + alarmed the woman who found herself admired by three departments, under + the black cloak of the anonymous. While she fully enjoyed the intoxicating + delights of success, Dinah dreaded the malignity of provincial society, + where more than one woman, if the secret should slip out, would certainly + find points of resemblance between the writer and Paquita. Reflection came + too late; Dinah shuddered with shame at having made “copy” of some of her + woes. + </p> + <p> + “Write no more,” said the Abbe Duret. “You will cease to be a woman; you + will be a poet.” + </p> + <p> + Moulins, Nevers, Bourges were searched to find Jan Diaz; but Dinah was + impenetrable. To remove any evil impression, in case any unforeseen chance + should betray her name, she wrote a charming poem in two cantos on <i>The + Mass-Oak</i>, a legend of the Nivernais: + </p> + <p> + “Once upon a time the folks of Nevers and the folks of Saint-Saulge, at + war with each other, came at daybreak to fight a battle, in which one or + other should perish, and met in the forest of Faye. And then there stood + between them, under an oak, a priest whose aspect in the morning sun was + so commanding that the foes at his bidding heard Mass as he performed it + under the oak, and at the words of the Gospel they made friends.”—The + oak is still shown in the forest of Faye. + </p> + <p> + This poem, immeasurably superior to <i>Paquita la Sevillane</i>, was far + less admired. + </p> + <p> + After these two attempts Madame de la Baudraye, feeling herself a poet, + had a light on her brow and a flash in her eyes that made her handsomer + than ever. She cast longing looks at Paris, aspiring to fame—and + fell back into her den of La Baudraye, her daily squabbles with her + husband, and her little circle, where everybody’s character, intentions, + and remarks were too well known not to have become a bore. Though she + found relief from her dreary life in literary work, and poetry echoed + loudly in her empty life, though she thus found an outlet for her + energies, literature increased her hatred of the gray and ponderous + provincial atmosphere. + </p> + <p> + When, after the Revolution of 1830, the glory of George Sand was reflected + on Le Berry, many a town envied La Chatre the privilege of having given + birth to this rival of Madame de Stael and Camille Maupin, and were ready + to do homage to minor feminine talent. Thus there arose in France a vast + number of tenth Muses, young girls or young wives tempted from a silent + life by the bait of glory. Very strange doctrines were proclaimed as to + the part women should play in society. Though the sound common sense which + lies at the root of the French nature was not perverted, women were + suffered to express ideas and profess opinions which they would not have + owned to a few years previously. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny took advantage of this outbreak of freedom to collect + the works of Jan Diaz in a small volume printed by Desroziers at Moulins. + He wrote a little notice of the author, too early snatched from the world + of letters, which was amusing to those who were in the secret, but which + even then had not the merit of novelty. Such practical jokes, capital so + long as the author remains unknown, fall rather flat if subsequently the + poet stands confessed. + </p> + <p> + From this point of view, however, the memoir of Jan Diaz, born at Bourges + in 1807, the son of a Spanish prisoner, may very likely some day deceive + the compiler of some <i>Universal Biography</i>. Nothing is overlooked; + neither the names of the professors at the Bourges College, nor those of + his deceased schoolfellows, such as Lousteau, Bianchon, and other famous + natives of the province, who, it is said, knew the dreamy, melancholy boy, + and his precocious bent towards poetry. An elegy called <i>Tristesse</i> + (Melancholy), written at school; the two poems <i>Paquita la Sevillane</i> + and <i>Le Chene de la Messe</i>; three sonnets, a description of the + Cathedral and the House of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, with a tale called <i>Carola</i>, + published as the work he was engaged on at the time of his death, + constituted the whole of these literary remains; and the poet’s last + hours, full of misery and despair, could not fail to wring the hearts of + the feeling public of the Nievre, the Bourbonnais, the Cher, and the + Morvan, where he died near Chateau-Chinon, unknown to all, even to the + woman he had loved! + </p> + <p> + Of this little yellow paper volume two hundred copies were printed; one + hundred and fifty were sold—about fifty in each department. This + average of tender and poetic souls in three departments of France is + enough to revive the enthusiasm of writers as to the <i>Furia Francese</i>, + which nowadays is more apt to expend itself in business than in books. + </p> + <p> + When Monsieur de Clagny had given away a certain number of copies, Dinah + still had seven or eight, wrapped up in the newspapers which had published + notices of the work. Twenty copies forwarded to the Paris papers were + swamped in the editors’ offices. Nathan was taken in as well as several of + his fellow-countrymen of Le Berry, and wrote an article on the great man, + in which he credited him with all the fine qualities we discover in those + who are dead and buried. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, warned by his fellow-schoolfellows, who could not remember Jan + Diaz, waited for information from Sancerre, and learned that Jan Diaz was + a pseudonym assumed by a woman. + </p> + <p> + Then, in and around Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye became the rage; she + was the future rival of George Sand. From Sancerre to Bourges a poem was + praised which, at any other time, would certainly have been hooted. The + provincial public—like every French public, perhaps—does not + share the love of the King of the French for the happy medium: it lifts + you to the skies or drags you in the mud. + </p> + <p> + By this time the good Abbe, Madame de la Baudraye’s counselor, was dead; + he would certainly have prevented her rushing into public life. But three + years of work without recognition weighed on Dinah’s soul, and she + accepted the clatter of fame as a substitute for her disappointed + ambitions. Poetry and dreams of celebrity, which had lulled her grief + since her meeting with Anna Grossetete, no longer sufficed to exhaust the + activity of her morbid heart. The Abbe Duret, who had talked of the world + when the voice of religion was impotent, who understood Dinah, and + promised her a happy future by assuring her that God would compensate her + for her sufferings bravely endured,—this good old man could no + longer stand between the opening to sin and the handsome young woman he + had called his daughter. + </p> + <p> + The wise old priest had more than once endeavored to enlighten Dinah as to + her husband’s character, telling her that the man could hate; but women + are not ready to believe in such force in weak natures, and hatred is too + constantly in action not to be a vital force. Dinah, finding her husband + incapable of love, denied him the power to hate. + </p> + <p> + “Do not confound hatred and vengeance,” said the Abbe. “They are two + different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is the + outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does not + hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all their + meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. So beware of offending + Monsieur de la Baudraye; he would forgive an infidelity, because he could + make capital of it, but he would be doubly implacable if you should touch + him on the spot so cruelly wounded by Monsieur Milaud of Nevers, and would + make your life unendurable.” + </p> + <p> + Now, at the time when the whole countryside—Nevers and Sancerre, Le + Morvan and Le Berry—was priding itself on Madame de la Baudraye, and + lauding her under the name of Jan Diaz, “little La Baudraye” felt her + glory a mortal blow. He alone knew the secret source of <i>Paquita la + Sevillane</i>. When this terrible work was spoken of, everybody said of + Dinah—“Poor woman! Poor soul!” + </p> + <p> + The women rejoiced in being able to pity her who had so long oppressed + them; never had Dinah seemed to stand higher in the eyes of the + neighborhood. + </p> + <p> + The shriveled old man, more wrinkled, yellower, feebler than ever, gave no + sign; but Dinah sometimes detected in his eyes, as he looked at her, a + sort of icy venom which gave the lie to his increased politeness and + gentleness. She understood at last that this was not, as she had supposed, + a mere domestic squabble; but when she forced an explanation with her + “insect,” as Monsieur Gravier called him, she found the cold, hard + impassibility of steel. She flew into a passion; she reproached him for + her life these eleven years past; she made—intentionally—what + women call a scene. But “little La Baudraye” sat in an armchair with his + eyes shut, and listened phlegmatically to the storm. And, as usual, the + dwarf got the better of his wife. Dinah saw that she had done wrong in + writing; she vowed never to write another line, and she kept her vow. + </p> + <p> + Then was there desolation in the Sancerrois. + </p> + <p> + “Why did not Madame de la Baudraye compose any more verses?” was the + universal cry. + </p> + <p> + At this time Madame de la Baudraye had no enemies; every one rushed to see + her, not a week passed without fresh introductions. The wife of the + presiding judge, an august <i>bourgeoise</i>, <i>nee</i> Popinot-Chandier, + desired her son, a youth of two-and-twenty, to pay his humble respects to + La Baudraye, and flattered herself that she might see her Gatien in the + good graces of this Superior Woman.—The words Superior Woman had + superseded the absurd nickname of <i>The Sappho of Saint-Satur</i>.—This + lady, who for nine years had led the opposition, was so delighted at the + good reception accorded to her son, that she became loud in her praises of + the Muse of Sancerre. + </p> + <p> + “After all,” she exclaimed, in reply to a tirade from Madame de Clagny, + who hated her husband’s supposed mistress, “she is the handsomest and + cleverest woman in the whole province!” + </p> + <p> + After scrambling through so many brambles and setting off on so many + different roads, after dreaming of love in splendor and scenting the + darkest dramas, thinking such terrible joys would be cheaply purchased so + weary was she of her dreary existence, one day Dinah fell into the pit she + had sworn to avoid. Seeing Monsieur de Clagny always sacrificing himself, + and at last refusing a high appointment in Paris, where his family wanted + to see him, she said to herself, “He loves me!” She vanquished her + repulsion, and seemed willing to reward so much constancy. + </p> + <p> + It was to this impulse of generosity on her part that a coalition was due, + formed in Sancerre to secure the return of Monsieur de Clagny at the next + elections. Madame de la Baudraye had dreamed of going to Paris in the wake + of the new deputy. + </p> + <p> + But, in spite of the most solemn promises, the hundred and fifty votes to + be recorded in favor of this adorer of the lovely Dinah—who hoped to + see this defender of the widow and the orphan wearing the gown of the + Keeper of the Seals—figured as an imposing minority of fifty votes. + The jealousy of the President de Boirouge, and Monsieur Gravier’s hatred, + for he believed in the candidate’s supremacy in Dinah’s heart, had been + worked upon by a young Sous-prefet; and for this worthy deed the allies + got the young man made a prefet elsewhere. + </p> + <p> + “I shall never cease to regret,” said he, as he quitted Sancerre, “that I + did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would have made my + triumph complete!” + </p> + <p> + The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on the + surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the + indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to + Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask she + had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day, + increased her hope of finding herself a widow? + </p> + <p> + The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have + understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another woman, + had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la Baudraye, she + had indulged the hope of becoming a mother. Between those miserable + disputes over household matters and the melancholy conviction as to her + fate, quite a long time had elapsed. Then, when she had looked for + consolation, the consoler, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had left her. Thus, the + overwhelming temptation which commonly causes women to sin had hitherto + been absent. For if there are, after all, some women who make straight for + unfaithfulness, are there not many more who cling to hope, and do not fall + till they have wandered long in a labyrinth of secret woes? + </p> + <p> + Such was Dinah. She had so little impulse to fail in her duty, that she + did not care enough for Monsieur de Clagny to forgive him his defeat. + </p> + <p> + Then the move to the Chateau d’Anzy, the rearrangement of her collected + treasures and curiosities, which derived added value from the splendid + setting which Philibert de Lorme seemed to have planned on purpose for + this museum, occupied her for several months, giving her leisure to + meditate one of those decisive steps that startle the public, ignorant of + the motives which, however, it sometimes discovers by dint of gossip and + suppositions. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye had been greatly struck by the reputation of + Lousteau, who was regarded as a lady’s man of the first water in + consequence of his intimacies among actresses; she was anxious to know + him; she read his books, and was fired with enthusiasm, less perhaps for + his talents than for his successes with women; and to attract him to the + country, she started the notion that it was obligatory on Sancerre to + return one of its great men at the elections. She made Gatien Boirouge + write to the great physician Bianchon, whom he claimed as a cousin through + the Popinots. Then she persuaded an old friend of the departed Madame + Lousteau to stir up the journalist’s ambitions by letting him know that + certain persons in Sancerre were firmly bent on electing a deputy from + among the distinguished men in Paris. + </p> + <p> + Tired of her commonplace neighbors, Madame de la Baudraye would thus at + last meet really illustrious men, and might give her fall the lustre of + fame. + </p> + <p> + Neither Lousteau nor Bianchon replied; they were waiting perhaps till the + holidays. Bianchon, who had won his professor’s chair the year before + after a brilliant contest, could not leave his lectures. + </p> + <p> + In the month of September, when the vintage was at its height, the two + Parisians arrived in their native province, and found it absorbed in the + unremitting toil of the wine-crop of 1836; there could therefore be no + public demonstration in their favor. “We have fallen flat,” said Lousteau + to his companion, in the slang of the stage. + </p> + <p> + In 1836, Lousteau, worn by sixteen years of struggle in the Capital, and + aged quite as much by pleasure as by penury, hard work, and + disappointments, looked eight-and-forty, though he was no more than + thirty-seven. He was already bald, and had assumed a Byronic air in + harmony with his early decay and the lines furrowed in his face by + over-indulgence in champagne. He ascribed these signs-manual of + dissipation to the severities of a literary life, declaring that the Press + was murderous; and he gave it to be understood that it consumed superior + talents, so as to lend a grace to his exhaustion. In his native town he + thought proper to exaggerate his affected contempt of life and his + spurious misanthropy. Still, his eyes could flash with fire like a volcano + supposed to be extinct, and he endeavored, by dressing fashionably, to + make up for the lack of youth that might strike a woman’s eye. + </p> + <p> + Horace Bianchon, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, was fat and + burly, as beseems a fashionable physician, with a patriarchal air, his + hair thick and long, a prominent brow, the frame of a hard worker, and the + calm expression of a philosopher. This somewhat prosaic personality set + off his more frivolous companion to advantage. + </p> + <p> + The two great men remained unrecognized during a whole morning at the inn + where they had put up, and it was only by chance that Monsieur de Clagny + heard of their arrival. Madame de la Baudraye, in despair at this, + despatched Gatien Boirouge, who had no vineyards, to beg the two gentlemen + to spend a few days at the Chateau d’Anzy. For the last year Dinah had + played the chatelaine, and spent the winter only at La Baudraye. Monsieur + Gravier, the Public Prosecutor, the Presiding Judge, and Gatien Boirouge + combined to give a banquet to the great men, to meet the literary + personages of the town. + </p> + <p> + On hearing that the beautiful Madame de la Baudraye was Jan Diaz, the + Parisians went to spend three days at Anzy, fetched in a sort of wagonette + driven by Gatien himself. The young man, under a genuine illusion, spoke + of Madame de la Baudraye not only as the handsomest woman in those parts, + a woman so superior that she might give George Sand a qualm, but as a + woman who would produce a great sensation in Paris. Hence the extreme + though suppressed astonishment of Doctor Bianchon and the waggish + journalist when they beheld, on the garden steps of Anzy, a lady dressed + in thin black cashmere with a deep tucker, in effect like a riding-habit + cut short, for they quite understood the pretentiousness of such extreme + simplicity. Dinah also wore a black velvet cap, like that in the portrait + of Raphael, and below it her hair fell in thick curls. This attire showed + off a rather pretty figure, fine eyes, and handsome eyelids somewhat faded + by the weariful life that has been described. In Le Berry the singularity + of this <i>artistic</i> costume was a cloak for the romantic affectations + of the Superior Woman. + </p> + <p> + On seeing the affectations of their too amiable hostess—which were, + indeed, affectations of soul and mind—the friends glanced at each + other, and put on a deeply serious expression to listen to Madame de la + Baudraye, who made them a set speech of thanks for coming to cheer the + monotony of her days. Dinah walked her guests round and round the lawn, + ornamented with large vases of flowers, which lay in front of the Chateau + d’Anzy. + </p> + <p> + “How is it,” said Lousteau, the practical joker, “that so handsome a woman + as you, and apparently so superior, should have remained buried in the + country? What do you do to make life endurable?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! that is the crux,” said the lady. “It is unendurable. Utter despair + or dull resignation—there is no third alternative; that is the arid + soil in which our existence is rooted, and on which a thousand stagnant + ideas fall; they cannot fertilize the ground, but they supply food for the + etiolated flowers of our desert souls. Never believe in indifference! + Indifference is either despair or resignation. Then each woman takes up + the pursuit which, according to her character, seems to promise some + amusement. Some rush into jam-making and washing, household management, + the rural joys of the vintage or the harvest, bottling fruit, embroidering + handkerchiefs, the cares of motherhood, the intrigues of a country town. + Others torment a much-enduring piano, which, at the end of seven years, + sounds like an old kettle, and ends its asthmatic life at the Chateau + d’Anzy. Some pious dames talk over the different brands of the Word of God—the + Abbe Fritaud as compared with the Abbe Guinard. They play cards in the + evening, dance with the same partners for twelve years running, in the + same rooms, at the same dates. This delightful life is varied by solemn + walks on the Mall, visits of politeness among the women, who ask each + other where they bought their gowns. + </p> + <p> + “Conversation is bounded on the south by remarks on the intrigues lying + hidden under the stagnant water of provincial life, on the north by + proposed marriages, on the west by jealousies, and on the east by sour + remarks. + </p> + <p> + “And so,” she went on, striking an attitude, “you see a woman wrinkled at + nine-and-twenty, ten years before the time fixed by the rules of Doctor + Bianchon, a woman whose skin is ruined at an early age, who turns as + yellow as a quince when she is yellow at all—we have seen some turn + green. When we have reached that point, we try to justify our normal + condition; then we turn and rend the terrible passion of Paris with teeth + as sharp as rat’s teeth. We have Puritan women here, sour enough to tear + the laces of Parisian finery, and eat out all the poetry of your Parisian + beauties, who undermine the happiness of others while they cry up their + walnuts and rancid bacon, glorify this squalid mouse-hole, and the dingy + color and conventual small of our delightful life at Sancerre.” + </p> + <p> + “I admire such courage, madame,” said Bianchon. “When we have to endure + such misfortunes, it is well to have the wit to make a virtue of + necessity.” + </p> + <p> + Amazed at the brilliant move by which Dinah thus placed provincial life at + the mercy of her guests, in anticipation of their sarcasms, Gatien + Boirouge nudged Lousteau’s elbow, with a glance and a smile, which said: + </p> + <p> + “Well! did I say too much?” + </p> + <p> + “But, madame,” said Lousteau, “you are proving that we are still in Paris. + I shall steal this gem of description; it will be worth ten thousand + francs to me in an article.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, monsieur,” she retorted, “never trust provincial women.” + </p> + <p> + “And why not?” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye was wily enough—an innocent form of cunning, + to be sure—to show the two Parisians, one of whom she would choose + to be her conquerer, the snare into which he would fall, reflecting that + she would have the upper hand at the moment when he should cease to see + it. + </p> + <p> + “When you first come,” said she, “you laugh at us. Then when you have + forgotten the impression of Paris brilliancy, and see us in our own + sphere, you pay court to us, if only as a pastime. And you, who are famous + for your past passions, will be the object of attentions which will + flatter you. Then take care!” cried Dinah, with a coquettish gesture, + raising herself above provincial absurdities and Lousteau’s irony by her + own sarcastic speech. “When a poor little country-bred woman has an + eccentric passion for some superior man, some Parisian who has wandered + into the provinces, it is to her something more than a sentiment; she + makes it her occupation and part of all her life. There is nothing more + dangerous than the attachment of such a woman; she compares, she studies, + she reflects, she dreams; and she will not give up her dream, she thinks + still of the man she loves when he has ceased to think of her. + </p> + <p> + “Now one of the catastrophes that weigh most heavily on a woman in the + provinces is that abrupt termination of her passion which is so often seen + in England. In the country, a life under minute observation as keen as an + Indian’s compels a woman either to keep on the rails or to start aside + like a steam engine wrecked by an obstacle. The strategies of love, the + coquetting which form half the composition of a Parisian woman, are + utterly unknown here.” + </p> + <p> + “That is true,” said Lousteau. “There is in a country-bred woman’s heart a + store of surprises, as in some toys.” + </p> + <p> + “Dear me!” Dinah went on, “a woman will have spoken to you three times in + the course of a winter, and without your knowing it, you will be lodged in + her heart. Then comes a picnic, an excursion, what not, and all is said—or, + if you prefer it, all is done! This conduct, which seems odd to + unobserving persons, is really very natural. A poet, such as you are, or a + philosopher, an observer, like Doctor Bianchon, instead of vilifying the + provincial woman and believing her depraved, would be able to guess the + wonderful unrevealed poetry, every chapter, in short, of the sweet romance + of which the last phrase falls to the benefit of some happy sub-lieutenant + or some provincial bigwig.” + </p> + <p> + “The provincial women I have met in Paris,” said Lousteau, “were, in fact, + rapid in their proceedings—” + </p> + <p> + “My word, they are strange,” said the lady, giving a significant shrug of + her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “They are like the playgoers who book for the second performance, feeling + sure that the piece will not fail,” replied the journalist. + </p> + <p> + “And what is the cause of all these woes?” asked Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “Paris is the monster that brings us grief,” replied the Superior Woman. + “The evil is seven leagues round, and devastates the whole land. + Provincial life is not self-existent. It is only when a nation is divided + into fifty minor states that each can have a physiognomy of its own, and + then a woman reflects the glory of the sphere where she reigns. This + social phenomenon, I am told, may be seen in Italy, Switzerland, and + Germany; but in France, as in every country where there is but one + capital, a dead level of manners must necessarily result from + centralization.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you would say that manners could only recover their individuality + and native distinction by the formation of a federation of French states + into one empire?” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “That is hardly to be wished, for France would have to conquer too many + countries,” said Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “This misfortune is unknown in England,” exclaimed Dinah. “London does not + exert such tyranny as that by which Paris oppresses France—for + which, indeed, French ingenuity will at last find a remedy; however, it + has a worse disease in its vile hypocrisy, which is a far greater evil!” + </p> + <p> + “The English aristocracy,” said Lousteau, hastening to put a word in, for + he foresaw a Byronic paragraph, “has the advantage over ours of + assimilating every form of superiority; it lives in the midst of + magnificent parks; it is in London for no more than two months. It lives + in the country, flourishing there, and making it flourish.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “London is the capital of trade and + speculation and the centre of government. The aristocracy hold a ‘mote’ + there for sixty days only; it gives and takes the passwords of the day, + looks in on the legislative cookery, reviews the girls to marry, the + carriages to be sold, exchanges greetings, and is away again; and is so + far from amusing, that it cannot bear itself for more than the few days + known as ‘the season.’” + </p> + <p> + “Hence,” said Lousteau, hoping to stop this nimble tongue by an epigram, + “in Perfidious Albion, as the <i>Constitutionnel</i> has it, you may + happen to meet a charming woman in any part of the kingdom.” + </p> + <p> + “But charming <i>English</i> women!” replied Madame de la Baudraye with a + smile. “Here is my mother, I will introduce you,” said she, seeing Madame + Piedefer coming towards them. + </p> + <p> + Having introduced the two Paris lions to the ambitious skeleton that + called itself woman under the name of Madame Piedefer—a tall, lean + personage, with a red face, teeth that were doubtfully genuine, and hair + that was undoubtedly dyed, Dinah left her visitors to themselves for a few + minutes. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Gatien to Lousteau, “what do you think of her?” + </p> + <p> + “I think that the clever woman of Sancerre is simply the greatest + chatterbox,” replied the journalist. + </p> + <p> + “A woman who wants to see you deputy!” cried Gatien. “An angel!” + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me, I forgot you were in love with her,” said Lousteau. “Forgive + the cynicism of an old scamp.—Ask Bianchon; I have no illusions + left. I see things as they are. The woman has evidently dried up her + mother like a partridge left to roast at too fierce a fire.” + </p> + <p> + Gatien de Boirouge contrived to let Madame de la Baudraye know what the + journalist had said of her in the course of the dinner, which was copious, + not to say splendid, and the lady took care not to talk too much while it + was proceeding. This lack of conversation betrayed Gatien’s indiscretion. + Etienne tried to regain his footing, but all Dinah’s advances were + directed to Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + However, half-way through the evening, the Baroness was gracious to + Lousteau again. Have you never observed what great meanness may be + committed for small ends? Thus the haughty Dinah, who would not sacrifice + herself for a fool, who in the depths of the country led such a wretched + life of struggles, of suppressed rebellion, of unuttered poetry, who to + get away from Lousteau had climbed the highest and steepest peak of her + scorn, and who would not have come down if she had seen the sham Byron at + her feet, suddenly stepped off it as she recollected her album. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye had caught the mania for autographs; she possessed + an oblong volume which deserved the name of album better than most, as + two-thirds of the pages were still blank. The Baronne de Fontaine, who had + kept it for three months, had with great difficulty obtained a line from + Rossini, six bars written by Meyerbeer, the four lines that Victor Hugo + writes in every album, a verse from Lamartine, a few words from Beranger, + <i>Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart d’Ulysse</i> (the first words + of <i>Telemaque</i>) written by George Sand, Scribe’s famous lines on the + Umbrella, a sentence from Charles Nodier, an outline of distance by Jules + Dupre, the signature of David d’Angers, and three notes written by Hector + Berlioz. Monsieur de Clagny, during a visit to Paris, added a song by + Lacenaire—a much coveted autograph, two lines from Fieschi, and an + extremely short note from Napoleon, which were pasted on to pages of the + album. Then Monsieur Gravier, in the course of a tour, had persuaded + Mademoiselle Mars to write her name on this album, with Mademoiselles + Georges, Taglioni, and Grisi, and some distinguished actors, such as + Frederick Lemaitre, Monrose, Bouffe, Rubini, Lablache, Nourrit, and Arnal; + for he knew a set of old fellows brought up in the seraglio, as they + phrased it, who did him this favor. + </p> + <p> + This beginning of a collection was all the more precious to Dinah because + she was the only person for ten leagues round who owned an album. Within + the last two years, however, several young ladies had acquired such books, + in which they made their friends and acquaintances write more or less + absurd quotations or sentiments. You who spend your lives in collecting + autographs, simple and happy souls, like Dutch tulip fanciers, you will + excuse Dinah when, in her fear of not keeping her guests more than two + days, she begged Bianchon to enrich the volume she handed to him with a + few lines of his writing. + </p> + <p> + The doctor made Lousteau smile by showing him this sentence on the first + page: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “What makes the populace dangerous is that it has in its pocket an + absolution for every crime. + + “J. B. DE CLAGNY.” + </pre> + <p> + “We will second the man who is brave enough to plead in favor of the + Monarchy,” Desplein’s great pupil whispered to Lousteau, and he wrote + below: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The distinction between Napoleon and a water-carrier is evident + only to Society; Nature takes no account of it. Thus Democracy, + which resists inequality, constantly appeals to Nature. + + H. BIANCHON.” + </pre> + <p> + “Ah!” cried Dinah, amazed, “you rich men take a gold piece out of your + purse as poor men bring out a farthing.... I do not know,” she went on, + turning to Lousteau, “whether it is taking an unfair advantage of a guest + to hope for a few lines—” + </p> + <p> + “Nay, madame, you flatter me. Bianchon is a great man, but I am too + insignificant!—Twenty years hence my name will be more difficult to + identify than that of the Public Prosecutor whose axiom, written in your + album, will designate him as an obscurer Montesquieu. And I should want at + least twenty-four hours to improvise some sufficiently bitter reflections, + for I could only describe what I feel.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish you needed a fortnight,” said Madame de la Baudraye graciously, as + she handed him the book. “I should keep you here all the longer.” + </p> + <p> + At five next morning all the party in the Chateau d’Anzy were astir, + little La Baudraye having arranged a day’s sport for the Parisians—less + for their pleasure than to gratify his own conceit. He was delighted to + make them walk over the twelve hundred acres of waste land that he was + intending to reclaim, an undertaking that would cost some hundred thousand + francs, but which might yield an increase of thirty to sixty thousand + francs a year in the returns of the estate of Anzy. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know why the Public Prosecutor has not come out with us?” asked + Gatien Boirouge of Monsieur Gravier. + </p> + <p> + “Why he told us that he was obliged to sit to-day; the minor cases are + before the Court,” replied the other. + </p> + <p> + “And did you believe that?” cried Gatien. “Well, my papa said to me, + ‘Monsieur Lebas will not join you early, for Monsieur de Clagny has begged + him as his deputy to sit for him!’” + </p> + <p> + “Indeed!” said Gravier, changing countenance. “And Monsieur de la Baudraye + is gone to La Charite!” + </p> + <p> + “But why do you meddle in such matters?” said Bianchon to Gatien. + </p> + <p> + “Horace is right,” said Lousteau. “I cannot imagine why you trouble your + heads so much about each other; you waste your time in frivolities.” + </p> + <p> + Horace Bianchon looked at Etienne Lousteau, as much as to say that + newspaper epigrams and the satire of the “funny column” were + incomprehensible at Sancerre. + </p> + <p> + On reaching a copse, Monsieur Gravier left the two great men and Gatien, + under the guidance of a keeper, to make their way through a little ravine. + </p> + <p> + “Well, we must wait for Monsieur Gravier,” said Bianchon, when they had + reached a clearing. + </p> + <p> + “You may be a great physician,” said Gatien, “but you are ignorant of + provincial life. You mean to wait for Monsieur Gravier?—By this time + he is running like a hare, in spite of his little round stomach; he is + within twenty minutes of Anzy by now——” Gatien looked at his + watch. “Good! he will be just in time.” + </p> + <p> + “Where?” + </p> + <p> + “At the chateau for breakfast,” replied Gatien. “Do you suppose I could + rest easy if Madame de la Baudraye were alone with Monsieur de Clagny? + There are two of them now; they will keep an eye on each other. Dinah will + be well guarded.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ha! Then Madame de la Baudraye has not yet made up her mind?” said + Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “So mamma thinks. For my part, I am afraid that Monsieur de Clagny has at + last succeeded in bewitching Madame de la Baudraye. If he has been able to + show her that he had any chance of putting on the robes of the Keeper of + the Seals, he may have hidden his moleskin complexion, his terrible eyes, + his touzled mane, his voice like a hoarse crier’s, his bony figure, like + that of a starveling poet, and have assumed all the charms of Adonis. If + Dinah sees Monsieur de Clagny as Attorney-General, she may see him as a + handsome youth. Eloquence has great privileges.—Besides, Madame de + la Baudraye is full of ambition. She does not like Sancerre, and dreams of + the glories of Paris.” + </p> + <p> + “But what interest have you in all this?” said Lousteau. “If she is in + love with the Public Prosecutor!—Ah! you think she will not love him + for long, and you hope to succeed him.” + </p> + <p> + “You who live in Paris,” said Gatien, “meet as many different women as + there are days in the year. But at Sancerre, where there are not half a + dozen, and where, of those six, five set up for the most extravagant + virtue, when the handsomest of them all keeps you at an infinite distance + by looks as scornful as though she were of the blood royal, a young man of + two-and-twenty may surely be allowed to make a guess at her secrets, since + she must then treat him with some consideration.” + </p> + <p> + “Consideration! So that is what you call it in these parts?” said the + journalist with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “I should suppose Madame de la Baudraye to have too much good taste to + trouble her head about that ugly ape,” said Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “Horace,” said Lousteau, “look here, O learned interpreter of human + nature, let us lay a trap for the Public Prosecutor; we shall be doing our + friend Gatien a service, and get a laugh out of it. I do not love Public + Prosecutors.” + </p> + <p> + “You have a keen intuition of destiny,” said Horace. “But what can we do?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives caught + out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible + circumstances.—Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la + Baudraye and de Clagny will make.” + </p> + <p> + “Not amiss!” said Bianchon; “one or the other must surely, by look or + gesture—” + </p> + <p> + “I know a newspaper editor,” Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien, “who, + anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but such as tell + the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to pieces; of wives + boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to read, hoping that + sheer fear will keep her faithful—satisfied with that humble + alternative, poor man! ‘You see, my dear, to what the smallest error may + lead you!’ says he, epitomizing Arnolfe’s address to Agnes.” + </p> + <p> + “Madame de la Baudraye is quite guiltless; this youth sees double,” said + Bianchon. “Madame Piedefer seems to me far too pious to invite her + daughter’s lover to the Chateau d’Anzy. Madame de la Baudraye would have + to hoodwink her mother, her husband, her maid, and her mother’s maid; that + is too much to do. I acquit her.” + </p> + <p> + “Well with more reason because her husband never ‘quits her,’” said + Gatien, laughing at his own wit. + </p> + <p> + “We can easily remember two or three stories that will make Dinah quake,” + said Lousteau. “Young man—and you too, Bianchon—let me beg you + to maintain a stern demeanor; be thorough diplomatists, an easy manner + without exaggeration, and watch the faces of the two criminals, you know, + without seeming to do so—out of the corner of your eye, or in a + glass, on the sly. This morning we will hunt the hare, this evening we + will hunt the Public Prosecutor.” + </p> + <p> + The evening began with a triumph for Lousteau, who returned the album to + the lady with this elegy written in it: + </p> + <h3> + SPLEEN + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + You ask for verse from me, the feeble prey + Of this self-seeking world, a waif and stray + With none to whom to cling; + From me—unhappy, purblind, hopeless devil! + Who e’en in what is good see only evil + In any earthly thing! + + This page, the pastime of a dame so fair, + May not reflect the shadow of my care, + For all things have their place. + Of love, to ladies bright, the poet sings, + Of joy, and balls, and dress, and dainty things— + Nay, or of God and Grace. + + It were a bitter jest to bid the pen + Of one so worn with life, so hating men, + Depict a scene of joy. + Would you exult in sight to one born blind, + Or—cruel! of a mother’s love remind + Some hapless orphan boy? + + When cold despair has gripped a heart still fond, + When there is no young heart that will respond + To it in love, the future is a lie. + If there is none to weep when he is sad, + And share his woe, a man were better dead!— + And so I soon must die. + + Give me your pity! often I blaspheme + The sacred name of God. Does it not seem + That I was born in vain? + Why should I bless him? Or why thank Him, since + He might have made me handsome, rich, a prince— + And I am poor and plain? +</pre> + <p> + ETIENNE LOUSTEAU. September 1836, Chateau d’Anzy. + </p> + <p> + “And you have written those verses since yesterday?” cried Clagny in a + suspicious tone. + </p> + <p> + “Dear me, yes, as I was following the game; it is only too evident! I + would gladly have done something better for madame.” + </p> + <p> + “The verses are exquisite!” cried Dinah, casting up her eyes to heaven. + </p> + <p> + “They are, alas! the expression of a too genuine feeling,” replied + Lousteau, in a tone of deep dejection. + </p> + <p> + The reader will, of course, have guessed that the journalist had stored + these lines in his memory for ten years at least, for he had written them + at the time of the Restoration in disgust at being unable to get on. + Madame de la Baudraye gazed at him with such pity as the woes of genius + inspire; and Monsieur de Clagny, who caught her expression, turned in + hatred against this sham <i>Jeune Malade</i> (the name of an Elegy written + by Millevoye). He sat down to backgammon with the cure of Sancerre. The + Presiding Judge’s son was so extremely obliging as to place a lamp near + the two players in such a way as that the light fell full on Madame de la + Baudraye, who took up her work; she was embroidering in coarse wool a + wicker-plait paper-basket. The three conspirators sat close at hand. + </p> + <p> + “For whom are you decorating that pretty basket, madame?” said Lousteau. + “For some charity lottery, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said, “I think there is too much display in charity done to the + sound of a trumpet.” + </p> + <p> + “You are very indiscreet,” said Monsieur Gravier. + </p> + <p> + “Can there be any indiscretion,” said Lousteau, “in inquiring who the + happy mortal may be in whose room that basket is to stand?” + </p> + <p> + “There is no happy mortal in the case,” said Dinah; “it is for Monsieur de + la Baudraye.” + </p> + <p> + The Public Prosecutor looked slily at Madame de la Baudraye and her work, + as if he had said to himself, “I have lost my paper-basket!” + </p> + <p> + “Why, madame, may we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, happy in + her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors are red and + black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope that twelve + years after, my wife’s embroidered baskets may still be for me.” + </p> + <p> + “And why should they not be for you?” said the lady, fixing her fine gray + eyes, full of invitation, on Etienne’s face. + </p> + <p> + “Parisians believe in nothing,” said the lawyer bitterly. “The virtue of + women is doubted above all things with terrible insolence. Yes, for some + time past the books you have written, you Paris authors, your farces, your + dramas, all your atrocious literature, turn on adultery—” + </p> + <p> + “Come, come, Monsieur the Public Prosecutor,” retorted Etienne, laughing, + “I left you to play your game in peace, I did not attack you, and here you + are bringing an indictment against me. On my honor as a journalist, I have + launched above a hundred articles against the writers you speak of; but I + confess that in attacking them it was to attempt something like criticism. + Be just; if you condemn them, you must condemn Homer, whose <i>Iliad</i> + turns on Helen of Troy; you must condemn Milton’s <i>Paradise Lost</i>. + Eve and her serpent seem to me a pretty little case of symbolical + adultery; you must suppress the Psalms of David, inspired by the highly + adulterous love affairs of that Louis XIV. of Judah; you must make a + bonfire of <i>Mithridate, le Tartuffe, l’Ecole des Femmes, Phedre, + Andromaque, le Mariage de Figaro</i>, Dante’s <i>Inferno</i>, Petrarch’s + Sonnets, all the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the romances of the + Middle Ages, the History of France, and of Rome, etc., etc. Excepting + Bossuet’s <i>Histoire des Variations</i> and Pascal’s <i>Provinciales</i>, + I do not think there are many books left to read if you insist on + eliminating all those in which illicit love is mentioned.” + </p> + <p> + “Much loss that would be!” said Monsieur de Clagny. + </p> + <p> + Etienne, nettled by the superior air assumed by Monsieur de Clagny, wanted + to infuriate him by one of those cold-drawn jests which consist in + defending an opinion in which we have no belief, simply to rouse the wrath + of a poor man who argues in good faith; a regular journalist’s pleasantry. + </p> + <p> + “If we take up the political attitude into which you would force + yourself,” he went on, without heeding the lawyer’s remark, “and assume + the part of Public Prosecutor of all the ages—for every Government + has its public ministry—well, the Catholic religion is infected at + its fountain-head by a startling instance of illegal union. In the opinion + of King Herod, and of Pilate as representing the Roman Empire, Joseph’s + wife figured as an adulteress, since, by her avowal, Joseph was not the + father of Jesus. The heathen judge could no more recognize the Immaculate + Conception than you yourself would admit the possibility of such a miracle + if a new religion should nowadays be preached as based on a similar + mystery. Do you suppose that a judge and jury in a police court would give + credence to the operation of the Holy Ghost! And yet who can venture to + assert that God will never again redeem mankind? Is it any better now than + it was under Tiberius?” + </p> + <p> + “Your argument is blasphemy,” said Monsieur de Clagny. + </p> + <p> + “I grant it,” said the journalist, “but not with malicious intent. You + cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he sentenced + Jesus, and Anytus—who spoke for the aristocratic party at Athens—when + he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented established social + interests which held themselves legitimate, invested with co-operative + powers, and obliged to defend themselves. Pilate and Anytus in their time + were not less logical than the public prosecutors who demanded the heads + of the sergeants of La Rochelle; who, at this day, are guillotining the + republicans who take up arms against the throne as established by the + revolution of July, and the innovators who aim at upsetting society for + their own advantage under pretence of organizing it on a better footing. + In the eyes of the great families of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus + were criminals; to those ancient aristocracies their opinions were akin to + those of the Mountain; and if their followers had been victorious, they + would have produced a little ‘ninety-three’ in the Roman Empire or in + Attica.” + </p> + <p> + “What are you trying to come to, monsieur?” asked the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + “To adultery!—For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe + may very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in adultery; + as we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is an epitome of + the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never had the least + intention of constituting that camel-driver His Prophet.” + </p> + <p> + “If there were many men like you in France—and there are more than + enough, unfortunately—all government would be impossible.” + </p> + <p> + “And there would be no religion at all,” said Madame Piedefer, who had + been making strangely wry faces all through this discussion. + </p> + <p> + “You are paining them very much,” said Bianchon to Lousteau in an + undertone. “Do not talk of religion; you are saying things that are enough + to upset them.” + </p> + <p> + “If I were a writer or a romancer,” said Monsieur Gravier, “I should take + the side of the luckless husbands. I, who have seen many things, and + strange things too, know that among the ranks of deceived husbands there + are some whose attitude is not devoid of energy, men who, at a crisis, can + be very dramatic, to use one of your words, monsieur,” he said, addressing + Etienne. + </p> + <p> + “You are very right, my dear Monsieur Gravier,” said Lousteau. “I never + thought that deceived husbands were ridiculous; on the contrary, I think + highly of them—” + </p> + <p> + “Do you not think a husband’s confidence a sublime thing?” said Bianchon. + “He believes in his wife, he does not suspect her, he trusts her + implicitly. But if he is so weak as to trust her, you make game of him; if + he is jealous and suspicious, you hate him; what, then, I ask you, is the + happy medium for a man of spirit?” + </p> + <p> + “If Monsieur de Clagny had not just expressed such vehement disapproval of + the immorality of stories in which the matrimonial compact is violated, I + could tell you of a husband’s revenge,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny threw the dice with a convulsive jerk, and dared not + look up at the journalist. + </p> + <p> + “A story, from you!” cried Madame de la Baudraye. “I should hardly have + dared to hope for such a treat—” + </p> + <p> + “It is not my story, madame; I am not clever enough to invent such a + tragedy. It was told me—and how delightfully!—by one of our + greatest writers, the finest literary musician of our day, Charles + Nodier.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, tell it,” said Dinah. “I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have no + comparison to fear.” + </p> + <p> + “Not long after the 18th Brumaire,” Etienne began, “there was, as you + know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee. The First Consul, anxious + before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations with the rebel + chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, while combining his + plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of Italian diplomacy, he also + set the Machiavelian springs of the police in movement, Fouche then being + at its head. And none of these means were superfluous to stifle the fire + of war then blaring in the West. + </p> + <p> + “At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the + Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between certain + magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the Royalist + party. The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he landed—for + he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner. However, as a man of + practical intelligence, he had calculated all the risks of the + undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, and the men told + off to take him were afraid of blundering. + </p> + <p> + “The Chevalier de Beauvoir—I now remember his name—had studied + his part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, + persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly that + he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the spies + had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too minute. In + this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an arbitrary act than + to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister attached great + importance. In those days of liberty the agents of the powers in authority + cared little enough for what we now regard as <i>legal</i>. The Chevalier + was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until the superior officials + should come to some decision as to his identity. He had not long to wait + for it; orders were given to guard the prisoner closely in spite of his + denials. + </p> + <p> + “The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to further + orders, to the Castle of l’Escarpe, a name which sufficiently indicates + its situation. This fortress, perched on very high rocks, has precipices + for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep and dangerous paths; + and, like every ancient castle, its principal gate has a drawbridge over a + wide moat. The commandant of this prison, delighted to have charge of a + man of family whose manners were most agreeable, who expressed himself + well, and seemed highly educated, received the Chevalier as a godsend; he + offered him the freedom of the place on parole, that they might together + the better defy its dulness. The prisoner was more than content. + </p> + <p> + “Beauvoir was a loyal gentleman, but, unfortunately, he was also a very + handsome youth. He had attractive features, a dashing air, a pleasing + address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full of + enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable leader of + guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant gave his + prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his table, and at + first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This officer was a Corsican + and married; his wife was pretty and charming, and he thought her, + perhaps, not to be trusted—at any rate, he was as jealous as a + Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The lady took a fancy to + Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his taste; perhaps they loved! + Love in a prison is quick work. Did they commit some imprudence? Was the + sentiment they entertained something warmer than the superficial gallantry + which is almost a duty of men towards women? + </p> + <p> + “Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the story; + it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself justified in + treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir was placed in the + dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and fettered in accordance + with the time-honored traditions of the treatment lavished on captives. + His cell, under the fortress-yard, was vaulted with hard stone, the walls + were of desperate thickness; the tower overlooked the precipice. + </p> + <p> + “When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of + escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort and + the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the trifles which + in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours and the days; he + studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he became absorbed in + himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine; then, at the end of a + fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible malady, that fever for + liberty, which drives prisoners to those heroic efforts of which the + prodigious achievements seem to us impossible, though true, and which my + friend the doctor” (and he turned to Bianchon) “would perhaps ascribe to + some unknown forces too recondite for his physiological analysis to + detect, some mysteries of the human will of which the obscurity baffles + science.” + </p> + <p> + Bianchon shook his head in negation. + </p> + <p> + “Beauvoir was eating his heart out, for death alone could set him free. + One morning the turnkey, whose duty it was to bring him his food, instead + of leaving him when he had given him his meagre pittance, stood with his + arms folded, looking at him with strange meaning. Conversation between + them was brief, and the warder never began it. The Chevalier was therefore + greatly surprised when the man said to him: ‘Of course, monsieur, you know + your own business when you insist on being always called Monsieur Lebrun, + or citizen Lebrun. It is no concern of mine; ascertaining your name is no + part of my duty. It is all the same to me whether you call yourself Peter + or Paul. If every man minds his own business, the cows will not stray. At + the same time, <i>I</i> know,’ said he, with a wink, ‘that you are + Monsieur Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier de Beauvoir, and cousin to + Madame la Duchesse de Maille.—Heh?’ he added after a short silence, + during which he looked at his prisoner. + </p> + <p> + “Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine + that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known. + </p> + <p> + “‘Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I gain + by that?’ said he. + </p> + <p> + “‘Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,’ replied the jailer in an + undertone. ‘I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a minute! + If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot out of hand. + So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than will just earn + the money.—Look here,’ said he, taking a small file out of his + pocket, ‘this is your key; with this you can cut through one of your bars. + By the Mass, but it will not be any easy job,’ he went on, glancing at the + narrow loophole that let daylight into the dungeon. + </p> + <p> + “It was in a splayed recess under the deep cornice that ran round the top + of the tower, between the brackets that supported the embrasures. + </p> + <p> + “‘Monsieur,’ said the man, ‘you must take care to saw through the iron low + enough to get your body through.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I will get through, never fear,’ said the prisoner. + </p> + <p> + “‘But high enough to leave a stanchion to fasten a cord to,’ the warder + went on. + </p> + <p> + “‘And where is the cord?’ asked Beauvoir. + </p> + <p> + “‘Here,’ said the man, throwing down a knotted rope. ‘It is made of + raveled linen, that you may be supposed to have contrived it yourself, and + it is long enough. When you have got to the bottom knot, let yourself drop + gently, and the rest you must manage for yourself. You will probably find + a carriage somewhere in the neighborhood, and friends looking out for you. + But I know nothing about that.—I need not remind you that there is a + man-at-arms to the right of the tower. You will take care, of course, to + choose a dark night, and wait till the sentinel is asleep. You must take + your chance of being shot; but—’ + </p> + <p> + “‘All right! All right! At least I shall not rot here,’ cried the young + man. + </p> + <p> + “‘Well, that may happen nevertheless,’ replied the jailer, with a stupid + expression. + </p> + <p> + “Beauvoir thought this was merely one of the aimless remarks that such + folks indulge in. The hope of freedom filled him with such joy that he + could not be troubled to consider the words of a man who was no more than + a better sort of peasant. He set to work at once, and had filed the bars + through in the course of the day. Fearing a visit from the Governor, he + stopped up the breaches with bread crumb rubbed in rust to make it look + like iron; he hid his rope, and waited for a favorable night with the + intensity of anticipation, the deep anguish of soul that makes a + prisoner’s life dramatic. + </p> + <p> + “At last, one murky night, an autumn night, he finished cutting through + the bars, tied the cord firmly to the stump, and perched himself on the + sill outside, holding on by one hand to the piece of iron remaining. Then + he waited for the darkest hour of the night, when the sentinels would + probably be asleep; this would be not long before dawn. He knew the hours + of their rounds, the length of each watch, every detail with which + prisoners, almost involuntarily, become familiar. He waited till the + moment when one of the men-at-arms had spent two-thirds of his watch and + gone into his box for shelter from the fog. Then, feeling sure that the + chances were at the best for his escape, he let himself down knot by knot, + hanging between earth and sky, and clinging to his rope with the strength + of a giant. All was well. At the last knot but one, just as he was about + to let himself drop, a prudent impulse led him to feel for the ground with + his feet, and he found no footing. The predicament was awkward for a man + bathed in sweat, tired, and perplexed, and in a position where his life + was at stake on even chances. He was about to risk it, when a trivial + incident stopped him; his hat fell off; happily, he listened for the noise + it must make in striking the ground, and he heard not a sound. + </p> + <p> + “The prisoner felt vaguely suspicious as to this state of affairs. He + began to wonder whether the Commandant had not laid a trap for him—but + if so, why? Torn by doubts, he almost resolved to postpone the attempt + till another night. At any rate, he would wait for the first gleam of day, + when it would still not be impossible to escape. His great strength + enabled him to climb up again to his window; still, he was almost + exhausted by the time he gained the sill, where he crouched on the + lookout, exactly like a cat on the parapet of a gutter. Before long, by + the pale light of dawn, he perceived as he waved the rope that there was a + little interval of a hundred feet between the lowest knot and the pointed + rocks below. + </p> + <p> + “‘Thank you, my friend, the Governor!’ said he, with characteristic + coolness. Then, after a brief meditation on this skilfully-planned + revenge, he thought it wise to return to his cell. + </p> + <p> + “He laid his outer clothes conspicuously on the bed, left the rope outside + to make it seem that he had fallen, and hid himself behind the door to + await the arrival of the treacherous turnkey, arming himself with one of + the iron bars he had filed out. The jailer, who returned rather earlier + than usual to secure the dead man’s leavings, opened the door, whistling + as he came in; but when he was at arm’s length, Beauvoir hit him such a + tremendous blow on the head that the wretch fell in a heap without a cry; + the bar had cracked his skull. + </p> + <p> + “The Chevalier hastily stripped him and put on his clothes, mimicked his + walk, and, thanks to the early hour and the undoubting confidence of the + warders of the great gate, he walked out and away.” + </p> + <p> + It did not seem to strike either the lawyer or Madame de la Baudraye that + there was in this narrative the least allusion that should apply to them. + Those in the little plot looked inquiringly at each other, evidently + surprised at the perfect coolness of the two supposed lovers. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! I can tell you a better story than that,” said Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hear,” said the audience, at a sign from Lousteau, conveying that + Bianchon had a reputation as a story-teller. + </p> + <p> + Among the stock of narratives he had in store, for every clever man has a + fund of anecdotes as Madame de la Baudraye had a collection of phrases, + the doctor chose that which is known as <i>La Grande Breteche</i>, and is + so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the <i>Gymnase-Dramatique</i> + under the title of <i>Valentine</i>. So it is not necessary to repeat it + here, though it was then new to the inhabitants of the Chateau d’Anzy. And + it was told with the same finish of gesture and tone which had won such + praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle des Touches’ supper-party he had + told it for the first time. The final picture of the Spanish grandee, + starved to death where he stood in the cupboard walled up by Madame de + Merret’s husband, and that husband’s last word as he replied to his wife’s + entreaty, “You swore on that crucifix that there was no one in that + closet!” produced their full effect. There was a silent minute, highly + flattering to Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know, gentlemen,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “love must be a + mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a position?” + </p> + <p> + “I, who have certainly seen some strange things in the course of my life,” + said Gravier, “was cognizant in Spain of an adventure of the same kind.” + </p> + <p> + “You come forward after two great performers,” said Madame de la Baudraye, + with coquettish flattery, as she glanced at the two Parisians. “But never + mind—proceed.” + </p> + <p> + “Some little time after his entry into Madrid,” said the Receiver-General, + “the Grand Duke of Berg invited the magnates of the capital to an + entertainment given to the newly conquered city by the French army. In + spite of the splendor of the affair, the Spaniards were not very cheerful; + their ladies hardly danced at all, and most of the company sat down to + cards. The gardens of the Duke’s palace were so brilliantly illuminated, + that the ladies could walk about in as perfect safety as in broad + daylight. The fete was of imperial magnificence. Nothing was grudged to + give the Spaniards a high idea of the Emperor, if they were to measure him + by the standard of his officers. + </p> + <p> + “In an arbor near the house, between one and two in the morning, a party + of French officers were discussing the chances of war, and the not too + hopeful outlook prognosticated by the conduct of the Spaniards present at + that grand ball. + </p> + <p> + “‘I can only tell you,’ said the surgeon-major of the company of which I + was paymaster, ‘I applied formally to Prince Murat only yesterday to be + recalled. Without being afraid exactly of leaving my bones in the + Peninsula, I would rather dress the wounds made by our worthy neighbors + the Germans. Their weapons do not run quite so deep into the body as these + Castilian daggers. Besides, a certain dread of Spain is, with me, a sort + of superstition. From my earliest youth I have read Spanish books, and a + heap of gloomy romances and tales of adventures in this country have given + me a serious prejudice against its manners and customs. + </p> + <p> + “‘Well, now, since my arrival in Madrid, I have already been, not indeed + the hero, but the accomplice of a dangerous intrigue, as dark and + mysterious as any romance by Lady (Mrs.) Radcliffe. I am apt to attend to + my presentiments, and I am off to-morrow. Murat will not refuse me leave, + for, thanks to our varied services, we always have influential friends.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Since you mean to cut your stick, tell us what’s up,’ said an old + Republican colonel, who cared not a rap for Imperial gentility and choice + language. + </p> + <p> + “The surgeon-major looked about him cautiously, as if to make sure who + were his audience, and being satisfied that no Spaniard was within + hearing, he said: + </p> + <p> + “‘We are none but Frenchmen—then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. + About six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at night, + after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few yards from + mine. We had come away together from the Quartermaster-General’s, where we + had played rather high at <i>bouillotte</i>. Suddenly, at the corner of a + narrow high-street, two strangers, or rather, two demons, rushed upon me + and flung a large cloak round my head and arms. I yelled out, as you may + suppose, like a dog that is thrashed, but the cloth smothered my voice, + and I was lifted into a chaise with dexterous rapidity. When my two + companions released me from the cloak, I heard these dreadful words spoken + by a woman, in bad French: + </p> + <p> + “‘"If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very least + suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will stab you + without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.—Now, I will tell + you why you have been carried off. If you will take the trouble to put + your hand out in this direction, you will find your case of instruments + lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to your rooms, in your + name. You will need them. We are taking you to a house that you may save + the honor of a lady who is about to give birth to a child that she wishes + to place in this gentleman’s keeping without her husband’s knowledge. + Though monsieur rarely leaves his wife, with whom he is still passionately + in love, watching over her with all the vigilance of Spanish jealousy, she + had succeeded in concealing her condition; he believes her to be ill. You + must bring the child into the world. The dangers of this enterprise do not + concern us: only, you must obey us, otherwise the lover, who is sitting + opposite to you in this carriage, and who does not understand a word of + French, will kill you on the least rash movement.” + </p> + <p> + “‘"And who are you?” I asked, feeling for the speaker’s hand, for her arm + was inside the sleeve of a soldier’s uniform. + </p> + <p> + “‘"I am my lady’s waiting-woman,” said she, “and ready to reward you with + my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our + necessities.” + </p> + <p> + “‘"Gladly,” said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a perilous + adventure. + </p> + <p> + “‘Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure of the + girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her tone of + voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the first to + accept all the chances of this strange act of kidnapping, for she kept + silence very obligingly, and the coach had not been more than ten minutes + on the way when she accepted and returned a very satisfactory kiss. The + lover, who sat opposite to me, took no offence at an occasional quite + involuntary kick; as he did not understand French, I conclude he paid no + heed to them. + </p> + <p> + “‘"I can be your mistress on one condition only,” said the woman, in reply + to the nonsense I poured into her ear, carried away by the fervor of an + improvised passion, to which everything was unpropitious. + </p> + <p> + “‘"And what is it?” + </p> + <p> + “‘"That you will never attempt to find out whose servant I am. If I am to + go to you, it must be at night, and you must receive me in the dark.” + </p> + <p> + “‘"Very good,” said I. + </p> + <p> + “‘We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden + wall. + </p> + <p> + “‘"You must allow me to bandage your eyes,” said the maid. “You can lean + on my arm, and I will lead you.” + </p> + <p> + “‘She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot at + the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously fitted to + the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who had sat + opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was slender, + and who walked with an elegant jauntiness’—<i>meneho</i>, as they + call it,” Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, “a word which + describes the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of their + dress that shall be nameless.—‘The waiting-woman’—it is the + surgeon-major who is speaking,” the narrator went on—“‘led me along + the gravel walks of a large garden, till at a certain spot she stopped. + From the louder sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we were close to + the house. “Now silence!” said she in a whisper, “and mind what you are + about. Do not overlook any of my signals; I cannot speak without terrible + danger for both of us, and at this moment your life is of the first + importance.” Then she added: “My mistress is in a room on the ground + floor. To get into it we must pass through her husband’s room and close to + his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and follow me closely, so as not to + knock against the furniture or tread anywhere but on the carpets I laid + down.” + </p> + <p> + “‘Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much + delay. + </p> + <p> + “‘The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of the + house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl’s light hand + removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, badly + lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous husband had + fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack, as it were. + </p> + <p> + “‘On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with a + muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and + flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her + mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it: I never saw finer + limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string thrown on + the fire. The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her legs by + setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both hands she held + on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with every vein painfully + swelled. She might have been a criminal undergoing torture. But she did + not utter a cry; there was not a sound, all three speechless and + motionless. The husband snored with reassuring regularity. I wanted to + study the waiting-woman’s face, but she had put on a mask, which she had + removed, no doubt, during our drive, and I could see nothing but a pair of + black eyes and a pleasingly rounded figure. + </p> + <p> + “‘The lover threw some towels over his mistress’ legs and folded the + muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady with + care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once before on a + very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I turned to the + maid in order to tell her this. Instantly the suspicious stranger drew his + dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the woman, who explained + in a word or two to him in a low voice. On hearing my opinion, a quick, + slight shudder ran through him from head to foot like a lightning flash; I + fancied I could see him turn pale under his black velvet mask. + </p> + <p> + “‘The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in + despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some + glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her head + negatively. I understood that I was not to drink anything in spite of the + dreadful thirst that parched my throat. The lover was thirsty too; he took + an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, and drank it off. + </p> + <p> + “‘At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed me + that now was the time to operate. I summoned all my courage, and in about + an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting it up to + extract it. The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, understanding + that I had saved the mother’s life. Large tears fell on his cloak. The + woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted animal, and was + bathed in sweat. + </p> + <p> + “‘At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her + husband’s room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard the + rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain. We all + paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the eyeholes of their + masks, gave each other a look that said, “If he wakes, shall we kill him?” + </p> + <p> + “‘At that instant I put out my hand to take the glass of lemonade the + Spaniard had drunk of. He, thinking that I was about to take one of the + full glasses, sprang forward like a cat, and laid his long dagger over the + two poisoned goblets, leaving me his own, and signing to me to drink what + was left. So much was conveyed by this quick action, and it was so full of + good feeling, that I forgave him his atrocious schemes for killing me, and + thus burying every trace of this event. + </p> + <p> + “‘After two hours of care and alarms, the maid and I put her mistress to + bed. The lover, forced into so perilous an adventure, had, to provide + means in case of having to fly, a packet of diamonds stuck to paper; these + he put into my pocket without my knowing it; and I may add + parenthetically, that as I was ignorant of the Spaniard’s magnificent + gift, my servant stole the jewels the day after, and went off with a + perfect fortune. + </p> + <p> + “‘I whispered my instructions to the waiting-woman as to the further care + of her patient, and wanted to be gone. The maid remained with her + mistress, which was not very reassuring, but I was on my guard. The lover + made a bundle of the dead infant and the blood-stained clothes, tying it + up tightly, and hiding it under his cloak; he passed his hand over my eyes + as if to bid me to see nothing, and signed to me to take hold of the skirt + of his coat. He went first out of the room, and I followed, not without a + parting glance at my lady of an hour. She, seeing the Spaniard had gone + out, snatched off her mask and showed me an exquisite face. + </p> + <p> + “‘When I found myself in the garden, in the open air, I confess that I + breathed as if a heavy load had been lifted from my breast. I followed my + guide at a respectful distance, watching his least movement with keen + attention. Having reached the little door, he took my hand and pressed a + seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen him wearing on a finger of + his left hand, and I gave him to understand that this significant sign + would be obeyed. In the street two horses were waiting; we each mounted + one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held his own between his teeth, for his + right hand held the bloodstained bundle, and we went off at lightning + speed. + </p> + <p> + “‘I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we came + by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard fled + towards the Atocha gate.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman was + whom you had attended?’ the Colonel asked of the surgeon. + </p> + <p> + “‘One thing only,’ he replied. ‘When I turned the unknown lady over, I + happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as a + lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.’—At this instant the rash + speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his, followed + his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes shone through a + clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object of our attention, the + man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A young captain rushed in + pursuit. + </p> + <p> + “‘By Heaven!’ cried the surgeon, ‘that basilisk stare has chilled me + through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take leave + of you; you will bury me here!’ + </p> + <p> + “‘What a fool you are!’ exclaimed Colonel Hulot. ‘Falcon is on the track + of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to account.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘Well,’ cried one and another, seeing the captain return quite out of + breath. + </p> + <p> + “‘The devil’s in it,’ said Falcon; ‘the man went through a wall, I + believe! As I do not suppose that he is a wizard, I fancy he must belong + to the house! He knows every corner and turning, and easily escaped.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I am done for,’ said the surgeon, in a gloomy voice. + </p> + <p> + “‘Come, come, keep calm, Bega,’ said I (his name was Bega), ‘we will sit + on watch with you till you leave. We will not leave you this evening.’ + </p> + <p> + “In point of fact, three young officers who had been losing at play went + home with the surgeon to his lodgings, and one of us offered to stay with + him. + </p> + <p> + “Within two days Bega had obtained his recall to France; he made + arrangements to travel with a lady to whom Murat had given a strong + escort, and had just finished dinner with a party of friends, when his + servant came to say that a young lady wished to speak to him. The surgeon + and the three officers went down suspecting mischief. The stranger could + only say, ‘Be on your guard—’ when she dropped down dead. It was the + waiting-woman, who, finding she had been poisoned, had hoped to arrive in + time to warn her lover. + </p> + <p> + “‘Devil take it!’ cried Captain Falcon, ‘that is what I call love! No + woman on earth but a Spaniard can run about with a dose of poison in her + inside!’ + </p> + <p> + “Bega remained strangely pensive. To drown the dark presentiments that + haunted him, he sat down to table again, and with his companions drank + immoderately. The whole party went early to bed, half drunk. + </p> + <p> + “In the middle of the night the hapless Bega was aroused by the sharp + rattle of the curtain rings pulled violently along the rods. He sat up in + bed, in the mechanical trepidation which we all feel on waking with such a + start. He saw standing before him a Spaniard wrapped in a cloak, who fixed + on him the same burning gaze that he had seen through the bushes. + </p> + <p> + “Bega shouted out, ‘Help, help, come at once, friends!’ But the Spaniard + answered his cry of distress with a bitter laugh.—‘Opium grows for + all!’ said he. + </p> + <p> + “Having thus pronounced sentence as it were, the stranger pointed to the + three other men sleeping soundly, took from under his cloak the arm of a + woman, freshly amputated, and held it out to Bega, pointing to a mole like + that he had so rashly described. ‘Is it the same?’ he asked. By the light + of the lantern the man had set on the bed, Bega recognized the arm, and + his speechless amazement was answer enough. + </p> + <p> + “Without waiting for further information, the lady’s husband stabbed him + to the heart.” + </p> + <p> + “You must tell that to the marines!” said Lousteau. “It needs their robust + faith to swallow it! Can you tell me which told the tale, the dead man or + the Spaniard?” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” replied the Receiver-General, “I nursed poor Bega, who died + five days after in dreadful suffering.—That is not the end. + </p> + <p> + “At the time of the expedition sent out to restore Ferdinand VII. I was + appointed to a place in Spain; but, happily for me, I got no further than + Tours when I was promised the post of Receiver here at Sancerre. On the + eve of setting out I was at a ball at Madame de Listomere’s, where we were + to meet several Spaniards of high rank. On rising from the card-table, I + saw a Spanish grandee, an <i>afrancesado</i> in exile, who had been about + a fortnight in Touraine. He had arrived very late at this ball—his + first appearance in society—accompanied by his wife, whose right arm + was perfectly motionless. Everybody made way in silence for this couple, + whom we all watched with some excitement. Imagine a picture by Murillo + come to life. Under black and hollow brows the man’s eyes were like a + fixed blaze; his face looked dried up, his bald skull was red, and his + frame was a terror to behold, he was so emaciated. His wife—no, you + cannot imagine her. Her figure had the supple swing for which the + Spaniards created the word <i>meneho</i>; though pale, she was still + beautiful; her complexion was dazzlingly fair—a rare thing in a + Spaniard; and her gaze, full of the Spanish sun, fell on you like a stream + of melted lead. + </p> + <p> + “‘Madame,’ said I to her, towards the end of the evening, ‘what occurrence + led to the loss of your arm?’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I lost it in the war of independence,’ said she.” + </p> + <p> + “Spain is a strange country,” said Madame de la Baudraye. “It still shows + traces of Arab manners.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” said the journalist, laughing, “the mania for cutting off arms is an + old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our newspaper + hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the Spanish stage so + early as 1570—” + </p> + <p> + “Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?” said Monsieur + Gravier, nettled by Lousteau’s impertinent tone. + </p> + <p> + “Quite incapable of such a thing,” said the journalist with grave irony. + </p> + <p> + “Pooh!” said Bianchon, “the inventions of romances and play-writers are + quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real life, as + the events of real life are made use of on the stage or adapted to a tale. + I have seen the comedy of <i>Tartufe</i> played out—with the + exception of the close; Orgon’s eyes could not be opened to the truth.” + </p> + <p> + “And the tragi-comedy of <i>Adolphe</i> by Benjamin Constant is constantly + enacted,” cried Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “And do you suppose,” asked Madame de la Baudraye, “that such adventures + as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and in France?” + </p> + <p> + “Dear me!” cried Clagny, “of the ten or twelve startling crimes that are + annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with circumstances + at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing them in romantic + details. Indeed, is not this proved by the reports in the <i>Gazette des + Tribunaux</i>—the Police news—in my opinion, one of the worst + abuses of the Press? This newspaper, which was started only in 1826 or + ‘27, was not in existence when I began my professional career, and the + facts of the crime I am about to speak of were not known beyond the limits + of the department where it was committed. + </p> + <p> + “In the quarter of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours a woman whose husband + had disappeared at the time when the army of the Loire was disbanded, and + who had mourned him deeply, was conspicuous for her excess of devotion. + When the mission priests went through all the provinces to restore the + crosses that had been destroyed and to efface the traces of revolutionary + impiety, this widow was one of their most zealous proselytes, she carried + a cross and nailed to it a silver heart pierced by an arrow; and, for a + long time after, she went every evening to pray at the foot of the cross + which was erected behind the Cathedral apse. + </p> + <p> + “At last, overwhelmed by remorse, she confessed to a horrible crime. She + had killed her husband, as Fualdes was murdered, by bleeding him; she had + salted the body and packed it in pieces into old casks, exactly as if it + have been pork; and for a long time she had taken a piece every morning + and thrown it into the Loire. Her confessor consulted his superiors, and + told her that it would be his duty to inform the public prosecutor. The + woman awaited the action of the Law. The public prosecutor and the + examining judge, on examining the cellar, found the husband’s head still + in pickle in one of the casks.—‘Wretched woman,’ said the judge to + the accused, ‘since you were so barbarous as to throw your husband’s body + into the river, why did you not get rid of the head? Then there would have + been no proof.’ + </p> + <p> + “‘I often tried, monsieur,’ said she, ‘but it was too heavy.’” + </p> + <p> + “Well, and what became of the woman?” asked the two Parisians. + </p> + <p> + “She was sentenced and executed at Tours,” replied the lawyer; “but her + repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her monstrous + crime.” + </p> + <p> + “And do you suppose, said Bianchon, “that we know all the tragedies that + are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public never + lifts?—It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to judge of + crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to intervene as the + police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart of the matter.” + </p> + <p> + “The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor,” said Madame + de la Baudraye guilelessly, “that the crime would sometimes seem almost + excusable if the accused could tell all.” + </p> + <p> + This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had told, + left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah’s position. + </p> + <p> + At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place in + the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, candle in + hand, for mysterious conversations. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this + entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye’s innocence + to light. + </p> + <p> + “But, after all,” said Lousteau, “our hostess’ serenity may indicate deep + depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public Prosecutor + looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La Baudraye should be + put in pickle——” + </p> + <p> + “He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the + course of the night?” said Gatien. + </p> + <p> + “We will know!” cried Monsieur Gravier. + </p> + <p> + In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are considered + admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur Gravier, who had + seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on the door of Madame de + la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The ducks that denounced the + poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with the single hair that these + country spies fasten across the opening of a door by means of two little + flattened pills of wax, fixed so high up, or so low down, that the trick + is never suspected. If the gallant comes out of his own door and opens the + other, the broken hair tells the tale. + </p> + <p> + When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist, the + receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and silently + fastened up the two doors, agreeing to come again at five in the morning + to examine the state of the fastenings. Imagine their astonishment and + Gatien’s delight when all four, candle in hand, and with hardly any + clothes on, came to look at the hairs, and found them in perfect + preservation on both doors. + </p> + <p> + “Is it the same wax?” asked Monsieur Gravier. + </p> + <p> + “Are they the same hairs?” asked Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” replied Gatien. + </p> + <p> + “This quite alters the matter!” cried Lousteau. “You have been beating the + bush for a will-o’-the-wisp.” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Gravier and Gatien exchanged questioning glances which were meant + to convey, “Is there not something offensive to us in that speech? Ought + we to laugh or to be angry?” + </p> + <p> + “If Dinah is virtuous,” said the journalist in a whisper to Bianchon, “she + is worth an effort on my part to pluck the fruit of her first love.” + </p> + <p> + The idea of carrying by storm a fortress that had for nine years stood out + against the besiegers of Sancerre smiled on Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + With this notion in his head, he was the first to go down and into the + garden, hoping to meet his hostess. And this chance fell out all the more + easily because Madame de la Baudraye on her part wished to converse with + her critic. Half such chances are planned. + </p> + <p> + “You were out shooting yesterday, monsieur,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + “This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any new amusement; + unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you may study more of + our provincial life than you can see here, for you have made but one + mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying about the handsomest girl + in the world is not less true of the poor provincial woman!” + </p> + <p> + “That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech I + made simply to make him confess that he adored you,” said Etienne. “Your + silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout the + evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we never + commit in Paris.—What can I say? I do not flatter myself that you + will understand me. In fact, I laid a plot for the telling of all those + stories yesterday solely to see whether I could rouse you and Monsieur de + Clagny to a pang of remorse.—Oh! be quite easy; your innocence is + fully proved. + </p> + <p> + “If you had the slightest fancy for that estimable magistrate, you would + have lost all your value in my eyes.—I love perfection. + </p> + <p> + “You do not, you cannot love that cold, dried-up, taciturn little usurer + on wine casks and land, who would leave any man in the lurch for + twenty-five centimes on a renewal. Oh, I have fully recognized Monsieur de + la Baudraye’s similarity to a Parisian bill-discounter; their nature is + identical.—At eight-and-twenty, handsome, well conducted, and + childless—I assure you, madame, I never saw the problem of virtue + more admirably expressed.—The author of <i>Paquita la Sevillane</i> + must have dreamed many dreams! + </p> + <p> + “I can speak of such things without the hypocritical gloss lent them by + young men, for I am old before my time. I have no illusions left. Can a + man have any illusions in the trade I follow?” + </p> + <p> + By opening the game in this tone, Lousteau cut out all excursions in the + <i>Pays de Tendre</i>, where genuine passion beats the bush so long; he + went straight to the point and placed himself in a position to force the + offer of what women often make a man pray for, for years; witness the + hapless Public Prosecutor, to whom the greatest favor had consisted in + clasping Dinah’s hand to his heart more tenderly than usual as they + walked, happy man! + </p> + <p> + And Madame de la Baudraye, to be true to her reputation as a Superior + Woman, tried to console the Manfred of the Press by prophesying such a + future of love as he had not had in his mind. + </p> + <p> + “You have sought pleasure,” said she, “but you have never loved. Believe + me, true love often comes late in life. Remember Monsieur de Gentz, who + fell in love in his old age with Fanny Ellsler, and left the Revolution of + July to take its course while he attended the dancer’s rehearsals.” + </p> + <p> + “It seems to me unlikely,” replied Lousteau. “I can still believe in love, + but I have ceased to believe in woman. There are in me, I suppose, certain + defects which hinder me from being loved, for I have often been thrown + over. Perhaps I have too strong a feeling for the ideal—like all men + who have looked too closely into reality——” + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye at last heard the mind of a man who, flung into the + wittiest Parisian circles, represented to her its most daring axioms, its + almost artless depravity, its advanced convictions; who, if he were not + really superior, acted superiority extremely well. Etienne, performing + before Dinah, had all the success of a first night. <i>Paquita</i> of + Sancerre scented the storms, the atmosphere of Paris. She spent one of the + most delightful days of her life with Lousteau and Bianchon, who told her + strange tales about the great men of the day, the anecdotes which will + some day form the <i>Ana</i> of our century; sayings and doings that were + the common talk of Paris, but quite new to her. + </p> + <p> + Of course, Lousteau spoke very ill of the great female celebrity of Le + Berry, with the obvious intention of flattering Madame de la Baudraye and + leading her into literary confidences, by suggesting that she could rival + so great a writer. This praise intoxicated Madame de la Baudraye; and + Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Gravier, and Gatien, all thought her warmer + in her manner to Etienne than she had been on the previous day. Dinah’s + three <i>attaches</i> greatly regretted having all gone to Sancerre to + blow the trumpet in honor of the evening at Anzy; nothing, to hear them, + had ever been so brilliant. The Hours had fled on feet so light that none + had marked their pace. The two Parisians they spoke of as perfect + prodigies. + </p> + <p> + These exaggerated reports loudly proclaimed on the Mall brought sixteen + persons to Anzy that evening, some in family coaches, some in wagonettes, + and a few bachelors on hired saddle horses. By about seven o’clock this + provincial company had made a more or less graceful entry into the huge + Anzy drawing-room, which Dinah, warned of the invasion, had lighted up, + giving it all the lustre it was capable of by taking the holland covers + off the handsome furniture, for she regarded this assembly as one of her + great triumphs. Lousteau, Bianchon, and Dinah exchanged meaning looks as + they studied the attitudes and listened to the speeches of these visitors, + attracted by curiosity. + </p> + <p> + What invalided ribbons, what ancestral laces, what ancient flowers, more + imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some perennial caps! + The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon’s cousin, exchanged a few words with the + doctor, from whom she extracted some “advice gratis” by expatiating on + certain pains in the chest, which she declared were nervous, but which he + ascribed to chronic indigestion. + </p> + <p> + “Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the English + do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an English + malady,” Bianchon replied very gravely. + </p> + <p> + “He is certainly a great physician,” said the Presidente, coming back to + Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the Mayor’s + wife. + </p> + <p> + “They say,” replied Madame de Clagny behind her fan, “that Dinah sent for + him, not so much with a view to the elections as to ascertain why she has + no children.” + </p> + <p> + In the first excitement of this success, Lousteau introduced the great + doctor as the only possible candidate at the ensuing elections. But + Bianchon, to the great satisfaction of the new Sous-prefet, remarked that + it seemed to him almost impossible to give up science in favor of + politics. + </p> + <p> + “Only a physician without a practice,” said he, “could care to be returned + as a deputy. Nominate statesmen, thinkers, men whose knowledge is + universal, and who are capable of placing themselves on the high level + which a legislator should occupy. That is what is lacking in our Chambers, + and what our country needs.” + </p> + <p> + Two or three young ladies, some of the younger men, and the elder women + stared at Lousteau as if he were a mountebank. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Gatien Boirouge declares that Monsieur Lousteau makes twenty + thousand francs a year by his writings,” observed the Mayor’s wife to + Madame de Clagny. “Can you believe it?” + </p> + <p> + “Is it possible? Why, a Public Prosecutor gets but a thousand crowns!” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Gatien,” said Madame Chandier, “get Monsieur Lousteau to talk a + little louder. I have not heard him yet.” + </p> + <p> + “What pretty boots he wears,” said Mademoiselle Chandier to her brother, + “and how they shine!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—patent leather.” + </p> + <p> + “Why haven’t you the same?” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau began to feel that he was too much on show, and saw in the + manners of the good townsfolk indications of the desires that had brought + them there. + </p> + <p> + “What trick can I play them?” thought he. + </p> + <p> + At this moment the footman, so called—a farm-servant put into livery—brought + in the letters and papers, and among them a packet of proof, which the + journalist left for Bianchon; for Madame de la Baudraye, on seeing the + parcel, of which the form and string were obviously from the printers, + exclaimed: + </p> + <p> + “What, does literature pursue you even here?” + </p> + <p> + “Not literature,” replied he, “but a review in which I am now finishing a + story to come out ten days hence. I have reached the stage of ‘<i>To be + concluded in our next</i>,’ so I was obliged to give my address to the + printer. Oh, we eat very hard-earned bread at the hands of these + speculators in black and white! I will give you a description of these + editors of magazines.” + </p> + <p> + “When will the conversation begin?” Madame de Clagny asked of Dinah, as + one might ask, “When do the fireworks go off?” + </p> + <p> + “I fancied we should hear some amusing stories,” said Madame Popinot to + her cousin, the Presidente Boirouge. + </p> + <p> + At this moment, when the good folks of Sancerre were beginning to murmur + like an impatient pit, Lousteau observed that Bianchon was lost in + meditation inspired by the wrapper round the proofs. + </p> + <p> + “What is it?” asked Etienne. + </p> + <p> + “Why, here is the most fascinating romance possible on some spoiled proof + used to wrap yours in. Here, read it. <i>Olympia, or Roman Revenge</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us see,” said Lousteau, taking the sheet the doctor held out to him, + and he read aloud as follows:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 240 OLYMPIA + + cavern. Rinaldo, indignant at his + companions’ cowardice, for they had + no courage but in the open field, and + dared not venture into Rome, looked + at them with scorn. + + “Then I go alone?” said he. He + seemed to reflect, and then he went + on: “You are poor wretches. I shall + proceed alone, and have the rich + booty to myself.—You hear me! + Farewell.” + + “My Captain,” said Lamberti, “if + you should be captured without + having succeeded?” + + “God protects me!” said Rinaldo, + pointing to the sky. + + With these words he went out, + and on his way he met the steward +</pre> + <p> + “That is the end of the page,” said Lousteau, to whom every one had + listened devoutly. + </p> + <p> + “He is reading his work to us,” said Gatien to Madame Popinot-Chandier’s + son. + </p> + <p> + “From the first word, ladies,” said the journalist, jumping at an + opportunity of mystifying the natives, “it is evident that the brigands + are in a cave. But how careless romancers of that date were as to details + which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied under the name of + ‘local color.’ If the robbers were in a cavern, instead of pointing to the + sky he ought to have pointed to the vault above him.—In spite of + this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man of spirit, and his appeal to + God is quite Italian. There must have been a touch of local color in this + romance. Why, what with brigands, and a cavern, and one Lamberti who could + foresee future possibilities—there is a whole melodrama in that + page. Add to these elements a little intrigue, a peasant maiden with her + hair dressed high, short skirts, and a hundred or so of bad couplets.—Oh! + the public will crowd to see it! And then Rinaldo—how well the name + suits Lafont! By giving him black whiskers, tightly-fitting trousers, a + cloak, a moustache, a pistol, and a peaked hat—if the manager of the + Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to pay for a few newspaper + articles, that would secure fifty performances, and six thousand francs + for the author’s rights, if only I were to cry it up in my columns. + </p> + <p> + “To proceed:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + The Duchess of Bracciano found + her glove. Adolphe, who had brought + her back to the orange grove, might + certainly have supposed that there + was some purpose in her forgetful- + ness, for at this moment the arbor + was deserted. The sound of the fes- + tivities was audible in the distance. + The puppet show that had been + promised had attracted all the + guests to the ballroom. Never had + Olympia looked more beautiful. + Her lover’s eyes met hers with an + answering glow, and they under- + stood each other. There was a mo- + ment of silence, delicious to their + souls, and impossible to describe. + They sat down on the same bench + where they had sat in the presence + of the Cavaliere Paluzzi and the +</pre> + <p> + “Devil take it! Our Rinaldo has vanished!” cried Lousteau. “But a literary + man once started by this page would make rapid progress in the + comprehension of the plot. The Duchesse Olympia is a lady who could + intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor.” + </p> + <p> + “Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an office, + the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom, it is + impossible to discern in Olympia—” Bianchon began. + </p> + <p> + “A woman of thirty,” Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing + some all too medical term. + </p> + <p> + “Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty,” the doctor went on, “for an Italian + woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty.” + </p> + <p> + “From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed,” said + Lousteau. “And this Cavaliere Paluzzi—what a man!—The style is + weak in these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise + Office, and wrote the novel to pay his tailor!” + </p> + <p> + “In his time,” said Bianchon, “the censor flourished; you must show as + much indulgence to a man who underwent the ordeal by scissors in 1805 as + to those who went to the scaffold in 1793.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you understand in the least?” asked Madame Gorju timidly of Madame de + Clagny. + </p> + <p> + The Public Prosecutor’s wife, who, to use a phrase of Monsieur Gravier’s, + might have put a Cossack to flight in 1814, straightened herself in her + chair like a horseman in his stirrups, and made a face at her neighbor, + conveying, “They are looking at us; we must smile as if we understood.” + </p> + <p> + “Charming!” said the Mayoress to Gatien. “Pray go on, Monsieur Lousteau.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau looked at the two women, two Indian idols, and contrived to keep + his countenance. He thought it desirable to say, “Attention!” before going + on as follows:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + OR ROMAN REVENGE 209 + + dress rustled in the silence. Sud + denly Cardinal Borborigano stood + before the Duchess. + + “His face was gloomy, his brow + was dark with clouds, and a bitter + smile lurked in his wrinkles. + + “Madame,” said he, “you are under + suspicion. If you are guilty, fly. If + you are not, still fly; because, + whether criminal or innocent, you + will find it easier to defend yourself + from a distance.” + + “I thank your Eminence for your + solicitude,” said she. “The Duke of + Bracciano will reappear when I find + it needful to prove that he is alive.” + </pre> + <p> + “Cardinal Borborigano!” exclaimed Bianchon. “By the Pope’s keys! If you do + not agree with me that there is a magnificent creation in the very name, + if at those words <i>dress rustled in the silence</i> you do not feel all + the poetry thrown into the part of Schedoni by Mrs. Radcliffe in <i>The + Black Penitent</i>, you do not deserve to read a romance.” + </p> + <p> + “For my part,” said Dinah, who had some pity on the eighteen faces gazing + up at Lousteau, “I see how the story is progressing. I know it all. I am + in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose wife, as bold as + she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a volcano. Every night, + at every kiss, she says to herself, ‘All will be discovered!’” + </p> + <p> + “Can you see her,” said Lousteau, “clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her arms, + to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?—Adolphe I see as + a well-made young man, but not clever—the sort of man an Italian + woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do not know, + but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by Pixerecourt. Or we + can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the background like a figure in + one of Victor Hugo’s plays.” + </p> + <p> + “He, perhaps, is the husband,” exclaimed Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “Do you understand anything of it all?” Madame Piedefer asked of the + Presidente. + </p> + <p> + “Why, it is charming!” said Dinah to her mother. + </p> + <p> + All the good folks of Sancerre sat with eyes as large as five-franc + pieces. + </p> + <p> + “Go on, I beg,” said the hostess. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau went on:— + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 210 OLYMPIA + + “Your key——” + + “Have you lost it?” + + “It is in the arbor.” + + “Let us hasten.” + + “Can the Cardinal have taken it?” + + “No, here it is.” + + “What danger we have escaped!” + + Olympia looked at the key, and + fancied she recognized it as her own. + But Rinaldo had changed it; his + cunning had triumphed; he had the + right key. Like a modern Cartouche, + he was no less skilful than bold, + and suspecting that nothing but a + vast treasure could require a duchess + to carry it constantly at her belt. +</pre> + <p> + “Guess!” cried Lousteau. “The corresponding page is not here. We must look + to page 212 to relieve our anxiety.” + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 212 OLYMPIA + + “If the key had been lost?” + + “He would now be a dead man.” + + “Dead? But ought you not to + grant the last request he made, and + to give him his liberty on the con- + ditions——” + + “You do not know him.” + + “But—” + + “Silence! I took you for my + lover, not for my confessor.” + + Adolphe was silent. +</pre> + <p> + “And then comes an exquisite galloping goat, a tail-piece drawn by + Normand, and cut by Duplat.—the names are signed,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Well, and then?” said such of the audience as understood. + </p> + <p> + “That is the end of the chapter,” said Lousteau. “The fact of this + tailpiece changes my views as to the authorship. To have his book got up, + under the Empire, with vignettes engraved on wood, the writer must have + been a Councillor of State, or Madame Barthelemy-Hadot, or the late + lamented Desforges, or Sewrin.” + </p> + <p> + “‘Adolphe was silent.’—Ah!” cried Bianchon, “the Duchess must have + been under thirty.” + </p> + <p> + “If there is no more, invent a conclusion,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “You see,” said Lousteau, “the waste sheet has been printed fair on one + side only. In printer’s lingo, it is a back sheet, or, to make it clearer, + the other side which would have to be printed is covered all over with + pages printed one above another, all experiments in making up. It would + take too long to explain to you all the complications of a making-up + sheet; but you may understand that it will show no more trace of the first + twelve pages that were printed on it than you would in the least remember + the first stroke of the bastinado if a Pasha condemned you to have fifty + on the soles of your feet.” + </p> + <p> + “I am quite bewildered,” said Madame Popinot-Chandier to Monsieur Gravier. + “I am vainly trying to connect the Councillor of State, the Cardinal, the + key, and the making-up——” + </p> + <p> + “You have not the key to the jest,” said Monsieur Gravier. “Well! no more + have I, fair lady, if that can comfort you.” + </p> + <p> + “But here is another sheet,” said Bianchon, hunting on the table where the + proofs had been laid. + </p> + <p> + “Capital!” said Lousteau, “and it is complete and uninjured. It is signed + IV.; J, Second Edition. Ladies, the figure IV. means that this is part of + the fourth volume. The letter J, the tenth letter of the alphabet, shows + that this is the tenth sheet. And it is perfectly clear to me, that in + spite of any publisher’s tricks, this romance in four duodecimo volumes, + had a great success, since it came to a second edition.—We will read + on and find a clue to the mystery. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + OR ROMAN REVENGE 21 + + corridor; but finding that he was + pursued by the Duchess’ people +</pre> + <p> + “Oh, get along!” + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “some important events have taken place + between your waste sheet and this page.” + </p> + <p> + “This complete sheet, madame, this precious made-up sheet. But does the + waste sheet in which the Duchess forgets her gloves in the arbor belong to + the fourth volume? Well, deuce take it—to proceed. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Rinaldo saw no safer refuge than to + make forthwith for the cellar where + the treasures of the Bracciano fam- + ily no doubt lay hid. As light of + foot as Camilla sung by the Latin + poet, he flew to the entrance to the + Baths of Vespasian. The torchlight + already flickered on the walls when + Rinaldo, with the readiness be- + stowed on him by nature, discovered + the door concealed in the stone- + work, and suddenly vanished. A + hideous thought then flashed on + Rinaldo’s brain like lightning rend- + ing a cloud: He was imprisoned! + He felt the wall with uneasy haste +</pre> + <p> + “Yes, this made-up sheet follows the waste sheet. The last page of the + damaged sheet was 212, and this is 217. In fact, since Rinaldo, who in the + earlier fragment stole the key of the Duchess’ treasure by exchanging it + for another very much like it, is now—on the made-up sheet—in + the palace of the Dukes of Bracciano, the story seems to me to be + advancing to a conclusion of some kind. I hope it is as clear to you as it + is to me.—I understand that the festivities are over, the lovers + have returned to the Bracciano Palace; it is night—one o’clock in + the morning. Rinaldo will have a good time.” + </p> + <p> + “And Adolphe too!” said President Boirouge, who was considered rather free + in his speech. + </p> + <p> + “And the style!” said Bianchon.—“Rinaldo, who saw <i>no better + refuge than to make for the cellar</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “It is quite clear that neither Maradan, nor Treuttel and Wurtz, nor + Doguereau, were the printers,” said Lousteau, “for they employed + correctors who revised the proofs, a luxury in which our publishers might + very well indulge, and the writers of the present day, would benefit + greatly. Some scrubby pamphlet printer on the Quay—” + </p> + <p> + “What quay?” a lady asked of her neighbor. “They spoke of baths—” + </p> + <p> + “Pray go on,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “At any rate, it is not by a councillor,” said Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + “It may be by Madame Hadot,” replied Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “What has Madame Hadot of La Charite to do with it?” the Presidente asked + of her son. + </p> + <p> + “This Madame Hadot, my dear friend,” the hostess answered, “was an + authoress, who lived at the time of the Consulate.” + </p> + <p> + “What, did women write in the Emperor’s time?” asked Madame + Popinot-Chandier. + </p> + <p> + “What of Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael?” cried the Public + Prosecutor, piqued on Dinah’s account by this remark. + </p> + <p> + “To be sure!” + </p> + <p> + “I beg you to go on,” said Madame de la Baudraye to Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau went on saying: “Page 218. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 218 OLYMPIA + + and gave a shriek of despair when + he had vainly sought any trace of a + secret spring. It was impossible to + ignore the horrible truth. The door, + cleverly constructed to serve the + vengeful purposes of the Duchess, + could not be opened from within. + Rinaldo laid his cheek against the + wall in various spots; nowhere + could he feel the warmer air from + the passage. He had hoped he + might find a crack that would show + him where there was an opening in + the wall, but nothing, nothing! The + whole seemed to be of one block of + marble. + + Then he gave a hollow roar like + that of a hyaena—— +</pre> + <p> + “Well, we fancied that the cry of the hyaena was a recent invention of our + own!” said Lousteau, “and here it was already known to the literature of + the Empire. It is even introduced with a certain skill in natural history, + as we see in the word <i>hollow</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “Make no more comments, monsieur,” said Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “There, you see!” cried Bianchon. “Interest, the romantic demon, has you + by the collar, as he had me a while ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Read on,” cried de Clagny, “I understand.” + </p> + <p> + “What a coxcomb!” said the Presiding Judge in a whisper to his neighbor + the Sous-prefet. + </p> + <p> + “He wants to please Madame de la Baudraye,” replied the new Sous-prefet. + </p> + <p> + “Well, then I will read straight on,” said Lousteau solemnly. + </p> + <p> + Everybody listened in dead silence. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + A deep groan answered Rinaldo’s + cry, but in his alarm he took it for + an echo, so weak and hollow was + the sound. It could not proceed + from any human breast. + + “Santa Maria!” said the voice. + + “If I stir from this spot I shall + never find it again,” thought Ri- + naldo, when he had recovered his + usual presence of mind. “If I knock, + I shall be discovered. What am I + to do?” + + “Who is here?” asked the voice. + + “Hallo!” cried the brigand; “do + the toads here talk?” + + “I am the Duke of Bracciano. + Whoever you may be, if you are not + a follower of the Duchess’, in the + name of all the saints, come towards + me.” + + 220 OLYMPIA + + “I should have to know where to + find you, Monsieur le Duc,” said Ri- + naldo, with the insolence of a man + who knows himself to be necessary. + + “I can see you, my friend, for my + eyes are accustomed to the darkness. + Listen: walk straight forward— + good; now turn to the left—come + on—this way. There, we are close + to each other.” + + Rinaldo putting out his hands as + a precaution, touched some iron + bars. + + “I am being deceived,” cried the + bandit. + + “No, you are touching my cage. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 221 + + Sit down on a broken shaft of por- + phyry that is there.” + + “How can the Duke of Bracciano + be in a cage?” asked the brigand. + + “My friend, I have been here for + thirty months, standing up, unable + to sit down——But you, who are + you?” + + “I am Rinaldo, prince of the Cam- + pagna, the chief of four-and-twenty + brave men whom the law describes + as miscreants, whom all the ladies + admire, and whom judges hang in + obedience to an old habit.” + + “God be praised! I am saved. + An honest man would have been + afraid, whereas I am sure of coming + to an understanding with you,” + cried the Duke. “Oh, my worthy + + 222 OLYMPIA + + deliverer, you must be armed to the + teeth.” + + “<i>E verissimo</i>” (most true). + + “Do you happen to have—” + + “Yes, files, pincers—<i>Corpo di + Bacco</i>! I came to borrow the treas- + ures of the Bracciani on a long + loan.” + + “You will earn a handsome share + of them very legitimately, my good + Rinaldo, and we may possibly go + man hunting together—” + + “You surprise me, Eccellenza!” + + “Listen to me, Rinaldo. I will + say nothing of the craving for + vengeance that gnaws at my heart. + I have been here for thirty months + —you too are Italian—you will un- + OR ROMAN REVENGE 223 + + derstand me! Alas, my friend, my + fatigue and my horrible incarcera- + tion are nothing in comparison + with the rage that devours my soul. + The Duchess of Bracciano is still + one of the most beautiful women in + Rome. I loved her well enough to + be jealous—” + + “You, her husband!” + + “Yes, I was wrong, no doubt.” + + “It is not the correct thing, to be + sure,” said Rinaldo. + + “My jealousy was roused by the + Duchess’ conduct,” the Duke went + on. “The event proved me right. A + young Frenchman fell in love with + Olympia, and she loved him. I had + proofs of their reciprocal affection +</pre> + <p> + “Pray excuse me, ladies,” said Lousteau, “but I find it impossible to go + on without remarking to you how direct this Empire literature is, going to + the point without any details, a characteristic, as it seems to me, of a + primitive time. The literature of that period holds a place between the + summaries of chapters in <i>Telemaque</i> and the categorical reports of a + public office. It had ideas, but refrained from expressing them, it was so + scornful! It was observant, but would not communicate its observations to + any one, it was so miserly! Nobody but Fouche ever mentioned what he had + observed. ‘At that time,’ to quote the words of one of the most imbecile + critics in the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, ‘literature was content with + a clear sketch and the simple outline of all antique statues. It did not + dance over its periods.’—I should think not! It had no periods to + dance over. It had no words to play with. You were plainly told that Lubin + loved Toinette; that Toinette did not love Lubin; that Lubin killed + Toinette and the police caught Lubin, who was put in prison, tried at the + assizes, and guillotined.—A strong sketch, a clear outline! What a + noble drama! Well, in these days the barbarians make words sparkle.” + </p> + <p> + “Like a hair in a frost,” said Monsieur de Clagny. + </p> + <p> + “So those are the airs you affect?”[*] retorted Lousteau. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + [*] The rendering given above is only intended to link the + various speeches into coherence; it has no resemblance with + the French. In the original, “Font chatoyer les <i>mots</i>.” + + “Et quelquefois les <i>morts</i>,” dit Monsieur de Clagny. + + “Ah! Lousteau! vous vous donnez de ces R-la (airs-la).” + + Literally: “And sometimes the dead.”—“Ah, are those the airs you + assume?”—the play on the insertion of the letter R (<i>mots, + morts</i>) has no meaning in English. +</pre> + <p> + “What can he mean?” asked Madame de Clagny, puzzled by this vile pun. + </p> + <p> + “I seem to be walking in the dark,” replied the Mayoress. + </p> + <p> + “The jest would be lost in an explanation,” remarked Gatien. + </p> + <p> + “Nowadays,” Lousteau went on, “a novelist draws characters, and instead of + a ‘simple outline,’ he unveils the human heart and gives you some interest + either in Lubin or in Toinette.” + </p> + <p> + “For my part, I am alarmed at the progress of public knowledge in the + matter of literature,” said Bianchon. “Like the Russians, beaten by + Charles XII., who at least learned the art of war, the reader has learned + the art of writing. Formerly all that was expected of a romance was that + it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared for that, not even the + author; as to ideas—zero; as to local color—<i>non est</i>. By + degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, and complete + information; he insists on the five literary senses—Invention, + Style, Thought, Learning, and Feeling. Then some criticism commenting on + everything. The critic, incapable of inventing anything but calumny, + pronounces every work that proceeds from a not perfect brain to be + deformed. Some magicians, as Walter Scott, for instance, having appeared + in the world, who combined all the five literary senses, such writers as + had but one—wit or learning, style or feeling—these cripples, + these acephalous, maimed or purblind creatures—in a literary sense—have + taken to shrieking that all is lost, and have preached a crusade against + men who were spoiling the business, or have denounced their works.” + </p> + <p> + “The history of your last literary quarrel!” Dinah observed. + </p> + <p> + “For pity’s sake, come back to the Duke of Bracciano,” cried Monsieur de + Clagny. + </p> + <p> + To the despair of all the company, Lousteau went on with the made-up + sheet. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + 224 OLYMPIA + + I then wished to make sure of my + misfortune that I might be avenged + under the protection of Providence + and the Law. The Duchess guessed + my intentions. We were at war in + our purposes before we fought with + poison in our hands. We tried to + tempt each other to such confidence + as we could not feel, I to induce her + to drink a potion, she to get posses- + sion of me. She was a woman, and + she won the day; for women have a + snare more than we men. I fell into + it—I was happy; but I awoke next + day in this iron cage. All through + the day I bellowed with rage in the + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 225 + + darkness of this cellar, over which + is the Duchess’ bedroom. At night + an ingenious counterpoise acting as + a lift raised me through the floor, + and I saw the Duchess in her lover’s + arms. She threw me a piece of + bread, my daily pittance. + + “Thus have I lived for thirty + months! From this marble prison + my cries can reach no ear. There is + no chance for me. I will hope no + more. Indeed, the Duchess’ room is + at the furthest end of the palace, + and when I am carried up there + none can hear my voice. Each time + I see my wife she shows me the + + 226 OLYMPIA + + poison I had prepared for her and + her lover. I crave it for myself, but + she will not let me die; she gives + me bread, and I eat it. + + “I have done well to eat and live; + I had not reckoned on robbers!” + + “Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools + the honest men are asleep, we are + wide awake.” + + “Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall + be yours; we will share my treasure + like brothers; I would give you + everything—even to my Duchy——” + + “Eccellenza, procure from the + Pope an absolution <i>in articulo mor- + tis</i>. It would be of more use to me + in my walk of life.” + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 227 + + “What you will. Only file + through the bars of my cage and + lend me your dagger. We have but + little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my + teeth were but files!—I have tried + to eat through this iron.” + + “Eccellenza,” said Rinaldo, “I + have already filed through one bar.” + + “You are a god!” + + “Your wife was at the fete given + by the Princess Villaviciosa. She + brought home her little Frenchman; + she is drunk with love.—You have + plenty of time.” + + “Have you done?” + + “Yes.” + + 228 OLYMPIA + + “Your dagger?” said the Duke + eagerly to the brigand. + + “Here it is.” + + “Good. I hear the clatter of the + spring.” + + “Do not forget me!” cried the + robber, who knew what gratitude + was. + + “No more than my father,” cried + the Duke. + + “Good-bye!” said Rinaldo. “Lord! + How he flies up!” he added to him- + self as the Duke disappeared.—“No + more than his father! If that is + all he means to do for me.—And I + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 229 + + had sworn a vow never to injure a + woman!” + + But let us leave the robber for a + moment to his meditations and go + up, like the Duke, to the rooms in + the palace. +</pre> + <p> + “Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank,” said the + journalist. “Then there are two more blank pages before we come to the + word it is such a joy to write when one is unhappily so happy as to be a + novelist—<i>Conclusion</i>! + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + CONCLUSION + + Never had the Duchess been more + lovely; she came from her bath + clothed like a goddess, and on seeing + + 234 OLYMPIA + + Adolphe voluptuously reclining on + piles of cushions— + + “You are beautiful,” said she. + + “And so are you, Olympia!” + + “And you still love me?” + + “More and more,” said he. + + “Ah, none but a Frenchman + knows how to love!” cried the + Duchess. “Do you love me well to- + night?” + + “Yes.” + + “Then come!” + + And with an impulse of love and + hate—whether it was that Cardinal + Borborigano had reminded her of + her husband, or that she felt un- + wonted passion to display, she + pressed the springs and held out her + arms. +</pre> + <p> + “That is all,” said Lousteau, “for the foreman has torn off the rest in + wrapping up my proofs. But it is enough to show that the author was full + of promise.” + </p> + <p> + “I cannot make head or tail of it,” said Gatien Boirouge, who was the + first to break the silence of the party from Sancerre. + </p> + <p> + “Nor I,” replied Monsieur Gravier. + </p> + <p> + “And yet it is a novel of the time of the Empire,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “By the way in which the brigand is made to speak,” said Monsieur Gravier, + “it is evident that the author knew nothing of Italy. Banditti do not + allow themselves such graceful conceits.” + </p> + <p> + Madame Gorju came up to Bianchon, seeing him pensive, and with a glance + towards her daughter Mademoiselle Euphemie Gorju, the owner of a fairly + good fortune—“What a rhodomontade!” said she. “The prescriptions you + write are worth more than all that rubbish.” + </p> + <p> + The Mayoress had elaborately worked up this speech, which, in her opinion, + showed strong judgment. + </p> + <p> + “Well, madame, we must be lenient, we have but twenty pages out of a + thousand,” said Bianchon, looking at Mademoiselle Gorju, whose figure + threatened terrible things after the birth of her first child. + </p> + <p> + “Well, Monsieur de Clagny,” said Lousteau, “we were talking yesterday of + the forms of revenge invented by husbands. What do you say to those + invented by wives?” + </p> + <p> + “I say,” replied the Public Prosecutor, “that the romance is not by a + Councillor of State, but by a woman. For extravagant inventions the + imagination of women far outdoes that of men; witness <i>Frankenstein</i> + by Mrs. Shelley, <i>Leone Leoni</i> by George Sand, the works of Anne + Radcliffe, and the <i>Nouveau Promethee</i> (New Prometheus) of Camille de + Maupin.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah looked steadily at Monsieur de Clagny, making him feel, by an + expression that gave him a chill, that in spite of the illustrious + examples he had quoted, she regarded this as a reflection on <i>Paquita la + Sevillane</i>. + </p> + <p> + “Pooh!” said little Baudraye, “the Duke of Bracciano, whom his wife puts + into a cage, and to whom she shows herself every night in the arms of her + lover, will kill her—and do you call that revenge?—Our laws + and our society are far more cruel.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, little La Baudraye is talking!” said Monsieur Boirouge to his wife. + </p> + <p> + “Why, the woman is left to live on a small allowance, the world turns its + back on her, she has no more finery, and no respect paid her—the two + things which, in my opinion, are the sum-total of woman,” said the little + old man. + </p> + <p> + “But she has happiness!” said Madame de la Baudraye sententiously. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the master of the house, lighting his candle to go to bed, “for + she has a lover.” + </p> + <p> + “For a man who thinks of nothing but his vine-stocks and poles, he has + some spunk,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Well, he must have something!” replied Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye, the only person who could hear Bianchon’s remark, + laughed so knowingly, and at the same time so bitterly, that the physician + could guess the mystery of this woman’s life; her premature wrinkles had + been puzzling him all day. + </p> + <p> + But Dinah did not guess, on her part, the ominous prophecy contained for + her in her husband’s little speech, which her kind old Abbe Duret, if he + had been alive, would not have failed to elucidate. Little La Baudraye had + detected in Dinah’s eyes, when she glanced at the journalist returning the + ball of his jests, that swift and luminous flash of tenderness which gilds + the gleam of a woman’s eye when prudence is cast to the winds, and she is + fairly carried away. Dinah paid no more heed to her husband’s hint to her + to observe the proprieties than Lousteau had done to Dinah’s significant + warnings on the day of his arrival. + </p> + <p> + Any other man than Bianchon would have been surprised at Lousteau’s + immediate success; but he was so much the doctor, that he was not even + nettled at Dinah’s marked preference for the newspaper-rather than the + prescription-writer! In fact, Dinah, herself famous, was naturally more + alive to wit than to fame. Love generally prefers contrast to similitude. + Everything was against the physician—his frankness, his simplicity, + and his profession. And this is why: Women who want to love—and + Dinah wanted to love as much as to be loved—have an instinctive + aversion for men who are devoted to an absorbing occupation; in spite of + superiority, they are all women in the matter of encroachment. Lousteau, a + poet and journalist, and a libertine with a veneer of misanthropy, had + that tinsel of the intellect, and led the half-idle life that attracts + women. The blunt good sense and keen insight of the really great man + weighed upon Dinah, who would not confess her own smallness even to + herself. She said in her mind—“The doctor is perhaps the better man, + but I do not like him.” + </p> + <p> + Then, again, she reflected on his professional duties, wondering whether a + woman could ever be anything but a <i>subject</i> to a medical man, who + saw so many subjects in the course of a day’s work. The first sentence of + the aphorism written by Bianchon in her album was a medical observation + striking so directly at woman, that Dinah could not fail to be hit by it. + And then Bianchon was leaving on the morrow; his practice required his + return. What woman, short of having Cupid’s mythological dart in her + heart, could decide in so short a time? + </p> + <p> + These little things, which lead to such great catastrophes—having + been seen in a mass by Bianchon, he pronounced the verdict he had come to + as to Madame de la Baudraye in a few words to Lousteau, to the + journalist’s great amazement. + </p> + <p> + While the two friends stood talking together, a storm was gathering in the + Sancerre circle, who could not in the least understand Lousteau’s + paraphrases and commentaries, and who vented it on their hostess. Far from + finding in his talk the romance which the Public Prosecutor, the + Sous-prefet, the Presiding Judge, and his deputy, Lebas, had discovered + there—to say nothing of Monsieur de la Baudraye and Dinah—the + ladies now gathered round the tea-table, took the matter as a practical + joke, and accused the Muse of Sancerre of having a finger in it. They had + all looked forward to a delightful evening, and had all strained in vain + every faculty of their mind. Nothing makes provincial folks so angry as + the notion of having been a laughing-stock for Paris folks. + </p> + <p> + Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, “Do go and talk to + the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah’s great superiority over the best + women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were graceful, + her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight—in short, she + stood out against this background of old faces, shy and ill-dressed girls, + like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of Paris faded from his + brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial surroundings; and while he + had too much imagination to remain unimpressed by the royal splendor of + this chateau, the beautiful carvings, and the antique beauty of the rooms, + he had also too much experience to overlook the value of the personality + which completed this gem of the Renaissance. So by the time the visitors + from Sancerre had taken their leave one by one—for they had an + hour’s drive before them—when no one remained in the drawing-room + but Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Lebas, Gatien, and Monsieur Gravier, who + were all to sleep at Anzy—the journalist had already changed his + mind about Dinah. His opinion had gone through the evolution that Madame + de la Baudraye had so audaciously prophesied at their first meeting. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, what things they will say about us on the drive home!” cried the + mistress of the house, as she returned to the drawing-room after seeing + the President and the Presidente to their carriage with Madame and + Mademoiselle Popinot-Chandier. + </p> + <p> + The rest of the evening had its pleasant side. In the intimacy of a small + party each one brought to the conversation his contribution of epigrams on + the figure the visitors from Sancerre had cut during Lousteau’s comments + on the paper wrapped round the proofs. + </p> + <p> + “My dear fellow,” said Bianchon to Lousteau as they went to bed—they + had an enormous room with two beds in it—“you will be the happy man + of this woman’s choice—<i>nee</i> Piedefer!” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think so?” + </p> + <p> + “It is quite natural. You are supposed here to have had many mistresses in + Paris; and to a woman there is something indescribably inviting in a man + whom other women favor—something attractive and fascinating; is it + that she prides herself on being longer remembered than all the rest? that + she appeals to his experience, as a sick man will pay more to a famous + physician? or that she is flattered by the revival of a world-worn heart?” + </p> + <p> + “Vanity and the senses count for so much in love affairs,” said Lousteau, + “that there may be some truth in all those hypotheses. However, if I + remain, it will be in consequence of the certificate of innocence, without + ignorance, that you have given Dinah. She is handsome, is she not?” + </p> + <p> + “Love will make her beautiful,” said the doctor. “And, after all, she will + be a rich widow some day or other! And a child would secure her the + life-interest in the Master of La Baudraye’s fortune—” + </p> + <p> + “Why, it is quite an act of virtue to make love to her,” said Lousteau, + rolling himself up in the bed-clothes, “and to-morrow, with your help—yes, + to-morrow, I—well, good-night.” + </p> + <p> + On the following day, Madame de la Baudraye, to whom her husband had six + months since given a pair of horses, which he also used in the fields, and + an old carriage that rattled on the road, decided that she would take + Bianchon so far on his way as Cosne, where he would get into the Lyons + diligence as it passed through. She also took her mother and Lousteau, but + she intended to drop her mother at La Baudraye, to go on to Cosne with the + two Parisians, and return alone with Etienne. She was elegantly dressed, + as the journalist at once perceived—bronze kid boots, gray silk + stockings, a muslin dress, a green silk scarf with shaded fringe at the + ends, and a pretty black lace bonnet with flowers in it. As to Lousteau, + the wretch had assumed his war-paint—patent leather boots, trousers + of English kerseymere with pleats in front, a very open waistcoat showing + a particularly fine shirt and the black brocade waterfall of his handsome + cravat, and a very thin, very short black riding-coat. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny and Monsieur Gravier looked at each other, feeling + rather silly as they beheld the two Parisians in the carriage, while they, + like two simpletons, were left standing at the foot of the steps. Monsieur + de la Baudraye, who stood at the top waving his little hand in a little + farewell to the doctor, could not forbear from smiling as he heard + Monsieur de Clagny say to Monsieur Gravier: + </p> + <p> + “You should have escorted them on horseback.” + </p> + <p> + At this juncture, Gatien, riding Monsieur de la Baudraye’s quiet little + mare, came out of the side road from the stables and joined the party in + the chaise. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, good,” said the Receiver-General, “the boy has mounted guard.” + </p> + <p> + “What a bore!” cried Dinah as she saw Gatien. “In thirteen years—for + I have been married nearly thirteen years—I have never had three + hours’ liberty. + </p> + <p> + “Married, madame?” said the journalist with a smile. “You remind me of a + saying of Michaud’s—he was so witty! He was setting out for the Holy + Land, and his friends were remonstrating with him, urging his age, and the + perils of such an expedition. ‘And then,’ said one, ‘you are married.’—‘Married!’ + said he, ‘so little married.’” + </p> + <p> + Even the rigid Madame Piedefer could not repress a smile. + </p> + <p> + “I should not be surprised to see Monsieur de Clagny mounted on my pony to + complete the escort,” said Dinah. + </p> + <p> + “Well, if the Public Prosecutor does not pursue us, you can get rid of + this little fellow at Sancerre. Bianchon must, of course, have left + something behind on his table—the notes for the first lecture of his + course—and you can ask Gatien to go back to Anzy to fetch it.” + </p> + <p> + This simple little plot put Madame de la Baudraye into high spirits. From + the road between Anzy to Sancerre, a glorious landscape frequently comes + into view, of the noble stretches of the Loire, looking like a lake, and + it was got over very pleasantly, for Dinah was happy in finding herself + well understood. Love was discussed in theory, a subject allowing lovers + <i>in petto</i> to take the measure, as it were, of each other’s heart. + The journalist took a tone of refined corruption to prove that love obeys + no law, that the character of the lovers gives infinite variety to its + incidents, that the circumstances of social life add to the multiplicity + of its manifestations, that in love all is possible and true, and that any + given woman, after resisting every temptation and the seductions of the + most passionate lover, may be carried off her feet in the course of a few + hours by a fancy, an internal whirlwind of which God alone would ever know + the secret! + </p> + <p> + “Why,” said he, “is not that the key to all the adventures we have talked + over these three days past?” + </p> + <p> + For these three days, indeed, Dinah’s lively imagination had been full of + the most insidious romances, and the conversation of the two Parisians had + affected the woman as the most mischievous reading might have done. + Lousteau watched the effects of this clever manoeuvre, to seize the moment + when his prey, whose readiness to be caught was hidden under the + abstraction caused by irresolution, should be quite dizzy. + </p> + <p> + Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce was + duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his room at + Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; Madame Piedefer + went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went on to Cosne alone + with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the lady, Bianchon riding + backwards. The two friends talked affectionately and with deep compassion + for the fate of this choice nature so ill understood and in the midst of + such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon served Lousteau well by making fun of + the Public Prosecutor, of Monsieur Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a + tone of such genuine contempt in his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye + dared not take the part of her adorers. + </p> + <p> + “I perfectly understand the position you have maintained,” said the doctor + as they crossed the Loire. “You were inaccessible excepting to that + brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those men, it + is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early stage of life, + is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined woman. To you, now, + love is indispensable.” + </p> + <p> + “Indispensable!” cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. “Do you + mean that you prescribe love to me?” + </p> + <p> + “If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be hideous,” + replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur!” said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive my friend,” said Lousteau, half jestingly. “He is always the + medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he is + quite disinterested—it is for your sake only that he speaks—as + is evident, since he is starting in an hour—” + </p> + <p> + At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with the + arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye. Gules, a + pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three cross-crosslets + argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared azure, chained or. + The ironical motto, <i>Deo sic patet fides et hominibus</i>, had been + inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier the satirical. + </p> + <p> + “Let us get out; they will come and find us,” said the Baroness, desiring + her coachman to keep watch. + </p> + <p> + Dinah took Bianchon’s arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the + Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The + physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau a + good turn. + </p> + <p> + “You have been attracted by Etienne,” said Bianchon to Dinah; “he has + appealed strongly to your imagination; last night we were talking about + you.—He loves you. But he is frivolous, and difficult to hold; his + poverty compels him to live in Paris, while everything condemns you to + live at Sancerre.—Take a lofty view of life. Make Lousteau your + friend; do not ask too much of him; he will come three times a year to + spend a few days with you, and you will owe to him your beauty, happiness, + and fortune. Monsieur de la Baudraye may live to be a hundred; but he + might die in a few days if he should leave off the flannel winding-sheet + in which he swathes himself. So run no risks, be prudent both of you.—Say + not a work—I have read your heart.” + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye was defenceless under this serried attack, and in + the presence of a man who spoke at once as a doctor, a confessor, and + confidential friend. + </p> + <p> + “Indeed!” said she. “Can you suppose that any woman would care to compete + with a journalist’s mistresses?—Monsieur Lousteau strikes me as + agreeable and witty; but he is <i>blase</i>, etc., etc.——” + </p> + <p> + Dinah had turned back, and was obliged to check the flow of words by which + she tried to disguise her intentions; for Etienne, who seemed to be + studying progress in Cosne, was coming to meet them. + </p> + <p> + “Believe me,” said Bianchon, “what he wants is to be truly loved; and if + he alters his course of life, it will be to the benefit of his talent.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah’s coachman hurried up breathlessly to say that the diligence had + come in, and they walked on quickly, Madame de la Baudraye between the two + men. + </p> + <p> + “Good-bye, my children!” said Bianchon, before they got into the town, + “you have my blessing!” + </p> + <p> + He released Madame de la Baudraye’s hand from his arm, and allowed + Lousteau to draw it into his, with a tender look, as he pressed it to his + heart. What a difference to Dinah! Etienne’s arm thrilled her deeply. + Bianchon’s had not stirred her in the least. She and the journalist + exchanged one of those glowing looks that are more than an avowal. + </p> + <p> + “Only provincial women wear muslin gowns in these days,” thought Lousteau + to himself, “the only stuff which shows every crease. This woman, who has + chosen me for her lover, will make a fuss over her frock! If she had but + put on a foulard skirt, I should be happy.—What is the meaning of + these difficulties——” + </p> + <p> + While Lousteau was wondering whether Dinah had put on a muslin gown on + purpose to protect herself by an insuperable obstacle, Bianchon, with the + help of the coachman, was seeing his luggage piled on the diligence. + Finally, he came to take leave of Dinah, who was excessively friendly with + him. + </p> + <p> + “Go home, Madame la Baronne, leave me here—Gatien will be coming,” + he added in an undertone. “It is getting late,” said he aloud. “Good-bye!” + </p> + <p> + “Good-bye—great man!” cried Lousteau, shaking hands with Bianchon. + </p> + <p> + When the journalist and Madame de la Baudraye, side by side in the rickety + old chaise, had recrossed the Loire, they both were unready to speak. In + these circumstances, the first words that break the silence are full of + terrible meaning. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know how much I love you?” said the journalist point blank. + </p> + <p> + Victory might gratify Lousteau, but defeat could cause him no grief. This + indifference was the secret of his audacity. He took Madame de la + Baudraye’s hand as he spoke these decisive words, and pressed it in both + his; but Dinah gently released it. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I am as good as an actress or a <i>grisette</i>,” she said in a + voice that trembled, though she spoke lightly. “But can you suppose that a + woman who, in spite of her absurdities, has some intelligence, will have + reserved the best treasures of her heart for a man who will regard her + merely as a transient pleasure?—I am not surprised to hear from your + lips the words which so many men have said to me—but——” + </p> + <p> + The coachman turned round. + </p> + <p> + “Here comes Monsieur Gatien,” said he. + </p> + <p> + “I love you, I will have you, you shall be mine, for I have never felt for + any woman the passion I have for you!” said Lousteau in her ear. + </p> + <p> + “In spite of my will, perhaps?” said she, with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “At least you must seem to have been assaulted to save my honor,” said the + Parisian, to whom the fatal immaculateness of clean muslin suggested a + ridiculous notion. + </p> + <p> + Before Gatien had reached the end of the bridge, the outrageous journalist + had crumpled up Madame de la Baudraye’s muslin dress to such an effect + that she was absolutely not presentable. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, monsieur!” she exclaimed in dignified reproof. + </p> + <p> + “You defied me,” said the Parisian. + </p> + <p> + But Gatien now rode up with the vehemence of a duped lover. To regain a + little of Madame de la Baudraye’s esteem, Lousteau did his best to hide + the tumbled dress from Gatien’s eyes by leaning out of the chaise to speak + to him from Dinah’s side. + </p> + <p> + “Go back to our inn,” said he, “there is still time; the diligence does + not start for half an hour. The papers are on the table of the room + Bianchon was in; he wants them particularly, for he will be lost without + his notes for the lecture.” + </p> + <p> + “Pray go, Gatien,” said Dinah to her young adorer, with an imperious + glance. And the boy thus commanded turned his horse and was off with a + loose rein. + </p> + <p> + “Go quickly to La Baudraye,” cried Lousteau to the coachman. “Madame is + not well—Your mother only will know the secret of my trick,” added + he, taking his seat by Dinah. + </p> + <p> + “You call such infamous conduct a trick?” cried Madame de la Baudraye, + swallowing down a few tears that dried up with the fire of outraged pride. + </p> + <p> + She leaned back in the corner of the chaise, crossed her arms, and gazed + out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at Lousteau. + The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked till they + reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to be seen by + any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and burst into + tears. + </p> + <p> + “If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go,” + said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet. + </p> + <p> + It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her + daughter: + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter? What has happened?” + </p> + <p> + “Give your daughter another dress at once,” said the audacious Parisian in + the prim old lady’s ear. + </p> + <p> + Hearing the mad gallop of Gatien’s horse, Madame de la Baudraye fled to + her bedroom, followed by her mother. + </p> + <p> + “There are no papers at the inn,” said Gatien to Lousteau, who went out to + meet him. + </p> + <p> + “And you found none at the Chateau d’Anzy either?” replied Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “You have been making a fool of me,” said Gatien, in a cold, set voice. + </p> + <p> + “Quite so,” replied Lousteau. “Madame de la Baudraye was greatly annoyed + by your choosing to follow her without being invited. Believe me, to bore + a woman is a bad way of courting her. Dinah has played you a trick, and + you have given her a laugh; it is more than any of you has done in these + thirteen years past. You owe that success to Bianchon, for your cousin was + the author of the Farce of the ‘Manuscript.’—Will the horse get over + it?” asked Lousteau with a laugh, while Gatien was wondering whether to be + angry or not. + </p> + <p> + “The horse!” said Gatien. + </p> + <p> + At this moment Madame de la Baudraye came in, dressed in a velvet gown, + and accompanied by her mother, who shot angry flashes at Lousteau. It + would have been too rash for Dinah to seem cold or severe to Lousteau in + Gatien’s presence; and Etienne, taking advantage of this, offered his arm + to the supposed Lucretia; however, she declined it. + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean to cast off a man who has vowed to live for you?” said he, + walking close beside her. “I shall stop at Sancerre and go home + to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you coming, mamma?” said Madame de la Baudraye to Madame Piedefer, + thus avoiding a reply to the direct challenge by which Lousteau was + forcing her to a decision. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau handed the mother into the chaise, he helped Madame de la + Baudraye by gently taking her arm, and he and Gatien took the front seat, + leaving the saddle horse at La Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “You have changed your gown,” said Gatien, blunderingly, to Dinah. + </p> + <p> + “Madame la Baronne was chilled by the cool air off the river,” replied + Lousteau. “Bianchon advised her to put on a warm dress.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah turned as red as a poppy, and Madame Piedefer assumed a stern + expression. + </p> + <p> + “Poor Bianchon! he is on the road to Paris. A noble soul!” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes!” cried Madame de la Baudraye, “he is high-minded, full of + delicate feeling——” + </p> + <p> + “We were in such good spirits when we set out,” said Lousteau; “now you + are overdone, and you speak to me so bitterly—why? Are you not + accustomed to being told how handsome and how clever you are? For my part, + I say boldly, before Gatien, I give up Paris; I mean to stay at Sancerre + and swell the number of your <i>cavalieri serventi</i>. I feel so young + again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and all its + wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.—Yes, my life + seems in a way purified.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at last + there was a moment when this serpent’s rhodomontade was really so inspired + by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas of which the + meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response in Dinah’s + heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to crown + Lousteau’s joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he made Madame de + la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so seriously compromise + her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is finally committed. + </p> + <p> + As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in the + middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set off the + facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying: + </p> + <p> + “When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they do + not love, they cannot forgive anything—not even our virtues.—Do + you forgive me,” he added in Madame de la Baudraye’s ear, and pressing her + arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help smiling. + </p> + <p> + All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in the + most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus giving + vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy abstraction + of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness. + </p> + <p> + After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother left + the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then remarked to + Monsieur de Clagny: + </p> + <p> + “Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a muslin + gown came home in a velvet?” + </p> + <p> + “As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a brass + nail and was torn all the way down,” replied Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such + different explanations. + </p> + <p> + The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it as a + hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left Dinah’s three + adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then Gatien was + cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur Gravier and + Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the return from Cosne + Lousteau had been alone with Dinah, and even more so on hearing the two + versions explaining the lady’s change of dress. And the three discomfited + gentlemen were in a very awkward position for the rest of the evening. + </p> + <p> + Next day each, on various business, was obliged to leave Anzy; Dinah + remained with her mother, Lousteau, and her husband. The annoyance vented + by the three victims gave rise to an organized rebellion in Sancerre. The + surrender of the Muse of Le Berry, of the Nivernais, and of Morvan was the + cause of a perfect hue and cry of slander, evil report, and various + guesses in which the story of the muslin gown held a prominent place. No + dress Dinah had ever worn had been so much commented on, or was half as + interesting to the girls, who could not conceive what the connection might + be, that made the married women laugh, between love and a muslin gown. + </p> + <p> + The Presidente Boirouge, furious at her son’s discomfiture, forgot the + praise she had lavished on the poem of <i>Paquita</i>, and fulminated + terrific condemnation on the woman who could publish such a disgraceful + work. + </p> + <p> + “The wretched woman commits every crime she writes about,” said she. + “Perhaps she will come to the same end as her heroine!” + </p> + <p> + Dinah’s fate among the good folks of Sancerre was like that of Marechal + Soult in the opposition newspapers; as long as he is minister he lost the + battle of Toulouse; whenever he is out of the Government he won it! While + she was virtuous, Dinah was a match for Camille de Maupin, a rival of the + most famous women; but as soon as she was happy, she was an <i>unhappy + creature</i>. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny was her valiant champion; he went several times to the + Chateau d’Anzy to acquire the right to contradict the rumors current as to + the woman he still faithfully adored, even in her fall; and he maintained + that she and Lousteau were engaged together on some great work. But the + lawyer was laughed to scorn. + </p> + <p> + The month of October was lovely; autumn is the finest season in the valley + of the Loire; but in 1836 it was unusually glorious. Nature seemed to aid + and abet Dinah, who, as Bianchon had predicted, gradually developed a + heart-felt passion. In one month she was an altered woman. She was + surprised to find in herself so many inert and dormant qualities, hitherto + in abeyance. To her Lousteau seemed an angel; for heart-love, the crowning + need of a great nature, had made a new woman of her. Dinah was alive! She + had found an outlet for her powers, she saw undreamed-of vistas in the + future—in short, she was happy, happy without alarms or hindrances. + The vast castle, the gardens, the park, the forest, favored love. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau found in Madame de la Baudraye an artlessness, nay, if you will, + an innocence of mind which made her very original; there was much more of + the unexpected and winning in her than in a girl. Lousteau was quite alive + to a form of flattery which in most women is assumed, but which in Dinah + was genuine; she really learned from him the ways of love; he really was + the first to reign in her heart. And, indeed, he took the trouble to be + exceedingly amiable. + </p> + <p> + Men, like women, have a stock in hand of recitatives, of <i>cantabile</i>, + of <i>nocturnes</i>, airs and refrains—shall we say of recipes, + although we speak of love—which each one believes to be exclusively + his own. Men who have reached Lousteau’s age try to distribute the + “movements” of this repertoire through the whole opera of a passion. + Lousteau, regarding this adventure with Dinah as a mere temporary + connection, was eager to stamp himself on her memory in indelible lines; + and during that beautiful October he was prodigal of his most entrancing + melodies and most elaborate <i>barcarolles</i>. In fact, he exhausted + every resource of the stage management of love, to use an expression + borrowed from the theatrical dictionary, and admirably descriptive of his + manoeuvres. + </p> + <p> + “If that woman ever forgets me!” he would sometimes say to himself as they + returned together from a long walk in the woods, “I will owe her no grudge—she + will have found something better.” + </p> + <p> + When two beings have sung together all the duets of that enchanting score, + and still love each other, it may be said that they love truly. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, however, had not time to repeat himself, for he was to leave + Anzy in the early days of November. His paper required his presence in + Paris. Before breakfast, on the day before he was to leave, the journalist + and Dinah saw the master of the house come in with an artist from Nevers, + who restored carvings of all kinds. + </p> + <p> + “What are you going to do?” asked Lousteau. “What is to be done to the + chateau?” + </p> + <p> + “This is what I am going to do,” said the little man, leading Lousteau, + the local artist, and Dinah out on the terrace. + </p> + <p> + He pointed out, on the front of the building, a shield supported by two + sirens, not unlike that which may be seen on the arcade, now closed, + through which there used to be a passage from the Quai des Tuileries to + the courtyard of the old Louvre, and over which the words may still be + seen, “<i>Bibliotheque du Cabinet du Roi</i>.” This shield bore the arms + of the noble House of Uxelles, namely, Or and gules party per fess, with + two lions or, dexter and sinister as supporters. Above, a knight’s helm, + mantled of the tincture of the shield, and surmounted by a ducal coronet. + Motto, <i>Cy paroist!</i> A proud and sonorous device. + </p> + <p> + “I want to put my own coat of arms in the place of that of the Uxelles; + and as they are repeated six times on the two fronts and the two wings, it + is not a trifling affair.” + </p> + <p> + “Your arms, so new, and since 1830!” exclaimed Dinah. + </p> + <p> + “Have I not created an entail?” + </p> + <p> + “I could understand it if you had children,” said the journalist. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” said the old man, “Madame de la Baudraye is still young; there is no + time lost.” + </p> + <p> + This allusion made Lousteau smile; he did not understand Monsieur de la + Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “There, Didine!” said he in Dinah’s ear, “what a waste of remorse!” + </p> + <p> + Dinah begged him to give her one day more, and the lovers parted after the + manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a piece + that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn pledges + did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her! + </p> + <p> + Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau, in + the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and little La + Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in her + drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and Gravier, she + found an opportunity of saying to each in turn: + </p> + <p> + “I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been loved + for my own sake.” + </p> + <p> + And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his + feelings, on the end of his base passions, and so forth. Of Dinah’s three + worshipers, Monsieur de Clagny only said to her: “I love you, come what + may”—and Dinah accepted him as her confidant, lavished on him all + the marks of friendship which women can devise for the Gurths who are + ready thus to wear the collar of gilded slavery. + </p> + <p> + In Paris once more, Lousteau had, in a few weeks, lost the impression of + the happy time he had spent at the Chateau d’Anzy. This is why: Lousteau + lived by his pen. + </p> + <p> + In this century, especially since the triumph of the <i>bourgeoisie</i>—the + commonplace, money-saving citizen—who takes good care not to imitate + Francis I. or Louis XIV.—to live by the pen is a form of penal + servitude to which a galley-slave would prefer death. To live by the pen + means to create—to create to-day, and to-morrow, and incessantly—or + to seem to create; and the imitation costs as dear as the reality. So, + besides his daily contribution to a newspaper, which was like the stone of + Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing down on to the feather of + his pen, Etienne worked for three or four literary magazines. Still, do + not be alarmed; he put no artistic conscientiousness into his work. This + man of Sancerre had a facility, a carelessness, if you call it so, which + ranked him with those writers who are mere scriveners, literary hacks. In + Paris, in our day, hack-work cuts a man off from every pretension to a + literary position. When he can do no more, or no longer cares for + advancement, the man who can write becomes a journalist and a hack. + </p> + <p> + The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in every + walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career, publishers + and authors, all make much of these writers of the ready pen. Lousteau, a + thorough man about town, lived at scarcely any expense beyond paying his + rent. He had boxes at all the theatres; the sale of the books he reviewed + or left unreviewed paid for his gloves; and he would say to those authors + who published at their own expense, “I have your book always in my hands!” + He took toll from vanity in the form of drawings or pictures. Every day + had its engagements to dinner, every night its theatre, every morning was + filled up with callers, visits, and lounging. His serial in the paper, two + novels a year for weekly magazines, and his miscellaneous articles were + the tax he paid for this easy-going life. And yet, to reach this position, + Etienne had struggled for ten years. + </p> + <p> + At the present time, known to the literary world, liked for the good or + the mischief he did with equally facile good humor, he let himself float + with the stream, never caring for the future. He ruled a little set of + newcomers, he had friendships—or rather, habits of fifteen years’ + standing, and men with whom he supped, and dined, and indulged his wit. He + earned from seven to eight hundred francs a month, a sum which he found + quite insufficient for the prodigality peculiar to the impecunious. + Indeed, Lousteau found himself now just as hard up as when, on first + appearing in Paris, he had said to himself, “If I had but five hundred + francs a month, I should be rich!” + </p> + <p> + The cause of this phenomenon was as follows: Lousteau lived in the Rue des + Martyrs in pretty ground-floor rooms with a garden, and splendidly + furnished. When he settled there in 1833 he had come to an agreement with + an upholsterer that kept his pocket money low for a long time. These rooms + were let for twelve hundred francs. The months of January, April, July, + and October were, as he phrased it, his indigent months. The rent and the + porter’s account cleaned him out. Lousteau took no fewer hackney cabs, + spend a hundred francs in breakfasts all the same, smoked thirty francs’ + worth of cigars, and could never refuse the mistress of a day a dinner or + a new dress. He thus dipped so deeply into the fluctuating earnings of the + following months, that he could no more find a hundred francs on his + chimney-piece now, when he was making seven or eight hundred francs a + month, than he could in 1822, when he was hardly getting two hundred. + </p> + <p> + Tired, sometimes, by the incessant vicissitudes of a literary life, and as + much bored by amusement as a courtesan, Lousteau would get out of the + tideway and sit on the bank, and say to one and another of his intimate + allies—Nathan or Bixiou, as they sat smoking in his scrap of garden, + looking out on an evergreen lawn as big as a dinner-table: + </p> + <p> + “What will be the end of us? White hairs are giving us respectful hints!” + </p> + <p> + “Lord! we shall marry when we choose to give as much thought to the matter + as we give to a drama or a novel,” said Nathan. + </p> + <p> + “And Florine?” retorted Bixiou. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, we all have a Florine,” said Etienne, flinging away the end of his + cigar and thinking of Madame Schontz. + </p> + <p> + Madame Schontz was a pretty enough woman to put a very high price on the + interest on her beauty, while reserving absolute ownership for Lousteau, + the man of her heart. Like all those women who get the name in Paris of <i>Lorettes</i>, + from the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette, round about which they dwell, + she lived in the Rue Flechier, a stone’s throw from Lousteau. This lady + took a pride and delight in teasing her friends by boasting of having a + Wit for her lover. + </p> + <p> + These details of Lousteau’s life and fortune are indispensable, for this + penury and this bohemian existence of a man to whom Parisian luxury had + become a necessity, were fated to have a cruel influence on Dinah’s life. + Those to whom the bohemia of Paris is familiar will now understand how it + was that, by the end of a fortnight, the journalist, up to his ears in the + literary environment, could laugh about his Baroness with his friends and + even with Madame Schontz. To such readers as regard such things as utterly + mean, it is almost useless to make excuses which they will not accept. + </p> + <p> + “What did you do at Sancerre?” asked Bixiou the first time he met + Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “I did good service to three worthy provincials—a Receiver-General + of Taxes, a little cousin of his, and a Public Prosecutor, who for ten + years had been dancing round and round one of the hundred ‘Tenth Muses’ + who adorn the Departments,” said he. “But they had no more dared to touch + her than we touch a decorated cream at dessert till some strong-minded + person has made a hole in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor boy!” said Bixiou. “I said you had gone to Sancerre to turn Pegasus + out to grass.” + </p> + <p> + “Your joke is as stupid as my Muse is handsome,” retorted Lousteau. “Ask + Bianchon, my dear fellow.” + </p> + <p> + “A Muse and a Poet! A homoeopathic cure then!” said Bixiou. + </p> + <p> + On the tenth day Lousteau received a letter with the Sancerre post-mark. + </p> + <p> + “Good! very good!” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “‘Beloved friend, idol of my heart and soul——’ twenty pages of + it! all at one sitting, and dated midnight! She writes when she finds + herself alone. Poor woman! Ah, ha! And a postscript— + </p> + <p> + “‘I dare not ask you to write to me as I write, every day; still, I hope + to have a few lines from my dear one every week, to relieve my mind.’—What + a pity to burn it all! it is really well written,” said Lousteau to + himself, as he threw the ten sheets of paper into the fire after having + read them. “That woman was born to reel off copy!” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau was not much afraid of Madame Schontz, who really loved him for + himself, but he had supplanted a friend in the heart of a Marquise. This + Marquise, a lady nowise coy, sometimes dropped in unexpectedly at his + rooms in the evening, arriving veiled in a hackney coach; and she, as a + literary woman, allowed herself to hunt through all his drawers. + </p> + <p> + A week later, Lousteau, who hardly remembered Dinah, was startled by + another budget from Sancerre—eight leaves, sixteen pages! He heard a + woman’s step; he thought it announced a search from the Marquise, and + tossed these rapturous and entrancing proofs of affections into the fire—unread! + </p> + <p> + “A woman’s letter!” exclaimed Madame Schontz, as she came in. “The paper, + the wax, are scented—” + </p> + <p> + “Here you are, sir,” said a porter from the coach office, setting down two + huge hampers in the ante-room. “Carriage paid. Please to sign my book.” + </p> + <p> + “Carriage paid!” cried Madame Schontz. “It must have come from Sancerre.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, madame,” said the porter. + </p> + <p> + “Your Tenth Muse is a remarkably intelligent woman,” said the courtesan, + opening one of the hampers, while Lousteau was writing his name. “I like a + Muse who understands housekeeping, and who can make game pies as well as + blots. And, oh! what beautiful flowers!” she went on, opening the second + hamper. “Why, you could get none finer in Paris!—And here, and here! + A hare, partridges, half a roebuck!—We will ask your friends and + have a famous dinner, for Athalie has a special talent for dressing + venison.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau wrote to Dinah; but instead of writing from the heart, he was + clever. The letter was all the more insidious; it was like one of + Mirabeau’s letters to Sophie. The style of a true lover is transparent. It + is a clear stream which allows the bottom of the heart to be seen between + two banks, bright with the trifles of existence, and covered with the + flowers of the soul that blossom afresh every day, full of intoxicating + beauty—but only for two beings. As soon as a love letter has any + charm for a third reader, it is beyond doubt the product of the head, not + of the heart. But a woman will always be beguiled; she always believes + herself to be the determining cause of this flow of wit. + </p> + <p> + By the end of December Lousteau had ceased to read Dinah’s letters; they + lay in a heap in a drawer of his chest that was never locked, under his + shirts, which they scented. + </p> + <p> + Then one of those chances came to Lousteau which such bohemians ought to + clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz, who took + a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her one morning on + business. + </p> + <p> + “My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying.” + </p> + <p> + “I can marry very often, happily, my dear.” + </p> + <p> + “When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I need + not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got into + trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is an honest + notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it dark. He wants + to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he will give her a + fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs—for he has three + other children; but—and it is not a bad idea—he will add a + hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the + damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des Lombards——” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?” + </p> + <p> + “Dead.” + </p> + <p> + “What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue des + Lombards.” + </p> + <p> + “But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the + seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy + caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless, the man + entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business—A + judgment from heaven, I call it!” + </p> + <p> + “Where did you hear the story?” + </p> + <p> + “From Malaga; the notary is her <i>milord</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder, Florentine’s + first friend?” + </p> + <p> + “Just so. Malaga, whose ‘fancy’ is a little tomtit of a fiddler of + eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. Besides, + she has no cause to do him an ill turn.—Indeed, Monsieur Cardot + wants a man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will be proud to + have a famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel yourself all over.—You + will pay your debts, you will have twelve thousand francs a year, and be a + father without any trouble on your part; what do you say to that to the + good? And, after all, you only marry a very consolable widow. There is an + income of fifty thousand francs in the house, and the value of the + connection, so in due time you may look forward to not less than fifteen + thousand francs a year more for your share, and you will enter a family + holding a fine political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old + Camusot, the depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Lousteau, “old Camusot married little Daddy Cardot’s eldest + daughter, and they had high times together!” + </p> + <p> + “Well!” Madame Schontz went on, “and Madame Cardot, the notary’s wife, was + a Chiffreville—manufacturers of chemical products, the aristocracy + of these days! Potash, I tell you! Still, this is the unpleasant side of + the matter. You will have a terrible mother-in-law, a woman capable of + killing her daughter if she knew—! This Cardot woman is a bigot; she + has lips like two faded narrow pink ribbons. + </p> + <p> + “A man of the town like you would never pass muster with that woman, who, + in her well-meaning way, will spy out your bachelor life and know every + fact of the past. However, Cardot says he means to exert his paternal + authority. The poor man will be obliged to do the civil to his wife for + some days; a woman made of wood, my dear fellow; Malaga, who has seen her, + calls her a penitential scrubber. Cardot is a man of forty; he will be + mayor of his district, and perhaps be elected deputy. He is prepared to + give in lieu of the hundred thousand francs a nice little house in the Rue + Saint-Lazare, with a forecourt and a garden, which cost him no more than + sixty thousand at the time of the July overthrow; he would sell, and that + would be an opportunity for you to go and come at the house, to see the + daughter, and be civil to the mother.—And it would give you a look + of property in Madame Cardot’s eyes. You would be housed like a prince in + that little mansion. Then, by Camusot’s interest, you may get an + appointment as librarian to some public office where there is no library.—Well, + and then if you invest your money in backing up a newspaper, you will get + ten thousand francs a year on it, you can earn six, your librarianship + will bring you in four.—Can you do better for yourself? + </p> + <p> + “If you were to marry a lamb without spot, it might be a light woman by + the end of two years. What is the damage?—an anticipated dividend! + It is quite the fashion. + </p> + <p> + “Take my word for it, you can do no better than come to dine with Malaga + to-morrow. You will meet your father-in-law; he will know the secret has + been let out—by Malaga, with whom he cannot be angry—and then + you are master of the situation. As to your wife!—Why her misconduct + leaves you as free as a bachelor——” + </p> + <p> + “Your language is as blunt as a cannon ball.” + </p> + <p> + “I love you for your own sake, that is all—and I can reason. Well! + why do you stand there like a wax image of Abd-el-Kader? There is nothing + to meditate over. Marriage is heads or tails—well, you have tossed + heads up.” + </p> + <p> + “You shall have my reply to-morrow,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “I would sooner have it at once; Malaga will write you up to-night.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, yes.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau spent the evening in writing a long letter to the Marquise, + giving her the reasons which compelled him to marry; his constant poverty, + the torpor of his imagination, his white hairs, his moral and physical + exhaustion—in short, four pages of arguments.—“As to Dinah, I + will send her a circular announcing the marriage,” said he to himself. “As + Bixiou says, I have not my match for knowing how to dock the tail of a + passion.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, who at first had been on some ceremony with himself, by next day + had come to the point of dreading lest the marriage should not come off. + He was pressingly civil to the notary. + </p> + <p> + “I knew monsieur your father,” said he, “at Florentine’s, so I may well + know you here, at Mademoiselle Turquet’s. Like father, like son. A very + good fellow and a philosopher, was little Daddy Cardot—excuse me, we + always called him so. At that time, Florine, Florentine, Tullia, Coralie, + and Mariette were the five fingers of your hand, so to speak—it is + fifteen years ago. My follies, as you may suppose, are a thing of the + past.—In those days it was pleasure that ran away with me; now I am + ambitious; but, in our day, to get on at all a man must be free from debt, + have a good income, a wife, and a family. If I pay taxes enough to qualify + me, I may be a deputy yet, like any other man.” + </p> + <p> + Maitre Cardot appreciated this profession of faith. Lousteau had laid + himself out to please and the notary liked him, feeling himself more at + his ease, as may be easily imagined, with a man who had known his father’s + secrets than he would have been with another. On the following day + Lousteau was introduced to the Cardot family as the purchaser of the house + in the Rue Saint-Lazare, and three days later he dined there. + </p> + <p> + Cardot lived in an old house near the Place du Chatelet. In this house + everything was “good.” Economy covered every scrap of gilding with green + gauze; all the furniture wore holland covers. Though it was impossible to + feel a shade of uneasiness as to the wealth of the inhabitants, at the end + of half an hour no one could suppress a yawn. Boredom perched in every + nook; the curtains hung dolefully; the dining-room was like Harpagon’s. + Even if Lousteau had not known all about Malaga, he could have guessed + that the notary’s real life was spent elsewhere. + </p> + <p> + The journalist saw a tall, fair girl with blue eyes, at once shy and + languishing. The elder brother took a fancy to him; he was the fourth + clerk in the office, but strongly attracted by the snares of literary + fame, though destined to succeed his father. The younger sister was twelve + years old. Lousteau, assuming a little Jesuitical air, played the + Monarchist and Churchman for the benefit of the mother, was quite smooth, + deliberate, and complimentary. + </p> + <p> + Within three weeks of their introduction, at his fourth dinner there, + Felicie Cardot, who had been watching Lousteau out of the corner of her + eye, carried him a cup of coffee where he stood in the window recess, and + said in a low voice, with tears in her eyes: + </p> + <p> + “I will devote my whole life, monsieur, to thanking you for your sacrifice + in favor of a poor girl——” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her + accent, her attitude. “She would make a good man happy,” thought he, + pressing her hand in reply. + </p> + <p> + Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before + him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was most + delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the wily + notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no tie that + could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie. + </p> + <p> + “You may perhaps think I go rather too far,” said the bigot to the + journalist; “but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one must + think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to be rid of + their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges forward his + daughter’s marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only point on which we + differ.—Though with a man like you, monsieur, a literary man whose + youth has been preserved by hard work from the moral shipwreck now so + prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you would be the first to laugh + at me if I looked for a husband for my daughter with my eyes shut. I know + you are not an innocent, and I should be very sorry for my Felicie if you + were” (this was said in a whisper); “but if you had any <i>liaison</i>—For + instance, monsieur, you have heard of Madame Roguin, the wife of a notary + who, unhappily for our faculty, was sadly notorious. Madame Roguin has, + ever since 1820, been kept by a banker—” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, du Tillet,” replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he recollected + how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du Tillet. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.—Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at + the thought that Madame du Tillet’s fate might be your child’s? At her + age, and <i>nee</i> de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and + more. Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who had + such a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, you take + her and leave her.—There is no danger, in my opinion, from women of + that stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one down and + another to come on!—But a woman who has sinned against duty must hug + her sin, her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can ever have an + excuse. At least, that is the view I hold of a respectable woman’s fall, + and that is what makes it so terrible——” + </p> + <p> + Instead of looking for the meaning of these speeches, Etienne made a jest + of them at Malaga’s, whither he went with his father-in-law elect; for the + notary and the journalist were the best of friends. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau had already given himself the airs of a person of importance; his + life at last was to have a purpose; he was in luck’s way, and in a few + days would be the owner of a delightful little house in the Rue + Saint-Lazare; he was going to be married to a charming woman, he would + have about twenty thousand francs a year, and could give the reins to his + ambition; the young lady loved him, and he would be connected with several + respectable families. In short, he was in full sail on the blue waters of + hope. + </p> + <p> + Madame Cardot had expressed a wish to see the prints for <i>Gil Blas</i>, + one of the illustrated volumes which the French publishers were at that + time bringing out, and Lousteau had taken the first numbers for the lady’s + inspection. The lawyer’s wife had a scheme of her own, she had borrowed + the book merely to return it; she wanted an excuse for walking in on her + future son-in-law quite unexpectedly. The sight of those bachelor rooms, + which her husband had described as charming, would tell her more, she + thought, as to Lousteau’s habits of life than any information she could + pick up. Her sister-in-law, Madame Camusot, who knew nothing of the + fateful secret, was terrified at such a marriage for her niece. Monsieur + Camusot, a Councillor of the Supreme Court, old Camusot’s son by his first + marriage, had given his step-mother, who was Cardot’s sister, a far from + flattering account of the journalist. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, clever as he was, did not think it strange that the wife of a + rich notary should wish to inspect a volume costing fifteen francs before + deciding on the purchase. Your clever man never condescends to study the + middle-class, who escape his ken by this want of attention; and while he + is making game of them, they are at leisure to throttle him. + </p> + <p> + So one day early in January 1837, Madame Cardot and her daughter took a + hackney coach and went to the Rue des Martyrs to return the parts of <i>Gil + Blas</i> to Felicie’s betrothed, both delighted at the thought of seeing + Lousteau’s rooms. These domiciliary visitations are not unusual in the old + citizen class. The porter at the front gate was not in; but his daughter, + on being informed by the worthy lady that she was in the presence of + Monsieur Lousteau’s future mother-in-law and bride, handed over the key of + the apartment—all the more readily because Madame Cardot placed a + gold piece in her hand. + </p> + <p> + It was by this time about noon, the hour at which the journalist would + return from breakfasting at the Cafe Anglais. As he crossed the open space + between the Church of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the Rue des Martyrs, + Lousteau happened to look at a hired coach that was toiling up the Rue du + Faubourg-Montmartre, and he fancied it was a dream when he saw the face of + Dinah! He stood frozen to the spot when, on reaching his house, he beheld + his Didine at the coach door. + </p> + <p> + “What has brought you here?” he inquired.—He adopted the familiar <i>tu</i>. + The formality of <i>vous</i> was out of the question to a woman he must + get rid of. + </p> + <p> + “Why, my love,” cried she, “have you not read my letters?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly I have,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Well, then?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then?” + </p> + <p> + “You are a father,” replied the country lady. + </p> + <p> + “Faugh!” cried he, disregarding the barbarity of such an exclamation. + “Well,” thought he to himself, “she must be prepared for the blow.” + </p> + <p> + He signed to the coachman to wait, gave his hand to Madame de la Baudraye, + and left the man with the chaise full of trunks, vowing that he would send + away <i>illico</i>, as he said to himself, the woman and her luggage, back + to the place she had come from. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur, monsieur,” called out little Pamela. + </p> + <p> + The child had some sense, and felt that three women must not be allowed to + meet in a bachelor’s rooms. + </p> + <p> + “Well, well!” said Lousteau, dragging Dinah along. + </p> + <p> + Pamela concluded that the lady must be some relation; however, she added: + </p> + <p> + “The key is in the door; your mother-in-law is there.” + </p> + <p> + In his agitation, while Madame de la Baudraye was pouring out a flood of + words, Etienne understood the child to say, “Mother is there,” the only + circumstance that suggested itself as possible, and he went in. + </p> + <p> + Felicie and her mother, who were by this time in the bed-room, crept into + a corner on seeing Etienne enter with a woman. + </p> + <p> + “At last, Etienne, my dearest, I am yours for life!” cried Dinah, throwing + her arms round his neck, and clasping him closely, while he took the key + from the outside of the door. “Life is a perpetual anguish to me in that + house at Anzy. I could bear it no longer; and when the time came for me to + proclaim my happiness—well, I had not the courage.—Here I am, + your wife with your child! And you have not written to me; you have left + me two months without a line.” + </p> + <p> + “But, Dinah, you place me in the greatest difficulty—” + </p> + <p> + “Do you love me?” + </p> + <p> + “How can I do otherwise than love you?—But would you not have been + wiser to remain at Sancerre?—I am in the most abject poverty, and I + fear to drag you into it—” + </p> + <p> + “Your misery will be paradise to me. I only ask to live here, never to go + out—” + </p> + <p> + “Good God! that is all very fine in words, but—” Dinah sat down and + melted into tears as she heard this speech, roughly spoken. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau could not resist this distress. He clasped the Baroness in his + arms and kissed her. + </p> + <p> + “Do not cry, Didine!” said he; and, as he uttered the words, he saw in the + mirror the figure of Madame Cardot, looking at him from the further end of + the rooms. “Come, Didine, go with Pamela and get your trunks unloaded,” + said he in her ear. “Go; do not cry; we will be happy!” + </p> + <p> + He led her to the door, and then came back to divert the storm. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” said Madame Cardot, “I congratulate myself on having resolved + to see for myself the home of the man who was to have been my son-in-law. + If my daughter were to die of it, she should never be the wife of such a + man as you. You must devote yourself to making your Didine happy, + monsieur.” + </p> + <p> + And the virtuous lady walked out, followed by Felicie, who was crying too, + for she had become accustomed to Etienne. The dreadful Madame Cardot got + into her hackney-coach again, staring insolently at the hapless Dinah, in + whose heart the sting still rankled of “that is all very fine in words”; + but who, nevertheless, like every woman in love, believed in the murmured, + “Do not cry, Didine!” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, who was not lacking in the sort of decision which grows out of + the vicissitudes of a storm-tossed life, reflected thus: + </p> + <p> + “Didine is high-minded; when once she knows of my proposed marriage, she + will sacrifice herself for my future prospects, and I know how I can + manage to let her know.” Delighted at having hit on a trick of which the + success seemed certain, he danced round to a familiar tune: + </p> + <p> + “<i>Larifla, fla, fla!</i>—And Didine once out of the way,” he went + on, talking to himself, “I will treat Maman Cardot to a call and a + novelette: I have seduced her Felicie at Saint-Eustache—Felicie, + guilty through passion, bears in her bosom the pledge of our affection—and + <i>larifla, fla, fla!</i> the father <i>Ergo</i>, the notary, his wife, + and his daughter are caught, nabbed——” + </p> + <p> + And, to her great amazement, Dinah discovered Etienne performing a + prohibited dance. + </p> + <p> + “Your arrival and our happiness have turned my head with joy,” said he, to + explain this crazy mood. + </p> + <p> + “And I had fancied you had ceased to love me!” exclaimed the poor woman, + dropping the handbag she was carrying, and weeping with joy as she sank + into a chair. + </p> + <p> + “Make yourself at home, my darling,” said Etienne, laughing in his sleeve; + “I must write two lines to excuse myself from a bachelor party, for I mean + to devote myself to you. Give your orders; you are at home.” + </p> + <p> + Etienne wrote to Bixiou: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “MY DEAR BOY,—My Baroness has dropped into my arms, and will be + fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar + stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase. I rely + on you to come here, like one of Moliere’s old men, to scold your + nephew Leandre for his folly, while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in + my bedroom; you must work on her feelings; strike hard, be brutal, + offensive. I, you understand, shall express my blind devotion, and + shall seem to be deaf, so that you may have to shout at me. + + “Come, if you can, at seven o’clock. + + “Yours, + + “E. LOUSTEAU.” + </pre> + <p> + Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who, in all Paris, + most delighted in such practical jokes—in the slang of artists, a <i>“charge”</i>—Lousteau + made a great show of settling the Muse of Sancerre in his apartment. He + busied himself in arranging the luggage she had brought, and informed her + as to the persons and ways of the house with such perfect good faith, and + a glee which overflowed in kind words and caresses, that Dinah believed + herself the best-beloved woman in the world. These rooms, where everything + bore the stamp of fashion, pleased her far better than her old chateau. + </p> + <p> + Pamela Migeon, the intelligent damsel of fourteen, was questioned by the + journalist as to whether she would like to be waiting-maid to the imposing + Baroness. Pamela, perfectly enchanted, entered on her duties at once, by + going off to order dinner from a restaurant on the boulevard. Dinah was + able to judge of the extreme poverty that lay hidden under the purely + superficial elegance of this bachelor home when she found none of the + necessaries of life. As she took possession of the closets and drawers, + she indulged in the fondest dreams; she would alter Etienne’s habits, she + would make him home-keeping, she would fill his cup of domestic happiness. + </p> + <p> + The novelty of the position hid its disastrous side; Dinah regarded + reciprocated love as the absolution of her sin; she did not yet look + beyond the walls of these rooms. Pamela, whose wits were as sharp as those + of a <i>lorette</i>, went straight to Madame Schontz to beg the loan of + some plate, telling her what had happened to Lousteau. After making the + child welcome to all she had, Madame Schontz went off to her friend + Malaga, that Cardot might be warned of the catastrophe that had befallen + his future son-in-law. + </p> + <p> + The journalist, not in the least uneasy about the crisis as affecting his + marriage, was more and more charming to the lady from the provinces. The + dinner was the occasion of the delightful child’s-play of lovers set at + liberty, and happy to be free. When they had had their coffee, and + Lousteau was sitting in front of the fire, Dinah on his knee, Pamela ran + in with a scared face. + </p> + <p> + “Here is Monsieur Bixiou!” said she. + </p> + <p> + “Go into the bedroom,” said the journalist to his mistress; “I will soon + get rid of him. He is one of my most intimate friends, and I shall have to + explain to him my new start in life.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, ho! dinner for two, and a blue velvet bonnet!” cried Bixiou. “I am + off.—Ah! that is what comes of marrying—one must go through + some partings. How rich one feels when one begins to move one’s sticks, + heh?” + </p> + <p> + “Who talks of marrying?” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “What! are you not going to be married, then?” cried Bixiou. + </p> + <p> + “No!” + </p> + <p> + “No? My word, what next? Are you making a fool of yourself, if you please?—What!—You, + who, by the mercy of Heaven, have come across twenty thousand francs a + year, and a house, and a wife connected with all the first families of the + better middle class—a wife, in short, out of the Rue des Lombards—” + </p> + <p> + “That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!” + </p> + <p> + “Be off? I have a friend’s privileges, and I shall take every advantage of + them.—What has come over you?” + </p> + <p> + “What has ‘come over’ me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother, and we + are going to live together happily to the end of our days.—You would + have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now.” + </p> + <p> + “Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this + woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place she + came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs in Paris? + She will wound all your vanities. Have you forgotten what a provincial is? + She will bore you as much when she is happy as when she is sad; she will + have as great a talent for escaping grace as a Parisian has in inventing + it. + </p> + <p> + “Lousteau, listen to me. That a passion should lead you to forget to some + extent the times in which we live, is conceivable; but I, my dear fellow, + have not the mythological bandage over my eyes.—Well, then consider + your position. For fifteen years you have been tossing in the literary + world; you are no longer young, you have padded the hoof till your soles + are worn through!—Yes, my boy, you turn your socks under like a + street urchin to hide the holes, so that the legs cover the heels! In + short, the joke is too stale. Your excuses are more familiar than a patent + medicine—” + </p> + <p> + “I may say to you, like the Regent to Cardinal Dubois, ‘That is kicking + enough!’” said Lousteau, laughing. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, venerable young man,” replied Bixiou, “the iron has touched the sore + to the quick. You are worn out, aren’t you? Well, then; in the heyday of + youth, under the pressure of penury, what have you done? You are not in + the front rank, and you have not a thousand francs of your own. That is + the sum-total of the situation. Can you, in the decline of your powers, + support a family by your pen, when your wife, if she is an honest woman, + will not have at her command the resources of the woman of the streets, + who can extract her thousand-franc note from the depths where milord keeps + it safe? You are rushing into the lowest depths of the social theatre. + </p> + <p> + “And this is only the financial side. Now, consider the political + position. We are struggling in an essentially <i>bourgeois</i> age, in + which honor, virtue, high-mindedness, talent, learning—genius, in + short, is summed up in paying your way, owing nobody anything, and + conducting your affairs with judgment. Be steady, be respectable, have a + wife, and children, pay your rent and taxes, serve in the National Guard, + and be on the same pattern as all the men of your company—then you + may indulge in the loftiest pretensions, rise to the Ministry!—and + you have the best chances possible, since you are no Montmorency. You were + preparing to fulfil all the conditions insisted on for turning out a + political personage, you are capable of every mean trick that is necessary + in office, even of pretending to be commonplace—you would have acted + it to the life. And just for a woman, who will leave you in the lurch—the + end of every eternal passion—in three, five, or seven years—after + exhausting your last physical and intellectual powers, you turn your back + on the sacred Hearth, on the Rue des Lombards, on a political career, on + thirty thousand francs per annum, on respectability and respect!—Ought + that to be the end of a man who has done with illusions? + </p> + <p> + “If you had kept a pot boiling for some actress who gave you your fun for + it—well; that is what you may call a cabinet matter. But to live + with another man’s wife? It is a draft at sight on disaster; it is bolting + the bitter pills of vice with none of the gilding.” + </p> + <p> + “That will do. One word answers it all; I love Madame de la Baudraye, and + prefer her to every fortune, to every position the world can offer.—I + may have been carried away by a gust of ambition, but everything must give + way to the joy of being a father.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ha! you have a fancy for paternity? But, wretched man, we are the + fathers only of our legitimate children. What is a brat that does not bear + your name? The last chapter of the romance.—Your child will be taken + from you! We have seen that story in twenty plays these ten years past. + </p> + <p> + “Society, my dear boy, will drop upon you sooner or later. Read <i>Adolphe</i> + once more.—Dear me! I fancy I can see you when you and she are used + to each other;—I see you dejected, hang-dog, bereft of position and + fortune, and fighting like the shareholders of a bogus company when they + are tricked by a director!—Your director is happiness.” + </p> + <p> + “Say no more, Bixiou.” + </p> + <p> + “But I have only just begun,” said Bixiou. “Listen, my dear boy. Marriage + has been out of favor for some time past; but, apart from the advantages + it offers in being the only recognized way of certifying heredity, as it + affords a good-looking young man, though penniless, the opportunity of + making his fortune in two months, it survives in spite of disadvantages. + And there is not the man living who would not repent, sooner or later, of + having, by his own fault, lost the chance of marrying thirty thousand + francs a year.” + </p> + <p> + “You won’t understand me,” cried Lousteau, in a voice of exasperation. “Go + away—she is there——” + </p> + <p> + “I beg your pardon; why did you not tell me sooner?—You are of age, + and so is she,” he added in a lower voice, but loud enough to be heard by + Dinah. “She will make you repent bitterly of your happiness!——” + </p> + <p> + “If it is a folly, I intend to commit it.—Good-bye.” + </p> + <p> + “A man gone overboard!” cried Bixiou. + </p> + <p> + “Devil take those friends who think they have a right to preach to you,” + said Lousteau, opening the door of the bedroom, where he found Madame de + la Baudraye sunk in an armchair and dabbing her eyes with an embroidered + handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, why did I come here?” sobbed she. “Good Heavens, why indeed?—Etienne, + I am not so provincial as you think me.—You are making a fool of + me.” + </p> + <p> + “Darling angel,” replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting her + from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, “we have + both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While I was loving + you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married here, but I refused.—Oh! + I was extremely distressed——” + </p> + <p> + “I am going,” cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to the + door. + </p> + <p> + “You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune so + lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired creature, + with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself with a + stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the score of + bigotry—” + </p> + <p> + Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau’s ear: + </p> + <p> + “Madame Schontz!” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out. + </p> + <p> + “It is all over with you, my dear,” said the woman. “Cardot does not mean + to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady made a + scene—something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude, the + head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk’s deputy for two years, agrees to + take the girl with the business.” + </p> + <p> + “Mean wretch!” exclaimed Lousteau. “What! in two hours he has made up his + mind?” + </p> + <p> + “Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead man’s + little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from overhearing a + few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary relies on your + honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The clerk, whose + conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend mass! A finished + hypocrite, I say—just suits the mamma. You and Cardot will still be + friends. He is to be a director in an immense financial concern, and he + may be of use to you.—So you have been waked from a sweet dream.” + </p> + <p> + “I have lost a fortune, a wife, and—” + </p> + <p> + “And a mistress,” said Madame Schontz, smiling. “Here you are, more than + married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to get home, + there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes nor your + habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I will be faithful + to him and cut Malaga’s acquaintance. + </p> + <p> + “Let me peep at her through the door—your Sancerre Muse,” she went + on. “Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?” she + exclaimed. “You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she only + needs Lady Dudley’s turban!” + </p> + <p> + “What is it now?” asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the rustle of + a silk dress and the murmur of a woman’s voice. + </p> + <p> + “It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.—I have just + had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off my + marriage——” + </p> + <p> + “So that was the party which you gave up?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I will be more than your wife—I am your slave, I give you my + life,” said the poor deluded creature. “I did not believe I could love you + more than I did!—Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your whole + life?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine.” + </p> + <p> + “Swear to me,” said she, “that only death shall divide us.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating + prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment where he + had taken the lorette’s farewell kiss, and that of the drawing-room, where + the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a succession of shocks, + Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye’s precarious health, his + fine fortune, and Bianchon’s remark about Dinah, “She will be a rich + widow!” and he said to himself, “I would a hundred times rather have + Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than Felicie!” + </p> + <p> + His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play the farce + of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean self-interestedness and + his false vehemence of passion had disastrous results. Madame de la + Baudraye, when she set out from Sancerre for Paris, had intended to live + in rooms of her own quite near to Lousteau; but the proofs of devotion her + lover had given her by giving up such brilliant prospects, and yet more + the perfect happiness of the first days of their illicit union, kept her + from mentioning such a parting. The second day was to be—and indeed + was—a high festival, in which such a suggestion proposed to “her + angel” would have been a discordant note. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, on his part, anxious to make Dinah feel herself dependent on + him, kept her in a state of constant intoxication by incessant amusement. + These circumstances hindered two persons so clever as these were from + avoiding the slough into which they fell—that of a life in common, a + piece of folly of which, unfortunately, many instances may be seen in + Paris in literary circles. + </p> + <p> + And thus was the whole programme played out of a provincial amour, so + satirically described by Lousteau to Madame de la Baudraye—a fact + which neither he nor she remembered. Passion is born a deaf-mute. + </p> + <p> + This winter in Paris was to Madame de la Baudraye all that the month of + October had been at Sancerre. Etienne, to initiate “his wife” into Paris + life, varied this honeymoon by evenings at the play, where Dinah would + only go to the stage box. At first Madame de la Baudraye preserved some + remnants of her countrified modesty; she was afraid of being seen; she hid + her happiness. She would say: + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur de Clagny or Monsieur Gravier may have followed me to Paris.” + She was afraid on Sancerre even in Paris. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau, who was excessively vain, educated Dinah, took her to the best + dressmakers, and pointed out to her the most fashionable women, advising + her to take them as models for imitation. And Madame de la Baudraye’s + provincial appearance was soon a thing of the past. Lousteau, when his + friends met him, was congratulated on his conquest. + </p> + <p> + All through that season Etienne wrote little and got very much into debt, + though Dinah, who was proud, bought all her clothes out of her savings, + and fancied she had not been the smallest expense to her beloved. By the + end of three months Dinah was acclimatized; she had reveled in the music + at the Italian opera; she knew the pieces “on” at all theatres, and the + actors and jests of the day; she had become inured to this life of + perpetual excitement, this rapid torrent in which everything is forgotten. + She no longer craned her neck or stood with her nose in the air, like an + image of Amazement, at the constant surprises that Paris has for a + stranger. She had learned to breathe that witty, vitalizing, teeming + atmosphere where clever people feel themselves in their element, and which + they can no longer bear to quit. + </p> + <p> + One morning, as she read the papers, for Lousteau had them all, two lines + carried her back to Sancerre and the past, two lines that seemed not + unfamiliar—as follows: + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur le Baron de Clagny, Public Prosecutor to the Criminal Court at + Sancerre, has been appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor to the Supreme Court + in Paris.” + </p> + <p> + “How well that worthy lawyer loves you!” said the journalist, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “Poor man!” said she. “What did I tell you? He is following me.” + </p> + <p> + Etienne and Dinah were just then at the most dazzling and fervid stage of + a passion when each is perfectly accustomed to the other, and yet love has + not lost its freshness and relish. The lovers know each other well, but + all is not yet understood; they have not been a second time to the same + secret haunts of the soul; they have not studied each other till they + know, as they must later, the very thought, word, and gesture that + responds to every event, the greatest and the smallest. Enchantment + reigns; there are no collisions, no differences of opinion, no cold looks. + Their two souls are always on the same side. And Dinah would speak the + magical words, emphasized by the yet more magical expression and looks + which every woman can use under such circumstances. + </p> + <p> + “When you cease to love me, kill me.—If you should cease to love me, + I believe I could kill you first and myself after.” + </p> + <p> + To this sweet exaggeration, Lousteau would reply: + </p> + <p> + “All I ask of God is to see you as constant as I shall be. It is you who + will desert me!” + </p> + <p> + “My love is supreme.” + </p> + <p> + “Supreme,” echoed Lousteau. “Come, now? Suppose I am dragged away to a + bachelor party, and find there one of my former mistresses, and she makes + fun of me; I, out of vanity, behave as if I were free, and do not come in + here till next morning—would you still love me?” + </p> + <p> + “A woman is only sure of being loved when she is preferred; and if you + came back to me, if—Oh! you make me understand what the happiness + would be of forgiving the man I adore.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, I am truly loved for the first time in my life!” cried + Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “At last you understand that!” said she. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau proposed that they should each write a letter setting forth the + reasons which would compel them to end by suicide. Once in possession of + such a document, each might kill the other without danger in case of + infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither wrote the letter. + </p> + <p> + The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would + deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice + everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la + Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the power + derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which both lovers + put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her modesty, her + masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to ambitious souls, which + formed the basis of her character. Lousteau involuntarily held her in high + esteem. As a Parisian, Dinah was superior to the most fascinating + courtesan; she could be as amusing and as witty as Malaga; but her + extensive information, her habits of mind, her vast reading enabled her to + generalize her wit, while the Florines and the Schontzes exerted theirs + over a very narrow circle. + </p> + <p> + “There is in Dinah,” said Etienne to Bixiou, “the stuff to make both a + Ninon and a De Stael.” + </p> + <p> + “A woman who combines an encyclopaedia and a seraglio is very dangerous,” + replied the mocking spirit. + </p> + <p> + When the expected infant became a visible fact, Madame de la Baudraye + would be seen no more; but before shutting herself up, never to go out + unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first + performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the + minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as constituting + “all Paris.” Dinah, who had never been at a first night’s performance, was + very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time arrived at such a + pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in her misconduct; she + exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the world; she was determined to + look it in the face without turning her head aside. + </p> + <p> + She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate looks + and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave her an + expression of refinement, and her black hair in smooth bands enhanced her + pallor. Her brilliant gray eyes looked finer than ever, set in dark rings. + But a terribly distressing incident awaited her. By a very simple chance, + the box given to the journalist, on the first tier, was next to that which + Anna Grossetete had taken. The two intimate friends did not even bow; + neither chose to acknowledge the other. At the end of the first act + Lousteau left his seat, abandoning Dinah to the fire of eyes, the glare of + opera-glasses; while the Baronne de Fontaine and the Comtesse Marie de + Vandenesse, who accompanied her, received some of the most distinguished + men of fashion. + </p> + <p> + Dinah’s solitude was all the more distressing because she had not the art + of putting a good face to the matter by examining the company through her + opera-glass. In vain did she try to assume a dignified and thoughtful + attitude, and fix her eyes on vacancy; she was overpoweringly conscious of + being the object of general attention; she could not disguise her + discomfort, and lapsed a little into provincialism, displaying her + handkerchief and making involuntary movements of which she had almost + cured herself. At last, between the second and third acts, a man had + himself admitted to Dinah’s box! It was Monsieur de Clagny. + </p> + <p> + “I am happy to see you, to tell you how much I am pleased by your + promotion,” said she. + </p> + <p> + “Oh! Madame, for whom should I come to Paris——?” + </p> + <p> + “What!” said she. “Have I anything to do with your appointment?” + </p> + <p> + “Everything,” said he. “Since you left Sancerre, it had become intolerable + to me; I was dying—” + </p> + <p> + “Your sincere friendship does me good,” replied she, holding out her hand. + “I am in a position to make much of my true friends; I now know their + value.—I feared I must have lost your esteem, but the proof you have + given me by this visit touches me more deeply than your ten years’ + attachment.” + </p> + <p> + “You are an object of curiosity to the whole house,” said the lawyer. “Oh! + my dear, is this a part for you to be playing? Could you not be happy and + yet remain honored?—I have just heard that you are Monsieur Etienne + Lousteau’s mistress, that you live together as man and wife!—You + have broken for ever with society; even if you should some day marry your + lover, the time will come when you will feel the want of the + respectability you now despise. Ought you not to be in a home of your own + with your mother, who loves you well enough to protect you with her aegis?—Appearances + at least would be saved.” + </p> + <p> + “I am in the wrong to have come here,” replied she, “that is all.—I + have bid farewell to all the advantages which the world confers on women + who know how to reconcile happiness and the proprieties. My abnegation is + so complete that I only wish I could clear a vast space about me to make a + desert of my love, full of God, of <i>him</i>, and of myself.—We + have made too many sacrifices on both sides not to be united—united + by disgrace if you will, but indissolubly one. I am happy; so happy that I + can love freely, my friend, and confide in you more than of old—for + I need a friend.” + </p> + <p> + The lawyer was magnanimous, nay, truly great. To this declaration, in + which Dinah’s soul thrilled, he replied in heartrending tones: + </p> + <p> + “I wanted to go to see you, to be sure that you were loved: I shall now be + easy and no longer alarmed as to your future.—But will your lover + appreciate the magnitude of your sacrifice; is there any gratitude in his + affection?” + </p> + <p> + “Come to the Rue des Martyrs and you will see!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I will call,” he replied. “I have already passed your door without + daring to inquire for you.—You do not yet know the literary world. + There are glorious exceptions, no doubt; but these men of letters drag + terrible evils in their train; among these I account publicity as one of + the greatest, for it blights everything. A woman may commit herself with—” + </p> + <p> + “With a Public Prosecutor?” the Baronne put in with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “Well!—and then after a rupture there is still something to fall + back on; the world has known nothing. But with a more or less famous man + the public is thoroughly informed. Why look there! What an example you + have close at hand! You are sitting back to back with the Comtesse Marie + Vandenesse, who was within an ace of committing the utmost folly for a + more celebrated man than Lousteau—for Nathan—and now they do + not even recognize each other. After going to the very edge of the + precipice, the Countess was saved, no one knows how; she neither left her + husband nor her house; but as a famous man was scorned, she was the talk + of the town for a whole winter. But her husband’s great fortune, great + name, and high position, but for the admirable management of that true + statesman—whose conduct to his wife, they say, was perfect—she + would have been ruined; in her position no other woman would have remained + respected as she is.” + </p> + <p> + “And how was Sancerre when you came away?” asked Madame de la Baudraye, to + change the subject. + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur de la Baudraye announced that your expected confinement after so + many years made it necessary that it should take place in Paris, and that + he had insisted on your going to be attended by the first physicians,” + replied Monsieur de Clagny, guessing what it was that Dinah most wanted to + know. “And so, in spite of the commotion to which your departure gave + rise, you still have your legal status.” + </p> + <p> + “Why!” she exclaimed, “can Monsieur de la Baudraye still hope——” + </p> + <p> + “Your husband, madame, did what he always does—made a little + calculation.” + </p> + <p> + The lawyer left the box when the journalist returned, bowing with dignity. + </p> + <p> + “You are a greater hit than the piece,” said Etienne to Dinah. + </p> + <p> + This brief triumph brought greater happiness to the poor woman than she + had ever known in the whole of her provincial existence; still, as they + left the theatre she was very grave. + </p> + <p> + “What ails you, my Didine?” asked Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “I am wondering how a woman succeeds in conquering the world?” + </p> + <p> + “There are two ways. One is by being Madame de Stael, the other is by + having two hundred thousand francs a year.” + </p> + <p> + “Society,” said she, “asserts its hold on us by appealing to our vanity, + our love of appearances.—Pooh! We will be philosophers!” + </p> + <p> + That evening was the last gleam of the delusive well-being in which Madame + de la Baudraye had lived since coming to Paris. Three days later she + observed a cloud on Lousteau’s brow as he walked round the little + garden-plot smoking a cigar. This woman, who had acquired from her husband + the habit and the pleasure of never owing anybody a sou, was informed that + the household was penniless, with two quarters’ rent owing, and on the + eve, in fact, of an execution. + </p> + <p> + This reality of Paris life pierced Dinah’s heart like a thorn; she + repented of having tempted Etienne into the extravagances of love. It is + so difficult to pass from pleasure to work, that happiness has wrecked + more poems than sorrows ever helped to flow in sparkling jets. Dinah, + happy in seeing Etienne taking his ease, smoking a cigar after breakfast, + his face beaming as he basked like a lizard in the sunshine, could not + summon up courage enough to make herself the bum-bailiff of a magazine. + </p> + <p> + It struck her that through the worthy Migeon, Pamela’s father, she might + pawn the few jewels she possessed, on which her “uncle,” for she was + learning to talk the slang of the town, advanced her nine hundred francs. + She kept three hundred for her baby-clothes and the expenses of her + illness, and joyfully presented the sum due to Lousteau, who was + ploughing, furrow by furrow, or, if you will, line by line, through a + novel for a periodical. + </p> + <p> + “Dearest heart,” said she, “finish your novel without making any sacrifice + to necessity; polish the style, work up the subject.—I have played + the fine lady too long; I am going to be the housewife and attend to + business.” + </p> + <p> + For the last four months Etienne had been taking Dinah to the Cafe Riche + to dine every day, a corner being always kept for them. The countrywoman + was in dismay at being told that five hundred francs were owing for the + last fortnight. + </p> + <p> + “What! we have been drinking wine at six francs a bottle! A sole <i>Normande</i> + costs five francs!—and twenty centimes for a roll?” she exclaimed, + as she looked through the bill Lousteau showed her. + </p> + <p> + “Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at a + restaurant or by a cook,” said Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + “Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a prince.” + </p> + <p> + Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two servants’ + rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her mother, begging her + to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand francs. She received two + trunks full of linen, some plate, and two thousand francs, sent by the + hand of an honest and pious cook recommended her by her mother. + </p> + <p> + Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur de + Clagny came to call at four o’clock, after coming out of court, and found + Madame de la Baudraye making a little cap. The sight of this proud and + ambitious woman, whose mind was so accomplished, and who had queened it so + well at the Chateau d’Anzy, now condescending to household cares and + sewing for the coming infant, moved the poor lawyer, who had just left the + bench. And as he saw the pricks on one of the taper fingers he had so + often kissed, he understood that Madame de la Baudraye was not merely + playing at this maternal task. + </p> + <p> + In the course of this first interview the magistrate saw to the depths of + Dinah’s soul. This perspicacity in a man so much in love was a superhuman + effort. He saw that Didine meant to be the journalist’s guardian spirit + and lead him into a nobler road; she had seen that the difficulties of his + practical life were due to some moral defects. Between two beings united + by love—in one so genuine, and in the other so well feigned—more + than one confidence had been exchanged in the course of four months. + Notwithstanding the care with which Etienne wrapped up his true self, a + word now and then had not failed to enlighten Dinah as to the previous + life of a man whose talents were so hampered by poverty, so perverted by + bad examples, so thwarted by obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. “He + will be a greater man if life is easy to him,” said she to herself. And + she strove to make him happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by + dint of such economy and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus + Dinah became a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of + her soul towards the heights. + </p> + <p> + “His happiness will be my absolution.” + </p> + <p> + These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the lawyer, + accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of his triumph, + flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first performance, had very + plainly shown the lawyer what Lousteau’s purpose was. To Etienne, Madame + de la Baudraye was, to use his own phrase, “a fine feather in his cap.” + Far from preferring the joys of a shy and mysterious passion, of hiding + such exquisite happiness from the eyes of the world, he found a vulgar + satisfaction in displaying the first woman of respectability who had ever + honored him with her affection. + </p> + <p> + The Judge, however, was for some time deceived by the attentions which any + man would lavish on any woman in Madame de la Baudraye’s situation, and + Lousteau made them doubly charming by the ingratiating ways characteristic + of men whose manners are naturally attractive. There are, in fact, men who + have something of the monkey in them by nature, and to whom the assumption + of the most engaging forms of sentiment is so easy that the actor is not + detected; and Lousteau’s natural gifts had been fully developed on the + stage on which he had hitherto figured. + </p> + <p> + Between the months of April and July, when Dinah expected her confinement, + she discovered why it was that Lousteau had not triumphed over poverty; he + was idle and had no power of will. The brain, to be sure, must obey its + own laws; it recognizes neither the exigencies of life nor the voice of + honor; a man cannot write a great book because a woman is dying, or to pay + a discreditable debt, or to bring up a family; at the same time, there is + no great talent without a strong will. These twin forces are requisite for + the erection of the vast edifice of personal glory. A distinguished genius + keeps his brain in a productive condition, just as the knights of old kept + their weapons always ready for battle. They conquer indolence, they deny + themselves enervating pleasures, or indulge only to a fixed limit + proportioned to their powers. This explains the life of such men as Walter + Scott, Cuvier, Voltaire, Newton, Buffon, Bayle, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Lopez + de Vega, Calderon, Boccacio, Aretino, Aristotle—in short, every man + who delighted, governed, or led his contemporaries. + </p> + <p> + A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his talent. + Though Talent has its germ in a cultivated gift, Will means the incessant + conquest of his instincts, of proclivities subdued and mortified, and + difficulties of every kind heroically defeated. The abuse of smoking + encouraged Lousteau’s indolence. Tobacco, which can lull grief, inevitably + numbs a man’s energy. + </p> + <p> + Then, while the cigar deteriorated him physically, criticism as a + profession morally stultified a man so easily tempted by pleasure. + Criticism is as fatal to the critic as seeing two sides to a question is + to a pleader. In these professions the judgment is undermined, the mind + loses its lucid rectitude. The writer lives by taking sides. Thus, we may + distinguish two kinds of criticism, as in painting we may distinguish art + from practical dexterity. Criticism, after the pattern of most + contemporary leader-writers, is the expression of judgments formed at + random in a more or less witty way, just as an advocate pleads in court on + the most contradictory briefs. The newspaper critic always finds a subject + to work up in the book he is discussing. Done after this fashion, the + business is well adapted to indolent brains, to men devoid of the sublime + faculty of imagination, or, possessed of it indeed, but lacking courage to + cultivate it. Every play, every book comes to their pen as a subject, + making no demand on their imagination, and of which they simply write a + report, seriously or in irony, according to the mood of the moment. As to + an opinion, whatever it may be, French wit can always justify it, being + admirably ready to defend either side of any case. And conscience counts + for so little, these <i>bravi</i> have so little value for their own + words, that they will loudly praise in the greenroom the work they tear to + tatters in print. + </p> + <p> + Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to + another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of the + new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old. Madame + de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on the + Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on the same + occasion. She admired the maxim he preached: + </p> + <p> + “We are the attorneys of public opinion.” + </p> + <p> + The other kind of criticism is a science. It necessitates a thorough + comprehension of each work, a lucid insight into the tendencies of the + age, the adoption of a system, and faith in fixed principles—that is + to say, a scheme of jurisprudence, a summing-up, and a verdict. The critic + is then a magistrate of ideas, the censor of his time; he fulfils a sacred + function; while in the former case he is but an acrobat who turns + somersaults for a living so long as he had a leg to stand on. Between + Claude Vignon and Lousteau lay the gulf that divides mere dexterity from + art. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by no + means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She saw + Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most discreditable + compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a picture from which + sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him by saying, “He is a + poet!” so anxious was she to justify him in her own eyes. When she thus + guessed the secret of many a writer’s existence, she also guessed that + Lousteau’s pen could never be trusted to as a resource. + </p> + <p> + Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had thought + of for her own sake. Through her mother she tried to negotiate with her + husband for an allowance, but without Etienne’s knowledge; for, as she + thought, it would be an offence to his delicate feelings, which must be + considered. A few days before the end of July, Dinah crumbled up in her + wrath the letter from her mother containing Monsieur de la Baudraye’s + ultimatum: + </p> + <p> + “Madame de la Baudraye cannot need an allowance in Paris when she can live + in perfect luxury at her Chateau of Anzy: she may return.” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau picked up this letter and read it. + </p> + <p> + “I will avenge you!” said he to Dinah in the ominous tone that delights a + woman when her antipathies are flattered. + </p> + <p> + Five days after this Bianchon and Duriau, the famous ladies’ doctor, were + engaged at Lousteau’s; for he, ever since little La Baudraye’s reply, had + been making a great display of his joy and importance over the advent of + the infant. Monsieur de Clagny and Madame Piedefer—sent for in all + haste were to be the godparents, for the cautious magistrate feared lest + Lousteau should commit some compromising blunder. Madame de la Baudraye + gave birth to a boy that might have filled a queen with envy who hoped for + an heir-presumptive. + </p> + <p> + Bianchon and Monsieur de Clagny went off to register the child at the + Mayor’s office as the son of Monsieur and Madame de la Baudraye, unknown + to Etienne, who, on his part, rushed off to a printer’s to have this + circular set up: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + <i>“Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son.</i> + + <i>“Monsieur Etienne Lousteau has the pleasure of informing you of + the fact.</i> + + <i>“The mother and child are doing well.”</i> +</pre> + <p> + Lousteau had already sent out sixty of these announcements when Monsieur + de Clagny, on coming to make inquiries, happened to see the list of + persons at Sancerre to whom Lousteau proposed to send this amazing notice, + written below the names of the persons in Paris to whom it was already + gone. The lawyer confiscated the list and the remainder of the circulars, + showed them to Madame Piedefer, begging her on no account to allow + Lousteau to carry on this atrocious jest, and jumped into a cab. The + devoted friend then ordered from the same printer another announcement in + the following words: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + <i>“Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son.</i> + + <i>“Monsieur le Baron de la Baudraye has the honor of informing you + of the fact.</i> + + <i>“Mother and child are doing well.”</i> +</pre> + <p> + After seeing the proofs destroyed, the form of type, everything that could + bear witness to the existence of the former document, Monsieur de Clagny + set to work to intercept those that had been sent; in many cases he + changed them at the porter’s lodge, he got back thirty into his own hands, + and at last, after three days of hard work, only one of the original notes + existed, that, namely sent to Nathan. + </p> + <p> + Five times had the lawyer called on the great man without finding him. By + the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an interview, + the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some persons + regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab to which + every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others said they + had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the La Baudraye + family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of journalists; in + short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a curiosity. Florine, + with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about, stamped in the post as + paid, and addressed in Etienne’s hand. So, as soon as the judge spoke of + the announcement, Nathan began to smile. + </p> + <p> + “Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?” cried he. “That + autograph is one of those weapons which an athlete in the circus cannot + afford to lay down. That note proves that Lousteau has no heart, no taste, + no dignity; that he knows nothing of the world nor of public morality; + that he insults himself when he can find no one else to insult.—None + but the son of a provincial citizen imported from Sancerre to become a + poet, but who is only the <i>bravo</i> of some contemptible magazine, + could ever have sent out such a circular letter, as you must allow, + monsieur. This is a document indispensable to the archives of the age.—To-day + Lousteau flatters me, to-morrow he may ask for my head.—Excuse me, I + forgot you were a judge. + </p> + <p> + “I have gone through a passion for a lady, a great lady, as far superior + to Madame de la Baudraye as your fine feeling, monsieur, is superior to + Lousteau’s vulgar retaliation; but I would have died rather than utter her + name. A few months of her airs and graces cost me a hundred thousand + francs and my prospects for life; but I do not think the price too high!—And + I have never murmured!—If a woman betrays the secret of her passion, + it is the supreme offering of her love, but a man!—He must be a + Lousteau! + </p> + <p> + “No, I would not give up that paper for a thousand crowns.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” said the lawyer at last, after an eloquent battle lasting half + an hour, “I have called on fifteen or sixteen men of letters about this + affair, and can it be that you are the only one immovable by an appeal of + honor? It is not for Etienne Lousteau that I plead, but for a woman and + child, both equally ignorant of the damage done to their fortune, their + prospects, and their honor.—Who knows, monsieur, whether you might + not some day be compelled to plead for some favor of justice for a friend, + for some person whose honor was dearer to you than your own.—It + might be remembered against you that you had been ruthless.—Can such + a man as you are hesitate?” added Monsieur de Clagny. + </p> + <p> + “I only wished you to understand the extent of the sacrifice,” replied + Nathan, giving up the letter, as he reflected on the judge’s influence and + accepted this implied bargain. + </p> + <p> + When the journalist’s stupid jest had been counteracted, Monsieur de + Clagny went to give him a rating in the presence of Madame Piedefer; but + he found Lousteau fuming with irritation. + </p> + <p> + “What I did monsieur, I did with a purpose!” replied Etienne. “Monsieur de + la Baudraye has sixty thousand francs a year and refuses to make his wife + an allowance; I wished to make him feel that the child is in my power.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, monsieur, I quite suspected it,” replied the lawyer. “For that + reason I readily agreed to be little Polydore’s godfather, and he is + registered as the son of the Baron and Baronne de la Baudraye; if you have + the feelings of a father, you ought to rejoice in knowing that the child + is heir to one of the finest entailed estates in France.” + </p> + <p> + “And pray, sir, is the mother to die of hunger?” + </p> + <p> + “Be quite easy,” said the lawyer bitterly, having dragged from Lousteau + the expression of feeling he had so long been expecting. “I will undertake + to transact the matter with Monsieur de la Baudraye.” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de Clagny left the house with a chill at his heart. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, his idol, was loved for her money. Would she not, when too late, + have her eyes opened? + </p> + <p> + “Poor woman!” said the lawyer, as he walked away. And this justice we will + do him—for to whom should justice be done unless to a Judge?—he + loved Dinah too sincerely to regard her degradation as a means of triumph + one day; he was all pity and devotion; he really loved her. + </p> + <p> + The care and nursing of the infant, its cries, the quiet needed for the + mother during the first few days, and the ubiquity of Madame Piedefer, + were so entirely adverse to literary labors, that Lousteau moved up to the + three rooms taken on the first floor for the old bigot. The journalist, + obliged to go to the first performances without Dinah, and living apart + from her, found an indescribable charm in the use of his liberty. More + than once he submitted to be taken by the arm and dragged off to some + jollification; more than once he found himself at the house of a friend’s + mistress in the heart of bohemia. He again saw women brilliantly young and + splendidly dressed, in whom economy seemed treason to their youth and + power. Dinah, in spite of her striking beauty, after nursing her baby for + three months, could not stand comparison with these perishable blossoms, + so soon faded, but so showy as long as they live rooted in opulence. + </p> + <p> + Home life had, nevertheless, a strong attraction for Etienne. In three + months the mother and daughter, with the help of the cook from Sancerre + and of little Pamela, had given the apartment a quite changed appearance. + The journalist found his breakfast and his dinner served with a sort of + luxury. Dinah, handsome and nicely dressed, was careful to anticipate her + dear Etienne’s wishes, and he felt himself the king of his home, where + everything, even the baby, was subject to his selfishness. Dinah’s + affection was to be seen in every trifle, Lousteau could not possibly + cease the entrancing deceptions of his unreal passion. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, meanwhile, was aware of a source of ruin, both to her love and to + the household, in the kind of life into which Lousteau had allowed himself + to drift. At the end of ten months she weaned her baby, installed her + mother in the upstairs rooms, and restored the family intimacy which + indissolubly links a man and woman when the woman is loving and clever. + One of the most striking circumstances in Benjamin Constant’s novel, one + of the explanations of Ellenore’s desertion, is the want of daily—or, + if you will, of nightly—intercourse between her and Adolphe. Each of + the lovers has a separate home; they have both submitted to the world and + saved appearances. Ellenore, repeatedly left to herself, is compelled to + vast labors of affection to expel the thoughts of release which captivate + Adolphe when absent. The constant exchange of glances and thoughts in + domestic life gives a woman such power that a man needs stronger reasons + for desertion than she will ever give him so long as she loves him. + </p> + <p> + This was an entirely new phase both to Etienne and to Dinah. Dinah + intended to be indispensable; she wanted to infuse fresh energy into this + man, whose weakness smiled upon her, for she thought it a security. She + found him subjects, sketched the treatment, and at a pinch, would write + whole chapters. She revived the vitality of this dying talent by + transfusing fresh blood into his veins; she supplied him with ideas and + opinions. In short, she produced two books which were a success. More than + once she saved Lousteau’s self-esteem by dictating, correcting, or + finishing his articles when he was in despair at his own lack of ideas. + The secret of this collaboration was strictly preserved; Madame Piedefer + knew nothing of it. + </p> + <p> + This mental galvanism was rewarded by improved pay, enabling them to live + comfortably till the end of 1838. Lousteau became used to seeing Dinah do + his work, and he paid her—as the French people say in their vigorous + lingo—in “monkey money,” nothing for her pains. This expenditure in + self-sacrifice becomes a treasure which generous souls prize, and the more + she gave the more she loved Lousteau; the time soon came when Dinah felt + that it would be too bitter a grief ever to give him up. + </p> + <p> + But then another child was coming, and this year was a terrible trial. In + spite of the precautions of the two women, Etienne contracted debts; he + worked himself to death to pay them off while Dinah was laid up; and, + knowing him as she did, she thought him heroic. But after this effort, + appalled at having two women, two children, and two maids on his hands, he + was incapable of the struggle to maintain a family by his pen when he had + failed to maintain even himself. So he let things take their chance. Then + the ruthless speculator exaggerated the farce of love-making at home to + secure greater liberty abroad. + </p> + <p> + Dinah proudly endured the burden of life without support. The one idea, + “He loves me!” gave her superhuman strength. She worked as hard as the + most energetic spirits of our time. At the risk of her beauty and health, + Didine was to Lousteau what Mademoiselle Delachaux was to Gardane in + Diderot’s noble and true tale. But while sacrificing herself, she + committed the magnanimous blunder of sacrificing dress. She had her gowns + dyed, and wore nothing but black. She stank of black, as Malaga said, + making fun mercilessly of Lousteau. + </p> + <p> + By the end of 1839, Etienne, following the example of Louis XV., had, by + dint of gradual capitulations of conscience, come to the point of + establishing a distinction between his own money and the housekeeping + money, just as Louis XV. drew the line between his privy purse and the + public moneys. He deceived Dinah as to his earnings. On discovering this + baseness, Madame de la Baudraye went through fearful tortures of jealousy. + She wanted to live two lives—the life of the world and the life of a + literary woman; she accompanied Lousteau to every first-night performance, + and could detect in him many impulses of wounded vanity, for her black + attire rubbed off, as it were, on him, clouding his brow, and sometimes + leading him to be quite brutal. He was really the woman of the two; and he + had all a woman’s exacting perversity; he would reproach Dinah for the + dowdiness of her appearance, even while benefiting by the sacrifice, which + to a mistress is so cruel—exactly like a woman who, after sending a + man through a gutter to save her honor, tells him she “cannot bear dirt!” + when he comes out. + </p> + <p> + Dinah then found herself obliged to gather up the rather loose reins of + power by which a clever woman drives a man devoid of will. But in so doing + she could not fail to lose much of her moral lustre. Such suspicions as + she betrayed drag a woman into quarrels which lead to disrespect, because + she herself comes down from the high level on which she had at first + placed herself. Next she made some concession; Lousteau was allowed to + entertain several of his friends—Nathan, Bixiou, Blondet, Finot, + whose manners, language, and intercourse were depraving. They tried to + convince Madame de la Baudraye that her principles and aversions were a + survival of provincial prudishness; and they preached the creed of woman’s + superiority. + </p> + <p> + Before long, her jealousy put weapons into Lousteau’s hands. During the + carnival of 1840, she disguised herself to go to the balls at the + Opera-house, and to suppers where she met courtesans, in order to keep an + eye on all Etienne’s amusements. + </p> + <p> + On the day of Mid-Lent—or rather, at eight on the morning after—Dinah + came home from the ball in her fancy dress to go to bed. She had gone to + spy on Lousteau, who, believing her to be ill, had engaged himself for + that evening to Fanny Beaupre. The journalist, warned by a friend, had + behaved so as to deceive the poor woman, only too ready to be deceived. + </p> + <p> + As she stepped out of the hired cab, Dinah met Monsieur de la Baudraye, to + whom the porter pointed her out. The little old man took his wife by the + arm, saying, in an icy tone: + </p> + <p> + “So this is you, madame!” + </p> + <p> + This sudden advent of conjugal authority, before which she felt herself so + small, and, above all, these words, almost froze the heart of the unhappy + woman caught in the costume of a <i>debardeur</i>. To escape Etienne’s eye + the more effectually, she had chosen a dress he was not likely to detect + her in. She took advantage of the mask she still had on to escape without + replying, changed her dress, and went up to her mother’s rooms, where she + found her husband waiting for her. In spite of her assumed dignity, she + blushed in the old man’s presence. + </p> + <p> + “What do you want of me, monsieur?” she asked. “Are we not separated + forever?” + </p> + <p> + “Actually, yes,” said Monsieur de la Baudraye. “Legally, no.” + </p> + <p> + Madame Piedefer was telegraphing signals to her daughter, which Dinah + presently observed and understood. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing could have brought you here but your own interests,” she said, in + a bitter tone. + </p> + <p> + “<i>Our</i> interests,” said the little man coldly, “for we have two + children.—Your Uncle Silas Piedefer is dead, at New York, where, + after having made and lost several fortunes in various parts of the world, + he has finally left some seven or eight hundred thousand francs—they + say twelve—but there is stock-in-trade to be sold. I am the chief in + our common interests, and act for you.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” cried Dinah, “in everything that relates to business, I trust no one + but Monsieur de Clagny. He knows the law, come to terms with him; what he + does, will be done right.” + </p> + <p> + “I have no occasion for Monsieur de Clagny,” answered Monsieur de la + Baudraye, “to take my children from you—” + </p> + <p> + “Your children!” exclaimed Dinah. “Your children, to whom you have not + sent a sou! <i>Your</i> children!” She burst into a loud shout of + laughter; but Monsieur de la Baudraye’s unmoved coolness threw ice on the + explosion. + </p> + <p> + “Your mother has just brought them to show me,” he went on. “They are + charming boys. I do not intend to part from them. I shall take them to our + house at Anzy, if it were only to save them from seeing their mother + disguised like a—” + </p> + <p> + “Silence!” said Madame de la Baudraye imperatively. “What do you want of + me that brought you here?” + </p> + <p> + “A power of attorney to receive our Uncle Silas’ property.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah took a pen, wrote two lines to Monsieur de Clagny, and desired her + husband to call again in the afternoon. + </p> + <p> + At five o’clock, Monsieur de Clagny—who had been promoted to the + post of Attorney-General—enlightened Madame de la Baudraye as to her + position; still, he undertook to arrange everything by a bargain with the + old fellow, whose visit had been prompted by avarice alone. Monsieur de la + Baudraye, to whom his wife’s power of attorney was indispensable to enable + him to deal with the business as he wished, purchased it by certain + concessions. In the first place, he undertook to allow her ten thousand + francs a year so long as she found it convenient—so the document was + worded—to reside in Paris; the children, each on attaining the age + of six, were to be placed in Monsieur de la Baudraye’s keeping. Finally, + the lawyer extracted the payment of the allowance in advance. + </p> + <p> + Little La Baudraye, who came jauntily enough to say good-bye to his wife + and <i>his</i> children, appeared in a white india-rubber overcoat. He was + so firm on his feet, and so exactly like the La Baudraye of 1836, that + Dinah despaired of ever burying the dreadful little dwarf. From the + garden, where he was smoking a cigar, the journalist could watch Monsieur + de la Baudraye for so long as it took the little reptile to cross the + forecourt, but that was enough for Lousteau; it was plain to him that the + little man had intended to wreck every hope of his dying that his wife + might have conceived. + </p> + <p> + This short scene made a considerable change in the writer’s secret + scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the position. + </p> + <p> + His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as much as + it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two sides of the + account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry quits. Considering how + small his income was, and how hardly he earned it, Lousteau regarded + himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It was, no doubt, a favorable + moment for throwing the woman over. Tired at the end of three years of + playing a comedy which never can become a habit, he was perpetually + concealing his weariness; and this fellow, who was accustomed to disguise + none of his feelings, compelled himself to wear a smile at home like that + of a debtor in the presence of his creditor. This compulsion was every day + more intolerable. + </p> + <p> + Hitherto the immense advantages he foresaw in the future had given him + strength; but when he saw Monsieur de la Baudraye embark for the United + States, as briskly as if it were to go down to Rouen in a steamboat, he + ceased to believe in the future. + </p> + <p> + He went in from the garden to the pretty drawing-room, where Dinah had + just taken leave of her husband. + </p> + <p> + “Etienne,” said Madame de la Baudraye, “do you know what my lord and + master has proposed to me? In the event of my wishing to return to live at + Anzy during his absence, he has left his orders, and he hopes that my + mother’s good advice will weigh with me, and that I shall go back there + with my children.” + </p> + <p> + “It is very good advice,” replied Lousteau drily, knowing the passionate + disclaimer that Dinah expected, and indeed begged for with her eyes. + </p> + <p> + The tone, the words, the cold look, all hit the hapless woman so hard, who + lived only in her love, that two large tears trickled slowly down her + cheeks, while she did not speak a word, and Lousteau only saw them when + she took out her handkerchief to wipe away these two beads of anguish. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, Didine?” he asked, touched to the heart by this excessive + sensibility. + </p> + <p> + “Just as I was priding myself on having won our freedom,” said she—“at + the cost of my fortune—by selling—what is most precious to a + mother’s heart—selling my children!—for he is to have them + from the age of six—and I cannot see them without going to Sancerre!—and + that is torture!—Ah, dear God! What have I done——?” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau knelt down by her and kissed her hands with a lavish display of + coaxing and petting. + </p> + <p> + “You do not understand me,” said he. “I blame myself, for I am not worth + such sacrifices, dear angel. I am, in a literary sense, a quite + second-rate man. If the day comes when I can no longer cut a figure at the + bottom of the newspaper, the editors will let me lie, like an old shoe + flung into the rubbish heap. Remember, we tight-rope dancers have no + retiring pension! The State would have too many clever men on its hands if + it started on such a career of beneficence. I am forty-two, and I am as + idle as a marmot. I feel it—I know it”—and he took her by the + hand—“my love can only be fatal to you. + </p> + <p> + “As you know, at two-and-twenty I lived on Florine; but what is excusable + in a youth, what then seems smart and charming, is a disgrace to a man of + forty. Hitherto we have shared the burden of existence, and it has not + been lovely for this year and half. Out of devotion to me you wear nothing + but black, and that does me no credit.”—Dinah gave one of those + magnanimous shrugs which are worth all the words ever spoken.—“Yes,” + Etienne went on, “I know you sacrifice everything to my whims, even your + beauty. And I, with a heart worn out in past struggles, a soul full of + dark presentiments as to the future, I cannot repay your exquisite love + with an equal affection. We were very happy—without a cloud—for + a long time.—Well, then, I cannot bear to see so sweet a poem end + badly. Am I wrong?” + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye loved Etienne so truly, that this prudence, worthy + of de Clagny, gratified her and stanched her tears. + </p> + <p> + “He loves me for myself alone!” thought she, looking at him with smiling + eyes. + </p> + <p> + After four years of intimacy, this woman’s love now combined every shade + of affection which our powers of analysis can discern, and which modern + society has created; one of the most remarkable men of our age, whose + death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle (Stendhal), was the + first to delineate them to perfection. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be compared + to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body, and overcomes + every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from him, or his hand laid + on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A kind word or a smile + wreathed the poor woman’s soul with flowers; a fond look elated, a cold + look depressed her. When she walked, taking his arm and keeping step with + him in the street or on the boulevard, she was so entirely absorbed in him + that she lost all sense of herself. Fascinated by this fellow’s wit, + magnetized by his airs, his vices were but trivial defects in her eyes. + She loved the puffs of cigar smoke that the wind brought into her room + from the garden; she went to inhale them, and made no wry faces, hiding + herself to enjoy them. She hated the publisher or the newspaper editor who + refused Lousteau money on the ground of the enormous advances he had had + already. She deluded herself so far as to believe that her bohemian was + writing a novel, for which the payment was to come, instead of working off + a debt long since incurred. + </p> + <p> + This, no doubt, is true love, and includes every mode of loving; the love + of the heart and of the head—passion, caprice, and taste—to + accept Beyle’s definitions. Didine loved him so wholly, that in certain + moments when her critical judgment, just by nature, and constantly + exercised since she had lived in Paris, compelled her to read to the + bottom of Lousteau’s soul, sense was still too much for reason, and + suggested excuses. + </p> + <p> + “And what am I?” she replied. “A woman who has put herself outside the + pale. Since I have sacrificed all a woman’s honor, why should you not + sacrifice to me some of a man’s honor? Do we not live outside the limits + of social conventionality? Why not accept from me what Nathan can accept + from Florine? We will square accounts when we part, and only death can + part us—you know. My happiness is your honor, Etienne, as my + constancy and your happiness are mine. If I fail to make you happy, all is + at an end. If I cause you a pang, condemn me. + </p> + <p> + “Our debts are paid; we have ten thousand francs a year, and between us we + can certainly make eight thousand francs a year—I will write + theatrical articles.—With fifteen hundred francs a month we shall be + as rich as Rothschild.—Be quite easy. I will have some lovely + dresses, and give you every day some gratified vanity, as on the first + night of Nathan’s play—” + </p> + <p> + “And what about your mother, who goes to Mass every day, and wants to + bring a priest to the house and make you give up this way of life?” + </p> + <p> + “Every one has a pet vice. You smoke, she preaches at me, poor woman! But + she takes great care of the children, she takes them out, she is + absolutely devoted, and idolizes me. Would you hinder her from crying?” + </p> + <p> + “What will be thought of me?” + </p> + <p> + “But we do not live for the world!” cried she, raising Etienne and making + him sit by her. “Besides, we shall be married some day—we have the + risks of a sea voyage——” + </p> + <p> + “I never thought of that,” said Lousteau simply; and he added to himself, + “Time enough to part when little La Baudraye is safe back again.” + </p> + <p> + From that day forth Etienne lived in luxury; and Dinah, on first nights, + could hold her own with the best dressed women in Paris. Lousteau was so + fatuous as to affect, among his friends, the attitude of a man overborne, + bored to extinction, ruined by Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what would I not give to the friend who would deliver me from Dinah! + But no one ever can!” said he. “She loves me enough to throw herself out + of the window if I told her.” + </p> + <p> + The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against Dinah’s + jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was shamelessly + unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at seeing Dinah in such + disgraceful circumstances when she might have been so rich, and in so + wretched a position at the time when her original ambitions would have + been fulfilled, came to warn her, to tell her—“You are betrayed,” + and she only replied, “I know it.” + </p> + <p> + The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a word. + </p> + <p> + “Do you still love me?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “I would lose my soul for you!” he exclaimed, starting to his feet. + </p> + <p> + The hapless man’s eyes flashed like torches, he trembled like a leaf, his + throat was rigid, his hair thrilled to the roots; he believed he was so + blessed as to be accepted as his idol’s avenger, and this poor joy filled + him with rapture. + </p> + <p> + “Why are you so startled?” said she, making him sit down again. “That is + how I love him.” + </p> + <p> + The lawyer understood this argument <i>ad hominem</i>. And there were + tears in the eyes of the Judge, who had just condemned a man to death! + </p> + <p> + Lousteau’s satiety, that odious conclusion of such illicit relations, had + betrayed itself in a thousand little things, which are like grains of sand + thrown against the panes of the little magical hut where those who love + dwell and dream. These grains of sand, which grow to be pebbles, had never + been discerned by Dinah till they were as big as rocks. Madame de la + Baudraye had at last thoroughly understood Lousteau’s character. + </p> + <p> + “He is,” she said to her mother, “a poet, defenceless against disaster, + mean out of laziness, not for want of heart, and rather too prone to + pleasure; in short, a great cat, whom it is impossible to hate. What would + become of him without me? I hindered his marriage; he has no prospects. + His talent would perish in privations.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my Dinah!” Madame Piedefer had exclaimed, “what a hell you live in! + What is the feeling that gives you strength enough to persist?” + </p> + <p> + “I will be a mother to him!” she had replied. + </p> + <p> + There are certain horrible situations in which we come to no decision till + the moment when our friends discern our dishonor. We accept compromises + with ourself so long as we escape a censor who comes to play prosecutor. + Monsieur de Clagny, as clumsy as a tortured man, had been torturing Dinah. + </p> + <p> + “To preserve my love I will be all that Madame de Pompadour was to + preserve her power,” said she to herself when Monsieur de Clagny had left + her. And this phrase sufficiently proves that her love was becoming a + burden to her, and would presently be a toil rather than a pleasure. + </p> + <p> + The part now assumed by Dinah was horribly painful, and Lousteau made it + no easier to play. When he wanted to go out after dinner he would perform + the tenderest little farces of affection, and address Dinah in words full + of devotion; he would take her by the chain, and when he had bruised her + with it, even while he hurt her, the lordly ingrate would say, “Did I + wound you?” + </p> + <p> + These false caresses and deceptions had degrading consequences for Dinah, + who believed in a revival of his love. The mother, alas, gave way to the + mistress with shameful readiness. She felt herself a mere plaything in the + man’s hands, and at last she confessed to herself: + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, I will be his plaything!” finding joy in it—the rapture + of damnation. + </p> + <p> + When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living in + solitude, she felt her courage fail. She preferred the anticipated and + inevitable miseries of this fierce intimacy to the absence of the joys, + which were all the more exquisite because they arose from the midst of + remorse, of terrible struggles with herself, of a <i>No</i> persuaded to + be <i>Yes</i>. At every moment she seemed to come across the pool of + bitter water found in a desert, and drunk with greater relish than the + traveler would find in sipping the finest wines at a prince’s table. + </p> + <p> + When Dinah wondered to herself at midnight: + </p> + <p> + “Will he come home, or will he not?” she was not alive again till she + heard the familiar sound of Lousteau’s boots, and his well-known ring at + the bell. + </p> + <p> + She would often try to restrain him by giving him pleasure; she would hope + to be a match for her rivals, and leave them no hold on that agitated + heart. How many times a day would she rehearse the tragedy of <i>Le + Dernier Jour d’un condamne</i>, saying to herself, “To-morrow we part.” + And how often would a word, a look, a kiss full of apparently artless + feeling, bring her back to the depths of her love! + </p> + <p> + It was terrible. More than once had she meditated suicide as she paced the + little town garden where a few pale flowers bloomed. In fact, she had not + yet exhausted the vast treasure of devotion and love which a loving woman + bears in her heart. + </p> + <p> + The romance of <i>Adolphe</i> was her Bible, her study, for above all else + she would not be an Ellenore. She allowed herself no tears, she avoided + all the bitterness so cleverly described by the critic to whom we owe an + analysis of this striking work; whose comments indeed seemed to Dinah + almost superior to the book. And she read again and again this fine essay + by the only real critic who has written in the <i>Revue des Deux Mondes</i>, + an article now printed at the beginning of the new edition of <i>Adolphe</i>. + </p> + <p> + “No,” she would say to herself, as she repeated the author’s fateful + words, “no, I will not ‘give my requests the form of an order,’ I will not + ‘fly to tears as a means of revenge,’ I will not ‘condemn the things I + once approved without reservation,’ I will not ‘dog his footsteps with a + prying eye’; if he plays truant, he shall not on his return ‘see a + scornful lip, whose kiss is an unanswerable command.’ No, ‘my silence + shall not be a reproach nor my first word a quarrel.’—I will not be + like every other woman!” she went on, laying on her table the little + yellow paper volume which had already attracted Lousteau’s remark, “What! + are you studying <i>Adolphe</i>?”—“If for one day only he should + recognize my merits and say, ‘That victim never uttered a cry!’—it + will be all I ask. And besides, the others only have him for an hour; I + have him for life!” + </p> + <p> + Thinking himself justified by his private tribunal in punishing his wife, + Monsieur de la Baudraye robbed her to achieve his cherished enterprise of + reclaiming three thousand acres of moorland, to which he had devoted + himself ever since 1836, living like a mouse. He manipulated the property + left by Monsieur Silas Piedefer so ingeniously, that he contrived to + reduce the proved value to eight hundred thousand francs, while pocketing + twelve hundred thousand. He did not announce his return; but while his + wife was enduring unspeakable woes, he was building farms, digging + trenches, and ploughing rough ground with a courage that ranked him among + the most remarkable agriculturists of the province. + </p> + <p> + The four hundred thousand francs he had filched from his wife were spent + in three years on this undertaking, and the estate of Anzy was expected to + return seventy-two thousand francs a year of net profits after the taxes + were paid. The eight hundred thousand he invested at four and a half per + cent in the funds, buying at eighty francs, at the time of the financial + crisis brought about by the Ministry of the First of March, as it was + called. By thus securing to his wife an income of forty-eight thousand + francs he considered himself no longer in her debt. Could he not restore + the odd twelve hundred thousand as soon as the four and a half per cents + had risen above a hundred? He was now the greatest man in Sancerre, with + the exception of one—the richest proprietor in France—whose + rival he considered himself. He saw himself with an income of a hundred + and forty thousand francs, of which ninety thousand formed the revenue + from the lands he had entailed. Having calculated that besides this net + income he paid ten thousand francs in taxes, three thousand in working + expenses, ten thousand to his wife, and twelve hundred to his + mother-in-law, he would say in the literary circles of Sancerre: + </p> + <p> + “I am reputed miserly, and said to spend nothing; but my outlay amounts to + twenty-six thousand five hundred francs a year. And I have still to pay + for the education of my two children! I daresay it is not a pleasing fact + to the Milauds of Nevers, but the second house of La Baudraye may yet have + as noble a center as the first.—I shall most likely go to Paris and + petition the King of the French to grant me the title of Count—Monsieur + Roy is a Count—and my wife would be pleased to be Madame la + Comtesse.” + </p> + <p> + And this was said with such splendid coolness that no one would have dared + to laugh at the little man. Only Monsieur Boirouge, the Presiding Judge, + remarked: + </p> + <p> + “In your place, I should not be happy unless I had a daughter.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I shall go to Paris before long——” said the Baron. + </p> + <p> + In the early part of 1842 Madame de la Baudraye, feeling that she was to + Lousteau no more than a reserve in the background, had again sacrificed + herself absolutely to secure his comfort; she had resumed her black + raiment, but now it was in sign of mourning, for her pleasure was turning + to remorse. She was too often put to shame not to feel the weight of the + chain, and her mother found her sunk in those moods of meditation into + which visions of the future cast unhappy souls in a sort of torpor. + </p> + <p> + Madame Piedefer, by the advice of her spiritual director, was on the watch + for the moment of exhaustion, which the priest told her would inevitably + supervene, and then she pleaded in behalf of the children. She restricted + herself to urging that Dinah and Lousteau should live apart, not asking + her to give him up. In real life these violent situations are not closed + as they are in books, by death or cleverly contrived catastrophes; they + end far less poetically—in disgust, in the blighting of every flower + of the soul, in the commonplace of habit, and very often too in another + passion, which robs a wife of the interest which is traditionally ascribed + to women. So, when common sense, the law of social proprieties, family + interest—all the mixed elements which, since the Restoration, have + been dignified by the mane of Public Morals, out of sheer aversion to the + name of the Catholic religion—where this is seconded by a sense of + insults a little too offensive; when the fatigue of constant + self-sacrifice has almost reached the point of exhaustion; and when, under + these circumstances, a too cruel blow—one of those mean acts which a + man never lets a woman know of unless he believes himself to be her + assured master—puts the crowning touch to her revulsion and + disenchantment, the moment has come for the intervention of the friend who + undertakes the cure. Madame Piedefer had no great difficulty now in + removing the film from her daughter’s eyes. + </p> + <p> + She sent for Monsieur de Clagny, who completed the work by assuring Madame + de la Baudraye that if she would give up Etienne, her husband would allow + her to keep the children and to live in Paris, and would restore her to + the command of her own fortune. + </p> + <p> + “And what a life you are leading!” said he. “With care and judgment, and + the support of some pious and charitable persons, you may have a salon and + conquer a position. Paris is not Sancerre.” + </p> + <p> + Dinah left it to Monsieur de Clagny to negotiate a reconciliation with the + old man. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de la Baudraye had sold his wine well, he had sold his wool, he + had felled his timber, and, without telling his wife, he had come to Paris + to invest two hundred thousand francs in the purchase of a delightful + residence in the Rue de l’Arcade, that was being sold in liquidation of an + aristocratic House that was in difficulties. He had been a member of the + Council for the Department since 1826, and now, paying ten thousand francs + in taxes, he was doubly qualified for a peerage under the conditions of + the new legislation. + </p> + <p> + Some time before the elections of 1842 he had put himself forward as + candidate unless he were meanwhile called to the Upper House as Peer of + France. At the same time, he asked for the title of Count, and for + promotion to the higher grade of the Legion of Honor. In the matter of the + elections, the dynastic nominations; now, in the event of Monsieur de la + Baudraye being won over to the Government, Sancerre would be more than + ever a rotten borough of royalism. Monsieur de Clagny, whose talents and + modesty were more and more highly appreciated by the authorities, gave + Monsieur de la Baudraye his support; he pointed out that by raising this + enterprising agriculturist to the peerage, a guarantee would be offered to + such important undertakings. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur de la Baudraye, then, a Count, a Peer of France, and Commander of + the Legion of Honor, was vain enough to wish to cut a figure with a wife + and handsomely appointed house.—“He wanted to enjoy life,” he said. + </p> + <p> + He therefore addressed a letter to his wife, dictated by Monsieur de + Clagny, begging her to live under his roof and to furnish the house, + giving play to the taste of which the evidences, he said, had charmed him + at the Chateau d’Anzy. The newly made Count pointed out to his wife that + while the interests of their property forbade his leaving Sancerre, the + education of their boys required her presence in Paris. The accommodating + husband desired Monsieur de Clagny to place sixty thousand francs at the + disposal of Madame la Comtesse for the interior decoration of their + mansion, requesting that she would have a marble tablet inserted over the + gateway with the inscription: <i>Hotel de la Baudraye</i>. + </p> + <p> + He then accounted to his wife for the money derived from the estate of + Silas Piedefer, told her of the investment at four and a half per cent of + the eight hundred thousand francs he had brought from New York, and + allowed her that income for her expenses, including the education of the + children. As he would be compelled to stay in Paris during some part of + the session of the House of Peers, he requested his wife to reserve for + him a little suite of rooms in an <i>entresol</i> over the kitchens. + </p> + <p> + “Bless me! why, he is growing young again—a gentleman!—a + magnifico!—What will he become next? It is quite alarming,” said + Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + “He now fulfils all your wishes at the age of twenty,” replied the lawyer. + </p> + <p> + The comparison of her future prospects with her present position was + unendurable to Dinah. Only the day before, Anna de Fontaine had turned her + head away in order to avoid seeing her bosom friend at the Chamarolles’ + school. + </p> + <p> + “I am a countess,” said Dinah to herself. “I shall have the peer’s blue + hammer-cloth on my carriage, and the leaders of the literary world in my + drawing-room—and I will look at her!”—And it was this little + triumph that told with all its weight at the moment of her rehabilitation, + as the world’s contempt had of old weighed on her happiness. + </p> + <p> + One fine day, in May 1842, Madame de la Baudraye paid all her little + household debts and left a thousand crowns on top of the packet of + receipted bills. After sending her mother and the children away to the + Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the + house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said: + </p> + <p> + “I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the + pleasure of your company at the <i>Rocher de Cancale</i>.” + </p> + <p> + She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy manners + assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave of his least + whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months past. + </p> + <p> + “Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night,” said he—<i>une + premiere</i>, the slang abbreviation for a first performance. + </p> + <p> + “Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye,” said Dinah + gravely. “I do not mean to understand such a word as <i>figged out</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “Didine a rebel!” said he, putting his arm round her waist. + </p> + <p> + “There is no such person as Didine; you have killed her, my dear,” she + replied, releasing herself. “I am taking you to the first performance of + <i>Madame la Comtesse de la Baudraye</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “It is true, then, that our insect is a peer of France?” + </p> + <p> + “The nomination is to be gazetted in this evening’s <i>Moniteur</i>, as I + am told by Monsieur de Clagny, who is promoted to the Court of Appeal.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it is quite right,” said the journalist. “The entomology of society + ought to be represented in the Upper House.” + </p> + <p> + “My friend, we are parting for ever,” said Madame de la Baudraye, trying + to control the trembling of her voice. “I have dismissed the two servants. + When you go in, you will find the house in order, and no debts. I shall + always feel a mother’s affection for you, but in secret. Let us part + calmly, without a fuss, like decent people. + </p> + <p> + “Have you had a fault to find with my conduct during the past six years?” + </p> + <p> + “None, but that you have spoiled my life, and wrecked my prospects,” said + he in a hard tone. “You have read Benjamin Constant’s book very + diligently; you have even studied the last critique on it; but you have + read with a woman’s eyes. Though you have one of those superior intellects + which would make a fortune of a poet, you have never dared to take the + man’s point of view. + </p> + <p> + “That book, my dear, is of both sexes.—We agreed that books were + male or female, dark or fair. In <i>Adolphe</i> women see nothing but + Ellenore; young men see only Adolphe; men of experience see Ellenore and + Adolphe; political men see the whole of social existence. You did not + think it necessary to read the soul of Adolphe—any more than your + critic indeed, who saw only Ellenore. What kills that poor fellow, my + dear, is that he has sacrificed his future for a woman; that he never can + be what he might have been—an ambassador, a minister, a chamberlain, + a poet—and rich. He gives up six years of his energy at that stage + of his life when a man is ready to submit to the hardships of any + apprenticeship—to a petticoat, which he outstrips in the career of + ingratitude, for the woman who has thrown over her first lover is certain + sooner or later to desert the second. Adolphe is, in fact, a tow-haired + German, who has not spirit enough to be false to Ellenore. There are + Adolphes who spare their Ellenores all ignominious quarreling and + reproaches, who say to themselves, ‘I will not talk of what I have + sacrificed; I will not for ever be showing the stump of my wrist to let + that incarnate selfishness I have made my queen,’ as Ramorny does in <i>The + Fair Maid of Perth</i>. But men like that, my dear, get cast aside. + </p> + <p> + “Adolphe is a man of birth, an aristocratic nature, who wants to get back + into the highroad to honors and recover his social birthright, his + blighted position.—You, at this moment, are playing both parts. You + are suffering from the pangs of having lost your position, and think + yourself justified in throwing over a hapless lover whose misfortune it + has been that he fancied you so far superior as to understand that, though + a man’s heart ought to be true, his sex may be allowed to indulge its + caprices.” + </p> + <p> + “And do you suppose that I shall not make it my business to restore to you + all you have lost by me? Be quite easy,” said Madame de la Baudraye, + astounded by this attack. “Your Ellenore is not dying; and if God gives + her life, if you amend your ways, if you give up courtesans and actresses, + we will find you a better match than a Felicie Cardot.” + </p> + <p> + The two lovers were sullen. Lousteau affected dejection, he aimed at + appearing hard and cold; while Dinah, really distressed, listened to the + reproaches of her heart. + </p> + <p> + “Why,” said Lousteau presently, “why not end as we ought to have begun—hide + our love from all eyes, and see each other in secret?” + </p> + <p> + “Never!” cried the new-made Countess, with an icy look. “Do you not + comprehend that we are, after all, but finite creatures? Our feelings seem + infinite by reason of our anticipation of heaven, but here on earth they + are limited by the strength of our physical being. There are some feeble, + mean natures which may receive an endless number of wounds and live on; + but there are some more highly-tempered souls which snap at last under + repeated blows. You have—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! enough!” cried he. “No more copy! Your dissertation is unnecessary, + since you can justify yourself by merely saying—‘I have ceased to + love!’” + </p> + <p> + “What!” she exclaimed in bewilderment. “Is it I who have ceased to love?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly. You have calculated that I gave you more trouble, more + vexation than pleasure, and you desert your partner—” + </p> + <p> + “I desert!——” cried she, clasping her hands. + </p> + <p> + “Have not you yourself just said ‘Never’?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, yes! <i>Never</i>,” she repeated vehemently. + </p> + <p> + This final <i>Never</i>, spoken in the fear of falling once more under + Lousteau’s influence, was interpreted by him as the death-warrant of his + power, since Dinah remained insensible to his sarcastic scorn. + </p> + <p> + The journalist could not suppress a tear. He was losing a sincere and + unbounded affection. He had found in Dinah the gentlest La Valliere, the + most delightful Pompadour that any egoist short of a king could hope for; + and, like a boy who has discovered that by dint of tormenting a cockchafer + he has killed it, Lousteau shed a tear. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye rushed out of the private room where they had been + dining, paid the bill, and fled home to the Rue de l’Arcade, scolding + herself and thinking herself a brute. + </p> + <p> + Dinah, who had made her house a model of comfort, now metamorphosed + herself. This double metamorphosis cost thirty thousand francs more than + her husband had anticipated. + </p> + <p> + The fatal accident which in 1842 deprived the House of Orleans of the + heir-presumptive having necessitated a meeting of the Chambers in August + of that year, little La Baudraye came to present his titles to the Upper + House sooner than he had expected, and then saw what his wife had done. He + was so much delighted, that he paid the thirty thousand francs without a + word, just as he had formerly paid eight thousand for decorating La + Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + On his return from the Luxembourg, where he had been presented according + to custom by two of his peers—the Baron de Nucingen and the Marquis + de Montriveau—the new Count met the old Duc de Chaulieu, a former + creditor, walking along, umbrella in hand, while he himself sat perched in + a low chaise on which his coat-of-arms was resplendent, with the motto, <i>Deo + sic patet fides et hominibus</i>. This contrast filled his heart with a + large draught of the balm on which the middle class has been getting drunk + ever since 1840. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye was shocked to see her husband improved and looking + better than on the day of his marriage. The little dwarf, full of + rapturous delight, at sixty-four triumphed in the life which had so long + been denied him; in the family, which his handsome cousin Milaud of Nevers + had declared he would never have; and in his wife—who had asked + Monsieur and Madame de Clagny to dinner to meet the cure of the parish and + his two sponsors to the Chamber of Peers. He petted the children with + fatuous delight. + </p> + <p> + The handsome display on the table met with his approval. + </p> + <p> + “These are the fleeces of the Berry sheep,” said he, showing Monsieur de + Nucingen the dish-covers surmounted by his newly-won coronet. “They are of + silver, you see!” + </p> + <p> + Though consumed by melancholy, which she concealed with the determination + of a really superior woman, Dinah was charming, witty, and above all, + young again in her court mourning. + </p> + <p> + “You might declare,” cried La Baudraye to Monsieur de Nucingen with a wave + of his hand to his wife, “that the Countess was not yet thirty.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ha! Matame is a voman of dirty!” replied the baron, who was prone to + time-honored remarks, which he took to be the small change of + conversation. + </p> + <p> + “In every sense of the words,” replied the Countess. “I am, in fact, + five-and-thirty, and mean to set up a little passion—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, my wife ruins me in curiosities and china images—” + </p> + <p> + “She started that mania at an early age,” said the Marquis de Montriveau + with a smile. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said La Baudraye, with a cold stare at the Marquis, whom he had + known at Bourges, “you know that in ‘25, ‘26, and ‘27, she picked a + million francs’ worth of treasures. Anzy is a perfect museum.” + </p> + <p> + “What a cool hand!” thought Monsieur de Clagny, as he saw this little + country miser quite on the level of his new position. + </p> + <p> + But misers have savings of all kinds ready for use. + </p> + <p> + On the day after the vote on the Regency had passed the Chambers, the + little Count went back to Sancerre for the vintage and resumed his old + habits. + </p> + <p> + In the course of that winter, the Comtesse de la Baudraye, with the + support of the Attorney-General to the Court of Appeals, tried to form a + little circle. Of course, she had an “at home” day, she made a selection + among men of mark, receiving none but those of serious purpose and ripe + years. She tried to amuse herself by going to the Opera, French and + Italian. Twice a week she appeared there with her mother and Madame de + Clagny, who was made by her husband to visit Dinah. Still, in spite of her + cleverness, her charming manners, her fashionable stylishness, she was + never really happy but with her children, on whom she lavished all her + disappointed affection. + </p> + <p> + Worthy Monsieur de Clagny tried to recruit women for the Countess’ circle, + and he succeeded; but he was more successful among the advocates of piety + than the women of fashion. + </p> + <p> + “And they bore her!” said he to himself with horror, as he saw his idol + matured by grief, pale from remorse, and then, in all the splendor of + recovered beauty, restored by a life of luxury and care for her boys. This + devoted friend, encouraged in his efforts by her mother and by the cure + was full of expedient. Every Wednesday he introduced some celebrity from + Germany, England, Italy, or Prussia to his dear Countess; he spoke of her + as a quite exceptional woman to people to whom she hardly addressed two + words; but she listened to them with such deep attention that they went + away fully convinced of her superiority. In Paris, Dinah conquered by + silence, as at Sancerre she had conquered by loquacity. Now and then, some + smart saying about affairs, or sarcasm on an absurdity, betrayed a woman + accustomed to deal with ideas—the woman who, four years since, had + given new life to Lousteau’s articles. + </p> + <p> + This phase was to the poor lawyer’s hapless passion like the late season + known as the Indian summer after a sunless year. He affected to be older + than he was, to have the right to befriend Dinah without doing her an + injury, and kept himself at a distance as though he were young, handsome, + and compromising, like a man who has happiness to conceal. He tried to + keep his little attentions a profound secret, and the trifling gifts which + Dinah showed to every one; he endeavored to suggest a dangerous meaning + for his little services. + </p> + <p> + “He plays at passion,” said the Countess, laughing. She made fun of + Monsieur de Clagny to his face, and the lawyer said, “She notices me.” + </p> + <p> + “I impress that poor man so deeply,” said she to her mother, laughing, + “that if I would say Yes, I believe he would say No.” + </p> + <p> + One evening Monsieur de Clagny and his wife were taking his dear Countess + home from the theatre, and she was deeply pensive. They had been to the + first performance of Leon Gozlan’s first play, <i>La Main Droite et la + Main Gauche</i> (The Right Hand and the Left). + </p> + <p> + “What are you thinking about?” asked the lawyer, alarmed at his idol’s + dejection. + </p> + <p> + This deep and persistent melancholy, though disguised by the Countess, was + a perilous malady for which Monsieur de Clagny knew no remedy; for true + love is often clumsy, especially when it is not reciprocated. True love + takes its expression from the character. Now, this good man loved after + the fashion of Alceste, when Madame de la Baudraye wanted to be loved + after the manner of Philinte. The meaner side of love can never get on + with the Misanthrope’s loyalty. Thus, Dinah had taken care never to open + her heart to this man. How could she confess to him that she sometimes + regretted the slough she had left? + </p> + <p> + She felt a void in this fashionable life; she had no one for whom to + dress, or whom to tell of her successes and triumphs. Sometimes the memory + of her wretchedness came to her, mingled with memories of consuming joys. + She would hate Lousteau for not taking any pains to follow her; she would + have liked to get tender or furious letters from him. + </p> + <p> + Dinah made no reply, so Monsieur de Clagny repeated the question, taking + the Countess’ hand and pressing it between his own with devout respect. + </p> + <p> + “Will you have the right hand or the left?” said she, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “The left,” said he, “for I suppose you mean the truth or a fib.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then, I saw him,” she said, speaking into the lawyer’s ear. “And as + I saw him looking so sad, so out of heart, I said to myself, Has he a + cigar? Has he any money?” + </p> + <p> + “If you wish for the truth, I can tell it you,” said the lawyer. “He is + living as a husband with Fanny Beaupre. You have forced me to tell you + this secret; I should never have told you, for you might have suspected me + perhaps of an ungenerous motive.” + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye grasped his hand. + </p> + <p> + “Your husband,” said she to her chaperon, “is one of the rarest souls!—Ah! + Why——” + </p> + <p> + She shrank into her corner, looking out of the window, but she did not + finish her sentence, of which the lawyer could guess the end: “Why had not + Lousteau a little of your husband’s generosity of heart?” + </p> + <p> + This information served, however, to cure Dinah of her melancholy; she + threw herself into the whirl of fashion. She wished for success, and she + achieved it; still, she did not make much way with women, and found it + difficult to get introductions. + </p> + <p> + In the month of March, Madame Piedefer’s friends the priests and Monsieur + de Clagny made a fine stroke by getting Madame de la Baudraye appointed + receiver of subscriptions for the great charitable work founded by Madame + de Carcado. Then she was commissioned to collect from the Royal Family + their donations for the benefit of the sufferers from the earthquake at + Guadeloupe. The Marquise d’Espard, to whom Monsieur de Canalis read the + list of ladies thus appointed, one evening at the Opera, said, on hearing + that of the Countess: + </p> + <p> + “I have lived a long time in the world, and I can remember nothing finer + than the manoeuvres undertaken for the rehabilitation of Madame de la + Baudraye.” + </p> + <p> + In the early spring, which, by some whim of our planets, smiled on Paris + in the first week of March in 1843, making the Champs-Elysees green and + leafy before Longchamp, Fanny Beaupre’s attache had seen Madame de la + Baudraye several times without being seen by her. More than once he was + stung to the heart by one of those promptings of jealousy and envy + familiar to those who are born and bred provincials, when he beheld his + former mistress comfortably ensconced in a handsome carriage, well + dressed, with dreamy eyes, and his two little boys, one at each window. He + accused himself with all the more virulence because he was waging war with + the sharpest poverty of all—poverty unconfessed. Like all + essentially light and frivolous natures, he cherished the singular point + of honor which consists in never derogating in the eyes of one’s own + little public, which makes men on the Bourse commit crimes to escape + expulsion from the temple of the goddess Per-cent, and has given some + criminals courage enough to perform acts of virtue. + </p> + <p> + Lousteau dined and breakfasted and smoked as if he were a rich man. Not + for an inheritance would he have bought any but the dearest cigars, for + himself as well as for the playwright or author with whom he went into the + shop. The journalist took his walks abroad in patent leather boots; but he + was constantly afraid of an execution on goods which, to use the bailiff’s + slang, had already received the last sacrament. Fanny Beaupre had nothing + left to pawn, and her salary was pledged to pay her debts. After + exhausting every possible advance of pay from newspapers, magazines, and + publishers, Etienne knew not of what ink he could churn gold. + Gambling-houses, so ruthlessly suppressed, could no longer, as of old, + cash I O U’s drawn over the green table by beggary in despair. In short, + the journalist was reduced to such extremity that he had just borrowed a + hundred francs of the poorest of his friends, Bixiou, from whom he had + never yet asked for a franc. What distressed Lousteau was not the fact of + owing five thousand francs, but seeing himself bereft of his elegance, and + of the furniture purchased at the cost of so many privations, and added to + by Madame de la Baudraye. + </p> + <p> + On April the 3rd, a yellow poster, torn down by the porter after being + displayed on the wall, announced the sale of a handsome suite of furniture + on the following Saturday, the day fixed for sales under legal authority. + Lousteau was taking a walk, smoking cigars, and seeking ideas—for, + in Paris, ideas are in the air, they smile on you from a street corner, + they splash up with a spurt of mud from under the wheels of a cab! Thus + loafing, he had been seeking ideas for articles, and subjects for novels + for a month past, and had found nothing but friends who carried him off to + dinner or to the play, and who intoxicated his woes, telling him that + champagne would inspire him. + </p> + <p> + “Beware,” said the virulent Bixiou one night, the man who would at the + same moment give a comrade a hundred francs and stab him to the heart with + a sarcasm; “if you go to sleep drunk every night, one day you will wake up + mad.” + </p> + <p> + On the day before, the Friday, the unhappy wretch, although he was + accustomed to poverty, felt like a man condemned to death. Of old he would + have said: + </p> + <p> + “Well, the furniture is very old! I will buy new.” + </p> + <p> + But he was incapable now of literary legerdemain. Publishers, undermined + by piracy, paid badly; the newspapers made close bargains with hard-driven + writers, as the Opera managers did with tenors that sang flat. + </p> + <p> + He walked on, his eye on the crowd, though seeing nothing, a cigar in his + mouth, and his hands in his pockets, every feature of his face twitching, + and an affected smile on his lips. Then he saw Madame de la Baudraye go by + in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the Rue de la Chaussee + d’Antin to drive in the Bois. + </p> + <p> + “There is nothing else left!” said he to himself, and he went home to + smarten himself up. + </p> + <p> + That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de la + Baudraye’s door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the Countess—a + few lines, as follows: + </p> + <p> + “Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving him + for a moment, and at once?” + </p> + <p> + This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used. + Madame de la Baudraye had had the word <i>Parce que</i> engraved on a + genuine Oriental carnelian—a potent word—a woman’s word—the + word that accounts for everything, even for the Creation. + </p> + <p> + The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was her + night in turn for her box. At the sight of this seal she turned pale. + </p> + <p> + “I will come,” she said, tucking the note into her dress. + </p> + <p> + She was firm enough to conceal her agitation, and begged her mother to see + the children put to bed. She then sent for Lousteau, and received him in a + boudoir, next to the great drawing-room, with open doors. She was going to + a ball after the Opera, and was wearing a beautiful dress of brocade in + stripes alternately plain and flowered with pale blue. Her gloves, trimmed + with tassels, showed off her beautiful white arms. She was shimmering with + lace and all the dainty trifles required by fashion. Her hair, dressed <i>a + la Sevigne</i>, gave her a look of elegance; a necklace of pearls lay on + her bosom like bubbles on snow. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter, monsieur?” said the Countess, putting out her foot + from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. “I thought, I hoped, + I was quite forgotten.” + </p> + <p> + “If I should reply <i>Never</i>, you would refuse to believe me,” said + Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the + flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented the + room. + </p> + <p> + For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying Lousteau, + saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might have been. + </p> + <p> + “You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a plank + to me—for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than one + mouthful——” said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and + seeming to yield to an overpowering impulse. “Since you see me here, it is + because my affairs are going to the devil.” + </p> + <p> + “That is enough,” said she; “I understand.” + </p> + <p> + There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out his + handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear. + </p> + <p> + “How much do you want, Etienne,” she went on in motherly tones. “We are at + this moment old comrades; speak to me as you would to—to Bixiou.” + </p> + <p> + “To save my furniture from vanishing into thin air to-morrow morning at + the auction mart, eighteen hundred francs! To repay my friends, as much + again! Three quarters’ rent to the landlord—whom you know.—My + ‘uncle’ wants five hundred francs—” + </p> + <p> + “And you!—to live on?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh! I have my pen——” + </p> + <p> + “It is heavier to lift than any one could believe who reads your + articles,” said she, with a subtle smile.—“I have not such a sum as + you need, but come to-morrow at eight; the bailiff will surely wait till + nine, especially if you bring him away to pay him.” + </p> + <p> + She must, she felt, dismiss Lousteau, who affected to be unable to look at + her; she herself felt such pity as might cut every social Gordian knot. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” she added, rising and offering her hand to Lousteau. “Your + confidence has done me good! It is long indeed since my heart has known + such joy——” + </p> + <p> + Lousteau took her hand and pressed it tenderly to his heart. + </p> + <p> + “A drop of water in the desert—and sent by the hand of an angel! God + always does things handsomely!” + </p> + <p> + He spoke half in jest and half pathetically; but, believe me, as a piece + of acting it was as fine as Talma’s in his famous part of <i>Leicester</i>, + which was played throughout with touches of this kind. Dinah felt his + heart beating through his coat; it was throbbing with satisfaction, for + the journalist had had a narrow escape from the hulks of justice; but it + also beat with a very natural fire at seeing Dinah rejuvenescent and + restored by wealth. + </p> + <p> + Madame de la Baudraye, stealing an examining glance at Etienne, saw that + his expression was in harmony with the flowers of love, which, as she + thought, had blossomed again in that throbbing heart; she tried to look + once into the eyes of the man she had loved so well, but the seething + blood rushed through her veins and mounted to her brain. Their eyes met + with the same fiery glow as had encouraged Lousteau on the Quay by the + Loire to crumple Dinah’s muslin gown. The Bohemian put his arm round her + waist, she yielded, and their cheeks were touching. + </p> + <p> + “Here comes my mother, hide!” cried Dinah in alarm. And she hurried + forward to intercept Madame Piedefer. + </p> + <p> + “Mamma,” said she—this word was to the stern old lady a coaxing + expression which never failed of its effect—“will you do me a great + favor? Take the carriage and go yourself to my banker, Monsieur Mongenod, + with a note I will give you, and bring back six thousand francs. Come, + come—it is an act of charity; come into my room.” + </p> + <p> + And she dragged away her mother, who seemed very anxious to see who it was + that her daughter had been talking with in the boudoir. + </p> + <p> + Two days afterwards, Madame Piedefer held a conference with the cure of + the parish. After listening to the lamentations of the old mother, who was + in despair, the priest said very gravely: + </p> + <p> + “Any moral regeneration which is not based on a strong religious + sentiment, and carried out in the bosom of the Church, is built on sand.—The + many means of grace enjoined by the Catholic religion, small as they are, + and not understood, are so many dams necessary to restrain the violence of + evil promptings. Persuade your daughter to perform all her religious + duties, and we shall save her yet.” + </p> + <p> + Within ten days of this meeting the Hotel de la Baudraye was shut up. The + Countess, the children, and her mother, in short, the whole household, + including a tutor, had gone away to Sancerre, where Dinah intended to + spend the summer. She was everything that was nice to the Count, people + said. + </p> + <p> + And so the Muse of Sancerre had simply come back to family and married + life; but certain evil tongues declared that she had been compelled to + come back, for that the little peer’s wishes would no doubt be fulfilled—he + hoped for a little girl. + </p> + <p> + Gatien and Monsieur Gravier lavished every care, every servile attention + on the handsome Countess. Gatien, who during Madame de la Baudraye’s long + absence had been to Paris to learn the art of <i>lionnerie</i> or + dandyism, was supposed to have a good chance of finding favor in the eyes + of the disenchanted “Superior Woman.” Others bet on the tutor; Madame + Piedefer urged the claims of religion. + </p> + <p> + In 1844, about the middle of June, as the Comte de la Baudraye was taking + a walk on the Mall at Sancerre with the two fine little boys, he met + Monsieur Milaud, the Public Prosecutor, who was at Sancerre on business, + and said to him: + </p> + <p> + “These are my children, cousin.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, ha! so these are our children!” replied the lawyer, with a + mischievous twinkle. + </p> + <p> + PARIS, June 1843-August 1844. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + ADDENDUM + </h2> + <h3> + The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + </h3> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Beaupre, Fanny + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + + Berthier, Madame (Felicie Cardot) + Cousin Pons + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + 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 + + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor’s Establishment + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Cousin Pons + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + + Cardot (Parisian notary) + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de + The Member for Arcis + + Falcon, Jean + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + Grosstete (younger brother of F. Grosstete) + The Country Parson + + Hulot (Marshal) + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + A Prince of Bohemia + Cousin Betty + + Lebas + Cousin Betty + + Listomere, Baronne de + The Vicar of Tours + Cesar Birotteau + + Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + + Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor’s Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Ursule Mirouet + + Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + + Milaud + Lost Illusions + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + + Nathan, Madame Raoul + 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 Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + + Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Ronceret, Madame Fabien du + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Rouget, Jean-Jacques + A Bachelor’s Establishment + + Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor’s Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + + Turquet, Marguerite + The Imaginary Mistress + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + + Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 1912-h.htm or 1912-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1912/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Muse of the Department + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: James Waring + +Release Date: October, 1999 [Etext #1912] +Posting Date: March 5, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by James Waring + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont. + + MY DEAR FERDINAND,--If the chances of the world of literature + --_habent sua fata libelli_--should allow these lines to be an + enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the + trouble you have taken--you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the + King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, + Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, + Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valois--the hundred great names that form + the Aristocracy of the "Human Comedy" owe their lordly mottoes and + ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, "the Armorial of the Etudes, + devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman," is a complete manual + of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the + arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of + friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of + the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the + Beauseants, _Pulchre sedens, melius agens_; in that of the + Espards, _Des partem leonis_; in that of the Vandenesses, _Ne se + vend_. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned + symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried + in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. + + Your old friend, + DE BALZAC. + + + + + +THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + +On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, +infallibly attracts the traveler's eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost +height of a chain of hills, the last of the range that gives variety to +the Nivernais. The Loire floods the flats at the foot of these slopes, +leaving a yellow alluvium that is extremely fertile, excepting in those +places where it has deluged them with sand and destroyed them forever, +by one of those terrible risings which are also incidental to the +Vistula--the Loire of the northern coast. + +The hill on which the houses of Sancerre are grouped is so far from the +river that the little river-port of Saint-Thibault thrives on the life +of Sancerre. There wine is shipped and oak staves are landed, with all +the produce brought from the upper and lower Loire. At the period when +this story begins the suspension bridges at Cosne and at Saint-Thibault +were already built. Travelers from Paris to Sancerre by the +southern road were no longer ferried across the river from Cosne to +Saint-Thibault; and this of itself is enough to show that the great +cross-shuffle of 1830 was a thing of the past, for the House of Orleans +has always had a care for substantial improvements, though somewhat +after the fashion of a husband who makes his wife presents out of her +marriage portion. + +Excepting that part of Sancerre which occupies the little plateau, the +streets are more or less steep, and the town is surrounded by slopes +known as the Great Ramparts, a name which shows that they are the +highroads of the place. + +Outside the ramparts lies a belt of vineyards. Wine forms the chief +industry and the most important trade of the country, which yields +several vintages of high-class wine full of aroma, and so nearly +resembling the wines of Burgundy, that the vulgar palate is deceived. So +Sancerre finds in the wineshops of Paris the quick market indispensable +for liquor that will not keep for more than seven or eight years. Below +the town lie a few villages, Fontenoy and Saint-Satur, almost suburbs, +reminding us by their situation of the smiling vineyards about Neuchatel +in Switzerland. + +The town still bears much of its ancient aspect; the streets are narrow +and paved with pebbles carted up from the Loire. Some old houses are to +be seen there. The citadel, a relic of military power and feudal times, +stood one of the most terrible sieges of our religious wars, when French +Calvinists far outdid the ferocious Cameronians of Walter Scott's tales. + +The town of Sancerre, rich in its greater past, but widowed now of its +military importance, is doomed to an even less glorious future, for the +course of trade lies on the right bank of the Loire. The sketch here +given shows that Sancerre will be left more and more lonely in spite of +the two bridges connecting it with Cosne. + +Sancerre, the pride of the left bank, numbers three thousand five +hundred inhabitants at most, while at Cosne there are now more than +six thousand. Within half a century the part played by these two +towns standing opposite each other has been reversed. The advantage of +situation, however, remains with the historic town, whence the view on +every side is perfectly enchanting, where the air is deliciously pure, +the vegetation splendid, and the residents, in harmony with nature, +are friendly souls, good fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though +two-thirds of the population are Calvinists. Under such conditions, +though there are the usual disadvantages of life in a small town, and +each one lives under the officious eye which makes private life almost +a public concern, on the other hand, the spirit of township--a sort +of patriotism, which cannot indeed take the place of a love of +home--flourishes triumphantly. + +Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth to +one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an +author of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful +journalists. The district included under the municipality of Sancerre, +distressed at finding itself practically ruled by seven or eight large +landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the +electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough. +This little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was +provoked, failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of +them, as the inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others. +This result showed the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy then +suggested was to rally round a champion at the next election, in the +person of one of the two men who so gloriously represented Sancerre in +Paris circles. + +This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since 1830 +the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly that +real statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber. + +In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in +the brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, _dux femina fasti_, but +with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted in this +lady's past life, and so entirely comprehended her future prospects, +that it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of her antecedent +career. + + + +Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized +indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local +reputation. This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris +were attaining, each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory +for one, and of fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in +reviews, signed his name to contributions to a paper that had eight +thousand subscribers; and Bianchon, already chief physician to a +hospital, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Academy of +Sciences, had just been made a professor. + +If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a +degree of blame, it might be said that George Sand created _Sandism_, so +true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. This +leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, _Sandism_ has +its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases her assumption of +superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue-stocking of sentiment; +and she is rather less of a bore, love to some extent neutralizing +literature. The most conspicuous result of George Sand's celebrity +was to elicit the fact that France has a perfectly enormous number of +superior women, who have, however, till now been so generous as to leave +the field to the Marechal de Saxe's granddaughter. + +The Superior Woman of Sancerre lived at La Baudraye, a town-house +and country-house in one, within ten minutes of the town, and in the +village, or, if you will, the suburb of Saint-Satur. The La Baudrayes of +the present day have, as is frequently the case, thrust themselves in, +and are but a substitute for those La Baudrayes whose name, glorious in +the Crusades, figured in the chief events of the history of Le Berry. + +The story must be told. + +In the time of Louis XIV. a certain sheriff named Milaud, whose +forefathers had been furious Calvinists, was converted at the time of +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. To encourage this movement in +one of the strong-holds of Calvinism, the King gave said Milaud a good +appointment in the "Waters and Forests," granted him arms and the title +of Sire (or Lord) de la Baudraye, with the fief of the old and genuine +La Baudrayes. The descendants of the famous Captain la Baudraye fell, +sad to say, into one of the snares laid for heretics by the new decrees, +and were hanged--an unworthy deed of the great King's. + +Under Louis XV. Milaud de la Baudraye, from being a mere squire, +was made Chevalier, and had influence enough to obtain for his son +a cornet's commission in the Musketeers. This officer perished at +Fontenoy, leaving a child, to whom King Louis XVI. subsequently granted +the privileges, by patent, of a farmer-general, in remembrance of his +father's death on the field of battle. + +This financier, a fashionable wit, great at charades, capping verses, +and posies to Chlora, lived in society, was a hanger-on to the Duc +de Nivernais, and fancied himself obliged to follow the nobility into +exile; but he took care to carry his money with him. Thus the rich +_emigre_ was able to assist more than one family of high rank. + +In 1800, tired of hoping, and perhaps tired of lending, he returned +to Sancerre, bought back La Baudraye out of a feeling of vanity and +imaginary pride, quite intelligible in a sheriff's grandson, though +under the consulate his prospects were but slender; all the more so, +indeed, because the ex-farmer-general had small hopes of his heir's +perpetuating the new race of La Baudraye. + +Jean Athanase Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, his only son, more than +delicate from his birth, was very evidently the child of a man whose +constitution had early been exhausted by the excesses in which rich men +indulge, who then marry at the first stage of premature old age, and +thus bring degeneracy into the highest circles of society. During the +years of the emigration Madame de la Baudraye, a girl of no fortune, +chosen for her noble birth, had patiently reared this sallow, sickly +boy, for whom she had the devoted love mothers feel for such changeling +creatures. Her death--she was a Casteran de la Tour--contributed to +bring about Monsieur de la Baudraye's return to France. + +This Lucullus of the Milauds, when he died, left his son the fief, +stripped indeed of its fines and dues, but graced with weathercocks +bearing his coat-of-arms, a thousand louis-d'or--in 1802 a considerable +sum of money--and certain receipts for claims on very distinguished +_emigres_ enclosed in a pocketbook full of verses, with this inscription +on the wrapper, _Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas_. + +Young La Baudraye did not die, but he owed his life to habits of +monastic strictness; to the economy of action which Fontenelle preached +as the religion of the invalid; and, above all, to the air of Sancerre +and the influence of its fine elevation, whence a panorama over the +valley of the Loire may be seen extending for forty leagues. + +From 1802 to 1815 young La Baudraye added several plots to his +vineyards, and devoted himself to the culture of the vine. The +Restoration seemed to him at first so insecure that he dared not go to +Paris to claim his debts; but after Napoleon's death he tried to +turn his father's collection of autographs into money, though not +understanding the deep philosophy which had thus mixed up I O U's and +copies of verses. But the winegrower lost so much time in impressing his +identity on the Duke of Navarreins "and others," as he phrased it, +that he came back to Sancerre, to his beloved vintage, without having +obtained anything but offers of service. + +The Restoration had raised the nobility to such a degree of lustre as +made La Baudraye wish to justify his ambitions by having an heir. This +happy result of matrimony he considered doubtful, or he would not so +long have postponed the step; however, finding himself still above +ground in 1823, at the age of forty-three, a length of years which no +doctor, astrologer, or midwife would have dared to promise him, he hoped +to earn the reward of his sober life. And yet his choice showed such a +lack of prudence in regard to his frail constitution, that the malicious +wit of a country town could not help thinking it must be the result of +some deep calculation. + +Just at this time His Eminence, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Bourges, +had converted to the Catholic faith a young person, the daughter of one +of the citizen families, who were the first upholders of Calvinism, and +who, thanks to their obscurity or to some compromise with Heaven, had +escaped from the persecutions under Louis XIV. The Piedefers--a name +that was obviously one of the quaint nicknames assumed by the champions +of the Reformation--had set up as highly respectable cloth merchants. +But in the reign of Louis XVI., Abraham Piedefer fell into difficulties, +and at his death in 1786 left his two children in extreme poverty. One +of them, Tobie Piedefer, went out to the Indies, leaving the pittance +they had inherited to his elder brother. During the Revolution Moise +Piedefer bought up the nationalized land, pulled down abbeys and +churches with all the zeal of his ancestors, oddly enough, and married +a Catholic, the only daughter of a member of the Convention who had +perished on the scaffold. This ambitious Piedefer died in 1819, leaving +a little girl of remarkable beauty. This child, brought up in the +Calvinist faith, was named Dinah, in accordance with the custom in use +among the sect, of taking their Christian names from the Bible, so as to +have nothing in common with the Saints of the Roman Church. + +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer was placed by her mother in one of the best +schools in Bourges, that kept by the Demoiselles Chamarolles, and was +soon as highly distinguished for the qualities of her mind as for her +beauty; but she found herself snubbed by girls of birth and fortune, +destined by-and-by to play a greater part in the world than a mere +plebeian, the daughter of a mother who was dependent on the settlement +of Piedefer's estate. Dinah, having raised herself for the moment above +her companions, now aimed at remaining on a level with them for the rest +of her life. She determined, therefore, to renounce Calvinism, in the +hope that the Cardinal would extend his favor to his proselyte +and interest himself in her prospects. You may from this judge of +Mademoiselle Dinah's superiority, since at the age of seventeen she was +a convert solely from ambition. + +The Archbishop, possessed with the idea that Dinah Piedefer would adorn +society, was anxious to see her married. But every family to whom the +prelate made advances took fright at a damsel gifted with the looks of +a princess, who was reputed to be the cleverest of Mademoiselle +Chamarolles' pupils and who, at the somewhat theatrical ceremonial of +prize-giving, always took a leading part. A thousand crowns a year, +which was as much as she could hope for from the estate of La Hautoy +when divided between the mother and daughter, would be a mere trifle in +comparison with the expenses into which a husband would be led by the +personal advantages of so brilliant a creature. + +As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la +Baudraye--for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of +the Cher--he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at +high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter's to +take the first comer with well-lined pockets--the first _chien coiffe_, +as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to receive +Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even better pleased +to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The little gentleman +only demanded of His Eminence a formal promise to support his claims +with the President of the Council to enable him to recover his debts +from the Duc de Navarreins "and others" by a lien on their indemnities. +This method, however, seemed to the able Minister then occupying the +Pavillon Marsan rather too sharp practice, and he gave the vine-owner to +understand that his business should be attended to all in good time. + +It is easy to imagine the excitement produced in the Sancerre district +by the news of Monsieur de la Baudraye's imprudent marriage. + +"It is quite intelligible," said President Boirouge; "the little man was +very much startled, as I am told, at hearing that handsome young Milaud, +the Attorney-General's deputy at Nevers, say to Monsieur de Clagny as +they were looking at the turrets of La Baudraye, 'That will be +mine some day.'--'But,' says Clagny, 'he may marry and have +children.'--'Impossible!'--So you may imagine how such a changeling as +little La Baudraye must hate that colossal Milaud." + +There was at Nevers a plebeian branch of the Milauds, which had grown so +rich in the cutlery trade that the present representative of that branch +had been brought up to the civil service, in which he had enjoyed the +patronage of Marchangy, now dead. + +It will be as well to eliminate from this story, in which moral +developments play the principal part, the baser material interests which +alone occupied Monsieur de la Baudraye, by briefly relating the results +of his negotiations in Paris. This will also throw light on certain +mysterious phenomena of contemporary history, and the underground +difficulties in matters of politics which hampered the Ministry at the +time of the Restoration. + + + +The promises of Ministers were so illusory that Monsieur de la Baudraye +determined on going to Paris at the time when the Cardinal's presence +was required there by the sitting of the Chambers. + +This is how the Duc de Navarreins, the principal debtor threatened by +Monsieur de la Baudraye, got out of the scrape. + +The country gentleman, lodging at the Hotel de Mayence, Rue +Saint-Honore, near the Place Vendome, one morning received a visit from +a confidential agent of the Ministry, who was an expert in "winding up" +business. This elegant personage, who stepped out of an elegant cab, and +was dressed in the most elegant style, was requested to walk up to No. +3--that is to say, to the third floor, to a small room where he found +his provincial concocting a cup of coffee over his bedroom fire. + +"Is it to Monsieur Milaud de la Baudraye that I have the honor--" + +"Yes," said the little man, draping himself in his dressing-gown. + +After examining this garment, the illicit offspring of an old chine +wrapper of Madame Piedefer's and a gown of the late lamented Madame de +la Baudraye, the emissary considered the man, the dressing-gown, and +the little stove on which the milk was boiling in a tin saucepan, as so +homogeneous and characteristic, that he deemed it needless to beat about +the bush. + +"I will lay a wager, monsieur," said he, audaciously, "that you dine for +forty sous at Hurbain's in the Palais Royal." + +"Pray, why?" + +"Oh, I know you, having seen you there," replied the Parisian with +perfect gravity. "All the princes' creditors dine there. You know that +you recover scarcely ten per cent on debts from these fine gentlemen. +I would not give you five per cent on a debt to be recovered from +the estate of the late Duc d'Orleans--nor even," he added in a low +voice--"from MONSIEUR." + +"So you have come to buy up the bills?" said La Baudraye, thinking +himself very clever. + +"Buy them!" said his visitor. "Why, what do you take me for? I am +Monsieur des Lupeaulx, Master of Appeals, Secretary-General to the +Ministry, and I have come to propose an arrangement." + +"What is that?" + +"Of course, monsieur, you know the position of your debtor--" + +"Of my debtors--" + +"Well, monsieur, you understand the position of your debtors; they stand +high in the King's good graces, but they have no money, and are obliged +to make a good show.--Again, you know the difficulties of the political +situation. The aristocracy has to be rehabilitated in the face of a very +strong force of the third estate. The King's idea--and France does +him scant justice--is to create a peerage as a national institution +analogous to the English peerage. To realize this grand idea we need +years--and millions.--_Noblesse oblige_. The Duc de Navarreins, who is, +as you know, first gentleman of the Bedchamber to the King, does not +repudiate his debt; but he cannot--Now, be reasonable.--Consider the +state of politics. We are emerging from the pit of the Revolution.--and +you yourself are noble--He simply cannot pay--" + +"Monsieur--" + +"You are hasty," said des Lupeaulx. "Listen. He cannot pay in money. +Well, then; you, a clever man, can take payment in favors--Royal or +Ministerial." + +"What! When in 1793 my father put down one hundred thousand--" + +"My dear sir, recrimination is useless. Listen to a simple statement in +political arithmetic: The collectorship at Sancerre is vacant; a certain +paymaster-general of the forces has a claim on it, but he has no chance +of getting it; you have the chance--and no claim. You will get the +place. You will hold it for three months, you will then resign, and +Monsieur Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. In addition, +the Order of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on you." + +"Well, that is something," said the wine-grower, tempted by the money +rather than by the red ribbon. + +"But then," said des Lupeaulx, "you must show your gratitude to His +Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your +claims on him." + +La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months +later he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the most +agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who was of +course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife. + +As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la Baudraye +returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some other debtors. +This time he was made a Referendary under the Great Seal, Baron, and +Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the appointment as Referendary; +and then the Baron de la Baudraye called on his last remaining debtors, +and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of Appeals, with an appointment +as Royal Commissioner to a commercial association established in the +Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand francs, an absolute sinecure. So +the worthy La Baudraye, who was supposed to have committed a financial +blunder, had, in fact, done very good business in the choice of a wife. + +Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate +belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year 1827 +the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By paying +four hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to further +instalments, which compelled him to live for six years on the air as it +came, to use his own expression, he was able to purchase the estate of +Anzy on the banks of the Loire, about two leagues above Sancerre, and +its magnificent castle built by Philibert de l'Orme, the admiration of +every connoisseur, and for five centuries the property of the Uxelles +family. At last he was one of the great landowners of the province! +It is not absolutely certain that the satisfaction of knowing that an +entail had been created, by letters patent dated back to December 1820, +including the estates of Anzy, of La Baudraye, and of La Hautoy, was +any compensation to Dinah on finding herself reduced to unconfessed +penuriousness till 1835. + +This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye +explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias of +country folks will recognize in him the _land-hunger_ which becomes such +a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of avarice +displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin by a want +of balance between the interest on mortgages and the products of the +soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely laughed at the little +man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault and attending to his +business, like a merchant living on his vineyards, found the answer to +the riddle when the ant-lion seized his prey, after waiting for the day +when the extravagance of the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse culminated in the +sale of that splendid property. + +Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined fortunes of +Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had been content to +accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands of La Hautoy +which she handed over to him, amounted to an acknowledged income of +about fifteen thousand francs. + +During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some +alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant +residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, pulling +down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the manor-house, +which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets and gables, +she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and lawns, and +divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under creepers. She +also made everything within doors as comfortable as their narrow +circumstances allowed. + +In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah +seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing +as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his money +matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him dignity +in his wife's eyes during the first years of their married life--so +majestic is silence! + +The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see the +young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show herself, +nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled in her home and +had thoroughly studied the inhabitants, and, above all, her taciturn +husband. When, one spring morning in 1825, pretty Madame de la Baudraye +was first seen walking on the Mall in a blue velvet dress, with her +mother in black velvet, there was quite an excitement in Sancerre. This +dress confirmed the young woman's reputation for superiority, brought +up, as she had been, in the capital of Le Berry. Every one was afraid +lest in entertaining this phoenix of the Department, the conversation +should not be clever enough; and, of course, everybody was constrained +in the presence of Madame de la Baudraye, who produced a sort of terror +among the woman-folk. As they admired a carpet of Indian shawl-pattern +in the La Baudraye drawing-room, a Pompadour writing-table carved and +gilt, brocade window curtains, and a Japanese bowl full of flowers on +the round table among a selection of the newest books; when they heard +the fair Dinah playing at sight, without making the smallest demur +before seating herself at the piano, the idea they conceived of her +superiority assumed vast proportions. That she might never allow herself +to become careless or the victim of bad taste, Dinah had determined to +keep herself up to the mark as to the fashions and latest developments +of luxury by an active correspondence with Anna Grossetete, her bosom +friend at Mademoiselle Chamarolles' school. + +Anna, thanks to a fine fortune, had married the Comte de Fontaine's +third son. Thus those ladies who visited at La Baudraye were perpetually +piqued by Dinah's success in leading the fashion; do what they would, +they were always behind, or, as they say on the turf, distanced. + +While all these trifles gave rise to malignant envy in the ladies of +Sancerre, Dinah's conversation and wit engendered absolute aversion. +In her ambition to keep her mind on the level of Parisian brilliancy, +Madame de la Baudraye allowed no vacuous small talk in her presence, no +old-fashioned compliments, no pointless remarks; she would never endure +the yelping of tittle-tattle, the backstairs slander which forms the +staple of talk in the country. She liked to hear of discoveries in +science or art, or the latest pieces at the theatres, the newest poems, +and by airing the cant words of the day she made a show of uttering +thoughts. + +The Abbe Duret, Cure of Sancerre, an old man of a lost type of clergy +in France, a man of the world with a liking for cards, had not dared to +indulge this taste in so liberal a district as Sancerre; he, therefore, +was delighted at Madame de la Baudraye's coming, and they got on +together to admiration. The _sous-prefet_, one Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, +was delighted to find in Madame de la Baudraye's drawing-room a sort +of oasis where there was a truce to provincial life. As to Monsieur de +Clagny, the Public Prosecutor, his admiration for the fair Dinah kept +him bound to Sancerre. The enthusiastic lawyer refused all promotion, +and became a quite pious adorer of this angel of grace and beauty. He +was a tall, lean man, with a minatory countenance set off by terrible +eyes in deep black circles, under enormous eyebrows; and his eloquence, +very unlike his love-making, could be incisive. + +Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the Empire +had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment that had +won him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces. Having +mixed himself up in certain important matters in Spain with generals at +that time in opposition, he had made the most of these connections to +the Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had lost, promised +him the Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him to pay for the +appointment. The frivolous spirit and light tone of the Empire had +become ponderous in Monsieur Gravier; he did not, or would not, +understand the wide difference between manners under the Restoration +and under the Empire. Still, he conceived of himself as far superior +to Monsieur de Clagny; his style was in better taste; he followed the +fashion, was to be seen in a buff waistcoat, gray trousers, and neat, +tightly-fitting coats; he wore a fashionable silk tie slipped through +a diamond ring, while the lawyer never dressed in anything but +black--coat, trousers, and waistcoat alike, and those often shabby. + +These four men were the first to go into ecstasies over Dinah's +cultivation, good taste, and refinement, and pronounced her a woman of +most superior mind. Then the women said to each other, "Madame de la +Baudraye must laugh at us behind our back." + +This view, which was more or less correct, kept them from visiting at La +Baudraye. Dinah, attainted and convicted of pedantry, because she +spoke grammatically, was nicknamed the Sappho of Saint-Satur. At last +everybody made insolent game of the great qualities of the woman who +had thus roused the enmity of the ladies of Sancerre. And they ended by +denying a superiority--after all, merely comparative!--which emphasized +their ignorance, and did not forgive it. Where the whole population is +hunch-backed, a straight shape is the monstrosity; Dinah was regarded as +monstrous and dangerous, and she found herself in a desert. + +Astonished at seeing the women of the neighborhood only at long +intervals, and for visits of a few minutes, Dinah asked Monsieur de +Clagny the reason of this state of things. + +"You are too superior a woman to be liked by other women," said the +lawyer. + +Monsieur Gravier, when questioned by the forlorn fair, only, after much +entreaty, replied: + +"Well, lady fair, you are not satisfied to be merely charming. You are +clever and well educated, you know every book that comes out, you love +poetry, you are a musician, and you talk delightfully. Women cannot +forgive so much superiority." + +Men said to Monsieur de la Baudraye: + +"You who have such a Superior Woman for a wife are very fortunate----" +And at last he himself would say: + +"I who have a Superior Woman for a wife, am very fortunate," etc. + +Madame Piedefer, flattered through her daughter, also allowed herself to +say such things--"My daughter, who is a very Superior Woman, was writing +yesterday to Madame de Fontaine such and such a thing." + +Those who know the world--France, Paris--know how true it is that many +celebrities are thus created. + + + +Two years later, by the end of the year 1825, Dinah de la Baudraye was +accused of not choosing to have any visitors but men; then it was said +that she did not care for women--and that was a crime. Not a thing +could she do, not her most trifling action, could escape criticism and +misrepresentation. After making every sacrifice that a well-bred woman +can make, and placing herself entirely in the right, Madame de la +Baudraye was so rash as to say to a false friend who condoled with her +on her isolation: + +"I would rather have my bowl empty than with anything in it!" + +This speech produced a terrible effect on Sancerre, and was cruelly +retorted on the Sappho of Saint-Satur when, seeing her childless after +five years of married life, _little_ de la Baudraye became a byword +for laughter. To understand this provincial witticism, readers may be +reminded of the Bailli de Ferrette--some, no doubt, having known him--of +whom it was said that he was the bravest man in Europe for daring to +walk on his legs, and who was accused of putting lead in his shoes to +save himself from being blown away. Monsieur de la Baudraye, a sallow +and almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the Bailli de +Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist had been the +Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere decency, +he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an average +man, whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would have been an +advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he walked, the little +vine-owner's leg-pads often twisted round on to his shins, so little did +he make a secret of them, and he would thank any one who warned him of +this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and a +white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he adopted blue trousers +and boots with heels, which made Sancerre declare that he had added two +inches to his stature that he might come up to his wife's chin. For ten +years he was always seen in the same little bottle-green coat with large +white-metal buttons, and a black stock that accentuated his cold stingy +face, lighted up by gray-blue eyes as keen and passionless as a cat's. +Being very gentle, as men are who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he +seemed to make his wife happy by never contradicting her; he allowed +her to do the talking, and was satisfied to move with the deliberate +tenacity of an insect. + +Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired +for her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place, encouraged +their admiration by conversations, for which it was subsequently +asserted, she prepared herself beforehand. Finding herself listened to +with rapture, she soon began to listen to herself, enjoyed haranguing +her audience, and at last regarded her friends as the chorus in a +tragedy, there only to give her her cues. In fact, she had a very +fine collection of phrases and ideas, derived either from books or by +assimilating the opinions of her companions, and thus became a sort of +mechanical instrument, going off on a round of phrases as soon as some +chance remark released the spring. To do her justice, Dinah was choke +full of knowledge, and read everything, even medical books, statistics, +science, and jurisprudence; for she did not know how to spend her +days when she had reviewed her flower-beds and given her orders to the +gardener. Gifted with an excellent memory, and the talent which some +women have for hitting on the right word, she could talk on any subject +with the lucidity of a studied style. And so men came from Cosne, from +la Charite, and from Nevers, on the right bank; from Lere, Vailly, +Argent, Blancafort, and Aubigny, on the left bank, to be introduced to +Madame de la Baudraye, as they used in Switzerland, to be introduced to +Madame de Stael. Those who only once heard the round of tunes emitted by +this musical snuff-box went away amazed, and told such wonders of Dinah +as made all the women jealous for ten leagues round. + +There is an indescribable mental headiness in the admiration we inspire, +or in the effect of playing a part, which fends off criticism from +reaching the idol. An atmosphere, produced perhaps by unceasing nervous +tension, forms a sort of halo, through which the world below is seen. +How otherwise can we account for the perennial good faith which leads +to so many repeated presentments of the same effects, and the constant +ignoring of warnings given by children, such a terror to their parents, +or by husbands, so familiar as they are with the peacock airs of their +wives? Monsieur de la Baudraye had the frankness of a man who opens an +umbrella at the first drop of rain. When his wife was started on the +subject of Negro emancipation or the improvement of convict prisons, +he would take up his little blue cap and vanish without a sound, in the +certainty of being able to get to Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of +puncheons, and return an hour later to find the discussion approaching a +close. Or, if he had no business to attend to, he would go for a walk on +the Mall, whence he commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, +and take a draught of fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata +in words, or a dialectical duet. + +Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove +her devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw herself +into the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under Art, poetry +and painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the opera. Thus +she became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any treasures that +dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as so many devoted +commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had become possessed +of the Rougets' furniture, sold at Issoudun early in 1824. She purchased +some very good things at Nivernais and the Haute-Loire. At the New +Year and on her birthday her friends never failed to give her some +curiosities. These fancies found favor in the eyes of Monsieur de la +Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of sacrificing a few crowns to his +wife's taste. In point of fact, his land mania allowed him to think of +nothing but the estate of Anzy. + +These "antiquities" at that time cost much less than modern furniture. +By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the two +drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the ground +floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were crammed +with masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments. These +surroundings, which were called _queer_ by the neighbors, were quite in +harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the rage, struck +the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they came expecting +something unusual; and they found their expectations surpassed when, +behind a bower of flowers, they saw these catacombs full of old things, +piled up as Sommerard used to pile them--that "Old Mortality" of +furniture. And then these finds served as so many springs which, turned +on by a question, played off an essay on Jean Goujon, Michel Columb, +Germain Pilon, Boulle, Van Huysum, and Boucher, the great native painter +of Le Berry; on Clodion, the carver of wood, on Venetian mirrors, on +Brustolone, an Italian tenor who was the Michael-Angelo of boxwood +and holm oak; on the thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and +seventeenth centuries, on the glazes of Bernard de Palissy, the enamels +of Petitot, the engravings of Albrecht Durer--whom she called Dur; +on illuminations on vellum, on Gothic architecture, early decorated, +flamboyant and pure--enough to turn an old man's brain and fire a young +man with enthusiasm. + +Madame de la Baudraye, possessed with the idea of waking up Sancerre, +tried to form a so-called literary circle. The Presiding Judge, Monsieur +Boirouge, who happened to have a house and garden on his hands, part of +the Popinot-Chandier property, favored the notion of this _coterie_. +The wily Judge talked over the rules of the society with Madame de la +Baudraye; he proposed to figure as one of the founders, and to let the +house for fifteen years to the literary club. By the time it had existed +a year the members were playing dominoes, billiards, and bouillotte, and +drinking mulled wine, punch, and liqueurs. A few elegant little suppers +were then given, and some masked balls during the Carnival. As to +literature--there were the newspapers. Politics and business were +discussed. Monsieur de la Baudraye was constantly there--on his wife's +account, as she said jestingly. + +This result deeply grieved the Superior Woman, who despaired of +Sancerre, and collected the wit of the neighborhood in her own +drawing-room. Nevertheless, and in spite of the efforts of Messieurs de +Chargeboeuf, Gravier, and de Clagny, of the Abbe Duret and the two chief +magistrates, of a young doctor, and a young Assistant Judge--all blind +admirers of Dinah's--there were occasions when, weary of discussion, +they allowed themselves an excursion into the domain of agreeable +frivolity which constitutes the common basis of worldly conversation. +Monsieur Gravier called this "from grave to gay." The Abbe Duret's +rubber made another pleasing variety on the monologues of the oracle. +The three rivals, tired of keeping their minds up to the level of the +"high range of discussion"--as they called their conversation--but not +daring to confess it, would sometimes turn with ingratiating hints to +the old priest. + +"Monsieur le Cure is dying for his game," they would say. + +The wily priest lent himself very readily to the little trick. He +protested. + +"We should lose too much by ceasing to listen to our inspired hostess!" +and so he would incite Dinah's magnanimity to take pity at last on her +dear Abbe. + +This bold manoeuvre, a device of the Sous-prefet's, was repeated with +so much skill that Dinah never suspected her slaves of escaping to the +prison yard, so to speak, of the cardtable; and they would leave her one +of the younger functionaries to harry. + +One young landowner, and the dandy of Sancerre, fell away from Dinah's +good graces in consequence of some rash demonstrations. After soliciting +the honor of admission to this little circle, where he flattered himself +he could snatch the blossom from the constituted authorities who guarded +it, he was so unfortunate as to yawn in the middle of an explanation +Dinah was favoring him with--for the fourth time, it is true--of the +philosophy of Kant. Monsieur de la Thaumassiere, the grandson of the +historian of Le Berry, was thenceforth regarded as a man entirely bereft +of soul and brains. + +The three devotees _en titre_ each submitted to these exorbitant demands +on their mind and attention, in hope of a crowning triumph, when at last +Dinah should become human; for neither of them was so bold as to imagine +that Dinah would give up her innocence as a wife till she should have +lost all her illusions. In 1826, when she was surrounded by adorers, +Dinah completed her twentieth year, and the Abbe Duret kept her in +a sort of fervid Catholicism; so her worshipers had to be content to +overwhelm her with little attentions and small services, only too happy +to be taken for the carpet-knights of this sovereign lady, by strangers +admitted to spend an evening or two at La Baudraye. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is a fruit that must be left to ripen." This was +the opinion of Monsieur Gravier, who was waiting. + +As to the lawyer, he wrote letters four pages long, to which Dinah +replied in soothing speech as she walked, leaning on his arm, round and +round the lawn after dinner. + +Madame de la Baudraye, thus guarded by three passions, and always under +the eye of her pious mother, escaped the malignity of slander. It was so +evident to all Sancerre that no two of these three men would ever leave +the third alone with Madame de la Baudraye, that their jealousy was a +comedy to the lookers-on. + +To reach Saint-Thibault from Caesar's Gate there is a way much shorter +than that by the ramparts, down what is known in mountainous districts +as a _coursiere_, called at Sancerre _le Casse-cou_, or Break-neck +Alley. The name is significant as applied to a path down the steepest +part of the hillside, thickly strewn with stones, and shut in by the +high banks of the vineyards on each side. By way of the Break-neck the +distance from Sancerre to La Baudraye is much abridged. The ladies of +the place, jealous of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on +the Mall, looking down this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would +stop and engage in conversation--sometimes the Sous-prefet and +sometimes the Public Prosecutor--and who would listen with every sign of +impatience or uncivil absence of mind. As the turrets of La Baudraye are +visible from the Mall, many a younger man came to contemplate the abode +of Dinah while envying the ten or twelve privileged persons who might +spend their afternoons with the Queen of the neighborhood. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye was not slow to discover the advantage he, as +Dinah's husband, held over his wife's adorers, and he made use of them +without any disguise, obtaining a remission of taxes, and gaining two +lawsuits. In every litigation he used the Public Prosecutor's name with +such good effect that the matter was carried no further, and, like all +undersized men, he was contentious and litigious in business, though in +the gentlest manner. + +At the same time, the more certainly guiltless she was, the less +conceivable did Madame de la Baudraye's position seem to the prying eyes +of these women. Frequently, at the house of the Presidente de Boirouge, +the ladies of a certain age would spend a whole evening discussing +the La Baudraye household, among themselves of course. They all had +suspicions of a mystery, a secret such as always interests women who +have had some experience of life. And, in fact, at La Baudraye one of +those slow and monotonous conjugal tragedies was being played out which +would have remained for ever unknown if the merciless scalpel of the +nineteenth century, guided by the insistent demand for novelty, had not +dissected the darkest corners of the heart, or at any rate those which +the decency of past centuries left unopened. And that domestic drama +sufficiently accounts for Dinah's immaculate virtue during her early +married life. + + + +A young lady, whose triumphs at school had been the outcome of her +pride, and whose first scheme in life had been rewarded by a victory, +was not likely to pause in such a brilliant career. Frail as Monsieur +de la Baudraye might seem, he was really an unhoped-for good match for +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer. But what was the hidden motive of this +country landowner when, at forty-four, he married a girl of seventeen; +and what could his wife make out of the bargain? This was the text of +Dinah's first meditations. + +The little man never behaved quite as his wife expected. To begin with, +he allowed her to take the five precious acres now wasted in pleasure +grounds round La Baudraye, and paid, almost with generosity, the seven +or eight thousand francs required by Dinah for improvements in the +house, enabling her to buy the furniture at the Rougets' sale at +Issoudun, and to redecorate her rooms in various styles--Mediaeval, +Louis XIV., and Pompadour. The young wife found it difficult to believe +that Monsieur de la Baudraye was so miserly as he was reputed, or else +she must have great influence with him. The illusion lasted a year and a +half. + +After Monsieur de la Baudraye's second journey to Paris, Dinah +discovered in him the Artic coldness of a provincial miser whenever +money was in question. The first time she asked for supplies she played +the sweetest of the comedies of which Eve invented the secret; but +the little man put it plainly to his wife that he gave her two hundred +francs a month for her personal expenses, and paid Madame Piedefer +twelve hundred francs a year as a charge on the lands of La Hautoy, and +that this was two hundred francs a year more than was agreed to under +the marriage settlement. + +"I say nothing of the cost of housekeeping," he said in conclusion. "You +may give your friends cake and tea in the evening, for you must have +some amusement. But I, who spent but fifteen hundred francs a year as a +bachelor, now spend six thousand, including rates and repairs, and +this is rather too much in relation to the nature of our property. A +winegrower is never sure of what his expenses may be--the making, the +duty, the casks--while the returns depend on a scorching day or a sudden +frost. Small owners, like us, whose income is far from being fixed, must +base their estimates on their minimum, for they have no means of making +up a deficit or a loss. What would become of us if a wine merchant +became bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are so many +cabbage-leaves. To live as we are living, we ought always to have +a year's income in hand and count on no more than two-thirds of our +returns." + +Any form of resistance is enough to make a woman vow to subdue it; Dinah +flung herself against a will of iron padded round with gentleness. She +tried to fill the little man's soul with jealousy and alarms, but it +was stockaded with insolent confidence. He left Dinah, when he went to +Paris, with all the conviction of Medor in Angelique's fidelity. When +she affected cold disdain, to nettle this changeling by the scorn a +courtesan sometimes shows to her "protector," and which acts on him with +the certainty of the screw of a winepress, Monsieur de la Baudraye gazed +at his wife with fixed eyes, like those of a cat which, in the midst of +domestic broils, waits till a blow is threatened before stirring from +its place. The strange, speechless uneasiness that was perceptible under +his mute indifference almost terrified the young wife of twenty; she +could not at first understand the selfish quiescence of this man, who +might be compared to a cracked pot, and who, in order to live, regulated +his existence with the unchangeable regularity which a clockmaker +requires of a clock. So the little man always evaded his wife, while she +always hit out, as it were, ten feet above his head. + +Dinah's fits of fury when she saw herself condemned never to escape from +La Baudraye and Sancerre are more easily imagined than described--she +who had dreamed of handling a fortune and managing the dwarf whom she, +the giant, had at first humored in order to command. In the hope of some +day making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris, she accepted +the vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view to seeing +Monsieur de la Baudraye's name drawn from the electoral urn; for she +supposed him to be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice from Paris, +each time a step higher on the social ladder. But when she struck on the +man's heart, it was as though she had tapped on marble! The man who had +been Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now Master of Appeals, +Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Royal Commissioner, was but a mole +throwing up its little hills round and round a vineyard! Then some +lamentations were poured into the heart of the Public Prosecutor, of the +Sous-prefet, even of Monsieur Gravier, and they all increased in +their devotion to this sublime victim; for, like all women, she never +mentioned her speculative schemes, and--again like all women--finding +such speculation vain, she ceased to speculate. + +Dinah, tossed by mental storms, was still undecided when, in the autumn +of 1827, the news was told of the purchase by the Baron de la Baudraye +of the estate of Anzy. Then the little old man showed an impulsion of +pride and glee which for a few months changed the current of his wife's +ideas; she fancied there was a hidden vein of greatness in the man when +she found him applying for a patent of entail. In his triumph the Baron +exclaimed: + +"Dinah, you shall be a countess yet!" + +There was then a patched-up reunion between the husband and wife, such +as can never endure, and which only humiliated and fatigued a woman +whose apparent superiority was unreal, while her unseen superiority was +genuine. This whimsical medley is commoner than people think. Dinah, who +was ridiculous from the perversity of her cleverness, had really great +qualities of soul, but circumstances did not bring these rarer powers to +light, while a provincial life debased the small change of her wit from +day to day. Monsieur de la Baudraye, on the contrary, devoid of soul, of +strength, and of wit, was fated to figure as a man of character, simply +by pursuing a plan of conduct which he was too feeble to change. + + + +There was in their lives a first phase, lasting six years, during which +Dinah, alas! became utterly provincial. In Paris there are several kinds +of women: the duchess and the financier's wife, the ambassadress and the +consul's wife, the wife of the minister who is a minister, and of him +who is no longer a minister; then there is the lady--quite the lady--of +the right bank of the Seine and of the left. But in the country there is +but one kind of woman, and she, poor thing, is the provincial woman. + +This remark points to one of the sores of modern society. It must be +clearly understood: France in the nineteenth century is divided into two +broad zones--Paris, and the provinces. The provinces jealous of Paris; +Paris never thinking of the provinces but to demand money. Of old, Paris +was the Capital of the provinces, and the court ruled the Capital; now, +all Paris is the Court, and all the country is the town. + +However lofty, beautiful, and clever a girl born in any department of +France may be on entering life, if, like Dinah Piedefer, she marries +in the country and remains there, she inevitably becomes the provincial +woman. In spite of every determination, the commonplace of second-rate +ideas, indifference to dress, the culture of vulgar people, swamp the +sublimer essence hidden in the youthful plant; all is over, it falls +into decay. How should it be otherwise? From their earliest years +girls bred in the country see none but provincials; they cannot imagine +anything superior, their choice lies among mediocrities; provincial +fathers marry their daughters to provincial sons; crossing the races is +never thought of, and the brain inevitably degenerates, so that in many +country towns intellect is as rare as the breed is hideous. Mankind +becomes dwarfed in mind and body, for the fatal principle of conformity +of fortune governs every matrimonial alliance. Men of talent, artists, +superior brains--every bird of brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The +provincial woman, inferior in herself, is also inferior through +her husband. How is she to live happy under this crushing twofold +consciousness? + +But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and +conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and +gloomy; to reduce it, narrow it, distort it fatally. Is not one of the +most flattering unctions a woman can lay to her soul the assurance of +being something in the existence of a superior man, chosen by herself, +wittingly, as if to have some revenge on marriage, wherein her tastes +were so little consulted? But if in the country the husbands are +inferior beings, the bachelors are no less so. When a provincial wife +commits her "little sin," she falls in love with some so-called handsome +native, some indigenous dandy, a youth who wears gloves and is supposed +to ride well; but she knows at the bottom of her soul that her fancy +is in pursuit of the commonplace, more or less well dressed. Dinah was +preserved from this danger by the idea impressed upon her of her own +superiority. Even if she had not been as carefully guarded in her early +married life as she was by her mother, whose presence never weighed upon +her till the day when she wanted to be rid of it, her pride, and her +high sense of her own destinies, would have protected her. Flattered as +she was to find herself surrounded by admirers, she saw no lover +among them. No man here realized the poetical ideal which she and Anna +Grossetete had been wont to sketch. When, stirred by the involuntary +temptations suggested by the homage she received, she asked herself, "If +I had to make a choice, who should it be?" she owned to a preference for +Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a gentleman of good family, whose appearance +and manners she liked, but whose cold nature, selfishness, and narrow +ambition, never rising above a prefecture and a good marriage, repelled +her. At a word from his family, who were alarmed lest he should be +killed for an intrigue, the Vicomte had already deserted a woman he had +loved in the town where he previously had been Sous-prefet. + +Monsieur de Clagny, on the other hand, the only man whose mind appealed +to hers, whose ambition was founded on love, and who knew what love +means, Dinah thought perfectly odious. When Dinah saw herself condemned +to six years' residence at Sancerre she was on the point of accepting +the devotion of Monsieur le Vicomte de Chargeboeuf; but he was appointed +to a prefecture and left the district. To Monsieur de Clagny's great +satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a married man whose wife made +friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no rival to fear but Monsieur +Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the typical man of forty of whom women +make use while they laugh at him, whose hopes they intentionally and +remorselessly encourage, as we are kind to a beast of burden. In six +years, among all the men who were introduced to her from twenty leagues +round, there was not one in whose presence Dinah was conscious of the +excitement caused by personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, +by the impact of a superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, +even an unhappy one. + +Thus none of Dinah's choicest faculties had a chance of developing; +she swallowed many insults to her pride, which was constantly suffering +under the husband who so calmly walked the stage as supernumerary in the +drama of her life. Compelled to bury her wealth of love, she showed only +the surface to the world. Now and then she would try to rouse herself, +try to form some manly resolution; but she was kept in leading strings +by the need for money. And so, slowly and in spite of the ambitious +protests and grievous recriminations of her own mind, she underwent +the provincial metamorphosis here described. Each day took with it a +fragment of her spirited determination. She had laid down a rule for the +care of her person, which she gradually departed from. Though at first +she kept up with the fashions and the little novelties of elegant life, +she was obliged to limit her purchases by the amount of her allowance. +Instead of six hats, caps, or gowns, she resigned herself to one gown +each season. She was so much admired in a certain bonnet that she made +it do duty for two seasons. So it was in everything. + +Not unfrequently her artistic sense led her to sacrifice the +requirements of her person to secure some bit of Gothic furniture. By +the seventh year she had come so low as to think it convenient to +have her morning dresses made at home by the best needlewoman in the +neighborhood; and her mother, her husband, and her friends pronounced +her charming in these inexpensive costumes which did credit to her +taste. Her ideas were imitated! As she had no standard of comparison, +Dinah fell into the snares that surround the provincial woman. If a +Parisian woman's hips are too narrow or too full, her inventive wit and +the desire to please help to find some heroic remedy; if she has some +defect, some ugly spot, or small disfigurement, she is capable of making +it an adornment; this is often seen; but the provincial woman--never! If +her waist is too short and her figure ill balanced, well, she makes up +her mind to the worst, and her adorers--or they do not adore her--must +take her as she is, while the Parisian always insists on being taken for +what she is not. Hence the preposterous bustles, the audacious flatness, +the ridiculous fulness, the hideous outlines ingeniously displayed, to +which a whole town will become accustomed, but which are so astounding +when a provincial woman makes her appearance in Paris or among +Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim, showed it off to excess, and +never knew a dull moment when it became ridiculous; when, reduced by the +dull weariness of her life, she looked like a skeleton in clothes; and +her friends, seeing her every day, did not observe the gradual change in +her appearance. + +This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of +marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the town +is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when people meet +every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de la Baudraye, +she loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again, if she flushes +a little, that is intelligible and interesting. A little neglect is +thought charming, and her face is so carefully studied, so well known, +that slight changes are scarcely noticed, and regarded at last as +"beauty spots." When Dinah ceased to have a new dress with a new season, +she seemed to have made a concession to the philosophy of the place. + +It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as it +is with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body if +it is not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism +most sets its stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose the +briskness which Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is used to +walk and move in a world devoid of accident or change, there is nothing +to be avoided; so in Paris she walks on as raw recruits do, never +remembering that there may be hindrances, for there are none in her +way in her native place, where she is known, where she is always in her +place, and every one makes way for her. Thus she loses all the charm of +the unforeseen. + +And have you ever noticed the effect on human beings of a life in +common? By the ineffaceable instinct of simian mimicry they all tend to +copy each other. Each one, without knowing it, acquires the gestures, +the tone of voice, the manner, the attitudes, the very countenance of +others. In six years Dinah had sunk to the pitch of the society she +lived in. As she acquired Monsieur de Clagny's ideas she assumed his +tone of voice; she unconsciously fell into masculine manners from seeing +none but men; she fancied that by laughing at what was ridiculous in +them she was safe from catching it; but, as often happens, some hue of +what she laughed at remained in the grain. + +A Parisian woman sees so many examples of good taste that a contrary +result ensues. In Paris women learn to seize the hour and moment when +they may appear to advantage; while Madame de la Baudraye, accustomed +to take the stage, acquired an indefinable theatrical and domineering +manner, the air of a _prima donna_ coming forward on the boards, of +which ironical smiles would soon have cured her in the capital. + +But after she had acquired this stock of absurdities, and, deceived by +her worshipers, imagined them to be added graces, a moment of terrible +awakening came upon her like the fall of an avalanche from a mountain. +In one day she was crushed by a frightful comparison. + +In 1829, after the departure of Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, she was excited +by the anticipation of a little pleasure; she was expecting the Baronne +de Fontaine. Anna's husband, who was now Director-General under the +Minister of Finance, took advantage of leave of absence on the occasion +of his father's death to take his wife to Italy. Anna wished to spend +the day at Sancerre with her school-friend. This meeting was strangely +disastrous. Anna, who at school had been far less handsome than Dinah, +now, as Baronne de Fontaine, was a thousand times handsomer than the +Baronne de la Baudraye, in spite of her fatigue and her traveling +dress. Anna stepped out of an elegant traveling chaise loaded with Paris +milliners' boxes, and she had with her a lady's maid, whose airs quite +frightened Dinah. All the difference between a woman of Paris and a +provincial was at once evident to Dinah's intelligent eye; she saw +herself as her friend saw her--and Anna found her altered beyond +recognition. Anna spent six thousand francs a year on herself alone, as +much as kept the whole household at La Baudraye. + +In twenty-four hours the friends had exchanged many confidences; and the +Parisian, seeing herself so far superior to the phoenix of Mademoiselle +Chamarolles' school, showed her provincial friend such kindness, such +attentions, while giving her certain explanations, as were so many stabs +to Dinah, though she perfectly understood that Anna's advantages all lay +on the surface, while her own were for ever buried. + +When Anna had left, Madame de la Baudraye, by this time two-and-twenty, +fell into the depths of despair. + +"What is it that ails you?" asked Monsieur de Clagny, seeing her so +dejected. + +"Anna," said she, "has learned to live, while I have been learning to +endure." + +A tragi-comedy was, in fact, being enacted in Madame de la Baudraye's +house, in harmony with her struggles over money matters and her +successive transformations--a drama to which no one but Monsieur de +Clagny and the Abbe Duret ever knew the clue, when Dinah in sheer +idleness, or perhaps sheer vanity, revealed the secret of her anonymous +fame. + +Though a mixture of verse and prose is a monstrous anomaly in French +literature, there must be exceptions to the rule. This tale will be +one of the two instances in these Studies of violation of the laws of +narrative; for to give a just idea of the unconfessed struggle which +may excuse, though it cannot absolve Dinah, it is necessary to give an +analysis of a poem which was the outcome of her deep despair. + +Her patience and her resignation alike broken by the departure of the +Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, Dinah took the worthy Abbe's advice to exhale +her evil thoughts in verse--a proceeding which perhaps accounts for some +poets. + +"You will find such relief as those who write epitaphs or elegies over +those whom they have lost. Pain is soothed in the heart as lines surge +up in the brain." + +This strange production caused a great ferment in the departments of +the Allier, the Nievre, and the Cher, proud to possess a poet capable +of rivalry with the glories of Paris. _Paquita la Sevillane_, by +_Jan Diaz_, was published in the _Echo du Morvan_, a review which +for eighteen months maintained its existence in spite of provincial +indifference. Some knowing persons at Nevers declared that Jan Diaz +was making fun of the new school, just then bringing out its eccentric +verse, full of vitality and imagery, and of brilliant effects produced +by defying the Muse under pretext of adapting German, English, and +Romanesque mannerisms. + +The poem began with this ballad: + + Ah! if you knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain, + Its fervid noons, its balmy spring, + Sad daughters of the northern gloom, + Of love, of heav'n, of native home, + You never would presume to sing! + + For men are there of other mould + Than those who live in this dull cold. + And there to music low and sweet + Sevillian maids, from eve till dawn, + Dance lightly on the moonlit lawn + In satin shoes, on dainty feet. + + Ah, you would be the first to blush + Over your dancers' romp and rush, + And your too hideous carnival, + That turns your cheeks all chill and blue, + And skips the mud in hob-nail'd shoe-- + A truly dismal festival. + + To pale-faced girls, and in a squalid room, + Paquita sang; the murky town beneath + Was Rouen whence the slender spires rise + To chew the storm with teeth. + Rouen so hideous, noisy, full of rage-- + +And here followed a magnificent description of Rouen--where Dinah had +never been--written with the affected brutality which, a little later, +inspired so many imitations of Juvenal; a contrast drawn between the +life of a manufacturing town and the careless life of Spain, between +the love of Heaven and of human beauty, and the worship of machinery, in +short, between poetry and sordid money-making. + +Then Jan Diaz accounted for Paquita's horror of Normandy by saying: + + Seville, you see, had been her native home, + Seville, where skies are blue and evening sweet. + She, at thirteen, the sovereign of the town, + Had lovers at her feet. + + For her three Toreadors had gone to death + Or victory, the prize to be a kiss-- + One kiss from those red lips of sweetest breath-- + A longed-for touch of bliss! + +The features of the Spanish girl's portrait have served so often as +those of the courtesan in so many self-styled _poems_, that it would be +tiresome to quote here the hundred lines of description. To judge of the +lengths to which audacity had carried Dinah, it will be enough to give +the conclusion. According to Madame de la Baudraye's ardent pen, Paquita +was so entirely created for love that she can hardly have met with a +knight worthy of her; for + + .... In her passionate fire + Every man would have swooned from the heat, + When she at love's feast, in her fervid desire, + As yet had but taken her seat. + +"And yet she could quit the joys of Seville, its woods and fields of +orange-trees, for a Norman soldier who won her love and carried her away +to his hearth and home. She did not weep for her Andalusia, the Soldier +was her whole joy.... But the day came when he was compelled to start +for Russia in the footsteps of the great Emperor." + +Nothing could be more dainty than the description of the parting between +the Spanish girl and the Normandy Captain of Artillery, who, in the +delirium of passion expressed with feeling worthy of Byron, exacted from +Paquita a vow of absolute fidelity, in the Cathedral at Rouen in front +of the alter of the Blessed Virgin, who + + Though a Maid is a woman, and never forgives + When lovers are false to their vows. + +A large part of the poem was devoted to describing Paquita's sufferings +when alone in Rouen waiting till the campaign was over; she stood +writhing at the window bars as she watched happy couples go by; she +suppressed her passion in her heart with a determination that consumed +her; she lived on narcotics, and exhausted herself in dreams. + + Almost she died, but still her heart was true; + And when at last her soldier came again, + He found her beauty ever fresh and new-- + He had not loved in vain! + +"But he, pale and frozen by the cold of Russia, chilled to the very +marrow, met his yearning fair one with a melancholy smile." + +The whole poem was written up to this situation, which was worked out +with such vigor and boldness as too entirely justified the Abbe Duret. + +Paquita, on reaching the limits set to real love, did not, like Julie +and Heloise, throw herself into the ideal; no, she rushed into the paths +of vice, which is, no doubt, shockingly natural; but she did it without +any touch of magnificence, for lack of means, as it would be difficult +to find in Rouen men impassioned enough to place Paquita in a suitable +setting of luxury and splendor. This horrible realism, emphasized by +gloomy poetic feeling, had inspired some passages such as modern poetry +is too free with, rather too like the flayed anatomical figures known to +artists as _ecorches_. Then, by a highly philosophical revulsion, after +describing the house of ill-fame where the Andalusian ended her days, +the writer came back to the ballad at the opening: + + Paquita now is faded, shrunk, and old, + But she it was who sang: + + "If you but knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain," etc. + +The gloomy vigor of this poem, running to about six hundred lines, +and serving as a powerful foil, to use a painter's word, to the two +_seguidillas_ at the beginning and end, the masculine utterance of +inexpressible grief, alarmed the woman who found herself admired by +three departments, under the black cloak of the anonymous. While she +fully enjoyed the intoxicating delights of success, Dinah dreaded the +malignity of provincial society, where more than one woman, if the +secret should slip out, would certainly find points of resemblance +between the writer and Paquita. Reflection came too late; Dinah +shuddered with shame at having made "copy" of some of her woes. + +"Write no more," said the Abbe Duret. "You will cease to be a woman; you +will be a poet." + +Moulins, Nevers, Bourges were searched to find Jan Diaz; but Dinah was +impenetrable. To remove any evil impression, in case any unforeseen +chance should betray her name, she wrote a charming poem in two cantos +on _The Mass-Oak_, a legend of the Nivernais: + +"Once upon a time the folks of Nevers and the folks of Saint-Saulge, at +war with each other, came at daybreak to fight a battle, in which one or +other should perish, and met in the forest of Faye. And then there stood +between them, under an oak, a priest whose aspect in the morning sun was +so commanding that the foes at his bidding heard Mass as he performed it +under the oak, and at the words of the Gospel they made friends."--The +oak is still shown in the forest of Faye. + +This poem, immeasurably superior to _Paquita la Sevillane_, was far less +admired. + +After these two attempts Madame de la Baudraye, feeling herself a poet, +had a light on her brow and a flash in her eyes that made her handsomer +than ever. She cast longing looks at Paris, aspiring to fame--and fell +back into her den of La Baudraye, her daily squabbles with her husband, +and her little circle, where everybody's character, intentions, and +remarks were too well known not to have become a bore. Though she found +relief from her dreary life in literary work, and poetry echoed loudly +in her empty life, though she thus found an outlet for her energies, +literature increased her hatred of the gray and ponderous provincial +atmosphere. + + + +When, after the Revolution of 1830, the glory of George Sand was +reflected on Le Berry, many a town envied La Chatre the privilege of +having given birth to this rival of Madame de Stael and Camille Maupin, +and were ready to do homage to minor feminine talent. Thus there arose +in France a vast number of tenth Muses, young girls or young wives +tempted from a silent life by the bait of glory. Very strange doctrines +were proclaimed as to the part women should play in society. Though the +sound common sense which lies at the root of the French nature was not +perverted, women were suffered to express ideas and profess opinions +which they would not have owned to a few years previously. + +Monsieur de Clagny took advantage of this outbreak of freedom to +collect the works of Jan Diaz in a small volume printed by Desroziers at +Moulins. He wrote a little notice of the author, too early snatched from +the world of letters, which was amusing to those who were in the secret, +but which even then had not the merit of novelty. Such practical jokes, +capital so long as the author remains unknown, fall rather flat if +subsequently the poet stands confessed. + +From this point of view, however, the memoir of Jan Diaz, born at +Bourges in 1807, the son of a Spanish prisoner, may very likely some +day deceive the compiler of some _Universal Biography_. Nothing is +overlooked; neither the names of the professors at the Bourges College, +nor those of his deceased schoolfellows, such as Lousteau, Bianchon, and +other famous natives of the province, who, it is said, knew the dreamy, +melancholy boy, and his precocious bent towards poetry. An elegy called +_Tristesse_ (Melancholy), written at school; the two poems _Paquita la +Sevillane_ and _Le Chene de la Messe_; three sonnets, a description of +the Cathedral and the House of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, with a tale +called _Carola_, published as the work he was engaged on at the time +of his death, constituted the whole of these literary remains; and the +poet's last hours, full of misery and despair, could not fail to wring +the hearts of the feeling public of the Nievre, the Bourbonnais, the +Cher, and the Morvan, where he died near Chateau-Chinon, unknown to all, +even to the woman he had loved! + +Of this little yellow paper volume two hundred copies were printed; +one hundred and fifty were sold--about fifty in each department. This +average of tender and poetic souls in three departments of France is +enough to revive the enthusiasm of writers as to the _Furia Francese_, +which nowadays is more apt to expend itself in business than in books. + +When Monsieur de Clagny had given away a certain number of copies, +Dinah still had seven or eight, wrapped up in the newspapers which had +published notices of the work. Twenty copies forwarded to the Paris +papers were swamped in the editors' offices. Nathan was taken in as well +as several of his fellow-countrymen of Le Berry, and wrote an article on +the great man, in which he credited him with all the fine qualities we +discover in those who are dead and buried. + +Lousteau, warned by his fellow-schoolfellows, who could not remember Jan +Diaz, waited for information from Sancerre, and learned that Jan Diaz +was a pseudonym assumed by a woman. + +Then, in and around Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye became the rage; she +was the future rival of George Sand. From Sancerre to Bourges a poem was +praised which, at any other time, would certainly have been hooted. The +provincial public--like every French public, perhaps--does not share the +love of the King of the French for the happy medium: it lifts you to the +skies or drags you in the mud. + +By this time the good Abbe, Madame de la Baudraye's counselor, was dead; +he would certainly have prevented her rushing into public life. But +three years of work without recognition weighed on Dinah's soul, and +she accepted the clatter of fame as a substitute for her disappointed +ambitions. Poetry and dreams of celebrity, which had lulled her grief +since her meeting with Anna Grossetete, no longer sufficed to exhaust +the activity of her morbid heart. The Abbe Duret, who had talked of the +world when the voice of religion was impotent, who understood Dinah, and +promised her a happy future by assuring her that God would compensate +her for her sufferings bravely endured,--this good old man could no +longer stand between the opening to sin and the handsome young woman he +had called his daughter. + +The wise old priest had more than once endeavored to enlighten Dinah +as to her husband's character, telling her that the man could hate; but +women are not ready to believe in such force in weak natures, and hatred +is too constantly in action not to be a vital force. Dinah, finding her +husband incapable of love, denied him the power to hate. + +"Do not confound hatred and vengeance," said the Abbe. "They are two +different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is +the outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does +not hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all +their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. So beware +of offending Monsieur de la Baudraye; he would forgive an infidelity, +because he could make capital of it, but he would be doubly implacable +if you should touch him on the spot so cruelly wounded by Monsieur +Milaud of Nevers, and would make your life unendurable." + +Now, at the time when the whole countryside--Nevers and Sancerre, Le +Morvan and Le Berry--was priding itself on Madame de la Baudraye, and +lauding her under the name of Jan Diaz, "little La Baudraye" felt her +glory a mortal blow. He alone knew the secret source of _Paquita la +Sevillane_. When this terrible work was spoken of, everybody said of +Dinah--"Poor woman! Poor soul!" + +The women rejoiced in being able to pity her who had so long oppressed +them; never had Dinah seemed to stand higher in the eyes of the +neighborhood. + +The shriveled old man, more wrinkled, yellower, feebler than ever, gave +no sign; but Dinah sometimes detected in his eyes, as he looked at her, +a sort of icy venom which gave the lie to his increased politeness +and gentleness. She understood at last that this was not, as she had +supposed, a mere domestic squabble; but when she forced an explanation +with her "insect," as Monsieur Gravier called him, she found the cold, +hard impassibility of steel. She flew into a passion; she reproached +him for her life these eleven years past; she made--intentionally--what +women call a scene. But "little La Baudraye" sat in an armchair with his +eyes shut, and listened phlegmatically to the storm. And, as usual, the +dwarf got the better of his wife. Dinah saw that she had done wrong in +writing; she vowed never to write another line, and she kept her vow. + +Then was there desolation in the Sancerrois. + +"Why did not Madame de la Baudraye compose any more verses?" was the +universal cry. + +At this time Madame de la Baudraye had no enemies; every one rushed to +see her, not a week passed without fresh introductions. The wife of the +presiding judge, an august _bourgeoise_, _nee_ Popinot-Chandier, desired +her son, a youth of two-and-twenty, to pay his humble respects to La +Baudraye, and flattered herself that she might see her Gatien in the +good graces of this Superior Woman.--The words Superior Woman had +superseded the absurd nickname of _The Sappho of Saint-Satur_.--This +lady, who for nine years had led the opposition, was so delighted at the +good reception accorded to her son, that she became loud in her praises +of the Muse of Sancerre. + +"After all," she exclaimed, in reply to a tirade from Madame de Clagny, +who hated her husband's supposed mistress, "she is the handsomest and +cleverest woman in the whole province!" + +After scrambling through so many brambles and setting off on so many +different roads, after dreaming of love in splendor and scenting the +darkest dramas, thinking such terrible joys would be cheaply purchased +so weary was she of her dreary existence, one day Dinah fell into the +pit she had sworn to avoid. Seeing Monsieur de Clagny always sacrificing +himself, and at last refusing a high appointment in Paris, where his +family wanted to see him, she said to herself, "He loves me!" She +vanquished her repulsion, and seemed willing to reward so much +constancy. + +It was to this impulse of generosity on her part that a coalition was +due, formed in Sancerre to secure the return of Monsieur de Clagny at +the next elections. Madame de la Baudraye had dreamed of going to Paris +in the wake of the new deputy. + +But, in spite of the most solemn promises, the hundred and fifty votes +to be recorded in favor of this adorer of the lovely Dinah--who hoped +to see this defender of the widow and the orphan wearing the gown of the +Keeper of the Seals--figured as an imposing minority of fifty votes. The +jealousy of the President de Boirouge, and Monsieur Gravier's hatred, +for he believed in the candidate's supremacy in Dinah's heart, had been +worked upon by a young Sous-prefet; and for this worthy deed the allies +got the young man made a prefet elsewhere. + +"I shall never cease to regret," said he, as he quitted Sancerre, "that +I did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would have +made my triumph complete!" + +The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on +the surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the +indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to +Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask +she had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day, +increased her hope of finding herself a widow? + +The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have +understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another +woman, had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la +Baudraye, she had indulged the hope of becoming a mother. Between those +miserable disputes over household matters and the melancholy conviction +as to her fate, quite a long time had elapsed. Then, when she had looked +for consolation, the consoler, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf had left her. +Thus, the overwhelming temptation which commonly causes women to sin had +hitherto been absent. For if there are, after all, some women who make +straight for unfaithfulness, are there not many more who cling to hope, +and do not fall till they have wandered long in a labyrinth of secret +woes? + +Such was Dinah. She had so little impulse to fail in her duty, that she +did not care enough for Monsieur de Clagny to forgive him his defeat. + +Then the move to the Chateau d'Anzy, the rearrangement of her collected +treasures and curiosities, which derived added value from the splendid +setting which Philibert de Lorme seemed to have planned on purpose for +this museum, occupied her for several months, giving her leisure to +meditate one of those decisive steps that startle the public, ignorant +of the motives which, however, it sometimes discovers by dint of gossip +and suppositions. + +Madame de la Baudraye had been greatly struck by the reputation of +Lousteau, who was regarded as a lady's man of the first water in +consequence of his intimacies among actresses; she was anxious to know +him; she read his books, and was fired with enthusiasm, less perhaps for +his talents than for his successes with women; and to attract him to the +country, she started the notion that it was obligatory on Sancerre to +return one of its great men at the elections. She made Gatien Boirouge +write to the great physician Bianchon, whom he claimed as a cousin +through the Popinots. Then she persuaded an old friend of the departed +Madame Lousteau to stir up the journalist's ambitions by letting him +know that certain persons in Sancerre were firmly bent on electing a +deputy from among the distinguished men in Paris. + +Tired of her commonplace neighbors, Madame de la Baudraye would thus at +last meet really illustrious men, and might give her fall the lustre of +fame. + +Neither Lousteau nor Bianchon replied; they were waiting perhaps till +the holidays. Bianchon, who had won his professor's chair the year +before after a brilliant contest, could not leave his lectures. + +In the month of September, when the vintage was at its height, the two +Parisians arrived in their native province, and found it absorbed in the +unremitting toil of the wine-crop of 1836; there could therefore be +no public demonstration in their favor. "We have fallen flat," said +Lousteau to his companion, in the slang of the stage. + +In 1836, Lousteau, worn by sixteen years of struggle in the Capital, +and aged quite as much by pleasure as by penury, hard work, and +disappointments, looked eight-and-forty, though he was no more than +thirty-seven. He was already bald, and had assumed a Byronic air in +harmony with his early decay and the lines furrowed in his face +by over-indulgence in champagne. He ascribed these signs-manual of +dissipation to the severities of a literary life, declaring that the +Press was murderous; and he gave it to be understood that it consumed +superior talents, so as to lend a grace to his exhaustion. In his native +town he thought proper to exaggerate his affected contempt of life and +his spurious misanthropy. Still, his eyes could flash with fire like +a volcano supposed to be extinct, and he endeavored, by dressing +fashionably, to make up for the lack of youth that might strike a +woman's eye. + +Horace Bianchon, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, was fat and +burly, as beseems a fashionable physician, with a patriarchal air, his +hair thick and long, a prominent brow, the frame of a hard worker, and +the calm expression of a philosopher. This somewhat prosaic personality +set off his more frivolous companion to advantage. + + + +The two great men remained unrecognized during a whole morning at the +inn where they had put up, and it was only by chance that Monsieur de +Clagny heard of their arrival. Madame de la Baudraye, in despair at +this, despatched Gatien Boirouge, who had no vineyards, to beg the two +gentlemen to spend a few days at the Chateau d'Anzy. For the last +year Dinah had played the chatelaine, and spent the winter only at La +Baudraye. Monsieur Gravier, the Public Prosecutor, the Presiding Judge, +and Gatien Boirouge combined to give a banquet to the great men, to meet +the literary personages of the town. + +On hearing that the beautiful Madame de la Baudraye was Jan Diaz, +the Parisians went to spend three days at Anzy, fetched in a sort of +wagonette driven by Gatien himself. The young man, under a genuine +illusion, spoke of Madame de la Baudraye not only as the handsomest +woman in those parts, a woman so superior that she might give George +Sand a qualm, but as a woman who would produce a great sensation in +Paris. Hence the extreme though suppressed astonishment of Doctor +Bianchon and the waggish journalist when they beheld, on the garden +steps of Anzy, a lady dressed in thin black cashmere with a deep tucker, +in effect like a riding-habit cut short, for they quite understood the +pretentiousness of such extreme simplicity. Dinah also wore a black +velvet cap, like that in the portrait of Raphael, and below it her hair +fell in thick curls. This attire showed off a rather pretty figure, fine +eyes, and handsome eyelids somewhat faded by the weariful life that has +been described. In Le Berry the singularity of this _artistic_ costume +was a cloak for the romantic affectations of the Superior Woman. + +On seeing the affectations of their too amiable hostess--which were, +indeed, affectations of soul and mind--the friends glanced at each +other, and put on a deeply serious expression to listen to Madame de la +Baudraye, who made them a set speech of thanks for coming to cheer the +monotony of her days. Dinah walked her guests round and round the +lawn, ornamented with large vases of flowers, which lay in front of the +Chateau d'Anzy. + +"How is it," said Lousteau, the practical joker, "that so handsome a +woman as you, and apparently so superior, should have remained buried in +the country? What do you do to make life endurable?" + +"Ah! that is the crux," said the lady. "It is unendurable. Utter despair +or dull resignation--there is no third alternative; that is the arid +soil in which our existence is rooted, and on which a thousand stagnant +ideas fall; they cannot fertilize the ground, but they supply food +for the etiolated flowers of our desert souls. Never believe in +indifference! Indifference is either despair or resignation. Then each +woman takes up the pursuit which, according to her character, seems to +promise some amusement. Some rush into jam-making and washing, household +management, the rural joys of the vintage or the harvest, bottling +fruit, embroidering handkerchiefs, the cares of motherhood, the +intrigues of a country town. Others torment a much-enduring piano, +which, at the end of seven years, sounds like an old kettle, and ends +its asthmatic life at the Chateau d'Anzy. Some pious dames talk over the +different brands of the Word of God--the Abbe Fritaud as compared with +the Abbe Guinard. They play cards in the evening, dance with the same +partners for twelve years running, in the same rooms, at the same dates. +This delightful life is varied by solemn walks on the Mall, visits of +politeness among the women, who ask each other where they bought their +gowns. + +"Conversation is bounded on the south by remarks on the intrigues lying +hidden under the stagnant water of provincial life, on the north by +proposed marriages, on the west by jealousies, and on the east by sour +remarks. + +"And so," she went on, striking an attitude, "you see a woman wrinkled +at nine-and-twenty, ten years before the time fixed by the rules of +Doctor Bianchon, a woman whose skin is ruined at an early age, who turns +as yellow as a quince when she is yellow at all--we have seen some turn +green. When we have reached that point, we try to justify our normal +condition; then we turn and rend the terrible passion of Paris with +teeth as sharp as rat's teeth. We have Puritan women here, sour enough +to tear the laces of Parisian finery, and eat out all the poetry of your +Parisian beauties, who undermine the happiness of others while they cry +up their walnuts and rancid bacon, glorify this squalid mouse-hole, +and the dingy color and conventual small of our delightful life at +Sancerre." + +"I admire such courage, madame," said Bianchon. "When we have to +endure such misfortunes, it is well to have the wit to make a virtue of +necessity." + +Amazed at the brilliant move by which Dinah thus placed provincial life +at the mercy of her guests, in anticipation of their sarcasms, Gatien +Boirouge nudged Lousteau's elbow, with a glance and a smile, which said: + +"Well! did I say too much?" + +"But, madame," said Lousteau, "you are proving that we are still in +Paris. I shall steal this gem of description; it will be worth ten +thousand francs to me in an article." + +"Oh, monsieur," she retorted, "never trust provincial women." + +"And why not?" said Lousteau. + +Madame de la Baudraye was wily enough--an innocent form of cunning, to +be sure--to show the two Parisians, one of whom she would choose to be +her conquerer, the snare into which he would fall, reflecting that she +would have the upper hand at the moment when he should cease to see it. + +"When you first come," said she, "you laugh at us. Then when you have +forgotten the impression of Paris brilliancy, and see us in our own +sphere, you pay court to us, if only as a pastime. And you, who are +famous for your past passions, will be the object of attentions which +will flatter you. Then take care!" cried Dinah, with a coquettish +gesture, raising herself above provincial absurdities and Lousteau's +irony by her own sarcastic speech. "When a poor little country-bred +woman has an eccentric passion for some superior man, some Parisian +who has wandered into the provinces, it is to her something more than a +sentiment; she makes it her occupation and part of all her life. There +is nothing more dangerous than the attachment of such a woman; she +compares, she studies, she reflects, she dreams; and she will not give +up her dream, she thinks still of the man she loves when he has ceased +to think of her. + +"Now one of the catastrophes that weigh most heavily on a woman in the +provinces is that abrupt termination of her passion which is so often +seen in England. In the country, a life under minute observation as keen +as an Indian's compels a woman either to keep on the rails or to start +aside like a steam engine wrecked by an obstacle. The strategies of +love, the coquetting which form half the composition of a Parisian +woman, are utterly unknown here." + +"That is true," said Lousteau. "There is in a country-bred woman's heart +a store of surprises, as in some toys." + +"Dear me!" Dinah went on, "a woman will have spoken to you three times +in the course of a winter, and without your knowing it, you will be +lodged in her heart. Then comes a picnic, an excursion, what not, and +all is said--or, if you prefer it, all is done! This conduct, which +seems odd to unobserving persons, is really very natural. A poet, such +as you are, or a philosopher, an observer, like Doctor Bianchon, instead +of vilifying the provincial woman and believing her depraved, would be +able to guess the wonderful unrevealed poetry, every chapter, in short, +of the sweet romance of which the last phrase falls to the benefit of +some happy sub-lieutenant or some provincial bigwig." + +"The provincial women I have met in Paris," said Lousteau, "were, in +fact, rapid in their proceedings--" + +"My word, they are strange," said the lady, giving a significant shrug +of her shoulders. + +"They are like the playgoers who book for the second performance, +feeling sure that the piece will not fail," replied the journalist. + +"And what is the cause of all these woes?" asked Bianchon. + +"Paris is the monster that brings us grief," replied the Superior +Woman. "The evil is seven leagues round, and devastates the whole +land. Provincial life is not self-existent. It is only when a nation is +divided into fifty minor states that each can have a physiognomy of its +own, and then a woman reflects the glory of the sphere where she reigns. +This social phenomenon, I am told, may be seen in Italy, Switzerland, +and Germany; but in France, as in every country where there is but +one capital, a dead level of manners must necessarily result from +centralization." + +"Then you would say that manners could only recover their individuality +and native distinction by the formation of a federation of French states +into one empire?" said Lousteau. + +"That is hardly to be wished, for France would have to conquer too many +countries," said Bianchon. + +"This misfortune is unknown in England," exclaimed Dinah. "London does +not exert such tyranny as that by which Paris oppresses France--for +which, indeed, French ingenuity will at last find a remedy; however, it +has a worse disease in its vile hypocrisy, which is a far greater evil!" + +"The English aristocracy," said Lousteau, hastening to put a word in, +for he foresaw a Byronic paragraph, "has the advantage over ours +of assimilating every form of superiority; it lives in the midst of +magnificent parks; it is in London for no more than two months. It lives +in the country, flourishing there, and making it flourish." + +"Yes," said Madame de la Baudraye, "London is the capital of trade and +speculation and the centre of government. The aristocracy hold a 'mote' +there for sixty days only; it gives and takes the passwords of the day, +looks in on the legislative cookery, reviews the girls to marry, the +carriages to be sold, exchanges greetings, and is away again; and is so +far from amusing, that it cannot bear itself for more than the few days +known as 'the season.'" + +"Hence," said Lousteau, hoping to stop this nimble tongue by an epigram, +"in Perfidious Albion, as the _Constitutionnel_ has it, you may happen +to meet a charming woman in any part of the kingdom." + +"But charming _English_ women!" replied Madame de la Baudraye with +a smile. "Here is my mother, I will introduce you," said she, seeing +Madame Piedefer coming towards them. + +Having introduced the two Paris lions to the ambitious skeleton that +called itself woman under the name of Madame Piedefer--a tall, lean +personage, with a red face, teeth that were doubtfully genuine, and hair +that was undoubtedly dyed, Dinah left her visitors to themselves for a +few minutes. + +"Well," said Gatien to Lousteau, "what do you think of her?" + +"I think that the clever woman of Sancerre is simply the greatest +chatterbox," replied the journalist. + +"A woman who wants to see you deputy!" cried Gatien. "An angel!" + +"Forgive me, I forgot you were in love with her," said Lousteau. +"Forgive the cynicism of an old scamp.--Ask Bianchon; I have no +illusions left. I see things as they are. The woman has evidently dried +up her mother like a partridge left to roast at too fierce a fire." + +Gatien de Boirouge contrived to let Madame de la Baudraye know what +the journalist had said of her in the course of the dinner, which was +copious, not to say splendid, and the lady took care not to talk +too much while it was proceeding. This lack of conversation betrayed +Gatien's indiscretion. Etienne tried to regain his footing, but all +Dinah's advances were directed to Bianchon. + +However, half-way through the evening, the Baroness was gracious to +Lousteau again. Have you never observed what great meanness may +be committed for small ends? Thus the haughty Dinah, who would not +sacrifice herself for a fool, who in the depths of the country led such +a wretched life of struggles, of suppressed rebellion, of unuttered +poetry, who to get away from Lousteau had climbed the highest and +steepest peak of her scorn, and who would not have come down if she +had seen the sham Byron at her feet, suddenly stepped off it as she +recollected her album. + +Madame de la Baudraye had caught the mania for autographs; she possessed +an oblong volume which deserved the name of album better than most, as +two-thirds of the pages were still blank. The Baronne de Fontaine, who +had kept it for three months, had with great difficulty obtained a line +from Rossini, six bars written by Meyerbeer, the four lines that Victor +Hugo writes in every album, a verse from Lamartine, a few words from +Beranger, _Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart d'Ulysse_ (the first +words of _Telemaque_) written by George Sand, Scribe's famous lines on +the Umbrella, a sentence from Charles Nodier, an outline of distance by +Jules Dupre, the signature of David d'Angers, and three notes written +by Hector Berlioz. Monsieur de Clagny, during a visit to Paris, added a +song by Lacenaire--a much coveted autograph, two lines from Fieschi, and +an extremely short note from Napoleon, which were pasted on to pages of +the album. Then Monsieur Gravier, in the course of a tour, had persuaded +Mademoiselle Mars to write her name on this album, with Mademoiselles +Georges, Taglioni, and Grisi, and some distinguished actors, such as +Frederick Lemaitre, Monrose, Bouffe, Rubini, Lablache, Nourrit, and +Arnal; for he knew a set of old fellows brought up in the seraglio, as +they phrased it, who did him this favor. + +This beginning of a collection was all the more precious to Dinah +because she was the only person for ten leagues round who owned an +album. Within the last two years, however, several young ladies had +acquired such books, in which they made their friends and acquaintances +write more or less absurd quotations or sentiments. You who spend your +lives in collecting autographs, simple and happy souls, like Dutch tulip +fanciers, you will excuse Dinah when, in her fear of not keeping her +guests more than two days, she begged Bianchon to enrich the volume she +handed to him with a few lines of his writing. + +The doctor made Lousteau smile by showing him this sentence on the first +page: + + "What makes the populace dangerous is that it has in its pocket an + absolution for every crime. + + "J. B. DE CLAGNY." + + +"We will second the man who is brave enough to plead in favor of the +Monarchy," Desplein's great pupil whispered to Lousteau, and he wrote +below: + + "The distinction between Napoleon and a water-carrier is evident + only to Society; Nature takes no account of it. Thus Democracy, + which resists inequality, constantly appeals to Nature. + + H. BIANCHON." + + +"Ah!" cried Dinah, amazed, "you rich men take a gold piece out of your +purse as poor men bring out a farthing.... I do not know," she went +on, turning to Lousteau, "whether it is taking an unfair advantage of a +guest to hope for a few lines--" + +"Nay, madame, you flatter me. Bianchon is a great man, but I am too +insignificant!--Twenty years hence my name will be more difficult to +identify than that of the Public Prosecutor whose axiom, written in your +album, will designate him as an obscurer Montesquieu. And I should +want at least twenty-four hours to improvise some sufficiently bitter +reflections, for I could only describe what I feel." + +"I wish you needed a fortnight," said Madame de la Baudraye graciously, +as she handed him the book. "I should keep you here all the longer." + + + +At five next morning all the party in the Chateau d'Anzy were astir, +little La Baudraye having arranged a day's sport for the Parisians--less +for their pleasure than to gratify his own conceit. He was delighted to +make them walk over the twelve hundred acres of waste land that he +was intending to reclaim, an undertaking that would cost some hundred +thousand francs, but which might yield an increase of thirty to sixty +thousand francs a year in the returns of the estate of Anzy. + +"Do you know why the Public Prosecutor has not come out with us?" asked +Gatien Boirouge of Monsieur Gravier. + +"Why he told us that he was obliged to sit to-day; the minor cases are +before the Court," replied the other. + +"And did you believe that?" cried Gatien. "Well, my papa said to me, +'Monsieur Lebas will not join you early, for Monsieur de Clagny has +begged him as his deputy to sit for him!'" + +"Indeed!" said Gravier, changing countenance. "And Monsieur de la +Baudraye is gone to La Charite!" + +"But why do you meddle in such matters?" said Bianchon to Gatien. + +"Horace is right," said Lousteau. "I cannot imagine why you trouble your +heads so much about each other; you waste your time in frivolities." + +Horace Bianchon looked at Etienne Lousteau, as much as to say +that newspaper epigrams and the satire of the "funny column" were +incomprehensible at Sancerre. + +On reaching a copse, Monsieur Gravier left the two great men and Gatien, +under the guidance of a keeper, to make their way through a little +ravine. + +"Well, we must wait for Monsieur Gravier," said Bianchon, when they had +reached a clearing. + +"You may be a great physician," said Gatien, "but you are ignorant of +provincial life. You mean to wait for Monsieur Gravier?--By this time +he is running like a hare, in spite of his little round stomach; he is +within twenty minutes of Anzy by now----" Gatien looked at his watch. +"Good! he will be just in time." + +"Where?" + +"At the chateau for breakfast," replied Gatien. "Do you suppose I could +rest easy if Madame de la Baudraye were alone with Monsieur de Clagny? +There are two of them now; they will keep an eye on each other. Dinah +will be well guarded." + +"Ah, ha! Then Madame de la Baudraye has not yet made up her mind?" said +Lousteau. + +"So mamma thinks. For my part, I am afraid that Monsieur de Clagny has +at last succeeded in bewitching Madame de la Baudraye. If he has been +able to show her that he had any chance of putting on the robes of the +Keeper of the Seals, he may have hidden his moleskin complexion, his +terrible eyes, his touzled mane, his voice like a hoarse crier's, his +bony figure, like that of a starveling poet, and have assumed all the +charms of Adonis. If Dinah sees Monsieur de Clagny as Attorney-General, +she may see him as a handsome youth. Eloquence has great +privileges.--Besides, Madame de la Baudraye is full of ambition. She +does not like Sancerre, and dreams of the glories of Paris." + +"But what interest have you in all this?" said Lousteau. "If she is in +love with the Public Prosecutor!--Ah! you think she will not love him +for long, and you hope to succeed him." + +"You who live in Paris," said Gatien, "meet as many different women as +there are days in the year. But at Sancerre, where there are not half +a dozen, and where, of those six, five set up for the most extravagant +virtue, when the handsomest of them all keeps you at an infinite +distance by looks as scornful as though she were of the blood royal, a +young man of two-and-twenty may surely be allowed to make a guess at her +secrets, since she must then treat him with some consideration." + +"Consideration! So that is what you call it in these parts?" said the +journalist with a smile. + +"I should suppose Madame de la Baudraye to have too much good taste to +trouble her head about that ugly ape," said Bianchon. + +"Horace," said Lousteau, "look here, O learned interpreter of human +nature, let us lay a trap for the Public Prosecutor; we shall be doing +our friend Gatien a service, and get a laugh out of it. I do not love +Public Prosecutors." + +"You have a keen intuition of destiny," said Horace. "But what can we +do?" + +"Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives +caught out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible +circumstances.--Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la Baudraye +and de Clagny will make." + +"Not amiss!" said Bianchon; "one or the other must surely, by look or +gesture--" + +"I know a newspaper editor," Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien, "who, +anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but such as +tell the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to pieces; of +wives boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to read, hoping +that sheer fear will keep her faithful--satisfied with that humble +alternative, poor man! 'You see, my dear, to what the smallest error may +lead you!' says he, epitomizing Arnolfe's address to Agnes." + +"Madame de la Baudraye is quite guiltless; this youth sees double," +said Bianchon. "Madame Piedefer seems to me far too pious to invite her +daughter's lover to the Chateau d'Anzy. Madame de la Baudraye would have +to hoodwink her mother, her husband, her maid, and her mother's maid; +that is too much to do. I acquit her." + +"Well with more reason because her husband never 'quits her,'" said +Gatien, laughing at his own wit. + +"We can easily remember two or three stories that will make Dinah +quake," said Lousteau. "Young man--and you too, Bianchon--let me beg you +to maintain a stern demeanor; be thorough diplomatists, an easy manner +without exaggeration, and watch the faces of the two criminals, you +know, without seeming to do so--out of the corner of your eye, or in a +glass, on the sly. This morning we will hunt the hare, this evening we +will hunt the Public Prosecutor." + +The evening began with a triumph for Lousteau, who returned the album to +the lady with this elegy written in it: + + +SPLEEN + + You ask for verse from me, the feeble prey + Of this self-seeking world, a waif and stray + With none to whom to cling; + From me--unhappy, purblind, hopeless devil! + Who e'en in what is good see only evil + In any earthly thing! + + This page, the pastime of a dame so fair, + May not reflect the shadow of my care, + For all things have their place. + Of love, to ladies bright, the poet sings, + Of joy, and balls, and dress, and dainty things-- + Nay, or of God and Grace. + + It were a bitter jest to bid the pen + Of one so worn with life, so hating men, + Depict a scene of joy. + Would you exult in sight to one born blind, + Or--cruel! of a mother's love remind + Some hapless orphan boy? + + When cold despair has gripped a heart still fond, + When there is no young heart that will respond + To it in love, the future is a lie. + If there is none to weep when he is sad, + And share his woe, a man were better dead!-- + And so I soon must die. + + Give me your pity! often I blaspheme + The sacred name of God. Does it not seem + That I was born in vain? + Why should I bless him? Or why thank Him, since + He might have made me handsome, rich, a prince-- + And I am poor and plain? + +ETIENNE LOUSTEAU. September 1836, Chateau d'Anzy. + + +"And you have written those verses since yesterday?" cried Clagny in a +suspicious tone. + +"Dear me, yes, as I was following the game; it is only too evident! I +would gladly have done something better for madame." + +"The verses are exquisite!" cried Dinah, casting up her eyes to heaven. + +"They are, alas! the expression of a too genuine feeling," replied +Lousteau, in a tone of deep dejection. + +The reader will, of course, have guessed that the journalist had stored +these lines in his memory for ten years at least, for he had written +them at the time of the Restoration in disgust at being unable to get +on. Madame de la Baudraye gazed at him with such pity as the woes of +genius inspire; and Monsieur de Clagny, who caught her expression, +turned in hatred against this sham _Jeune Malade_ (the name of an +Elegy written by Millevoye). He sat down to backgammon with the cure +of Sancerre. The Presiding Judge's son was so extremely obliging as to +place a lamp near the two players in such a way as that the light +fell full on Madame de la Baudraye, who took up her work; she was +embroidering in coarse wool a wicker-plait paper-basket. The three +conspirators sat close at hand. + +"For whom are you decorating that pretty basket, madame?" said Lousteau. +"For some charity lottery, perhaps?" + +"No," she said, "I think there is too much display in charity done to +the sound of a trumpet." + +"You are very indiscreet," said Monsieur Gravier. + +"Can there be any indiscretion," said Lousteau, "in inquiring who the +happy mortal may be in whose room that basket is to stand?" + +"There is no happy mortal in the case," said Dinah; "it is for Monsieur +de la Baudraye." + +The Public Prosecutor looked slily at Madame de la Baudraye and her +work, as if he had said to himself, "I have lost my paper-basket!" + +"Why, madame, may we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, happy +in her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors are red +and black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope that +twelve years after, my wife's embroidered baskets may still be for me." + +"And why should they not be for you?" said the lady, fixing her fine +gray eyes, full of invitation, on Etienne's face. + +"Parisians believe in nothing," said the lawyer bitterly. "The virtue of +women is doubted above all things with terrible insolence. Yes, for some +time past the books you have written, you Paris authors, your farces, +your dramas, all your atrocious literature, turn on adultery--" + +"Come, come, Monsieur the Public Prosecutor," retorted Etienne, +laughing, "I left you to play your game in peace, I did not attack you, +and here you are bringing an indictment against me. On my honor as a +journalist, I have launched above a hundred articles against the writers +you speak of; but I confess that in attacking them it was to attempt +something like criticism. Be just; if you condemn them, you must condemn +Homer, whose _Iliad_ turns on Helen of Troy; you must condemn Milton's +_Paradise Lost_. Eve and her serpent seem to me a pretty little case of +symbolical adultery; you must suppress the Psalms of David, inspired by +the highly adulterous love affairs of that Louis XIV. of Judah; you must +make a bonfire of _Mithridate, le Tartuffe, l'Ecole des Femmes, Phedre, +Andromaque, le Mariage de Figaro_, Dante's _Inferno_, Petrarch's +Sonnets, all the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the romances of the +Middle Ages, the History of France, and of Rome, etc., etc. Excepting +Bossuet's _Histoire des Variations_ and Pascal's _Provinciales_, I do +not think there are many books left to read if you insist on eliminating +all those in which illicit love is mentioned." + +"Much loss that would be!" said Monsieur de Clagny. + +Etienne, nettled by the superior air assumed by Monsieur de Clagny, +wanted to infuriate him by one of those cold-drawn jests which consist +in defending an opinion in which we have no belief, simply to rouse the +wrath of a poor man who argues in good faith; a regular journalist's +pleasantry. + +"If we take up the political attitude into which you would force +yourself," he went on, without heeding the lawyer's remark, "and assume +the part of Public Prosecutor of all the ages--for every Government +has its public ministry--well, the Catholic religion is infected at its +fountain-head by a startling instance of illegal union. In the opinion +of King Herod, and of Pilate as representing the Roman Empire, Joseph's +wife figured as an adulteress, since, by her avowal, Joseph was not +the father of Jesus. The heathen judge could no more recognize the +Immaculate Conception than you yourself would admit the possibility of +such a miracle if a new religion should nowadays be preached as based +on a similar mystery. Do you suppose that a judge and jury in a police +court would give credence to the operation of the Holy Ghost! And yet +who can venture to assert that God will never again redeem mankind? Is +it any better now than it was under Tiberius?" + +"Your argument is blasphemy," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"I grant it," said the journalist, "but not with malicious intent. +You cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he +sentenced Jesus, and Anytus--who spoke for the aristocratic party at +Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented +established social interests which held themselves legitimate, invested +with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves. Pilate and +Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public prosecutors +who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle; who, at this +day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms against the +throne as established by the revolution of July, and the innovators +who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under pretence of +organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the great families +of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals; to those ancient +aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of the Mountain; and if +their followers had been victorious, they would have produced a little +'ninety-three' in the Roman Empire or in Attica." + +"What are you trying to come to, monsieur?" asked the lawyer. + +"To adultery!--For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe may +very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in adultery; as +we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is an epitome +of the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never had the least +intention of constituting that camel-driver His Prophet." + +"If there were many men like you in France--and there are more than +enough, unfortunately--all government would be impossible." + +"And there would be no religion at all," said Madame Piedefer, who had +been making strangely wry faces all through this discussion. + +"You are paining them very much," said Bianchon to Lousteau in an +undertone. "Do not talk of religion; you are saying things that are +enough to upset them." + +"If I were a writer or a romancer," said Monsieur Gravier, "I should +take the side of the luckless husbands. I, who have seen many things, +and strange things too, know that among the ranks of deceived husbands +there are some whose attitude is not devoid of energy, men who, at a +crisis, can be very dramatic, to use one of your words, monsieur," he +said, addressing Etienne. + +"You are very right, my dear Monsieur Gravier," said Lousteau. "I never +thought that deceived husbands were ridiculous; on the contrary, I think +highly of them--" + +"Do you not think a husband's confidence a sublime thing?" said +Bianchon. "He believes in his wife, he does not suspect her, he trusts +her implicitly. But if he is so weak as to trust her, you make game of +him; if he is jealous and suspicious, you hate him; what, then, I ask +you, is the happy medium for a man of spirit?" + +"If Monsieur de Clagny had not just expressed such vehement disapproval +of the immorality of stories in which the matrimonial compact is +violated, I could tell you of a husband's revenge," said Lousteau. + +Monsieur de Clagny threw the dice with a convulsive jerk, and dared not +look up at the journalist. + +"A story, from you!" cried Madame de la Baudraye. "I should hardly have +dared to hope for such a treat--" + +"It is not my story, madame; I am not clever enough to invent such a +tragedy. It was told me--and how delightfully!--by one of our greatest +writers, the finest literary musician of our day, Charles Nodier." + +"Well, tell it," said Dinah. "I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have +no comparison to fear." + +"Not long after the 18th Brumaire," Etienne began, "there was, as +you know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee. The First Consul, +anxious before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations +with the rebel chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, while +combining his plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of Italian +diplomacy, he also set the Machiavelian springs of the police in +movement, Fouche then being at its head. And none of these means were +superfluous to stifle the fire of war then blaring in the West. + +"At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the +Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between certain +magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the Royalist +party. The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he landed--for +he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner. However, as a man +of practical intelligence, he had calculated all the risks of the +undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, and the men told +off to take him were afraid of blundering. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir--I now remember his name--had studied +his part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, +persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly that +he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the spies +had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too minute. In +this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an arbitrary act +than to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister attached great +importance. In those days of liberty the agents of the powers in +authority cared little enough for what we now regard as _legal_. The +Chevalier was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until the superior +officials should come to some decision as to his identity. He had not +long to wait for it; orders were given to guard the prisoner closely in +spite of his denials. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to further +orders, to the Castle of l'Escarpe, a name which sufficiently indicates +its situation. This fortress, perched on very high rocks, has precipices +for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep and dangerous +paths; and, like every ancient castle, its principal gate has a +drawbridge over a wide moat. The commandant of this prison, delighted +to have charge of a man of family whose manners were most agreeable, +who expressed himself well, and seemed highly educated, received the +Chevalier as a godsend; he offered him the freedom of the place on +parole, that they might together the better defy its dulness. The +prisoner was more than content. + +"Beauvoir was a loyal gentleman, but, unfortunately, he was also a very +handsome youth. He had attractive features, a dashing air, a pleasing +address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full of +enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable leader +of guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant gave his +prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his table, and +at first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This officer was a +Corsican and married; his wife was pretty and charming, and he thought +her, perhaps, not to be trusted--at any rate, he was as jealous as a +Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The lady took a fancy +to Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his taste; perhaps they +loved! Love in a prison is quick work. Did they commit some imprudence? +Was the sentiment they entertained something warmer than the superficial +gallantry which is almost a duty of men towards women? + +"Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the +story; it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself +justified in treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir was +placed in the dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and fettered +in accordance with the time-honored traditions of the treatment lavished +on captives. His cell, under the fortress-yard, was vaulted with hard +stone, the walls were of desperate thickness; the tower overlooked the +precipice. + +"When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of +escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort and +the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the trifles +which in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours and the +days; he studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he became +absorbed in himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine; then, +at the end of a fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible malady, that +fever for liberty, which drives prisoners to those heroic efforts of +which the prodigious achievements seem to us impossible, though true, +and which my friend the doctor" (and he turned to Bianchon) "would +perhaps ascribe to some unknown forces too recondite for his +physiological analysis to detect, some mysteries of the human will of +which the obscurity baffles science." + +Bianchon shook his head in negation. + +"Beauvoir was eating his heart out, for death alone could set him +free. One morning the turnkey, whose duty it was to bring him his food, +instead of leaving him when he had given him his meagre pittance, stood +with his arms folded, looking at him with strange meaning. Conversation +between them was brief, and the warder never began it. The Chevalier +was therefore greatly surprised when the man said to him: 'Of course, +monsieur, you know your own business when you insist on being always +called Monsieur Lebrun, or citizen Lebrun. It is no concern of mine; +ascertaining your name is no part of my duty. It is all the same to +me whether you call yourself Peter or Paul. If every man minds his own +business, the cows will not stray. At the same time, _I_ know,' said he, +with a wink, 'that you are Monsieur Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier +de Beauvoir, and cousin to Madame la Duchesse de Maille.--Heh?' he added +after a short silence, during which he looked at his prisoner. + +"Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine +that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known. + +"'Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I +gain by that?' said he. + +"'Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,' replied the jailer in an +undertone. 'I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a minute! +If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot out of +hand. So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than will just +earn the money.--Look here,' said he, taking a small file out of his +pocket, 'this is your key; with this you can cut through one of your +bars. By the Mass, but it will not be any easy job,' he went on, +glancing at the narrow loophole that let daylight into the dungeon. + +"It was in a splayed recess under the deep cornice that ran round the +top of the tower, between the brackets that supported the embrasures. + +"'Monsieur,' said the man, 'you must take care to saw through the iron +low enough to get your body through.' + +"'I will get through, never fear,' said the prisoner. + +"'But high enough to leave a stanchion to fasten a cord to,' the warder +went on. + +"'And where is the cord?' asked Beauvoir. + +"'Here,' said the man, throwing down a knotted rope. 'It is made of +raveled linen, that you may be supposed to have contrived it yourself, +and it is long enough. When you have got to the bottom knot, let +yourself drop gently, and the rest you must manage for yourself. You +will probably find a carriage somewhere in the neighborhood, and friends +looking out for you. But I know nothing about that.--I need not remind +you that there is a man-at-arms to the right of the tower. You will take +care, of course, to choose a dark night, and wait till the sentinel is +asleep. You must take your chance of being shot; but--' + +"'All right! All right! At least I shall not rot here,' cried the young +man. + +"'Well, that may happen nevertheless,' replied the jailer, with a stupid +expression. + +"Beauvoir thought this was merely one of the aimless remarks that such +folks indulge in. The hope of freedom filled him with such joy that he +could not be troubled to consider the words of a man who was no more +than a better sort of peasant. He set to work at once, and had filed +the bars through in the course of the day. Fearing a visit from the +Governor, he stopped up the breaches with bread crumb rubbed in rust +to make it look like iron; he hid his rope, and waited for a favorable +night with the intensity of anticipation, the deep anguish of soul that +makes a prisoner's life dramatic. + +"At last, one murky night, an autumn night, he finished cutting through +the bars, tied the cord firmly to the stump, and perched himself on the +sill outside, holding on by one hand to the piece of iron remaining. +Then he waited for the darkest hour of the night, when the sentinels +would probably be asleep; this would be not long before dawn. He knew +the hours of their rounds, the length of each watch, every detail with +which prisoners, almost involuntarily, become familiar. He waited till +the moment when one of the men-at-arms had spent two-thirds of his watch +and gone into his box for shelter from the fog. Then, feeling sure that +the chances were at the best for his escape, he let himself down knot by +knot, hanging between earth and sky, and clinging to his rope with the +strength of a giant. All was well. At the last knot but one, just as he +was about to let himself drop, a prudent impulse led him to feel for +the ground with his feet, and he found no footing. The predicament +was awkward for a man bathed in sweat, tired, and perplexed, and in a +position where his life was at stake on even chances. He was about to +risk it, when a trivial incident stopped him; his hat fell off; happily, +he listened for the noise it must make in striking the ground, and he +heard not a sound. + +"The prisoner felt vaguely suspicious as to this state of affairs. He +began to wonder whether the Commandant had not laid a trap for him--but +if so, why? Torn by doubts, he almost resolved to postpone the attempt +till another night. At any rate, he would wait for the first gleam of +day, when it would still not be impossible to escape. His great strength +enabled him to climb up again to his window; still, he was almost +exhausted by the time he gained the sill, where he crouched on the +lookout, exactly like a cat on the parapet of a gutter. Before long, by +the pale light of dawn, he perceived as he waved the rope that there +was a little interval of a hundred feet between the lowest knot and the +pointed rocks below. + +"'Thank you, my friend, the Governor!' said he, with characteristic +coolness. Then, after a brief meditation on this skilfully-planned +revenge, he thought it wise to return to his cell. + +"He laid his outer clothes conspicuously on the bed, left the rope +outside to make it seem that he had fallen, and hid himself behind the +door to await the arrival of the treacherous turnkey, arming himself +with one of the iron bars he had filed out. The jailer, who returned +rather earlier than usual to secure the dead man's leavings, opened the +door, whistling as he came in; but when he was at arm's length, Beauvoir +hit him such a tremendous blow on the head that the wretch fell in a +heap without a cry; the bar had cracked his skull. + +"The Chevalier hastily stripped him and put on his clothes, mimicked his +walk, and, thanks to the early hour and the undoubting confidence of the +warders of the great gate, he walked out and away." + +It did not seem to strike either the lawyer or Madame de la Baudraye +that there was in this narrative the least allusion that should apply +to them. Those in the little plot looked inquiringly at each other, +evidently surprised at the perfect coolness of the two supposed lovers. + +"Oh! I can tell you a better story than that," said Bianchon. + +"Let us hear," said the audience, at a sign from Lousteau, conveying +that Bianchon had a reputation as a story-teller. + +Among the stock of narratives he had in store, for every clever man +has a fund of anecdotes as Madame de la Baudraye had a collection of +phrases, the doctor chose that which is known as _La Grande Breteche_, +and is so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the +_Gymnase-Dramatique_ under the title of _Valentine_. So it is not +necessary to repeat it here, though it was then new to the inhabitants +of the Chateau d'Anzy. And it was told with the same finish of gesture +and tone which had won such praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle +des Touches' supper-party he had told it for the first time. The final +picture of the Spanish grandee, starved to death where he stood in the +cupboard walled up by Madame de Merret's husband, and that husband's +last word as he replied to his wife's entreaty, "You swore on that +crucifix that there was no one in that closet!" produced their full +effect. There was a silent minute, highly flattering to Bianchon. + +"Do you know, gentlemen," said Madame de la Baudraye, "love must be +a mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a +position?" + +"I, who have certainly seen some strange things in the course of my +life," said Gravier, "was cognizant in Spain of an adventure of the same +kind." + +"You come forward after two great performers," said Madame de la +Baudraye, with coquettish flattery, as she glanced at the two Parisians. +"But never mind--proceed." + +"Some little time after his entry into Madrid," said the +Receiver-General, "the Grand Duke of Berg invited the magnates of the +capital to an entertainment given to the newly conquered city by the +French army. In spite of the splendor of the affair, the Spaniards were +not very cheerful; their ladies hardly danced at all, and most of the +company sat down to cards. The gardens of the Duke's palace were so +brilliantly illuminated, that the ladies could walk about in as perfect +safety as in broad daylight. The fete was of imperial magnificence. +Nothing was grudged to give the Spaniards a high idea of the Emperor, if +they were to measure him by the standard of his officers. + +"In an arbor near the house, between one and two in the morning, a party +of French officers were discussing the chances of war, and the not too +hopeful outlook prognosticated by the conduct of the Spaniards present +at that grand ball. + +"'I can only tell you,' said the surgeon-major of the company of which I +was paymaster, 'I applied formally to Prince Murat only yesterday to +be recalled. Without being afraid exactly of leaving my bones in the +Peninsula, I would rather dress the wounds made by our worthy neighbors +the Germans. Their weapons do not run quite so deep into the body as +these Castilian daggers. Besides, a certain dread of Spain is, with +me, a sort of superstition. From my earliest youth I have read Spanish +books, and a heap of gloomy romances and tales of adventures in this +country have given me a serious prejudice against its manners and +customs. + +"'Well, now, since my arrival in Madrid, I have already been, not +indeed the hero, but the accomplice of a dangerous intrigue, as dark and +mysterious as any romance by Lady (Mrs.) Radcliffe. I am apt to attend +to my presentiments, and I am off to-morrow. Murat will not refuse me +leave, for, thanks to our varied services, we always have influential +friends.' + +"'Since you mean to cut your stick, tell us what's up,' said an old +Republican colonel, who cared not a rap for Imperial gentility and +choice language. + +"The surgeon-major looked about him cautiously, as if to make sure +who were his audience, and being satisfied that no Spaniard was within +hearing, he said: + +"'We are none but Frenchmen--then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. About +six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at night, +after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few yards from +mine. We had come away together from the Quartermaster-General's, where +we had played rather high at _bouillotte_. Suddenly, at the corner of a +narrow high-street, two strangers, or rather, two demons, rushed upon me +and flung a large cloak round my head and arms. I yelled out, as you may +suppose, like a dog that is thrashed, but the cloth smothered my voice, +and I was lifted into a chaise with dexterous rapidity. When my two +companions released me from the cloak, I heard these dreadful words +spoken by a woman, in bad French: + +"'"If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very +least suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will stab +you without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.--Now, I will tell +you why you have been carried off. If you will take the trouble to put +your hand out in this direction, you will find your case of instruments +lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to your rooms, in your +name. You will need them. We are taking you to a house that you may +save the honor of a lady who is about to give birth to a child that +she wishes to place in this gentleman's keeping without her husband's +knowledge. Though monsieur rarely leaves his wife, with whom he is +still passionately in love, watching over her with all the vigilance +of Spanish jealousy, she had succeeded in concealing her condition; he +believes her to be ill. You must bring the child into the world. The +dangers of this enterprise do not concern us: only, you must obey us, +otherwise the lover, who is sitting opposite to you in this carriage, +and who does not understand a word of French, will kill you on the least +rash movement." + +"'"And who are you?" I asked, feeling for the speaker's hand, for her +arm was inside the sleeve of a soldier's uniform. + +"'"I am my lady's waiting-woman," said she, "and ready to reward you +with my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our +necessities." + +"'"Gladly," said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a perilous +adventure. + +"'Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure of +the girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her tone +of voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the first +to accept all the chances of this strange act of kidnapping, for she +kept silence very obligingly, and the coach had not been more than ten +minutes on the way when she accepted and returned a very satisfactory +kiss. The lover, who sat opposite to me, took no offence at an +occasional quite involuntary kick; as he did not understand French, I +conclude he paid no heed to them. + +"'"I can be your mistress on one condition only," said the woman, in +reply to the nonsense I poured into her ear, carried away by the fervor +of an improvised passion, to which everything was unpropitious. + +"'"And what is it?" + +"'"That you will never attempt to find out whose servant I am. If I am +to go to you, it must be at night, and you must receive me in the dark." + +"'"Very good," said I. + +"'We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden +wall. + +"'"You must allow me to bandage your eyes," said the maid. "You can lean +on my arm, and I will lead you." + +"'She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot at +the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously fitted +to the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who had sat +opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was slender, +and who walked with an elegant jauntiness'--_meneho_, as they call it," +Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, "a word which describes +the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of their dress +that shall be nameless.--'The waiting-woman'--it is the surgeon-major +who is speaking," the narrator went on--"'led me along the gravel walks +of a large garden, till at a certain spot she stopped. From the louder +sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we were close to the house. +"Now silence!" said she in a whisper, "and mind what you are about. Do +not overlook any of my signals; I cannot speak without terrible +danger for both of us, and at this moment your life is of the first +importance." Then she added: "My mistress is in a room on the ground +floor. To get into it we must pass through her husband's room and close +to his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and follow me closely, so as not +to knock against the furniture or tread anywhere but on the carpets I +laid down." + +"'Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much +delay. + +"'The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of +the house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl's light hand +removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, badly +lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous husband +had fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack, as it were. + +"'On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with +a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and +flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her +mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it: I never saw +finer limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string +thrown on the fire. The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her +legs by setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both hands +she held on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with every +vein painfully swelled. She might have been a criminal undergoing +torture. But she did not utter a cry; there was not a sound, all +three speechless and motionless. The husband snored with reassuring +regularity. I wanted to study the waiting-woman's face, but she had +put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our drive, and +I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a pleasingly rounded +figure. + +"'The lover threw some towels over his mistress' legs and folded the +muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady +with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once +before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I +turned to the maid in order to tell her this. Instantly the suspicious +stranger drew his dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the +woman, who explained in a word or two to him in a low voice. On hearing +my opinion, a quick, slight shudder ran through him from head to foot +like a lightning flash; I fancied I could see him turn pale under his +black velvet mask. + +"'The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in +despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some +glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her +head negatively. I understood that I was not to drink anything in spite +of the dreadful thirst that parched my throat. The lover was thirsty +too; he took an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, and drank +it off. + +"'At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed +me that now was the time to operate. I summoned all my courage, and in +about an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting +it up to extract it. The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, +understanding that I had saved the mother's life. Large tears fell on +his cloak. The woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted +animal, and was bathed in sweat. + +"'At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her +husband's room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard the +rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain. We all +paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the eyeholes of +their masks, gave each other a look that said, "If he wakes, shall we +kill him?" + +"'At that instant I put out my hand to take the glass of lemonade the +Spaniard had drunk of. He, thinking that I was about to take one of the +full glasses, sprang forward like a cat, and laid his long dagger over +the two poisoned goblets, leaving me his own, and signing to me to drink +what was left. So much was conveyed by this quick action, and it was +so full of good feeling, that I forgave him his atrocious schemes for +killing me, and thus burying every trace of this event. + +"'After two hours of care and alarms, the maid and I put her mistress +to bed. The lover, forced into so perilous an adventure, had, to provide +means in case of having to fly, a packet of diamonds stuck to paper; +these he put into my pocket without my knowing it; and I may add +parenthetically, that as I was ignorant of the Spaniard's magnificent +gift, my servant stole the jewels the day after, and went off with a +perfect fortune. + +"'I whispered my instructions to the waiting-woman as to the further +care of her patient, and wanted to be gone. The maid remained with her +mistress, which was not very reassuring, but I was on my guard. The +lover made a bundle of the dead infant and the blood-stained clothes, +tying it up tightly, and hiding it under his cloak; he passed his hand +over my eyes as if to bid me to see nothing, and signed to me to take +hold of the skirt of his coat. He went first out of the room, and I +followed, not without a parting glance at my lady of an hour. She, +seeing the Spaniard had gone out, snatched off her mask and showed me an +exquisite face. + +"'When I found myself in the garden, in the open air, I confess that I +breathed as if a heavy load had been lifted from my breast. I followed +my guide at a respectful distance, watching his least movement with keen +attention. Having reached the little door, he took my hand and pressed a +seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen him wearing on a finger +of his left hand, and I gave him to understand that this significant +sign would be obeyed. In the street two horses were waiting; we each +mounted one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held his own between his teeth, +for his right hand held the bloodstained bundle, and we went off at +lightning speed. + +"'I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we +came by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard +fled towards the Atocha gate.' + +"'And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman was +whom you had attended?' the Colonel asked of the surgeon. + +"'One thing only,' he replied. 'When I turned the unknown lady over, I +happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as +a lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.'--At this instant the rash +speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his, followed +his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes shone through +a clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object of our attention, +the man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A young captain rushed +in pursuit. + +"'By Heaven!' cried the surgeon, 'that basilisk stare has chilled me +through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take +leave of you; you will bury me here!' + +"'What a fool you are!' exclaimed Colonel Hulot. 'Falcon is on the track +of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to account.' + +"'Well,' cried one and another, seeing the captain return quite out of +breath. + +"'The devil's in it,' said Falcon; 'the man went through a wall, I +believe! As I do not suppose that he is a wizard, I fancy he must belong +to the house! He knows every corner and turning, and easily escaped.' + +"'I am done for,' said the surgeon, in a gloomy voice. + +"'Come, come, keep calm, Bega,' said I (his name was Bega), 'we will sit +on watch with you till you leave. We will not leave you this evening.' + +"In point of fact, three young officers who had been losing at play went +home with the surgeon to his lodgings, and one of us offered to stay +with him. + +"Within two days Bega had obtained his recall to France; he made +arrangements to travel with a lady to whom Murat had given a strong +escort, and had just finished dinner with a party of friends, when +his servant came to say that a young lady wished to speak to him. +The surgeon and the three officers went down suspecting mischief. The +stranger could only say, 'Be on your guard--' when she dropped down +dead. It was the waiting-woman, who, finding she had been poisoned, had +hoped to arrive in time to warn her lover. + +"'Devil take it!' cried Captain Falcon, 'that is what I call love! No +woman on earth but a Spaniard can run about with a dose of poison in her +inside!' + +"Bega remained strangely pensive. To drown the dark presentiments that +haunted him, he sat down to table again, and with his companions drank +immoderately. The whole party went early to bed, half drunk. + +"In the middle of the night the hapless Bega was aroused by the sharp +rattle of the curtain rings pulled violently along the rods. He sat up +in bed, in the mechanical trepidation which we all feel on waking with +such a start. He saw standing before him a Spaniard wrapped in a cloak, +who fixed on him the same burning gaze that he had seen through the +bushes. + +"Bega shouted out, 'Help, help, come at once, friends!' But the Spaniard +answered his cry of distress with a bitter laugh.--'Opium grows for +all!' said he. + +"Having thus pronounced sentence as it were, the stranger pointed to the +three other men sleeping soundly, took from under his cloak the arm of +a woman, freshly amputated, and held it out to Bega, pointing to a mole +like that he had so rashly described. 'Is it the same?' he asked. By +the light of the lantern the man had set on the bed, Bega recognized the +arm, and his speechless amazement was answer enough. + +"Without waiting for further information, the lady's husband stabbed him +to the heart." + +"You must tell that to the marines!" said Lousteau. "It needs their +robust faith to swallow it! Can you tell me which told the tale, the +dead man or the Spaniard?" + +"Monsieur," replied the Receiver-General, "I nursed poor Bega, who died +five days after in dreadful suffering.--That is not the end. + +"At the time of the expedition sent out to restore Ferdinand VII. I was +appointed to a place in Spain; but, happily for me, I got no further +than Tours when I was promised the post of Receiver here at Sancerre. On +the eve of setting out I was at a ball at Madame de Listomere's, where +we were to meet several Spaniards of high rank. On rising from the +card-table, I saw a Spanish grandee, an _afrancesado_ in exile, who had +been about a fortnight in Touraine. He had arrived very late at this +ball--his first appearance in society--accompanied by his wife, whose +right arm was perfectly motionless. Everybody made way in silence for +this couple, whom we all watched with some excitement. Imagine a picture +by Murillo come to life. Under black and hollow brows the man's eyes +were like a fixed blaze; his face looked dried up, his bald skull was +red, and his frame was a terror to behold, he was so emaciated. His +wife--no, you cannot imagine her. Her figure had the supple swing for +which the Spaniards created the word _meneho_; though pale, she was +still beautiful; her complexion was dazzlingly fair--a rare thing in +a Spaniard; and her gaze, full of the Spanish sun, fell on you like a +stream of melted lead. + +"'Madame,' said I to her, towards the end of the evening, 'what +occurrence led to the loss of your arm?' + +"'I lost it in the war of independence,' said she." + +"Spain is a strange country," said Madame de la Baudraye. "It still +shows traces of Arab manners." + +"Oh!" said the journalist, laughing, "the mania for cutting off arms +is an old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our +newspaper hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the +Spanish stage so early as 1570--" + +"Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?" said Monsieur +Gravier, nettled by Lousteau's impertinent tone. + +"Quite incapable of such a thing," said the journalist with grave irony. + +"Pooh!" said Bianchon, "the inventions of romances and play-writers are +quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real life, +as the events of real life are made use of on the stage or adapted to a +tale. I have seen the comedy of _Tartufe_ played out--with the exception +of the close; Orgon's eyes could not be opened to the truth." + +"And the tragi-comedy of _Adolphe_ by Benjamin Constant is constantly +enacted," cried Lousteau. + +"And do you suppose," asked Madame de la Baudraye, "that such adventures +as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and in France?" + +"Dear me!" cried Clagny, "of the ten or twelve startling crimes that are +annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with circumstances +at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing them in romantic +details. Indeed, is not this proved by the reports in the _Gazette des +Tribunaux_--the Police news--in my opinion, one of the worst abuses of +the Press? This newspaper, which was started only in 1826 or '27, was +not in existence when I began my professional career, and the facts of +the crime I am about to speak of were not known beyond the limits of the +department where it was committed. + +"In the quarter of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours a woman whose husband +had disappeared at the time when the army of the Loire was disbanded, +and who had mourned him deeply, was conspicuous for her excess of +devotion. When the mission priests went through all the provinces to +restore the crosses that had been destroyed and to efface the traces +of revolutionary impiety, this widow was one of their most zealous +proselytes, she carried a cross and nailed to it a silver heart pierced +by an arrow; and, for a long time after, she went every evening to pray +at the foot of the cross which was erected behind the Cathedral apse. + +"At last, overwhelmed by remorse, she confessed to a horrible crime. She +had killed her husband, as Fualdes was murdered, by bleeding him; she +had salted the body and packed it in pieces into old casks, exactly as +if it have been pork; and for a long time she had taken a piece every +morning and thrown it into the Loire. Her confessor consulted his +superiors, and told her that it would be his duty to inform the +public prosecutor. The woman awaited the action of the Law. The public +prosecutor and the examining judge, on examining the cellar, found the +husband's head still in pickle in one of the casks.--'Wretched woman,' +said the judge to the accused, 'since you were so barbarous as to throw +your husband's body into the river, why did you not get rid of the head? +Then there would have been no proof.' + +"'I often tried, monsieur,' said she, 'but it was too heavy.'" + +"Well, and what became of the woman?" asked the two Parisians. + +"She was sentenced and executed at Tours," replied the lawyer; "but her +repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her monstrous +crime." + +"And do you suppose, said Bianchon, "that we know all the tragedies that +are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public never +lifts?--It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to judge of +crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to intervene as +the police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart of the matter." + +"The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor," said +Madame de la Baudraye guilelessly, "that the crime would sometimes seem +almost excusable if the accused could tell all." + +This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had +told, left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah's position. + +At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place +in the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, candle +in hand, for mysterious conversations. + +Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this +entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye's innocence +to light. + +"But, after all," said Lousteau, "our hostess' serenity may indicate +deep depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public +Prosecutor looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La +Baudraye should be put in pickle----" + +"He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the +course of the night?" said Gatien. + +"We will know!" cried Monsieur Gravier. + +In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are +considered admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur +Gravier, who had seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on +the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The +ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with +the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of a +door by means of two little flattened pills of wax, fixed so high up, or +so low down, that the trick is never suspected. If the gallant comes out +of his own door and opens the other, the broken hair tells the tale. + +When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist, +the receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and +silently fastened up the two doors, agreeing to come again at five +in the morning to examine the state of the fastenings. Imagine their +astonishment and Gatien's delight when all four, candle in hand, and +with hardly any clothes on, came to look at the hairs, and found them in +perfect preservation on both doors. + +"Is it the same wax?" asked Monsieur Gravier. + +"Are they the same hairs?" asked Lousteau. + +"Yes," replied Gatien. + +"This quite alters the matter!" cried Lousteau. "You have been beating +the bush for a will-o'-the-wisp." + +Monsieur Gravier and Gatien exchanged questioning glances which were +meant to convey, "Is there not something offensive to us in that speech? +Ought we to laugh or to be angry?" + +"If Dinah is virtuous," said the journalist in a whisper to Bianchon, +"she is worth an effort on my part to pluck the fruit of her first +love." + +The idea of carrying by storm a fortress that had for nine years stood +out against the besiegers of Sancerre smiled on Lousteau. + +With this notion in his head, he was the first to go down and into the +garden, hoping to meet his hostess. And this chance fell out all the +more easily because Madame de la Baudraye on her part wished to converse +with her critic. Half such chances are planned. + +"You were out shooting yesterday, monsieur," said Madame de la Baudraye. +"This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any new +amusement; unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you may +study more of our provincial life than you can see here, for you have +made but one mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying about the +handsomest girl in the world is not less true of the poor provincial +woman!" + +"That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech I +made simply to make him confess that he adored you," said Etienne. +"Your silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout the +evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we never +commit in Paris.--What can I say? I do not flatter myself that you +will understand me. In fact, I laid a plot for the telling of all those +stories yesterday solely to see whether I could rouse you and Monsieur +de Clagny to a pang of remorse.--Oh! be quite easy; your innocence is +fully proved. + +"If you had the slightest fancy for that estimable magistrate, you would +have lost all your value in my eyes.--I love perfection. + +"You do not, you cannot love that cold, dried-up, taciturn little +usurer on wine casks and land, who would leave any man in the lurch for +twenty-five centimes on a renewal. Oh, I have fully recognized Monsieur +de la Baudraye's similarity to a Parisian bill-discounter; their nature +is identical.--At eight-and-twenty, handsome, well conducted, and +childless--I assure you, madame, I never saw the problem of virtue more +admirably expressed.--The author of _Paquita la Sevillane_ must have +dreamed many dreams! + +"I can speak of such things without the hypocritical gloss lent them by +young men, for I am old before my time. I have no illusions left. Can a +man have any illusions in the trade I follow?" + +By opening the game in this tone, Lousteau cut out all excursions in the +_Pays de Tendre_, where genuine passion beats the bush so long; he went +straight to the point and placed himself in a position to force the +offer of what women often make a man pray for, for years; witness the +hapless Public Prosecutor, to whom the greatest favor had consisted +in clasping Dinah's hand to his heart more tenderly than usual as they +walked, happy man! + +And Madame de la Baudraye, to be true to her reputation as a Superior +Woman, tried to console the Manfred of the Press by prophesying such a +future of love as he had not had in his mind. + +"You have sought pleasure," said she, "but you have never loved. Believe +me, true love often comes late in life. Remember Monsieur de Gentz, who +fell in love in his old age with Fanny Ellsler, and left the Revolution +of July to take its course while he attended the dancer's rehearsals." + +"It seems to me unlikely," replied Lousteau. "I can still believe in +love, but I have ceased to believe in woman. There are in me, I suppose, +certain defects which hinder me from being loved, for I have often been +thrown over. Perhaps I have too strong a feeling for the ideal--like all +men who have looked too closely into reality----" + +Madame de la Baudraye at last heard the mind of a man who, flung into +the wittiest Parisian circles, represented to her its most daring +axioms, its almost artless depravity, its advanced convictions; who, if +he were not really superior, acted superiority extremely well. Etienne, +performing before Dinah, had all the success of a first night. _Paquita_ +of Sancerre scented the storms, the atmosphere of Paris. She spent one +of the most delightful days of her life with Lousteau and Bianchon, who +told her strange tales about the great men of the day, the anecdotes +which will some day form the _Ana_ of our century; sayings and doings +that were the common talk of Paris, but quite new to her. + +Of course, Lousteau spoke very ill of the great female celebrity of Le +Berry, with the obvious intention of flattering Madame de la Baudraye +and leading her into literary confidences, by suggesting that she could +rival so great a writer. This praise intoxicated Madame de la Baudraye; +and Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Gravier, and Gatien, all thought her +warmer in her manner to Etienne than she had been on the previous day. +Dinah's three _attaches_ greatly regretted having all gone to Sancerre +to blow the trumpet in honor of the evening at Anzy; nothing, to hear +them, had ever been so brilliant. The Hours had fled on feet so light +that none had marked their pace. The two Parisians they spoke of as +perfect prodigies. + +These exaggerated reports loudly proclaimed on the Mall brought +sixteen persons to Anzy that evening, some in family coaches, some in +wagonettes, and a few bachelors on hired saddle horses. By about seven +o'clock this provincial company had made a more or less graceful entry +into the huge Anzy drawing-room, which Dinah, warned of the invasion, +had lighted up, giving it all the lustre it was capable of by taking +the holland covers off the handsome furniture, for she regarded this +assembly as one of her great triumphs. Lousteau, Bianchon, and Dinah +exchanged meaning looks as they studied the attitudes and listened to +the speeches of these visitors, attracted by curiosity. + +What invalided ribbons, what ancestral laces, what ancient flowers, +more imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some perennial +caps! The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon's cousin, exchanged a few +words with the doctor, from whom she extracted some "advice gratis" +by expatiating on certain pains in the chest, which she declared were +nervous, but which he ascribed to chronic indigestion. + +"Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the +English do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an +English malady," Bianchon replied very gravely. + +"He is certainly a great physician," said the Presidente, coming back to +Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the Mayor's +wife. + +"They say," replied Madame de Clagny behind her fan, "that Dinah sent +for him, not so much with a view to the elections as to ascertain why +she has no children." + +In the first excitement of this success, Lousteau introduced the great +doctor as the only possible candidate at the ensuing elections. But +Bianchon, to the great satisfaction of the new Sous-prefet, remarked +that it seemed to him almost impossible to give up science in favor of +politics. + +"Only a physician without a practice," said he, "could care to be +returned as a deputy. Nominate statesmen, thinkers, men whose knowledge +is universal, and who are capable of placing themselves on the high +level which a legislator should occupy. That is what is lacking in our +Chambers, and what our country needs." + +Two or three young ladies, some of the younger men, and the elder women +stared at Lousteau as if he were a mountebank. + +"Monsieur Gatien Boirouge declares that Monsieur Lousteau makes twenty +thousand francs a year by his writings," observed the Mayor's wife to +Madame de Clagny. "Can you believe it?" + +"Is it possible? Why, a Public Prosecutor gets but a thousand crowns!" + +"Monsieur Gatien," said Madame Chandier, "get Monsieur Lousteau to talk +a little louder. I have not heard him yet." + +"What pretty boots he wears," said Mademoiselle Chandier to her brother, +"and how they shine!" + +"Yes--patent leather." + +"Why haven't you the same?" + +Lousteau began to feel that he was too much on show, and saw in the +manners of the good townsfolk indications of the desires that had +brought them there. + +"What trick can I play them?" thought he. + +At this moment the footman, so called--a farm-servant put into +livery--brought in the letters and papers, and among them a packet +of proof, which the journalist left for Bianchon; for Madame de la +Baudraye, on seeing the parcel, of which the form and string were +obviously from the printers, exclaimed: + +"What, does literature pursue you even here?" + +"Not literature," replied he, "but a review in which I am now finishing +a story to come out ten days hence. I have reached the stage of '_To +be concluded in our next_,' so I was obliged to give my address to +the printer. Oh, we eat very hard-earned bread at the hands of these +speculators in black and white! I will give you a description of these +editors of magazines." + +"When will the conversation begin?" Madame de Clagny asked of Dinah, as +one might ask, "When do the fireworks go off?" + +"I fancied we should hear some amusing stories," said Madame Popinot to +her cousin, the Presidente Boirouge. + +At this moment, when the good folks of Sancerre were beginning to murmur +like an impatient pit, Lousteau observed that Bianchon was lost in +meditation inspired by the wrapper round the proofs. + +"What is it?" asked Etienne. + +"Why, here is the most fascinating romance possible on some spoiled +proof used to wrap yours in. Here, read it. _Olympia, or Roman +Revenge_." + +"Let us see," said Lousteau, taking the sheet the doctor held out to +him, and he read aloud as follows:-- + + 240 OLYMPIA + + cavern. Rinaldo, indignant at his + companions' cowardice, for they had + no courage but in the open field, and + dared not venture into Rome, looked + at them with scorn. + + "Then I go alone?" said he. He + seemed to reflect, and then he went + on: "You are poor wretches. I shall + proceed alone, and have the rich + booty to myself.--You hear me! + Farewell." + + "My Captain," said Lamberti, "if + you should be captured without + having succeeded?" + + "God protects me!" said Rinaldo, + pointing to the sky. + + With these words he went out, + and on his way he met the steward + +"That is the end of the page," said Lousteau, to whom every one had +listened devoutly. + +"He is reading his work to us," said Gatien to Madame Popinot-Chandier's +son. + +"From the first word, ladies," said the journalist, jumping at an +opportunity of mystifying the natives, "it is evident that the brigands +are in a cave. But how careless romancers of that date were as to +details which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied under +the name of 'local color.' If the robbers were in a cavern, instead of +pointing to the sky he ought to have pointed to the vault above him.--In +spite of this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man of spirit, and his +appeal to God is quite Italian. There must have been a touch of local +color in this romance. Why, what with brigands, and a cavern, and +one Lamberti who could foresee future possibilities--there is a whole +melodrama in that page. Add to these elements a little intrigue, a +peasant maiden with her hair dressed high, short skirts, and a hundred +or so of bad couplets.--Oh! the public will crowd to see it! And then +Rinaldo--how well the name suits Lafont! By giving him black whiskers, +tightly-fitting trousers, a cloak, a moustache, a pistol, and a peaked +hat--if the manager of the Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to +pay for a few newspaper articles, that would secure fifty performances, +and six thousand francs for the author's rights, if only I were to cry +it up in my columns. + +"To proceed:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + The Duchess of Bracciano found + her glove. Adolphe, who had brought + her back to the orange grove, might + certainly have supposed that there + was some purpose in her forgetful- + ness, for at this moment the arbor + was deserted. The sound of the fes- + tivities was audible in the distance. + The puppet show that had been + promised had attracted all the + guests to the ballroom. Never had + Olympia looked more beautiful. + Her lover's eyes met hers with an + answering glow, and they under- + stood each other. There was a mo- + ment of silence, delicious to their + souls, and impossible to describe. + They sat down on the same bench + where they had sat in the presence + of the Cavaliere Paluzzi and the + +"Devil take it! Our Rinaldo has vanished!" cried Lousteau. "But a +literary man once started by this page would make rapid progress in +the comprehension of the plot. The Duchesse Olympia is a lady who could +intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor." + +"Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an +office, the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom, +it is impossible to discern in Olympia--" Bianchon began. + +"A woman of thirty," Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing +some all too medical term. + +"Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty," the doctor went on, "for an +Italian woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty." + +"From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed," said +Lousteau. "And this Cavaliere Paluzzi--what a man!--The style is weak in +these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise Office, +and wrote the novel to pay his tailor!" + +"In his time," said Bianchon, "the censor flourished; you must show as +much indulgence to a man who underwent the ordeal by scissors in 1805 as +to those who went to the scaffold in 1793." + +"Do you understand in the least?" asked Madame Gorju timidly of Madame +de Clagny. + +The Public Prosecutor's wife, who, to use a phrase of Monsieur +Gravier's, might have put a Cossack to flight in 1814, straightened +herself in her chair like a horseman in his stirrups, and made a face at +her neighbor, conveying, "They are looking at us; we must smile as if we +understood." + +"Charming!" said the Mayoress to Gatien. "Pray go on, Monsieur +Lousteau." + +Lousteau looked at the two women, two Indian idols, and contrived to +keep his countenance. He thought it desirable to say, "Attention!" +before going on as follows:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 209 + + dress rustled in the silence. Sud + denly Cardinal Borborigano stood + before the Duchess. + + "His face was gloomy, his brow + was dark with clouds, and a bitter + smile lurked in his wrinkles. + + "Madame," said he, "you are under + suspicion. If you are guilty, fly. If + you are not, still fly; because, + whether criminal or innocent, you + will find it easier to defend yourself + from a distance." + + "I thank your Eminence for your + solicitude," said she. "The Duke of + Bracciano will reappear when I find + it needful to prove that he is alive." + +"Cardinal Borborigano!" exclaimed Bianchon. "By the Pope's keys! If you +do not agree with me that there is a magnificent creation in the very +name, if at those words _dress rustled in the silence_ you do not feel +all the poetry thrown into the part of Schedoni by Mrs. Radcliffe in +_The Black Penitent_, you do not deserve to read a romance." + +"For my part," said Dinah, who had some pity on the eighteen faces +gazing up at Lousteau, "I see how the story is progressing. I know it +all. I am in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose wife, +as bold as she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a +volcano. Every night, at every kiss, she says to herself, 'All will be +discovered!'" + +"Can you see her," said Lousteau, "clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her +arms, to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?--Adolphe I see +as a well-made young man, but not clever--the sort of man an Italian +woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do not know, +but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by Pixerecourt. +Or we can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the background like a +figure in one of Victor Hugo's plays." + +"He, perhaps, is the husband," exclaimed Madame de la Baudraye. + +"Do you understand anything of it all?" Madame Piedefer asked of the +Presidente. + +"Why, it is charming!" said Dinah to her mother. + +All the good folks of Sancerre sat with eyes as large as five-franc +pieces. + +"Go on, I beg," said the hostess. + +Lousteau went on:-- + + 210 OLYMPIA + + "Your key----" + + "Have you lost it?" + + "It is in the arbor." + + "Let us hasten." + + "Can the Cardinal have taken it?" + + "No, here it is." + + "What danger we have escaped!" + + Olympia looked at the key, and + fancied she recognized it as her own. + But Rinaldo had changed it; his + cunning had triumphed; he had the + right key. Like a modern Cartouche, + he was no less skilful than bold, + and suspecting that nothing but a + vast treasure could require a duchess + to carry it constantly at her belt. + +"Guess!" cried Lousteau. "The corresponding page is not here. We must +look to page 212 to relieve our anxiety." + + 212 OLYMPIA + + "If the key had been lost?" + + "He would now be a dead man." + + "Dead? But ought you not to + grant the last request he made, and + to give him his liberty on the con- + ditions----" + + "You do not know him." + + "But--" + + "Silence! I took you for my + lover, not for my confessor." + + Adolphe was silent. + +"And then comes an exquisite galloping goat, a tail-piece drawn by +Normand, and cut by Duplat.--the names are signed," said Lousteau. + +"Well, and then?" said such of the audience as understood. + +"That is the end of the chapter," said Lousteau. "The fact of this +tailpiece changes my views as to the authorship. To have his book got +up, under the Empire, with vignettes engraved on wood, the writer must +have been a Councillor of State, or Madame Barthelemy-Hadot, or the late +lamented Desforges, or Sewrin." + +"'Adolphe was silent.'--Ah!" cried Bianchon, "the Duchess must have been +under thirty." + +"If there is no more, invent a conclusion," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"You see," said Lousteau, "the waste sheet has been printed fair on +one side only. In printer's lingo, it is a back sheet, or, to make it +clearer, the other side which would have to be printed is covered all +over with pages printed one above another, all experiments in making +up. It would take too long to explain to you all the complications of a +making-up sheet; but you may understand that it will show no more trace +of the first twelve pages that were printed on it than you would in the +least remember the first stroke of the bastinado if a Pasha condemned +you to have fifty on the soles of your feet." + +"I am quite bewildered," said Madame Popinot-Chandier to Monsieur +Gravier. "I am vainly trying to connect the Councillor of State, the +Cardinal, the key, and the making-up----" + +"You have not the key to the jest," said Monsieur Gravier. "Well! no +more have I, fair lady, if that can comfort you." + +"But here is another sheet," said Bianchon, hunting on the table where +the proofs had been laid. + +"Capital!" said Lousteau, "and it is complete and uninjured. It is +signed IV.; J, Second Edition. Ladies, the figure IV. means that this +is part of the fourth volume. The letter J, the tenth letter of the +alphabet, shows that this is the tenth sheet. And it is perfectly clear +to me, that in spite of any publisher's tricks, this romance in four +duodecimo volumes, had a great success, since it came to a second +edition.--We will read on and find a clue to the mystery. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 21 + + corridor; but finding that he was + pursued by the Duchess' people + +"Oh, get along!" + +"But," said Madame de la Baudraye, "some important events have taken +place between your waste sheet and this page." + +"This complete sheet, madame, this precious made-up sheet. But does the +waste sheet in which the Duchess forgets her gloves in the arbor belong +to the fourth volume? Well, deuce take it--to proceed. + + Rinaldo saw no safer refuge than to + make forthwith for the cellar where + the treasures of the Bracciano fam- + ily no doubt lay hid. As light of + foot as Camilla sung by the Latin + poet, he flew to the entrance to the + Baths of Vespasian. The torchlight + already flickered on the walls when + Rinaldo, with the readiness be- + stowed on him by nature, discovered + the door concealed in the stone- + work, and suddenly vanished. A + hideous thought then flashed on + Rinaldo's brain like lightning rend- + ing a cloud: He was imprisoned! + He felt the wall with uneasy haste + +"Yes, this made-up sheet follows the waste sheet. The last page of the +damaged sheet was 212, and this is 217. In fact, since Rinaldo, who +in the earlier fragment stole the key of the Duchess' treasure by +exchanging it for another very much like it, is now--on the made-up +sheet--in the palace of the Dukes of Bracciano, the story seems to me to +be advancing to a conclusion of some kind. I hope it is as clear to you +as it is to me.--I understand that the festivities are over, the lovers +have returned to the Bracciano Palace; it is night--one o'clock in the +morning. Rinaldo will have a good time." + +"And Adolphe too!" said President Boirouge, who was considered rather +free in his speech. + +"And the style!" said Bianchon.--"Rinaldo, who saw _no better refuge +than to make for the cellar_." + +"It is quite clear that neither Maradan, nor Treuttel and Wurtz, +nor Doguereau, were the printers," said Lousteau, "for they employed +correctors who revised the proofs, a luxury in which our publishers +might very well indulge, and the writers of the present day, would +benefit greatly. Some scrubby pamphlet printer on the Quay--" + +"What quay?" a lady asked of her neighbor. "They spoke of baths--" + +"Pray go on," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"At any rate, it is not by a councillor," said Bianchon. + +"It may be by Madame Hadot," replied Lousteau. + +"What has Madame Hadot of La Charite to do with it?" the Presidente +asked of her son. + +"This Madame Hadot, my dear friend," the hostess answered, "was an +authoress, who lived at the time of the Consulate." + +"What, did women write in the Emperor's time?" asked Madame +Popinot-Chandier. + +"What of Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael?" cried the Public +Prosecutor, piqued on Dinah's account by this remark. + +"To be sure!" + +"I beg you to go on," said Madame de la Baudraye to Lousteau. + +Lousteau went on saying: "Page 218. + + 218 OLYMPIA + + and gave a shriek of despair when + he had vainly sought any trace of a + secret spring. It was impossible to + ignore the horrible truth. The door, + cleverly constructed to serve the + vengeful purposes of the Duchess, + could not be opened from within. + Rinaldo laid his cheek against the + wall in various spots; nowhere + could he feel the warmer air from + the passage. He had hoped he + might find a crack that would show + him where there was an opening in + the wall, but nothing, nothing! The + whole seemed to be of one block of + marble. + + Then he gave a hollow roar like + that of a hyaena---- + +"Well, we fancied that the cry of the hyaena was a recent invention +of our own!" said Lousteau, "and here it was already known to the +literature of the Empire. It is even introduced with a certain skill in +natural history, as we see in the word _hollow_." + +"Make no more comments, monsieur," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"There, you see!" cried Bianchon. "Interest, the romantic demon, has you +by the collar, as he had me a while ago." + +"Read on," cried de Clagny, "I understand." + +"What a coxcomb!" said the Presiding Judge in a whisper to his neighbor +the Sous-prefet. + +"He wants to please Madame de la Baudraye," replied the new Sous-prefet. + +"Well, then I will read straight on," said Lousteau solemnly. + +Everybody listened in dead silence. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + A deep groan answered Rinaldo's + cry, but in his alarm he took it for + an echo, so weak and hollow was + the sound. It could not proceed + from any human breast. + + "Santa Maria!" said the voice. + + "If I stir from this spot I shall + never find it again," thought Ri- + naldo, when he had recovered his + usual presence of mind. "If I knock, + I shall be discovered. What am I + to do?" + + "Who is here?" asked the voice. + + "Hallo!" cried the brigand; "do + the toads here talk?" + + "I am the Duke of Bracciano. + Whoever you may be, if you are not + a follower of the Duchess', in the + name of all the saints, come towards + me." + + 220 OLYMPIA + + "I should have to know where to + find you, Monsieur le Duc," said Ri- + naldo, with the insolence of a man + who knows himself to be necessary. + + "I can see you, my friend, for my + eyes are accustomed to the darkness. + Listen: walk straight forward-- + good; now turn to the left--come + on--this way. There, we are close + to each other." + + Rinaldo putting out his hands as + a precaution, touched some iron + bars. + + "I am being deceived," cried the + bandit. + + "No, you are touching my cage. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 221 + + Sit down on a broken shaft of por- + phyry that is there." + + "How can the Duke of Bracciano + be in a cage?" asked the brigand. + + "My friend, I have been here for + thirty months, standing up, unable + to sit down----But you, who are + you?" + + "I am Rinaldo, prince of the Cam- + pagna, the chief of four-and-twenty + brave men whom the law describes + as miscreants, whom all the ladies + admire, and whom judges hang in + obedience to an old habit." + + "God be praised! I am saved. + An honest man would have been + afraid, whereas I am sure of coming + to an understanding with you," + cried the Duke. "Oh, my worthy + + 222 OLYMPIA + + deliverer, you must be armed to the + teeth." + + "_E verissimo_" (most true). + + "Do you happen to have--" + + "Yes, files, pincers--_Corpo di + Bacco_! I came to borrow the treas- + ures of the Bracciani on a long + loan." + + "You will earn a handsome share + of them very legitimately, my good + Rinaldo, and we may possibly go + man hunting together--" + + "You surprise me, Eccellenza!" + + "Listen to me, Rinaldo. I will + say nothing of the craving for + vengeance that gnaws at my heart. + I have been here for thirty months + --you too are Italian--you will un- + OR ROMAN REVENGE 223 + + derstand me! Alas, my friend, my + fatigue and my horrible incarcera- + tion are nothing in comparison + with the rage that devours my soul. + The Duchess of Bracciano is still + one of the most beautiful women in + Rome. I loved her well enough to + be jealous--" + + "You, her husband!" + + "Yes, I was wrong, no doubt." + + "It is not the correct thing, to be + sure," said Rinaldo. + + "My jealousy was roused by the + Duchess' conduct," the Duke went + on. "The event proved me right. A + young Frenchman fell in love with + Olympia, and she loved him. I had + proofs of their reciprocal affection + +"Pray excuse me, ladies," said Lousteau, "but I find it impossible to go +on without remarking to you how direct this Empire literature is, going +to the point without any details, a characteristic, as it seems to me, +of a primitive time. The literature of that period holds a place between +the summaries of chapters in _Telemaque_ and the categorical reports of +a public office. It had ideas, but refrained from expressing them, +it was so scornful! It was observant, but would not communicate its +observations to any one, it was so miserly! Nobody but Fouche ever +mentioned what he had observed. 'At that time,' to quote the words +of one of the most imbecile critics in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, +'literature was content with a clear sketch and the simple outline of +all antique statues. It did not dance over its periods.'--I should think +not! It had no periods to dance over. It had no words to play with. You +were plainly told that Lubin loved Toinette; that Toinette did not love +Lubin; that Lubin killed Toinette and the police caught Lubin, who was +put in prison, tried at the assizes, and guillotined.--A strong sketch, +a clear outline! What a noble drama! Well, in these days the barbarians +make words sparkle." + +"Like a hair in a frost," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"So those are the airs you affect?"[*] retorted Lousteau. + + [*] The rendering given above is only intended to link the + various speeches into coherence; it has no resemblance with + the French. In the original, "Font chatoyer les _mots_." + + "Et quelquefois les _morts_," dit Monsieur de Clagny. + + "Ah! Lousteau! vous vous donnez de ces R-la (airs-la)." + + Literally: "And sometimes the dead."--"Ah, are those the airs you + assume?"--the play on the insertion of the letter R (_mots, + morts_) has no meaning in English. + +"What can he mean?" asked Madame de Clagny, puzzled by this vile pun. + +"I seem to be walking in the dark," replied the Mayoress. + +"The jest would be lost in an explanation," remarked Gatien. + +"Nowadays," Lousteau went on, "a novelist draws characters, and instead +of a 'simple outline,' he unveils the human heart and gives you some +interest either in Lubin or in Toinette." + +"For my part, I am alarmed at the progress of public knowledge in the +matter of literature," said Bianchon. "Like the Russians, beaten by +Charles XII., who at least learned the art of war, the reader has +learned the art of writing. Formerly all that was expected of a romance +was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared for that, +not even the author; as to ideas--zero; as to local color--_non est_. +By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, and complete +information; he insists on the five literary senses--Invention, Style, +Thought, Learning, and Feeling. Then some criticism commenting on +everything. The critic, incapable of inventing anything but calumny, +pronounces every work that proceeds from a not perfect brain to be +deformed. Some magicians, as Walter Scott, for instance, having appeared +in the world, who combined all the five literary senses, such writers +as had but one--wit or learning, style or feeling--these cripples, these +acephalous, maimed or purblind creatures--in a literary sense--have +taken to shrieking that all is lost, and have preached a crusade against +men who were spoiling the business, or have denounced their works." + +"The history of your last literary quarrel!" Dinah observed. + +"For pity's sake, come back to the Duke of Bracciano," cried Monsieur de +Clagny. + +To the despair of all the company, Lousteau went on with the made-up +sheet. + + 224 OLYMPIA + + I then wished to make sure of my + misfortune that I might be avenged + under the protection of Providence + and the Law. The Duchess guessed + my intentions. We were at war in + our purposes before we fought with + poison in our hands. We tried to + tempt each other to such confidence + as we could not feel, I to induce her + to drink a potion, she to get posses- + sion of me. She was a woman, and + she won the day; for women have a + snare more than we men. I fell into + it--I was happy; but I awoke next + day in this iron cage. All through + the day I bellowed with rage in the + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 225 + + darkness of this cellar, over which + is the Duchess' bedroom. At night + an ingenious counterpoise acting as + a lift raised me through the floor, + and I saw the Duchess in her lover's + arms. She threw me a piece of + bread, my daily pittance. + + "Thus have I lived for thirty + months! From this marble prison + my cries can reach no ear. There is + no chance for me. I will hope no + more. Indeed, the Duchess' room is + at the furthest end of the palace, + and when I am carried up there + none can hear my voice. Each time + I see my wife she shows me the + + 226 OLYMPIA + + poison I had prepared for her and + her lover. I crave it for myself, but + she will not let me die; she gives + me bread, and I eat it. + + "I have done well to eat and live; + I had not reckoned on robbers!" + + "Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools + the honest men are asleep, we are + wide awake." + + "Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall + be yours; we will share my treasure + like brothers; I would give you + everything--even to my Duchy----" + + "Eccellenza, procure from the + Pope an absolution _in articulo mor- + tis_. It would be of more use to me + in my walk of life." + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 227 + + "What you will. Only file + through the bars of my cage and + lend me your dagger. We have but + little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my + teeth were but files!--I have tried + to eat through this iron." + + "Eccellenza," said Rinaldo, "I + have already filed through one bar." + + "You are a god!" + + "Your wife was at the fete given + by the Princess Villaviciosa. She + brought home her little Frenchman; + she is drunk with love.--You have + plenty of time." + + "Have you done?" + + "Yes." + + 228 OLYMPIA + + "Your dagger?" said the Duke + eagerly to the brigand. + + "Here it is." + + "Good. I hear the clatter of the + spring." + + "Do not forget me!" cried the + robber, who knew what gratitude + was. + + "No more than my father," cried + the Duke. + + "Good-bye!" said Rinaldo. "Lord! + How he flies up!" he added to him- + self as the Duke disappeared.--"No + more than his father! If that is + all he means to do for me.--And I + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 229 + + had sworn a vow never to injure a + woman!" + + But let us leave the robber for a + moment to his meditations and go + up, like the Duke, to the rooms in + the palace. + +"Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank," said the +journalist. "Then there are two more blank pages before we come to the +word it is such a joy to write when one is unhappily so happy as to be a +novelist--_Conclusion_! + + CONCLUSION + + Never had the Duchess been more + lovely; she came from her bath + clothed like a goddess, and on seeing + + 234 OLYMPIA + + Adolphe voluptuously reclining on + piles of cushions-- + + "You are beautiful," said she. + + "And so are you, Olympia!" + + "And you still love me?" + + "More and more," said he. + + "Ah, none but a Frenchman + knows how to love!" cried the + Duchess. "Do you love me well to- + night?" + + "Yes." + + "Then come!" + + And with an impulse of love and + hate--whether it was that Cardinal + Borborigano had reminded her of + her husband, or that she felt un- + wonted passion to display, she + pressed the springs and held out her + arms. + +"That is all," said Lousteau, "for the foreman has torn off the rest in +wrapping up my proofs. But it is enough to show that the author was full +of promise." + +"I cannot make head or tail of it," said Gatien Boirouge, who was the +first to break the silence of the party from Sancerre. + +"Nor I," replied Monsieur Gravier. + +"And yet it is a novel of the time of the Empire," said Lousteau. + +"By the way in which the brigand is made to speak," said Monsieur +Gravier, "it is evident that the author knew nothing of Italy. Banditti +do not allow themselves such graceful conceits." + +Madame Gorju came up to Bianchon, seeing him pensive, and with a glance +towards her daughter Mademoiselle Euphemie Gorju, the owner of a fairly +good fortune--"What a rhodomontade!" said she. "The prescriptions you +write are worth more than all that rubbish." + +The Mayoress had elaborately worked up this speech, which, in her +opinion, showed strong judgment. + +"Well, madame, we must be lenient, we have but twenty pages out of a +thousand," said Bianchon, looking at Mademoiselle Gorju, whose figure +threatened terrible things after the birth of her first child. + +"Well, Monsieur de Clagny," said Lousteau, "we were talking yesterday +of the forms of revenge invented by husbands. What do you say to those +invented by wives?" + +"I say," replied the Public Prosecutor, "that the romance is not by +a Councillor of State, but by a woman. For extravagant inventions the +imagination of women far outdoes that of men; witness _Frankenstein_ by +Mrs. Shelley, _Leone Leoni_ by George Sand, the works of Anne Radcliffe, +and the _Nouveau Promethee_ (New Prometheus) of Camille de Maupin." + +Dinah looked steadily at Monsieur de Clagny, making him feel, by an +expression that gave him a chill, that in spite of the illustrious +examples he had quoted, she regarded this as a reflection on _Paquita la +Sevillane_. + +"Pooh!" said little Baudraye, "the Duke of Bracciano, whom his wife puts +into a cage, and to whom she shows herself every night in the arms of +her lover, will kill her--and do you call that revenge?--Our laws and +our society are far more cruel." + +"Why, little La Baudraye is talking!" said Monsieur Boirouge to his +wife. + +"Why, the woman is left to live on a small allowance, the world turns +its back on her, she has no more finery, and no respect paid her--the +two things which, in my opinion, are the sum-total of woman," said the +little old man. + +"But she has happiness!" said Madame de la Baudraye sententiously. + +"No," said the master of the house, lighting his candle to go to bed, +"for she has a lover." + +"For a man who thinks of nothing but his vine-stocks and poles, he has +some spunk," said Lousteau. + +"Well, he must have something!" replied Bianchon. + +Madame de la Baudraye, the only person who could hear Bianchon's +remark, laughed so knowingly, and at the same time so bitterly, that the +physician could guess the mystery of this woman's life; her premature +wrinkles had been puzzling him all day. + +But Dinah did not guess, on her part, the ominous prophecy contained for +her in her husband's little speech, which her kind old Abbe Duret, if he +had been alive, would not have failed to elucidate. Little La Baudraye +had detected in Dinah's eyes, when she glanced at the journalist +returning the ball of his jests, that swift and luminous flash of +tenderness which gilds the gleam of a woman's eye when prudence is cast +to the winds, and she is fairly carried away. Dinah paid no more heed to +her husband's hint to her to observe the proprieties than Lousteau had +done to Dinah's significant warnings on the day of his arrival. + +Any other man than Bianchon would have been surprised at Lousteau's +immediate success; but he was so much the doctor, that he was not even +nettled at Dinah's marked preference for the newspaper-rather than the +prescription-writer! In fact, Dinah, herself famous, was naturally +more alive to wit than to fame. Love generally prefers contrast to +similitude. Everything was against the physician--his frankness, his +simplicity, and his profession. And this is why: Women who want +to love--and Dinah wanted to love as much as to be loved--have an +instinctive aversion for men who are devoted to an absorbing +occupation; in spite of superiority, they are all women in the matter +of encroachment. Lousteau, a poet and journalist, and a libertine with +a veneer of misanthropy, had that tinsel of the intellect, and led +the half-idle life that attracts women. The blunt good sense and keen +insight of the really great man weighed upon Dinah, who would not +confess her own smallness even to herself. She said in her mind--"The +doctor is perhaps the better man, but I do not like him." + +Then, again, she reflected on his professional duties, wondering whether +a woman could ever be anything but a _subject_ to a medical man, who saw +so many subjects in the course of a day's work. The first sentence of +the aphorism written by Bianchon in her album was a medical observation +striking so directly at woman, that Dinah could not fail to be hit by +it. And then Bianchon was leaving on the morrow; his practice required +his return. What woman, short of having Cupid's mythological dart in her +heart, could decide in so short a time? + +These little things, which lead to such great catastrophes--having been +seen in a mass by Bianchon, he pronounced the verdict he had come to as +to Madame de la Baudraye in a few words to Lousteau, to the journalist's +great amazement. + +While the two friends stood talking together, a storm was gathering in +the Sancerre circle, who could not in the least understand Lousteau's +paraphrases and commentaries, and who vented it on their hostess. Far +from finding in his talk the romance which the Public Prosecutor, the +Sous-prefet, the Presiding Judge, and his deputy, Lebas, had discovered +there--to say nothing of Monsieur de la Baudraye and Dinah--the ladies +now gathered round the tea-table, took the matter as a practical joke, +and accused the Muse of Sancerre of having a finger in it. They had all +looked forward to a delightful evening, and had all strained in vain +every faculty of their mind. Nothing makes provincial folks so angry as +the notion of having been a laughing-stock for Paris folks. + +Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, "Do go and talk +to the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior." + +Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah's great superiority over the best +women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were graceful, +her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight--in short, she stood +out against this background of old faces, shy and ill-dressed girls, +like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of Paris faded from his +brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial surroundings; and while he +had too much imagination to remain unimpressed by the royal splendor +of this chateau, the beautiful carvings, and the antique beauty of the +rooms, he had also too much experience to overlook the value of the +personality which completed this gem of the Renaissance. So by the time +the visitors from Sancerre had taken their leave one by one--for +they had an hour's drive before them--when no one remained in the +drawing-room but Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Lebas, Gatien, and +Monsieur Gravier, who were all to sleep at Anzy--the journalist had +already changed his mind about Dinah. His opinion had gone through the +evolution that Madame de la Baudraye had so audaciously prophesied at +their first meeting. + +"Ah, what things they will say about us on the drive home!" cried the +mistress of the house, as she returned to the drawing-room after seeing +the President and the Presidente to their carriage with Madame and +Mademoiselle Popinot-Chandier. + +The rest of the evening had its pleasant side. In the intimacy of a +small party each one brought to the conversation his contribution +of epigrams on the figure the visitors from Sancerre had cut during +Lousteau's comments on the paper wrapped round the proofs. + +"My dear fellow," said Bianchon to Lousteau as they went to bed--they +had an enormous room with two beds in it--"you will be the happy man of +this woman's choice--_nee_ Piedefer!" + +"Do you think so?" + +"It is quite natural. You are supposed here to have had many mistresses +in Paris; and to a woman there is something indescribably inviting in a +man whom other women favor--something attractive and fascinating; is it +that she prides herself on being longer remembered than all the rest? +that she appeals to his experience, as a sick man will pay more to +a famous physician? or that she is flattered by the revival of a +world-worn heart?" + +"Vanity and the senses count for so much in love affairs," said +Lousteau, "that there may be some truth in all those hypotheses. +However, if I remain, it will be in consequence of the certificate +of innocence, without ignorance, that you have given Dinah. She is +handsome, is she not?" + +"Love will make her beautiful," said the doctor. "And, after all, she +will be a rich widow some day or other! And a child would secure her the +life-interest in the Master of La Baudraye's fortune--" + +"Why, it is quite an act of virtue to make love to her," said Lousteau, +rolling himself up in the bed-clothes, "and to-morrow, with your +help--yes, to-morrow, I--well, good-night." + +On the following day, Madame de la Baudraye, to whom her husband had six +months since given a pair of horses, which he also used in the fields, +and an old carriage that rattled on the road, decided that she would +take Bianchon so far on his way as Cosne, where he would get into the +Lyons diligence as it passed through. She also took her mother and +Lousteau, but she intended to drop her mother at La Baudraye, to go on +to Cosne with the two Parisians, and return alone with Etienne. She +was elegantly dressed, as the journalist at once perceived--bronze kid +boots, gray silk stockings, a muslin dress, a green silk scarf with +shaded fringe at the ends, and a pretty black lace bonnet with flowers +in it. As to Lousteau, the wretch had assumed his war-paint--patent +leather boots, trousers of English kerseymere with pleats in front, +a very open waistcoat showing a particularly fine shirt and the black +brocade waterfall of his handsome cravat, and a very thin, very short +black riding-coat. + +Monsieur de Clagny and Monsieur Gravier looked at each other, feeling +rather silly as they beheld the two Parisians in the carriage, while +they, like two simpletons, were left standing at the foot of the steps. +Monsieur de la Baudraye, who stood at the top waving his little hand in +a little farewell to the doctor, could not forbear from smiling as he +heard Monsieur de Clagny say to Monsieur Gravier: + +"You should have escorted them on horseback." + +At this juncture, Gatien, riding Monsieur de la Baudraye's quiet little +mare, came out of the side road from the stables and joined the party in +the chaise. + +"Ah, good," said the Receiver-General, "the boy has mounted guard." + +"What a bore!" cried Dinah as she saw Gatien. "In thirteen years--for I +have been married nearly thirteen years--I have never had three hours' +liberty. + +"Married, madame?" said the journalist with a smile. "You remind me of +a saying of Michaud's--he was so witty! He was setting out for the Holy +Land, and his friends were remonstrating with him, urging his age, +and the perils of such an expedition. 'And then,' said one, 'you are +married.'--'Married!' said he, 'so little married.'" + +Even the rigid Madame Piedefer could not repress a smile. + +"I should not be surprised to see Monsieur de Clagny mounted on my pony +to complete the escort," said Dinah. + +"Well, if the Public Prosecutor does not pursue us, you can get rid +of this little fellow at Sancerre. Bianchon must, of course, have left +something behind on his table--the notes for the first lecture of his +course--and you can ask Gatien to go back to Anzy to fetch it." + +This simple little plot put Madame de la Baudraye into high spirits. +From the road between Anzy to Sancerre, a glorious landscape frequently +comes into view, of the noble stretches of the Loire, looking like +a lake, and it was got over very pleasantly, for Dinah was happy in +finding herself well understood. Love was discussed in theory, a subject +allowing lovers _in petto_ to take the measure, as it were, of each +other's heart. The journalist took a tone of refined corruption to prove +that love obeys no law, that the character of the lovers gives infinite +variety to its incidents, that the circumstances of social life add to +the multiplicity of its manifestations, that in love all is possible and +true, and that any given woman, after resisting every temptation and the +seductions of the most passionate lover, may be carried off her feet in +the course of a few hours by a fancy, an internal whirlwind of which God +alone would ever know the secret! + +"Why," said he, "is not that the key to all the adventures we have +talked over these three days past?" + +For these three days, indeed, Dinah's lively imagination had been +full of the most insidious romances, and the conversation of the two +Parisians had affected the woman as the most mischievous reading might +have done. Lousteau watched the effects of this clever manoeuvre, to +seize the moment when his prey, whose readiness to be caught was hidden +under the abstraction caused by irresolution, should be quite dizzy. + +Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce was +duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his room +at Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; Madame +Piedefer went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went on to +Cosne alone with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the lady, +Bianchon riding backwards. The two friends talked affectionately +and with deep compassion for the fate of this choice nature so ill +understood and in the midst of such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon +served Lousteau well by making fun of the Public Prosecutor, of Monsieur +Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a tone of such genuine contempt in +his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye dared not take the part of her +adorers. + +"I perfectly understand the position you have maintained," said the +doctor as they crossed the Loire. "You were inaccessible excepting to +that brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those +men, it is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early +stage of life, is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined +woman. To you, now, love is indispensable." + +"Indispensable!" cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. "Do you +mean that you prescribe love to me?" + +"If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be +hideous," replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone. + +"Monsieur!" said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened. + +"Forgive my friend," said Lousteau, half jestingly. "He is always the +medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he +is quite disinterested--it is for your sake only that he speaks--as is +evident, since he is starting in an hour--" + +At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with +the arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye. +Gules, a pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three +cross-crosslets argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared +azure, chained or. The ironical motto, _Deo sic patet fides et +hominibus_, had been inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier the +satirical. + +"Let us get out; they will come and find us," said the Baroness, +desiring her coachman to keep watch. + +Dinah took Bianchon's arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the +Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The +physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau a +good turn. + +"You have been attracted by Etienne," said Bianchon to Dinah; "he has +appealed strongly to your imagination; last night we were talking about +you.--He loves you. But he is frivolous, and difficult to hold; his +poverty compels him to live in Paris, while everything condemns you to +live at Sancerre.--Take a lofty view of life. Make Lousteau your friend; +do not ask too much of him; he will come three times a year to spend a +few days with you, and you will owe to him your beauty, happiness, and +fortune. Monsieur de la Baudraye may live to be a hundred; but he might +die in a few days if he should leave off the flannel winding-sheet in +which he swathes himself. So run no risks, be prudent both of you.--Say +not a work--I have read your heart." + +Madame de la Baudraye was defenceless under this serried attack, and in +the presence of a man who spoke at once as a doctor, a confessor, and +confidential friend. + +"Indeed!" said she. "Can you suppose that any woman would care to +compete with a journalist's mistresses?--Monsieur Lousteau strikes me as +agreeable and witty; but he is _blase_, etc., etc.----" + +Dinah had turned back, and was obliged to check the flow of words by +which she tried to disguise her intentions; for Etienne, who seemed to +be studying progress in Cosne, was coming to meet them. + +"Believe me," said Bianchon, "what he wants is to be truly loved; and if +he alters his course of life, it will be to the benefit of his talent." + +Dinah's coachman hurried up breathlessly to say that the diligence had +come in, and they walked on quickly, Madame de la Baudraye between the +two men. + +"Good-bye, my children!" said Bianchon, before they got into the town, +"you have my blessing!" + +He released Madame de la Baudraye's hand from his arm, and allowed +Lousteau to draw it into his, with a tender look, as he pressed it +to his heart. What a difference to Dinah! Etienne's arm thrilled +her deeply. Bianchon's had not stirred her in the least. She and the +journalist exchanged one of those glowing looks that are more than an +avowal. + +"Only provincial women wear muslin gowns in these days," thought +Lousteau to himself, "the only stuff which shows every crease. This +woman, who has chosen me for her lover, will make a fuss over her frock! +If she had but put on a foulard skirt, I should be happy.--What is the +meaning of these difficulties----" + +While Lousteau was wondering whether Dinah had put on a muslin gown on +purpose to protect herself by an insuperable obstacle, Bianchon, with +the help of the coachman, was seeing his luggage piled on the diligence. +Finally, he came to take leave of Dinah, who was excessively friendly +with him. + +"Go home, Madame la Baronne, leave me here--Gatien will be coming," he +added in an undertone. "It is getting late," said he aloud. "Good-bye!" + +"Good-bye--great man!" cried Lousteau, shaking hands with Bianchon. + +When the journalist and Madame de la Baudraye, side by side in the +rickety old chaise, had recrossed the Loire, they both were unready to +speak. In these circumstances, the first words that break the silence +are full of terrible meaning. + +"Do you know how much I love you?" said the journalist point blank. + +Victory might gratify Lousteau, but defeat could cause him no grief. +This indifference was the secret of his audacity. He took Madame de la +Baudraye's hand as he spoke these decisive words, and pressed it in both +his; but Dinah gently released it. + +"Yes, I am as good as an actress or a _grisette_," she said in a voice +that trembled, though she spoke lightly. "But can you suppose that a +woman who, in spite of her absurdities, has some intelligence, will have +reserved the best treasures of her heart for a man who will regard her +merely as a transient pleasure?--I am not surprised to hear from your +lips the words which so many men have said to me--but----" + +The coachman turned round. + +"Here comes Monsieur Gatien," said he. + +"I love you, I will have you, you shall be mine, for I have never felt +for any woman the passion I have for you!" said Lousteau in her ear. + +"In spite of my will, perhaps?" said she, with a smile. + +"At least you must seem to have been assaulted to save my honor," said +the Parisian, to whom the fatal immaculateness of clean muslin suggested +a ridiculous notion. + +Before Gatien had reached the end of the bridge, the outrageous +journalist had crumpled up Madame de la Baudraye's muslin dress to such +an effect that she was absolutely not presentable. + +"Oh, monsieur!" she exclaimed in dignified reproof. + +"You defied me," said the Parisian. + +But Gatien now rode up with the vehemence of a duped lover. To regain a +little of Madame de la Baudraye's esteem, Lousteau did his best to hide +the tumbled dress from Gatien's eyes by leaning out of the chaise to +speak to him from Dinah's side. + +"Go back to our inn," said he, "there is still time; the diligence does +not start for half an hour. The papers are on the table of the room +Bianchon was in; he wants them particularly, for he will be lost without +his notes for the lecture." + +"Pray go, Gatien," said Dinah to her young adorer, with an imperious +glance. And the boy thus commanded turned his horse and was off with a +loose rein. + +"Go quickly to La Baudraye," cried Lousteau to the coachman. "Madame is +not well--Your mother only will know the secret of my trick," added he, +taking his seat by Dinah. + +"You call such infamous conduct a trick?" cried Madame de la Baudraye, +swallowing down a few tears that dried up with the fire of outraged +pride. + +She leaned back in the corner of the chaise, crossed her arms, and gazed +out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at Lousteau. +The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked till they +reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to be seen +by any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and burst into +tears. + +"If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go," +said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet. + +It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her +daughter: + +"What is the matter? What has happened?" + +"Give your daughter another dress at once," said the audacious Parisian +in the prim old lady's ear. + +Hearing the mad gallop of Gatien's horse, Madame de la Baudraye fled to +her bedroom, followed by her mother. + +"There are no papers at the inn," said Gatien to Lousteau, who went out +to meet him. + +"And you found none at the Chateau d'Anzy either?" replied Lousteau. + +"You have been making a fool of me," said Gatien, in a cold, set voice. + +"Quite so," replied Lousteau. "Madame de la Baudraye was greatly annoyed +by your choosing to follow her without being invited. Believe me, to +bore a woman is a bad way of courting her. Dinah has played you a trick, +and you have given her a laugh; it is more than any of you has done in +these thirteen years past. You owe that success to Bianchon, for your +cousin was the author of the Farce of the 'Manuscript.'--Will the horse +get over it?" asked Lousteau with a laugh, while Gatien was wondering +whether to be angry or not. + +"The horse!" said Gatien. + +At this moment Madame de la Baudraye came in, dressed in a velvet gown, +and accompanied by her mother, who shot angry flashes at Lousteau. It +would have been too rash for Dinah to seem cold or severe to Lousteau +in Gatien's presence; and Etienne, taking advantage of this, offered his +arm to the supposed Lucretia; however, she declined it. + +"Do you mean to cast off a man who has vowed to live for you?" said +he, walking close beside her. "I shall stop at Sancerre and go home +to-morrow." + +"Are you coming, mamma?" said Madame de la Baudraye to Madame Piedefer, +thus avoiding a reply to the direct challenge by which Lousteau was +forcing her to a decision. + +Lousteau handed the mother into the chaise, he helped Madame de la +Baudraye by gently taking her arm, and he and Gatien took the front +seat, leaving the saddle horse at La Baudraye. + +"You have changed your gown," said Gatien, blunderingly, to Dinah. + +"Madame la Baronne was chilled by the cool air off the river," replied +Lousteau. "Bianchon advised her to put on a warm dress." + +Dinah turned as red as a poppy, and Madame Piedefer assumed a stern +expression. + +"Poor Bianchon! he is on the road to Paris. A noble soul!" said +Lousteau. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Madame de la Baudraye, "he is high-minded, full of +delicate feeling----" + +"We were in such good spirits when we set out," said Lousteau; "now +you are overdone, and you speak to me so bitterly--why? Are you not +accustomed to being told how handsome and how clever you are? For my +part, I say boldly, before Gatien, I give up Paris; I mean to stay at +Sancerre and swell the number of your _cavalieri serventi_. I feel so +young again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and all +its wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.--Yes, my +life seems in a way purified." + +Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at +last there was a moment when this serpent's rhodomontade was really so +inspired by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas of +which the meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response +in Dinah's heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to +crown Lousteau's joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he +made Madame de la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so +seriously compromise her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is +finally committed. + +As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in +the middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set +off the facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying: + +"When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they +do not love, they cannot forgive anything--not even our virtues.--Do you +forgive me," he added in Madame de la Baudraye's ear, and pressing her +arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help smiling. + +All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in the +most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus +giving vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy +abstraction of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness. + +After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother left +the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then remarked to +Monsieur de Clagny: + +"Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a muslin +gown came home in a velvet?" + +"As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a +brass nail and was torn all the way down," replied Lousteau. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such +different explanations. + +The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it +as a hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left Dinah's +three adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then Gatien +was cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur Gravier and +Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the return from Cosne +Lousteau had been alone with Dinah, and even more so on hearing the +two versions explaining the lady's change of dress. And the three +discomfited gentlemen were in a very awkward position for the rest of +the evening. + +Next day each, on various business, was obliged to leave Anzy; Dinah +remained with her mother, Lousteau, and her husband. The annoyance +vented by the three victims gave rise to an organized rebellion in +Sancerre. The surrender of the Muse of Le Berry, of the Nivernais, +and of Morvan was the cause of a perfect hue and cry of slander, evil +report, and various guesses in which the story of the muslin gown held a +prominent place. No dress Dinah had ever worn had been so much commented +on, or was half as interesting to the girls, who could not conceive what +the connection might be, that made the married women laugh, between love +and a muslin gown. + +The Presidente Boirouge, furious at her son's discomfiture, forgot +the praise she had lavished on the poem of _Paquita_, and fulminated +terrific condemnation on the woman who could publish such a disgraceful +work. + +"The wretched woman commits every crime she writes about," said she. +"Perhaps she will come to the same end as her heroine!" + +Dinah's fate among the good folks of Sancerre was like that of Marechal +Soult in the opposition newspapers; as long as he is minister he lost +the battle of Toulouse; whenever he is out of the Government he won it! +While she was virtuous, Dinah was a match for Camille de Maupin, a +rival of the most famous women; but as soon as she was happy, she was an +_unhappy creature_. + +Monsieur de Clagny was her valiant champion; he went several times to +the Chateau d'Anzy to acquire the right to contradict the rumors current +as to the woman he still faithfully adored, even in her fall; and he +maintained that she and Lousteau were engaged together on some great +work. But the lawyer was laughed to scorn. + +The month of October was lovely; autumn is the finest season in the +valley of the Loire; but in 1836 it was unusually glorious. Nature +seemed to aid and abet Dinah, who, as Bianchon had predicted, gradually +developed a heart-felt passion. In one month she was an altered +woman. She was surprised to find in herself so many inert and dormant +qualities, hitherto in abeyance. To her Lousteau seemed an angel; for +heart-love, the crowning need of a great nature, had made a new woman +of her. Dinah was alive! She had found an outlet for her powers, she +saw undreamed-of vistas in the future--in short, she was happy, happy +without alarms or hindrances. The vast castle, the gardens, the park, +the forest, favored love. + +Lousteau found in Madame de la Baudraye an artlessness, nay, if you +will, an innocence of mind which made her very original; there was much +more of the unexpected and winning in her than in a girl. Lousteau was +quite alive to a form of flattery which in most women is assumed, but +which in Dinah was genuine; she really learned from him the ways of +love; he really was the first to reign in her heart. And, indeed, he +took the trouble to be exceedingly amiable. + +Men, like women, have a stock in hand of recitatives, of _cantabile_, +of _nocturnes_, airs and refrains--shall we say of recipes, although we +speak of love--which each one believes to be exclusively his own. Men +who have reached Lousteau's age try to distribute the "movements" +of this repertoire through the whole opera of a passion. Lousteau, +regarding this adventure with Dinah as a mere temporary connection, was +eager to stamp himself on her memory in indelible lines; and during that +beautiful October he was prodigal of his most entrancing melodies and +most elaborate _barcarolles_. In fact, he exhausted every resource of +the stage management of love, to use an expression borrowed from the +theatrical dictionary, and admirably descriptive of his manoeuvres. + +"If that woman ever forgets me!" he would sometimes say to himself as +they returned together from a long walk in the woods, "I will owe her no +grudge--she will have found something better." + +When two beings have sung together all the duets of that enchanting +score, and still love each other, it may be said that they love truly. + +Lousteau, however, had not time to repeat himself, for he was to leave +Anzy in the early days of November. His paper required his presence +in Paris. Before breakfast, on the day before he was to leave, the +journalist and Dinah saw the master of the house come in with an artist +from Nevers, who restored carvings of all kinds. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Lousteau. "What is to be done to the +chateau?" + +"This is what I am going to do," said the little man, leading Lousteau, +the local artist, and Dinah out on the terrace. + +He pointed out, on the front of the building, a shield supported by two +sirens, not unlike that which may be seen on the arcade, now closed, +through which there used to be a passage from the Quai des Tuileries to +the courtyard of the old Louvre, and over which the words may still be +seen, "_Bibliotheque du Cabinet du Roi_." This shield bore the arms of +the noble House of Uxelles, namely, Or and gules party per fess, with +two lions or, dexter and sinister as supporters. Above, a knight's +helm, mantled of the tincture of the shield, and surmounted by a ducal +coronet. Motto, _Cy paroist!_ A proud and sonorous device. + +"I want to put my own coat of arms in the place of that of the Uxelles; +and as they are repeated six times on the two fronts and the two wings, +it is not a trifling affair." + +"Your arms, so new, and since 1830!" exclaimed Dinah. + +"Have I not created an entail?" + +"I could understand it if you had children," said the journalist. + +"Oh!" said the old man, "Madame de la Baudraye is still young; there is +no time lost." + +This allusion made Lousteau smile; he did not understand Monsieur de la +Baudraye. + +"There, Didine!" said he in Dinah's ear, "what a waste of remorse!" + +Dinah begged him to give her one day more, and the lovers parted after +the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a +piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn +pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her! + +Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau, in +the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and little +La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in her +drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and Gravier, +she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn: + +"I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been +loved for my own sake." + +And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his +feelings, on the end of his base passions, and so forth. Of Dinah's +three worshipers, Monsieur de Clagny only said to her: "I love you, come +what may"--and Dinah accepted him as her confidant, lavished on him all +the marks of friendship which women can devise for the Gurths who are +ready thus to wear the collar of gilded slavery. + + + +In Paris once more, Lousteau had, in a few weeks, lost the impression of +the happy time he had spent at the Chateau d'Anzy. This is why: Lousteau +lived by his pen. + +In this century, especially since the triumph of the _bourgeoisie_--the +commonplace, money-saving citizen--who takes good care not to imitate +Francis I. or Louis XIV.--to live by the pen is a form of penal +servitude to which a galley-slave would prefer death. To live by the pen +means to create--to create to-day, and to-morrow, and incessantly--or +to seem to create; and the imitation costs as dear as the reality. So, +besides his daily contribution to a newspaper, which was like the +stone of Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing down on to the +feather of his pen, Etienne worked for three or four literary magazines. +Still, do not be alarmed; he put no artistic conscientiousness into his +work. This man of Sancerre had a facility, a carelessness, if you call +it so, which ranked him with those writers who are mere scriveners, +literary hacks. In Paris, in our day, hack-work cuts a man off from +every pretension to a literary position. When he can do no more, or no +longer cares for advancement, the man who can write becomes a journalist +and a hack. + +The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in +every walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career, +publishers and authors, all make much of these writers of the ready +pen. Lousteau, a thorough man about town, lived at scarcely any expense +beyond paying his rent. He had boxes at all the theatres; the sale of +the books he reviewed or left unreviewed paid for his gloves; and he +would say to those authors who published at their own expense, "I have +your book always in my hands!" He took toll from vanity in the form of +drawings or pictures. Every day had its engagements to dinner, every +night its theatre, every morning was filled up with callers, visits, +and lounging. His serial in the paper, two novels a year for weekly +magazines, and his miscellaneous articles were the tax he paid for this +easy-going life. And yet, to reach this position, Etienne had struggled +for ten years. + +At the present time, known to the literary world, liked for the good or +the mischief he did with equally facile good humor, he let himself float +with the stream, never caring for the future. He ruled a little set +of newcomers, he had friendships--or rather, habits of fifteen years' +standing, and men with whom he supped, and dined, and indulged his wit. +He earned from seven to eight hundred francs a month, a sum which +he found quite insufficient for the prodigality peculiar to the +impecunious. Indeed, Lousteau found himself now just as hard up as when, +on first appearing in Paris, he had said to himself, "If I had but five +hundred francs a month, I should be rich!" + +The cause of this phenomenon was as follows: Lousteau lived in the Rue +des Martyrs in pretty ground-floor rooms with a garden, and splendidly +furnished. When he settled there in 1833 he had come to an agreement +with an upholsterer that kept his pocket money low for a long time. +These rooms were let for twelve hundred francs. The months of January, +April, July, and October were, as he phrased it, his indigent months. +The rent and the porter's account cleaned him out. Lousteau took no +fewer hackney cabs, spend a hundred francs in breakfasts all the same, +smoked thirty francs' worth of cigars, and could never refuse the +mistress of a day a dinner or a new dress. He thus dipped so deeply into +the fluctuating earnings of the following months, that he could no more +find a hundred francs on his chimney-piece now, when he was making seven +or eight hundred francs a month, than he could in 1822, when he was +hardly getting two hundred. + +Tired, sometimes, by the incessant vicissitudes of a literary life, and +as much bored by amusement as a courtesan, Lousteau would get out of the +tideway and sit on the bank, and say to one and another of his intimate +allies--Nathan or Bixiou, as they sat smoking in his scrap of garden, +looking out on an evergreen lawn as big as a dinner-table: + +"What will be the end of us? White hairs are giving us respectful +hints!" + +"Lord! we shall marry when we choose to give as much thought to the +matter as we give to a drama or a novel," said Nathan. + +"And Florine?" retorted Bixiou. + +"Oh, we all have a Florine," said Etienne, flinging away the end of his +cigar and thinking of Madame Schontz. + +Madame Schontz was a pretty enough woman to put a very high price on the +interest on her beauty, while reserving absolute ownership for Lousteau, +the man of her heart. Like all those women who get the name in Paris of +_Lorettes_, from the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette, round about +which they dwell, she lived in the Rue Flechier, a stone's throw from +Lousteau. This lady took a pride and delight in teasing her friends by +boasting of having a Wit for her lover. + +These details of Lousteau's life and fortune are indispensable, for this +penury and this bohemian existence of a man to whom Parisian luxury +had become a necessity, were fated to have a cruel influence on Dinah's +life. Those to whom the bohemia of Paris is familiar will now understand +how it was that, by the end of a fortnight, the journalist, up to his +ears in the literary environment, could laugh about his Baroness with +his friends and even with Madame Schontz. To such readers as regard such +things as utterly mean, it is almost useless to make excuses which they +will not accept. + +"What did you do at Sancerre?" asked Bixiou the first time he met +Lousteau. + +"I did good service to three worthy provincials--a Receiver-General +of Taxes, a little cousin of his, and a Public Prosecutor, who for ten +years had been dancing round and round one of the hundred 'Tenth Muses' +who adorn the Departments," said he. "But they had no more dared +to touch her than we touch a decorated cream at dessert till some +strong-minded person has made a hole in it." + +"Poor boy!" said Bixiou. "I said you had gone to Sancerre to turn +Pegasus out to grass." + +"Your joke is as stupid as my Muse is handsome," retorted Lousteau. "Ask +Bianchon, my dear fellow." + +"A Muse and a Poet! A homoeopathic cure then!" said Bixiou. + +On the tenth day Lousteau received a letter with the Sancerre post-mark. + +"Good! very good!" said Lousteau. + +"'Beloved friend, idol of my heart and soul----' twenty pages of it! all +at one sitting, and dated midnight! She writes when she finds herself +alone. Poor woman! Ah, ha! And a postscript-- + +"'I dare not ask you to write to me as I write, every day; still, I +hope to have a few lines from my dear one every week, to relieve my +mind.'--What a pity to burn it all! it is really well written," said +Lousteau to himself, as he threw the ten sheets of paper into the fire +after having read them. "That woman was born to reel off copy!" + +Lousteau was not much afraid of Madame Schontz, who really loved him for +himself, but he had supplanted a friend in the heart of a Marquise. This +Marquise, a lady nowise coy, sometimes dropped in unexpectedly at his +rooms in the evening, arriving veiled in a hackney coach; and she, as a +literary woman, allowed herself to hunt through all his drawers. + +A week later, Lousteau, who hardly remembered Dinah, was startled by +another budget from Sancerre--eight leaves, sixteen pages! He heard a +woman's step; he thought it announced a search from the Marquise, and +tossed these rapturous and entrancing proofs of affections into the +fire--unread! + +"A woman's letter!" exclaimed Madame Schontz, as she came in. "The +paper, the wax, are scented--" + +"Here you are, sir," said a porter from the coach office, setting down +two huge hampers in the ante-room. "Carriage paid. Please to sign my +book." + +"Carriage paid!" cried Madame Schontz. "It must have come from +Sancerre." + +"Yes, madame," said the porter. + +"Your Tenth Muse is a remarkably intelligent woman," said the courtesan, +opening one of the hampers, while Lousteau was writing his name. "I like +a Muse who understands housekeeping, and who can make game pies as well +as blots. And, oh! what beautiful flowers!" she went on, opening the +second hamper. "Why, you could get none finer in Paris!--And here, and +here! A hare, partridges, half a roebuck!--We will ask your friends +and have a famous dinner, for Athalie has a special talent for dressing +venison." + +Lousteau wrote to Dinah; but instead of writing from the heart, he +was clever. The letter was all the more insidious; it was like one of +Mirabeau's letters to Sophie. The style of a true lover is transparent. +It is a clear stream which allows the bottom of the heart to be seen +between two banks, bright with the trifles of existence, and covered +with the flowers of the soul that blossom afresh every day, full of +intoxicating beauty--but only for two beings. As soon as a love letter +has any charm for a third reader, it is beyond doubt the product of the +head, not of the heart. But a woman will always be beguiled; she always +believes herself to be the determining cause of this flow of wit. + +By the end of December Lousteau had ceased to read Dinah's letters; they +lay in a heap in a drawer of his chest that was never locked, under his +shirts, which they scented. + +Then one of those chances came to Lousteau which such bohemians ought +to clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz, +who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her one +morning on business. + +"My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying." + +"I can marry very often, happily, my dear." + +"When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I +need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got +into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is an +honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it dark. +He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he will +give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he has +three other children; but--and it is not a bad idea--he will add a +hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the +damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des Lombards----" + +"Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?" + +"Dead." + +"What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue +des Lombards." + +"But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the +seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy +caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless, +the man entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business--A +judgment from heaven, I call it!" + +"Where did you hear the story?" + +"From Malaga; the notary is her _milord_." + +"What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder, +Florentine's first friend?" + +"Just so. Malaga, whose 'fancy' is a little tomtit of a fiddler of +eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. Besides, +she has no cause to do him an ill turn.--Indeed, Monsieur Cardot wants a +man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will be proud to have a +famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel yourself all over.--You will +pay your debts, you will have twelve thousand francs a year, and be a +father without any trouble on your part; what do you say to that to the +good? And, after all, you only marry a very consolable widow. There is +an income of fifty thousand francs in the house, and the value of the +connection, so in due time you may look forward to not less than fifteen +thousand francs a year more for your share, and you will enter a family +holding a fine political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old +Camusot, the depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre." + +"Yes," said Lousteau, "old Camusot married little Daddy Cardot's eldest +daughter, and they had high times together!" + +"Well!" Madame Schontz went on, "and Madame Cardot, the notary's wife, +was a Chiffreville--manufacturers of chemical products, the aristocracy +of these days! Potash, I tell you! Still, this is the unpleasant side of +the matter. You will have a terrible mother-in-law, a woman capable of +killing her daughter if she knew--! This Cardot woman is a bigot; she +has lips like two faded narrow pink ribbons. + +"A man of the town like you would never pass muster with that woman, +who, in her well-meaning way, will spy out your bachelor life and know +every fact of the past. However, Cardot says he means to exert his +paternal authority. The poor man will be obliged to do the civil to his +wife for some days; a woman made of wood, my dear fellow; Malaga, who +has seen her, calls her a penitential scrubber. Cardot is a man of +forty; he will be mayor of his district, and perhaps be elected deputy. +He is prepared to give in lieu of the hundred thousand francs a nice +little house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, with a forecourt and a garden, +which cost him no more than sixty thousand at the time of the July +overthrow; he would sell, and that would be an opportunity for you to +go and come at the house, to see the daughter, and be civil to the +mother.--And it would give you a look of property in Madame Cardot's +eyes. You would be housed like a prince in that little mansion. Then, +by Camusot's interest, you may get an appointment as librarian to some +public office where there is no library.--Well, and then if you invest +your money in backing up a newspaper, you will get ten thousand francs +a year on it, you can earn six, your librarianship will bring you in +four.--Can you do better for yourself? + +"If you were to marry a lamb without spot, it might be a light woman by +the end of two years. What is the damage?--an anticipated dividend! It +is quite the fashion. + +"Take my word for it, you can do no better than come to dine with Malaga +to-morrow. You will meet your father-in-law; he will know the secret has +been let out--by Malaga, with whom he cannot be angry--and then you are +master of the situation. As to your wife!--Why her misconduct leaves you +as free as a bachelor----" + +"Your language is as blunt as a cannon ball." + +"I love you for your own sake, that is all--and I can reason. Well! why +do you stand there like a wax image of Abd-el-Kader? There is nothing to +meditate over. Marriage is heads or tails--well, you have tossed heads +up." + +"You shall have my reply to-morrow," said Lousteau. + +"I would sooner have it at once; Malaga will write you up to-night." + +"Well, then, yes." + +Lousteau spent the evening in writing a long letter to the Marquise, +giving her the reasons which compelled him to marry; his constant +poverty, the torpor of his imagination, his white hairs, his moral and +physical exhaustion--in short, four pages of arguments.--"As to Dinah, +I will send her a circular announcing the marriage," said he to himself. +"As Bixiou says, I have not my match for knowing how to dock the tail of +a passion." + +Lousteau, who at first had been on some ceremony with himself, by next +day had come to the point of dreading lest the marriage should not come +off. He was pressingly civil to the notary. + +"I knew monsieur your father," said he, "at Florentine's, so I may well +know you here, at Mademoiselle Turquet's. Like father, like son. A very +good fellow and a philosopher, was little Daddy Cardot--excuse me, +we always called him so. At that time, Florine, Florentine, Tullia, +Coralie, and Mariette were the five fingers of your hand, so to +speak--it is fifteen years ago. My follies, as you may suppose, are a +thing of the past.--In those days it was pleasure that ran away with me; +now I am ambitious; but, in our day, to get on at all a man must be +free from debt, have a good income, a wife, and a family. If I pay taxes +enough to qualify me, I may be a deputy yet, like any other man." + +Maitre Cardot appreciated this profession of faith. Lousteau had laid +himself out to please and the notary liked him, feeling himself more +at his ease, as may be easily imagined, with a man who had known his +father's secrets than he would have been with another. On the following +day Lousteau was introduced to the Cardot family as the purchaser of the +house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, and three days later he dined there. + +Cardot lived in an old house near the Place du Chatelet. In this house +everything was "good." Economy covered every scrap of gilding with green +gauze; all the furniture wore holland covers. Though it was impossible +to feel a shade of uneasiness as to the wealth of the inhabitants, at +the end of half an hour no one could suppress a yawn. Boredom perched +in every nook; the curtains hung dolefully; the dining-room was like +Harpagon's. Even if Lousteau had not known all about Malaga, he could +have guessed that the notary's real life was spent elsewhere. + +The journalist saw a tall, fair girl with blue eyes, at once shy and +languishing. The elder brother took a fancy to him; he was the fourth +clerk in the office, but strongly attracted by the snares of literary +fame, though destined to succeed his father. The younger sister was +twelve years old. Lousteau, assuming a little Jesuitical air, played +the Monarchist and Churchman for the benefit of the mother, was quite +smooth, deliberate, and complimentary. + +Within three weeks of their introduction, at his fourth dinner there, +Felicie Cardot, who had been watching Lousteau out of the corner of her +eye, carried him a cup of coffee where he stood in the window recess, +and said in a low voice, with tears in her eyes: + +"I will devote my whole life, monsieur, to thanking you for your +sacrifice in favor of a poor girl----" + +Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her +accent, her attitude. "She would make a good man happy," thought he, +pressing her hand in reply. + +Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before +him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was +most delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the wily +notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no tie +that could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie. + +"You may perhaps think I go rather too far," said the bigot to the +journalist; "but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one +must think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to +be rid of their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges +forward his daughter's marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only +point on which we differ.--Though with a man like you, monsieur, a +literary man whose youth has been preserved by hard work from the moral +shipwreck now so prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you would be +the first to laugh at me if I looked for a husband for my daughter with +my eyes shut. I know you are not an innocent, and I should be very sorry +for my Felicie if you were" (this was said in a whisper); "but if you +had any _liaison_--For instance, monsieur, you have heard of Madame +Roguin, the wife of a notary who, unhappily for our faculty, was sadly +notorious. Madame Roguin has, ever since 1820, been kept by a banker--" + +"Yes, du Tillet," replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he +recollected how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du +Tillet. + +"Yes.--Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at the +thought that Madame du Tillet's fate might be your child's? At her age, +and _nee_ de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and more. +Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who had such +a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, you take her +and leave her.--There is no danger, in my opinion, from women of that +stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one down and another +to come on!--But a woman who has sinned against duty must hug her sin, +her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can ever have an excuse. +At least, that is the view I hold of a respectable woman's fall, and +that is what makes it so terrible----" + +Instead of looking for the meaning of these speeches, Etienne made a +jest of them at Malaga's, whither he went with his father-in-law elect; +for the notary and the journalist were the best of friends. + +Lousteau had already given himself the airs of a person of importance; +his life at last was to have a purpose; he was in luck's way, and in +a few days would be the owner of a delightful little house in the Rue +Saint-Lazare; he was going to be married to a charming woman, he would +have about twenty thousand francs a year, and could give the reins to +his ambition; the young lady loved him, and he would be connected with +several respectable families. In short, he was in full sail on the blue +waters of hope. + + + +Madame Cardot had expressed a wish to see the prints for _Gil Blas_, one +of the illustrated volumes which the French publishers were at that time +bringing out, and Lousteau had taken the first numbers for the lady's +inspection. The lawyer's wife had a scheme of her own, she had borrowed +the book merely to return it; she wanted an excuse for walking in on her +future son-in-law quite unexpectedly. The sight of those bachelor rooms, +which her husband had described as charming, would tell her more, she +thought, as to Lousteau's habits of life than any information she could +pick up. Her sister-in-law, Madame Camusot, who knew nothing of the +fateful secret, was terrified at such a marriage for her niece. Monsieur +Camusot, a Councillor of the Supreme Court, old Camusot's son by his +first marriage, had given his step-mother, who was Cardot's sister, a +far from flattering account of the journalist. + +Lousteau, clever as he was, did not think it strange that the wife of +a rich notary should wish to inspect a volume costing fifteen francs +before deciding on the purchase. Your clever man never condescends to +study the middle-class, who escape his ken by this want of attention; +and while he is making game of them, they are at leisure to throttle +him. + +So one day early in January 1837, Madame Cardot and her daughter took +a hackney coach and went to the Rue des Martyrs to return the parts +of _Gil Blas_ to Felicie's betrothed, both delighted at the thought of +seeing Lousteau's rooms. These domiciliary visitations are not unusual +in the old citizen class. The porter at the front gate was not in; but +his daughter, on being informed by the worthy lady that she was in the +presence of Monsieur Lousteau's future mother-in-law and bride, handed +over the key of the apartment--all the more readily because Madame +Cardot placed a gold piece in her hand. + +It was by this time about noon, the hour at which the journalist would +return from breakfasting at the Cafe Anglais. As he crossed the open +space between the Church of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the Rue des +Martyrs, Lousteau happened to look at a hired coach that was toiling up +the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, and he fancied it was a dream when he +saw the face of Dinah! He stood frozen to the spot when, on reaching his +house, he beheld his Didine at the coach door. + +"What has brought you here?" he inquired.--He adopted the familiar _tu_. +The formality of _vous_ was out of the question to a woman he must get +rid of. + +"Why, my love," cried she, "have you not read my letters?" + +"Certainly I have," said Lousteau. + +"Well, then?" + +"Well, then?" + +"You are a father," replied the country lady. + +"Faugh!" cried he, disregarding the barbarity of such an exclamation. +"Well," thought he to himself, "she must be prepared for the blow." + +He signed to the coachman to wait, gave his hand to Madame de la +Baudraye, and left the man with the chaise full of trunks, vowing that +he would send away _illico_, as he said to himself, the woman and her +luggage, back to the place she had come from. + +"Monsieur, monsieur," called out little Pamela. + +The child had some sense, and felt that three women must not be allowed +to meet in a bachelor's rooms. + +"Well, well!" said Lousteau, dragging Dinah along. + +Pamela concluded that the lady must be some relation; however, she +added: + +"The key is in the door; your mother-in-law is there." + +In his agitation, while Madame de la Baudraye was pouring out a flood of +words, Etienne understood the child to say, "Mother is there," the only +circumstance that suggested itself as possible, and he went in. + +Felicie and her mother, who were by this time in the bed-room, crept +into a corner on seeing Etienne enter with a woman. + +"At last, Etienne, my dearest, I am yours for life!" cried Dinah, +throwing her arms round his neck, and clasping him closely, while he +took the key from the outside of the door. "Life is a perpetual anguish +to me in that house at Anzy. I could bear it no longer; and when +the time came for me to proclaim my happiness--well, I had not the +courage.--Here I am, your wife with your child! And you have not written +to me; you have left me two months without a line." + +"But, Dinah, you place me in the greatest difficulty--" + +"Do you love me?" + +"How can I do otherwise than love you?--But would you not have been +wiser to remain at Sancerre?--I am in the most abject poverty, and I +fear to drag you into it--" + +"Your misery will be paradise to me. I only ask to live here, never to +go out--" + +"Good God! that is all very fine in words, but--" Dinah sat down and +melted into tears as she heard this speech, roughly spoken. + +Lousteau could not resist this distress. He clasped the Baroness in his +arms and kissed her. + +"Do not cry, Didine!" said he; and, as he uttered the words, he saw in +the mirror the figure of Madame Cardot, looking at him from the further +end of the rooms. "Come, Didine, go with Pamela and get your trunks +unloaded," said he in her ear. "Go; do not cry; we will be happy!" + +He led her to the door, and then came back to divert the storm. + +"Monsieur," said Madame Cardot, "I congratulate myself on having +resolved to see for myself the home of the man who was to have been my +son-in-law. If my daughter were to die of it, she should never be the +wife of such a man as you. You must devote yourself to making your +Didine happy, monsieur." + +And the virtuous lady walked out, followed by Felicie, who was crying +too, for she had become accustomed to Etienne. The dreadful Madame +Cardot got into her hackney-coach again, staring insolently at the +hapless Dinah, in whose heart the sting still rankled of "that is all +very fine in words"; but who, nevertheless, like every woman in love, +believed in the murmured, "Do not cry, Didine!" + +Lousteau, who was not lacking in the sort of decision which grows out of +the vicissitudes of a storm-tossed life, reflected thus: + +"Didine is high-minded; when once she knows of my proposed marriage, +she will sacrifice herself for my future prospects, and I know how I can +manage to let her know." Delighted at having hit on a trick of which the +success seemed certain, he danced round to a familiar tune: + +"_Larifla, fla, fla!_--And Didine once out of the way," he went +on, talking to himself, "I will treat Maman Cardot to a call and a +novelette: I have seduced her Felicie at Saint-Eustache--Felicie, guilty +through passion, bears in her bosom the pledge of our affection--and +_larifla, fla, fla!_ the father _Ergo_, the notary, his wife, and his +daughter are caught, nabbed----" + +And, to her great amazement, Dinah discovered Etienne performing a +prohibited dance. + +"Your arrival and our happiness have turned my head with joy," said he, +to explain this crazy mood. + +"And I had fancied you had ceased to love me!" exclaimed the poor woman, +dropping the handbag she was carrying, and weeping with joy as she sank +into a chair. + +"Make yourself at home, my darling," said Etienne, laughing in his +sleeve; "I must write two lines to excuse myself from a bachelor party, +for I mean to devote myself to you. Give your orders; you are at home." + +Etienne wrote to Bixiou: + + "MY DEAR BOY,--My Baroness has dropped into my arms, and will be + fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar + stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase. I rely + on you to come here, like one of Moliere's old men, to scold your + nephew Leandre for his folly, while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in + my bedroom; you must work on her feelings; strike hard, be brutal, + offensive. I, you understand, shall express my blind devotion, and + shall seem to be deaf, so that you may have to shout at me. + + "Come, if you can, at seven o'clock. + + "Yours, + + "E. LOUSTEAU." + + +Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who, in all +Paris, most delighted in such practical jokes--in the slang of artists, +a _"charge"_--Lousteau made a great show of settling the Muse of +Sancerre in his apartment. He busied himself in arranging the luggage +she had brought, and informed her as to the persons and ways of the +house with such perfect good faith, and a glee which overflowed in kind +words and caresses, that Dinah believed herself the best-beloved woman +in the world. These rooms, where everything bore the stamp of fashion, +pleased her far better than her old chateau. + +Pamela Migeon, the intelligent damsel of fourteen, was questioned by +the journalist as to whether she would like to be waiting-maid to the +imposing Baroness. Pamela, perfectly enchanted, entered on her duties at +once, by going off to order dinner from a restaurant on the boulevard. +Dinah was able to judge of the extreme poverty that lay hidden under the +purely superficial elegance of this bachelor home when she found none +of the necessaries of life. As she took possession of the closets and +drawers, she indulged in the fondest dreams; she would alter Etienne's +habits, she would make him home-keeping, she would fill his cup of +domestic happiness. + +The novelty of the position hid its disastrous side; Dinah regarded +reciprocated love as the absolution of her sin; she did not yet look +beyond the walls of these rooms. Pamela, whose wits were as sharp as +those of a _lorette_, went straight to Madame Schontz to beg the loan of +some plate, telling her what had happened to Lousteau. After making +the child welcome to all she had, Madame Schontz went off to her friend +Malaga, that Cardot might be warned of the catastrophe that had befallen +his future son-in-law. + +The journalist, not in the least uneasy about the crisis as affecting +his marriage, was more and more charming to the lady from the provinces. +The dinner was the occasion of the delightful child's-play of lovers set +at liberty, and happy to be free. When they had had their coffee, and +Lousteau was sitting in front of the fire, Dinah on his knee, Pamela ran +in with a scared face. + +"Here is Monsieur Bixiou!" said she. + +"Go into the bedroom," said the journalist to his mistress; "I will soon +get rid of him. He is one of my most intimate friends, and I shall have +to explain to him my new start in life." + +"Oh, ho! dinner for two, and a blue velvet bonnet!" cried Bixiou. "I +am off.--Ah! that is what comes of marrying--one must go through some +partings. How rich one feels when one begins to move one's sticks, heh?" + +"Who talks of marrying?" said Lousteau. + +"What! are you not going to be married, then?" cried Bixiou. + +"No!" + +"No? My word, what next? Are you making a fool of yourself, if you +please?--What!--You, who, by the mercy of Heaven, have come across +twenty thousand francs a year, and a house, and a wife connected with +all the first families of the better middle class--a wife, in short, out +of the Rue des Lombards--" + +"That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!" + +"Be off? I have a friend's privileges, and I shall take every advantage +of them.--What has come over you?" + +"What has 'come over' me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother, and +we are going to live together happily to the end of our days.--You would +have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now." + +"Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this +woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place +she came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs +in Paris? She will wound all your vanities. Have you forgotten what a +provincial is? She will bore you as much when she is happy as when she +is sad; she will have as great a talent for escaping grace as a Parisian +has in inventing it. + +"Lousteau, listen to me. That a passion should lead you to forget to +some extent the times in which we live, is conceivable; but I, my dear +fellow, have not the mythological bandage over my eyes.--Well, then +consider your position. For fifteen years you have been tossing in the +literary world; you are no longer young, you have padded the hoof till +your soles are worn through!--Yes, my boy, you turn your socks under +like a street urchin to hide the holes, so that the legs cover the +heels! In short, the joke is too stale. Your excuses are more familiar +than a patent medicine--" + +"I may say to you, like the Regent to Cardinal Dubois, 'That is kicking +enough!'" said Lousteau, laughing. + +"Oh, venerable young man," replied Bixiou, "the iron has touched the +sore to the quick. You are worn out, aren't you? Well, then; in the +heyday of youth, under the pressure of penury, what have you done? You +are not in the front rank, and you have not a thousand francs of your +own. That is the sum-total of the situation. Can you, in the decline of +your powers, support a family by your pen, when your wife, if she is an +honest woman, will not have at her command the resources of the woman +of the streets, who can extract her thousand-franc note from the depths +where milord keeps it safe? You are rushing into the lowest depths of +the social theatre. + +"And this is only the financial side. Now, consider the political +position. We are struggling in an essentially _bourgeois_ age, in which +honor, virtue, high-mindedness, talent, learning--genius, in short, is +summed up in paying your way, owing nobody anything, and conducting +your affairs with judgment. Be steady, be respectable, have a wife, and +children, pay your rent and taxes, serve in the National Guard, and be +on the same pattern as all the men of your company--then you may indulge +in the loftiest pretensions, rise to the Ministry!--and you have the +best chances possible, since you are no Montmorency. You were preparing +to fulfil all the conditions insisted on for turning out a political +personage, you are capable of every mean trick that is necessary in +office, even of pretending to be commonplace--you would have acted it to +the life. And just for a woman, who will leave you in the lurch--the +end of every eternal passion--in three, five, or seven years--after +exhausting your last physical and intellectual powers, you turn your +back on the sacred Hearth, on the Rue des Lombards, on a political +career, on thirty thousand francs per annum, on respectability and +respect!--Ought that to be the end of a man who has done with illusions? + +"If you had kept a pot boiling for some actress who gave you your fun +for it--well; that is what you may call a cabinet matter. But to live +with another man's wife? It is a draft at sight on disaster; it is +bolting the bitter pills of vice with none of the gilding." + +"That will do. One word answers it all; I love Madame de la Baudraye, +and prefer her to every fortune, to every position the world can +offer.--I may have been carried away by a gust of ambition, but +everything must give way to the joy of being a father." + +"Ah, ha! you have a fancy for paternity? But, wretched man, we are the +fathers only of our legitimate children. What is a brat that does not +bear your name? The last chapter of the romance.--Your child will be +taken from you! We have seen that story in twenty plays these ten years +past. + +"Society, my dear boy, will drop upon you sooner or later. Read +_Adolphe_ once more.--Dear me! I fancy I can see you when you and +she are used to each other;--I see you dejected, hang-dog, bereft of +position and fortune, and fighting like the shareholders of a bogus +company when they are tricked by a director!--Your director is +happiness." + +"Say no more, Bixiou." + +"But I have only just begun," said Bixiou. "Listen, my dear boy. +Marriage has been out of favor for some time past; but, apart from the +advantages it offers in being the only recognized way of certifying +heredity, as it affords a good-looking young man, though penniless, the +opportunity of making his fortune in two months, it survives in spite +of disadvantages. And there is not the man living who would not repent, +sooner or later, of having, by his own fault, lost the chance of +marrying thirty thousand francs a year." + +"You won't understand me," cried Lousteau, in a voice of exasperation. +"Go away--she is there----" + +"I beg your pardon; why did you not tell me sooner?--You are of age, and +so is she," he added in a lower voice, but loud enough to be heard by +Dinah. "She will make you repent bitterly of your happiness!----" + +"If it is a folly, I intend to commit it.--Good-bye." + +"A man gone overboard!" cried Bixiou. + +"Devil take those friends who think they have a right to preach to you," +said Lousteau, opening the door of the bedroom, where he found Madame de +la Baudraye sunk in an armchair and dabbing her eyes with an embroidered +handkerchief. + +"Oh, why did I come here?" sobbed she. "Good Heavens, why +indeed?--Etienne, I am not so provincial as you think me.--You are +making a fool of me." + +"Darling angel," replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting her +from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, "we +have both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While I was +loving you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married here, but I +refused.--Oh! I was extremely distressed----" + +"I am going," cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to +the door. + +"You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune so +lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired creature, +with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself with a +stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the score of +bigotry--" + +Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau's ear: + +"Madame Schontz!" + +Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out. + +"It is all over with you, my dear," said the woman. "Cardot does not +mean to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady +made a scene--something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude, +the head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk's deputy for two years, +agrees to take the girl with the business." + +"Mean wretch!" exclaimed Lousteau. "What! in two hours he has made up +his mind?" + +"Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead +man's little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from +overhearing a few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary +relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The +clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend mass! +A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and Cardot +will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense financial +concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been waked from a +sweet dream." + +"I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--" + +"And a mistress," said Madame Schontz, smiling. "Here you are, more than +married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to get +home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes nor +your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I will be +faithful to him and cut Malaga's acquaintance. + +"Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse," she went +on. "Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?" she +exclaimed. "You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she +only needs Lady Dudley's turban!" + +"What is it now?" asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the rustle +of a silk dress and the murmur of a woman's voice. + +"It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.--I have just +had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off my +marriage----" + +"So that was the party which you gave up?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, I will be more than your wife--I am your slave, I give you my +life," said the poor deluded creature. "I did not believe I could love +you more than I did!--Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your whole +life?" + +"Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine." + +"Swear to me," said she, "that only death shall divide us." + +Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating +prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment where +he had taken the lorette's farewell kiss, and that of the drawing-room, +where the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a succession of shocks, +Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye's precarious health, his +fine fortune, and Bianchon's remark about Dinah, "She will be a rich +widow!" and he said to himself, "I would a hundred times rather have +Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than Felicie!" + +His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play +the farce of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean +self-interestedness and his false vehemence of passion had disastrous +results. Madame de la Baudraye, when she set out from Sancerre for +Paris, had intended to live in rooms of her own quite near to Lousteau; +but the proofs of devotion her lover had given her by giving up such +brilliant prospects, and yet more the perfect happiness of the first +days of their illicit union, kept her from mentioning such a parting. +The second day was to be--and indeed was--a high festival, in which such +a suggestion proposed to "her angel" would have been a discordant note. + +Lousteau, on his part, anxious to make Dinah feel herself dependent +on him, kept her in a state of constant intoxication by incessant +amusement. These circumstances hindered two persons so clever as these +were from avoiding the slough into which they fell--that of a life in +common, a piece of folly of which, unfortunately, many instances may be +seen in Paris in literary circles. + +And thus was the whole programme played out of a provincial amour, so +satirically described by Lousteau to Madame de la Baudraye--a fact which +neither he nor she remembered. Passion is born a deaf-mute. + + + +This winter in Paris was to Madame de la Baudraye all that the month of +October had been at Sancerre. Etienne, to initiate "his wife" into Paris +life, varied this honeymoon by evenings at the play, where Dinah would +only go to the stage box. At first Madame de la Baudraye preserved some +remnants of her countrified modesty; she was afraid of being seen; she +hid her happiness. She would say: + +"Monsieur de Clagny or Monsieur Gravier may have followed me to Paris." +She was afraid on Sancerre even in Paris. + +Lousteau, who was excessively vain, educated Dinah, took her to the best +dressmakers, and pointed out to her the most fashionable women, advising +her to take them as models for imitation. And Madame de la Baudraye's +provincial appearance was soon a thing of the past. Lousteau, when his +friends met him, was congratulated on his conquest. + +All through that season Etienne wrote little and got very much into +debt, though Dinah, who was proud, bought all her clothes out of her +savings, and fancied she had not been the smallest expense to her +beloved. By the end of three months Dinah was acclimatized; she had +reveled in the music at the Italian opera; she knew the pieces "on" at +all theatres, and the actors and jests of the day; she had become +inured to this life of perpetual excitement, this rapid torrent in which +everything is forgotten. She no longer craned her neck or stood with her +nose in the air, like an image of Amazement, at the constant surprises +that Paris has for a stranger. She had learned to breathe that witty, +vitalizing, teeming atmosphere where clever people feel themselves in +their element, and which they can no longer bear to quit. + +One morning, as she read the papers, for Lousteau had them all, two +lines carried her back to Sancerre and the past, two lines that seemed +not unfamiliar--as follows: + +"Monsieur le Baron de Clagny, Public Prosecutor to the Criminal Court +at Sancerre, has been appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor to the Supreme +Court in Paris." + +"How well that worthy lawyer loves you!" said the journalist, smiling. + +"Poor man!" said she. "What did I tell you? He is following me." + +Etienne and Dinah were just then at the most dazzling and fervid stage +of a passion when each is perfectly accustomed to the other, and yet +love has not lost its freshness and relish. The lovers know each other +well, but all is not yet understood; they have not been a second time +to the same secret haunts of the soul; they have not studied each other +till they know, as they must later, the very thought, word, and gesture +that responds to every event, the greatest and the smallest. Enchantment +reigns; there are no collisions, no differences of opinion, no cold +looks. Their two souls are always on the same side. And Dinah would +speak the magical words, emphasized by the yet more magical expression +and looks which every woman can use under such circumstances. + +"When you cease to love me, kill me.--If you should cease to love me, I +believe I could kill you first and myself after." + +To this sweet exaggeration, Lousteau would reply: + +"All I ask of God is to see you as constant as I shall be. It is you who +will desert me!" + +"My love is supreme." + +"Supreme," echoed Lousteau. "Come, now? Suppose I am dragged away to +a bachelor party, and find there one of my former mistresses, and she +makes fun of me; I, out of vanity, behave as if I were free, and do not +come in here till next morning--would you still love me?" + +"A woman is only sure of being loved when she is preferred; and if you +came back to me, if--Oh! you make me understand what the happiness would +be of forgiving the man I adore." + +"Well, then, I am truly loved for the first time in my life!" cried +Lousteau. + +"At last you understand that!" said she. + +Lousteau proposed that they should each write a letter setting forth the +reasons which would compel them to end by suicide. Once in possession +of such a document, each might kill the other without danger in case of +infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither wrote the letter. + +The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would +deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice +everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la +Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke. + +Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the power +derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which both +lovers put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her modesty, +her masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to ambitious souls, +which formed the basis of her character. Lousteau involuntarily held +her in high esteem. As a Parisian, Dinah was superior to the most +fascinating courtesan; she could be as amusing and as witty as Malaga; +but her extensive information, her habits of mind, her vast reading +enabled her to generalize her wit, while the Florines and the Schontzes +exerted theirs over a very narrow circle. + +"There is in Dinah," said Etienne to Bixiou, "the stuff to make both a +Ninon and a De Stael." + +"A woman who combines an encyclopaedia and a seraglio is very +dangerous," replied the mocking spirit. + +When the expected infant became a visible fact, Madame de la Baudraye +would be seen no more; but before shutting herself up, never to go out +unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first +performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the +minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as constituting +"all Paris." Dinah, who had never been at a first night's performance, +was very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time arrived at such +a pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in her misconduct; +she exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the world; she was +determined to look it in the face without turning her head aside. + +She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate +looks and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave +her an expression of refinement, and her black hair in smooth bands +enhanced her pallor. Her brilliant gray eyes looked finer than ever, +set in dark rings. But a terribly distressing incident awaited her. By a +very simple chance, the box given to the journalist, on the first tier, +was next to that which Anna Grossetete had taken. The two intimate +friends did not even bow; neither chose to acknowledge the other. At +the end of the first act Lousteau left his seat, abandoning Dinah to the +fire of eyes, the glare of opera-glasses; while the Baronne de Fontaine +and the Comtesse Marie de Vandenesse, who accompanied her, received some +of the most distinguished men of fashion. + +Dinah's solitude was all the more distressing because she had not +the art of putting a good face to the matter by examining the company +through her opera-glass. In vain did she try to assume a dignified and +thoughtful attitude, and fix her eyes on vacancy; she was overpoweringly +conscious of being the object of general attention; she could not +disguise her discomfort, and lapsed a little into provincialism, +displaying her handkerchief and making involuntary movements of which +she had almost cured herself. At last, between the second and third +acts, a man had himself admitted to Dinah's box! It was Monsieur de +Clagny. + +"I am happy to see you, to tell you how much I am pleased by your +promotion," said she. + +"Oh! Madame, for whom should I come to Paris----?" + +"What!" said she. "Have I anything to do with your appointment?" + +"Everything," said he. "Since you left Sancerre, it had become +intolerable to me; I was dying--" + +"Your sincere friendship does me good," replied she, holding out her +hand. "I am in a position to make much of my true friends; I now know +their value.--I feared I must have lost your esteem, but the proof you +have given me by this visit touches me more deeply than your ten years' +attachment." + +"You are an object of curiosity to the whole house," said the lawyer. +"Oh! my dear, is this a part for you to be playing? Could you not be +happy and yet remain honored?--I have just heard that you are Monsieur +Etienne Lousteau's mistress, that you live together as man and +wife!--You have broken for ever with society; even if you should some +day marry your lover, the time will come when you will feel the want +of the respectability you now despise. Ought you not to be in a home of +your own with your mother, who loves you well enough to protect you with +her aegis?--Appearances at least would be saved." + +"I am in the wrong to have come here," replied she, "that is all.--I +have bid farewell to all the advantages which the world confers on women +who know how to reconcile happiness and the proprieties. My abnegation +is so complete that I only wish I could clear a vast space about me to +make a desert of my love, full of God, of _him_, and of myself.--We +have made too many sacrifices on both sides not to be united--united by +disgrace if you will, but indissolubly one. I am happy; so happy that I +can love freely, my friend, and confide in you more than of old--for I +need a friend." + +The lawyer was magnanimous, nay, truly great. To this declaration, in +which Dinah's soul thrilled, he replied in heartrending tones: + +"I wanted to go to see you, to be sure that you were loved: I shall now +be easy and no longer alarmed as to your future.--But will your lover +appreciate the magnitude of your sacrifice; is there any gratitude in +his affection?" + +"Come to the Rue des Martyrs and you will see!" + +"Yes, I will call," he replied. "I have already passed your door without +daring to inquire for you.--You do not yet know the literary world. +There are glorious exceptions, no doubt; but these men of letters drag +terrible evils in their train; among these I account publicity as one +of the greatest, for it blights everything. A woman may commit herself +with--" + +"With a Public Prosecutor?" the Baronne put in with a smile. + +"Well!--and then after a rupture there is still something to fall back +on; the world has known nothing. But with a more or less famous man the +public is thoroughly informed. Why look there! What an example you have +close at hand! You are sitting back to back with the Comtesse Marie +Vandenesse, who was within an ace of committing the utmost folly for a +more celebrated man than Lousteau--for Nathan--and now they do not even +recognize each other. After going to the very edge of the precipice, the +Countess was saved, no one knows how; she neither left her husband nor +her house; but as a famous man was scorned, she was the talk of the town +for a whole winter. But her husband's great fortune, great name, +and high position, but for the admirable management of that true +statesman--whose conduct to his wife, they say, was perfect--she would +have been ruined; in her position no other woman would have remained +respected as she is." + +"And how was Sancerre when you came away?" asked Madame de la Baudraye, +to change the subject. + +"Monsieur de la Baudraye announced that your expected confinement after +so many years made it necessary that it should take place in Paris, +and that he had insisted on your going to be attended by the first +physicians," replied Monsieur de Clagny, guessing what it was that Dinah +most wanted to know. "And so, in spite of the commotion to which your +departure gave rise, you still have your legal status." + +"Why!" she exclaimed, "can Monsieur de la Baudraye still hope----" + +"Your husband, madame, did what he always does--made a little +calculation." + +The lawyer left the box when the journalist returned, bowing with +dignity. + +"You are a greater hit than the piece," said Etienne to Dinah. + +This brief triumph brought greater happiness to the poor woman than she +had ever known in the whole of her provincial existence; still, as they +left the theatre she was very grave. + +"What ails you, my Didine?" asked Lousteau. + +"I am wondering how a woman succeeds in conquering the world?" + +"There are two ways. One is by being Madame de Stael, the other is by +having two hundred thousand francs a year." + +"Society," said she, "asserts its hold on us by appealing to our vanity, +our love of appearances.--Pooh! We will be philosophers!" + + + +That evening was the last gleam of the delusive well-being in which +Madame de la Baudraye had lived since coming to Paris. Three days later +she observed a cloud on Lousteau's brow as he walked round the little +garden-plot smoking a cigar. This woman, who had acquired from her +husband the habit and the pleasure of never owing anybody a sou, was +informed that the household was penniless, with two quarters' rent +owing, and on the eve, in fact, of an execution. + +This reality of Paris life pierced Dinah's heart like a thorn; she +repented of having tempted Etienne into the extravagances of love. It is +so difficult to pass from pleasure to work, that happiness has wrecked +more poems than sorrows ever helped to flow in sparkling jets. +Dinah, happy in seeing Etienne taking his ease, smoking a cigar after +breakfast, his face beaming as he basked like a lizard in the sunshine, +could not summon up courage enough to make herself the bum-bailiff of a +magazine. + +It struck her that through the worthy Migeon, Pamela's father, she might +pawn the few jewels she possessed, on which her "uncle," for she was +learning to talk the slang of the town, advanced her nine hundred +francs. She kept three hundred for her baby-clothes and the expenses +of her illness, and joyfully presented the sum due to Lousteau, who was +ploughing, furrow by furrow, or, if you will, line by line, through a +novel for a periodical. + +"Dearest heart," said she, "finish your novel without making any +sacrifice to necessity; polish the style, work up the subject.--I have +played the fine lady too long; I am going to be the housewife and attend +to business." + +For the last four months Etienne had been taking Dinah to the Cafe Riche +to dine every day, a corner being always kept for them. The countrywoman +was in dismay at being told that five hundred francs were owing for the +last fortnight. + +"What! we have been drinking wine at six francs a bottle! A sole +_Normande_ costs five francs!--and twenty centimes for a roll?" she +exclaimed, as she looked through the bill Lousteau showed her. + +"Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at a +restaurant or by a cook," said Lousteau. + +"Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a prince." + +Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two servants' +rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her mother, begging +her to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand francs. She received +two trunks full of linen, some plate, and two thousand francs, sent by +the hand of an honest and pious cook recommended her by her mother. + +Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur +de Clagny came to call at four o'clock, after coming out of court, and +found Madame de la Baudraye making a little cap. The sight of this proud +and ambitious woman, whose mind was so accomplished, and who had queened +it so well at the Chateau d'Anzy, now condescending to household cares +and sewing for the coming infant, moved the poor lawyer, who had just +left the bench. And as he saw the pricks on one of the taper fingers he +had so often kissed, he understood that Madame de la Baudraye was not +merely playing at this maternal task. + +In the course of this first interview the magistrate saw to the depths +of Dinah's soul. This perspicacity in a man so much in love was a +superhuman effort. He saw that Didine meant to be the journalist's +guardian spirit and lead him into a nobler road; she had seen that +the difficulties of his practical life were due to some moral defects. +Between two beings united by love--in one so genuine, and in the other +so well feigned--more than one confidence had been exchanged in the +course of four months. Notwithstanding the care with which Etienne +wrapped up his true self, a word now and then had not failed to +enlighten Dinah as to the previous life of a man whose talents were +so hampered by poverty, so perverted by bad examples, so thwarted by +obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. "He will be a greater man if +life is easy to him," said she to herself. And she strove to make him +happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by dint of such economy +and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus Dinah became +a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of her soul +towards the heights. + +"His happiness will be my absolution." + +These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the lawyer, +accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of his +triumph, flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first performance, +had very plainly shown the lawyer what Lousteau's purpose was. To +Etienne, Madame de la Baudraye was, to use his own phrase, "a fine +feather in his cap." Far from preferring the joys of a shy and +mysterious passion, of hiding such exquisite happiness from the eyes of +the world, he found a vulgar satisfaction in displaying the first woman +of respectability who had ever honored him with her affection. + +The Judge, however, was for some time deceived by the attentions which +any man would lavish on any woman in Madame de la Baudraye's situation, +and Lousteau made them doubly charming by the ingratiating ways +characteristic of men whose manners are naturally attractive. There are, +in fact, men who have something of the monkey in them by nature, and to +whom the assumption of the most engaging forms of sentiment is so easy +that the actor is not detected; and Lousteau's natural gifts had been +fully developed on the stage on which he had hitherto figured. + +Between the months of April and July, when Dinah expected her +confinement, she discovered why it was that Lousteau had not triumphed +over poverty; he was idle and had no power of will. The brain, to be +sure, must obey its own laws; it recognizes neither the exigencies of +life nor the voice of honor; a man cannot write a great book because a +woman is dying, or to pay a discreditable debt, or to bring up a family; +at the same time, there is no great talent without a strong will. +These twin forces are requisite for the erection of the vast edifice of +personal glory. A distinguished genius keeps his brain in a productive +condition, just as the knights of old kept their weapons always ready +for battle. They conquer indolence, they deny themselves enervating +pleasures, or indulge only to a fixed limit proportioned to their +powers. This explains the life of such men as Walter Scott, Cuvier, +Voltaire, Newton, Buffon, Bayle, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Lopez de Vega, +Calderon, Boccacio, Aretino, Aristotle--in short, every man who +delighted, governed, or led his contemporaries. + +A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his +talent. Though Talent has its germ in a cultivated gift, Will means +the incessant conquest of his instincts, of proclivities subdued and +mortified, and difficulties of every kind heroically defeated. The abuse +of smoking encouraged Lousteau's indolence. Tobacco, which can lull +grief, inevitably numbs a man's energy. + +Then, while the cigar deteriorated him physically, criticism as a +profession morally stultified a man so easily tempted by pleasure. +Criticism is as fatal to the critic as seeing two sides to a question is +to a pleader. In these professions the judgment is undermined, the mind +loses its lucid rectitude. The writer lives by taking sides. Thus, +we may distinguish two kinds of criticism, as in painting we may +distinguish art from practical dexterity. Criticism, after the pattern +of most contemporary leader-writers, is the expression of judgments +formed at random in a more or less witty way, just as an advocate pleads +in court on the most contradictory briefs. The newspaper critic always +finds a subject to work up in the book he is discussing. Done after this +fashion, the business is well adapted to indolent brains, to men devoid +of the sublime faculty of imagination, or, possessed of it indeed, but +lacking courage to cultivate it. Every play, every book comes to their +pen as a subject, making no demand on their imagination, and of which +they simply write a report, seriously or in irony, according to the +mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever it may be, French wit can +always justify it, being admirably ready to defend either side of any +case. And conscience counts for so little, these _bravi_ have so little +value for their own words, that they will loudly praise in the greenroom +the work they tear to tatters in print. + +Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to +another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of the +new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old. Madame +de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on the +Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on the same +occasion. She admired the maxim he preached: + +"We are the attorneys of public opinion." + +The other kind of criticism is a science. It necessitates a thorough +comprehension of each work, a lucid insight into the tendencies of the +age, the adoption of a system, and faith in fixed principles--that is to +say, a scheme of jurisprudence, a summing-up, and a verdict. The critic +is then a magistrate of ideas, the censor of his time; he fulfils a +sacred function; while in the former case he is but an acrobat who turns +somersaults for a living so long as he had a leg to stand on. Between +Claude Vignon and Lousteau lay the gulf that divides mere dexterity from +art. + +Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by +no means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She +saw Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most discreditable +compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a picture from +which sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him by saying, "He +is a poet!" so anxious was she to justify him in her own eyes. When she +thus guessed the secret of many a writer's existence, she also guessed +that Lousteau's pen could never be trusted to as a resource. + +Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had thought +of for her own sake. Through her mother she tried to negotiate with her +husband for an allowance, but without Etienne's knowledge; for, as she +thought, it would be an offence to his delicate feelings, which must be +considered. A few days before the end of July, Dinah crumbled up in her +wrath the letter from her mother containing Monsieur de la Baudraye's +ultimatum: + +"Madame de la Baudraye cannot need an allowance in Paris when she can +live in perfect luxury at her Chateau of Anzy: she may return." + +Lousteau picked up this letter and read it. + +"I will avenge you!" said he to Dinah in the ominous tone that delights +a woman when her antipathies are flattered. + +Five days after this Bianchon and Duriau, the famous ladies' doctor, +were engaged at Lousteau's; for he, ever since little La Baudraye's +reply, had been making a great display of his joy and importance over +the advent of the infant. Monsieur de Clagny and Madame Piedefer--sent +for in all haste were to be the godparents, for the cautious magistrate +feared lest Lousteau should commit some compromising blunder. Madame de +la Baudraye gave birth to a boy that might have filled a queen with envy +who hoped for an heir-presumptive. + +Bianchon and Monsieur de Clagny went off to register the child at the +Mayor's office as the son of Monsieur and Madame de la Baudraye, unknown +to Etienne, who, on his part, rushed off to a printer's to have this +circular set up: + + _"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son._ + + _"Monsieur Etienne Lousteau has the pleasure of informing you of + the fact._ + + _"The mother and child are doing well."_ + +Lousteau had already sent out sixty of these announcements when Monsieur +de Clagny, on coming to make inquiries, happened to see the list of +persons at Sancerre to whom Lousteau proposed to send this amazing +notice, written below the names of the persons in Paris to whom it was +already gone. The lawyer confiscated the list and the remainder of the +circulars, showed them to Madame Piedefer, begging her on no account to +allow Lousteau to carry on this atrocious jest, and jumped into a +cab. The devoted friend then ordered from the same printer another +announcement in the following words: + + _"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son._ + + _"Monsieur le Baron de la Baudraye has the honor of informing you + of the fact._ + + _"Mother and child are doing well."_ + +After seeing the proofs destroyed, the form of type, everything that +could bear witness to the existence of the former document, Monsieur de +Clagny set to work to intercept those that had been sent; in many cases +he changed them at the porter's lodge, he got back thirty into his +own hands, and at last, after three days of hard work, only one of the +original notes existed, that, namely sent to Nathan. + +Five times had the lawyer called on the great man without finding +him. By the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an +interview, the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some +persons regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab to +which every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others +said they had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the +La Baudraye family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of +journalists; in short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a +curiosity. Florine, with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about, +stamped in the post as paid, and addressed in Etienne's hand. So, as +soon as the judge spoke of the announcement, Nathan began to smile. + +"Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?" cried he. "That +autograph is one of those weapons which an athlete in the circus cannot +afford to lay down. That note proves that Lousteau has no heart, no +taste, no dignity; that he knows nothing of the world nor of public +morality; that he insults himself when he can find no one else to +insult.--None but the son of a provincial citizen imported from Sancerre +to become a poet, but who is only the _bravo_ of some contemptible +magazine, could ever have sent out such a circular letter, as you must +allow, monsieur. This is a document indispensable to the archives of +the age.--To-day Lousteau flatters me, to-morrow he may ask for my +head.--Excuse me, I forgot you were a judge. + +"I have gone through a passion for a lady, a great lady, as far superior +to Madame de la Baudraye as your fine feeling, monsieur, is superior to +Lousteau's vulgar retaliation; but I would have died rather than utter +her name. A few months of her airs and graces cost me a hundred thousand +francs and my prospects for life; but I do not think the price too +high!--And I have never murmured!--If a woman betrays the secret of her +passion, it is the supreme offering of her love, but a man!--He must be +a Lousteau! + +"No, I would not give up that paper for a thousand crowns." + +"Monsieur," said the lawyer at last, after an eloquent battle lasting +half an hour, "I have called on fifteen or sixteen men of letters about +this affair, and can it be that you are the only one immovable by an +appeal of honor? It is not for Etienne Lousteau that I plead, but for +a woman and child, both equally ignorant of the damage done to their +fortune, their prospects, and their honor.--Who knows, monsieur, whether +you might not some day be compelled to plead for some favor of justice +for a friend, for some person whose honor was dearer to you than +your own.--It might be remembered against you that you had been +ruthless.--Can such a man as you are hesitate?" added Monsieur de +Clagny. + +"I only wished you to understand the extent of the sacrifice," replied +Nathan, giving up the letter, as he reflected on the judge's influence +and accepted this implied bargain. + +When the journalist's stupid jest had been counteracted, Monsieur de +Clagny went to give him a rating in the presence of Madame Piedefer; but +he found Lousteau fuming with irritation. + +"What I did monsieur, I did with a purpose!" replied Etienne. "Monsieur +de la Baudraye has sixty thousand francs a year and refuses to make his +wife an allowance; I wished to make him feel that the child is in my +power." + +"Yes, monsieur, I quite suspected it," replied the lawyer. "For that +reason I readily agreed to be little Polydore's godfather, and he is +registered as the son of the Baron and Baronne de la Baudraye; if you +have the feelings of a father, you ought to rejoice in knowing that the +child is heir to one of the finest entailed estates in France." + +"And pray, sir, is the mother to die of hunger?" + +"Be quite easy," said the lawyer bitterly, having dragged from Lousteau +the expression of feeling he had so long been expecting. "I will +undertake to transact the matter with Monsieur de la Baudraye." + +Monsieur de Clagny left the house with a chill at his heart. + +Dinah, his idol, was loved for her money. Would she not, when too late, +have her eyes opened? + +"Poor woman!" said the lawyer, as he walked away. And this justice we +will do him--for to whom should justice be done unless to a Judge?--he +loved Dinah too sincerely to regard her degradation as a means of +triumph one day; he was all pity and devotion; he really loved her. + + + +The care and nursing of the infant, its cries, the quiet needed for the +mother during the first few days, and the ubiquity of Madame Piedefer, +were so entirely adverse to literary labors, that Lousteau moved up +to the three rooms taken on the first floor for the old bigot. The +journalist, obliged to go to the first performances without Dinah, and +living apart from her, found an indescribable charm in the use of his +liberty. More than once he submitted to be taken by the arm and dragged +off to some jollification; more than once he found himself at the house +of a friend's mistress in the heart of bohemia. He again saw women +brilliantly young and splendidly dressed, in whom economy seemed treason +to their youth and power. Dinah, in spite of her striking beauty, after +nursing her baby for three months, could not stand comparison with these +perishable blossoms, so soon faded, but so showy as long as they live +rooted in opulence. + +Home life had, nevertheless, a strong attraction for Etienne. In three +months the mother and daughter, with the help of the cook from +Sancerre and of little Pamela, had given the apartment a quite changed +appearance. The journalist found his breakfast and his dinner served +with a sort of luxury. Dinah, handsome and nicely dressed, was careful +to anticipate her dear Etienne's wishes, and he felt himself the king +of his home, where everything, even the baby, was subject to his +selfishness. Dinah's affection was to be seen in every trifle, Lousteau +could not possibly cease the entrancing deceptions of his unreal +passion. + +Dinah, meanwhile, was aware of a source of ruin, both to her love and +to the household, in the kind of life into which Lousteau had allowed +himself to drift. At the end of ten months she weaned her baby, +installed her mother in the upstairs rooms, and restored the family +intimacy which indissolubly links a man and woman when the woman is +loving and clever. One of the most striking circumstances in Benjamin +Constant's novel, one of the explanations of Ellenore's desertion, is +the want of daily--or, if you will, of nightly--intercourse between +her and Adolphe. Each of the lovers has a separate home; they have both +submitted to the world and saved appearances. Ellenore, repeatedly +left to herself, is compelled to vast labors of affection to expel the +thoughts of release which captivate Adolphe when absent. The constant +exchange of glances and thoughts in domestic life gives a woman such +power that a man needs stronger reasons for desertion than she will ever +give him so long as she loves him. + +This was an entirely new phase both to Etienne and to Dinah. Dinah +intended to be indispensable; she wanted to infuse fresh energy into +this man, whose weakness smiled upon her, for she thought it a security. +She found him subjects, sketched the treatment, and at a pinch, would +write whole chapters. She revived the vitality of this dying talent by +transfusing fresh blood into his veins; she supplied him with ideas and +opinions. In short, she produced two books which were a success. More +than once she saved Lousteau's self-esteem by dictating, correcting, or +finishing his articles when he was in despair at his own lack of ideas. +The secret of this collaboration was strictly preserved; Madame Piedefer +knew nothing of it. + +This mental galvanism was rewarded by improved pay, enabling them to +live comfortably till the end of 1838. Lousteau became used to seeing +Dinah do his work, and he paid her--as the French people say in +their vigorous lingo--in "monkey money," nothing for her pains. This +expenditure in self-sacrifice becomes a treasure which generous souls +prize, and the more she gave the more she loved Lousteau; the time soon +came when Dinah felt that it would be too bitter a grief ever to give +him up. + +But then another child was coming, and this year was a terrible trial. +In spite of the precautions of the two women, Etienne contracted debts; +he worked himself to death to pay them off while Dinah was laid up; and, +knowing him as she did, she thought him heroic. But after this effort, +appalled at having two women, two children, and two maids on his hands, +he was incapable of the struggle to maintain a family by his pen when he +had failed to maintain even himself. So he let things take their chance. +Then the ruthless speculator exaggerated the farce of love-making at +home to secure greater liberty abroad. + +Dinah proudly endured the burden of life without support. The one idea, +"He loves me!" gave her superhuman strength. She worked as hard as +the most energetic spirits of our time. At the risk of her beauty +and health, Didine was to Lousteau what Mademoiselle Delachaux was to +Gardane in Diderot's noble and true tale. But while sacrificing herself, +she committed the magnanimous blunder of sacrificing dress. She had her +gowns dyed, and wore nothing but black. She stank of black, as Malaga +said, making fun mercilessly of Lousteau. + +By the end of 1839, Etienne, following the example of Louis XV., had, +by dint of gradual capitulations of conscience, come to the point of +establishing a distinction between his own money and the housekeeping +money, just as Louis XV. drew the line between his privy purse and the +public moneys. He deceived Dinah as to his earnings. On discovering +this baseness, Madame de la Baudraye went through fearful tortures of +jealousy. She wanted to live two lives--the life of the world and the +life of a literary woman; she accompanied Lousteau to every first-night +performance, and could detect in him many impulses of wounded vanity, +for her black attire rubbed off, as it were, on him, clouding his brow, +and sometimes leading him to be quite brutal. He was really the woman of +the two; and he had all a woman's exacting perversity; he would reproach +Dinah for the dowdiness of her appearance, even while benefiting by the +sacrifice, which to a mistress is so cruel--exactly like a woman who, +after sending a man through a gutter to save her honor, tells him she +"cannot bear dirt!" when he comes out. + +Dinah then found herself obliged to gather up the rather loose reins +of power by which a clever woman drives a man devoid of will. But in +so doing she could not fail to lose much of her moral lustre. Such +suspicions as she betrayed drag a woman into quarrels which lead to +disrespect, because she herself comes down from the high level on which +she had at first placed herself. Next she made some concession; Lousteau +was allowed to entertain several of his friends--Nathan, Bixiou, +Blondet, Finot, whose manners, language, and intercourse were depraving. +They tried to convince Madame de la Baudraye that her principles and +aversions were a survival of provincial prudishness; and they preached +the creed of woman's superiority. + +Before long, her jealousy put weapons into Lousteau's hands. During +the carnival of 1840, she disguised herself to go to the balls at the +Opera-house, and to suppers where she met courtesans, in order to keep +an eye on all Etienne's amusements. + +On the day of Mid-Lent--or rather, at eight on the morning after--Dinah +came home from the ball in her fancy dress to go to bed. She had gone to +spy on Lousteau, who, believing her to be ill, had engaged himself for +that evening to Fanny Beaupre. The journalist, warned by a friend, had +behaved so as to deceive the poor woman, only too ready to be deceived. + +As she stepped out of the hired cab, Dinah met Monsieur de la Baudraye, +to whom the porter pointed her out. The little old man took his wife by +the arm, saying, in an icy tone: + +"So this is you, madame!" + +This sudden advent of conjugal authority, before which she felt herself +so small, and, above all, these words, almost froze the heart of +the unhappy woman caught in the costume of a _debardeur_. To escape +Etienne's eye the more effectually, she had chosen a dress he was not +likely to detect her in. She took advantage of the mask she still had +on to escape without replying, changed her dress, and went up to her +mother's rooms, where she found her husband waiting for her. In spite of +her assumed dignity, she blushed in the old man's presence. + +"What do you want of me, monsieur?" she asked. "Are we not separated +forever?" + +"Actually, yes," said Monsieur de la Baudraye. "Legally, no." + +Madame Piedefer was telegraphing signals to her daughter, which Dinah +presently observed and understood. + +"Nothing could have brought you here but your own interests," she said, +in a bitter tone. + +"_Our_ interests," said the little man coldly, "for we have two +children.--Your Uncle Silas Piedefer is dead, at New York, where, after +having made and lost several fortunes in various parts of the world, he +has finally left some seven or eight hundred thousand francs--they say +twelve--but there is stock-in-trade to be sold. I am the chief in our +common interests, and act for you." + +"Oh!" cried Dinah, "in everything that relates to business, I trust no +one but Monsieur de Clagny. He knows the law, come to terms with him; +what he does, will be done right." + +"I have no occasion for Monsieur de Clagny," answered Monsieur de la +Baudraye, "to take my children from you--" + +"Your children!" exclaimed Dinah. "Your children, to whom you have not +sent a sou! _Your_ children!" She burst into a loud shout of laughter; +but Monsieur de la Baudraye's unmoved coolness threw ice on the +explosion. + +"Your mother has just brought them to show me," he went on. "They are +charming boys. I do not intend to part from them. I shall take them to +our house at Anzy, if it were only to save them from seeing their mother +disguised like a--" + +"Silence!" said Madame de la Baudraye imperatively. "What do you want of +me that brought you here?" + +"A power of attorney to receive our Uncle Silas' property." + +Dinah took a pen, wrote two lines to Monsieur de Clagny, and desired her +husband to call again in the afternoon. + +At five o'clock, Monsieur de Clagny--who had been promoted to the +post of Attorney-General--enlightened Madame de la Baudraye as to her +position; still, he undertook to arrange everything by a bargain with +the old fellow, whose visit had been prompted by avarice alone. Monsieur +de la Baudraye, to whom his wife's power of attorney was indispensable +to enable him to deal with the business as he wished, purchased it by +certain concessions. In the first place, he undertook to allow her +ten thousand francs a year so long as she found it convenient--so the +document was worded--to reside in Paris; the children, each on attaining +the age of six, were to be placed in Monsieur de la Baudraye's keeping. +Finally, the lawyer extracted the payment of the allowance in advance. + +Little La Baudraye, who came jauntily enough to say good-bye to his wife +and _his_ children, appeared in a white india-rubber overcoat. He was +so firm on his feet, and so exactly like the La Baudraye of 1836, that +Dinah despaired of ever burying the dreadful little dwarf. From the +garden, where he was smoking a cigar, the journalist could watch +Monsieur de la Baudraye for so long as it took the little reptile to +cross the forecourt, but that was enough for Lousteau; it was plain to +him that the little man had intended to wreck every hope of his dying +that his wife might have conceived. + +This short scene made a considerable change in the writer's secret +scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the +position. + +His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as much +as it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two sides +of the account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry quits. +Considering how small his income was, and how hardly he earned it, +Lousteau regarded himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It was, no +doubt, a favorable moment for throwing the woman over. Tired at the end +of three years of playing a comedy which never can become a habit, +he was perpetually concealing his weariness; and this fellow, who was +accustomed to disguise none of his feelings, compelled himself to wear +a smile at home like that of a debtor in the presence of his creditor. +This compulsion was every day more intolerable. + +Hitherto the immense advantages he foresaw in the future had given him +strength; but when he saw Monsieur de la Baudraye embark for the United +States, as briskly as if it were to go down to Rouen in a steamboat, he +ceased to believe in the future. + +He went in from the garden to the pretty drawing-room, where Dinah had +just taken leave of her husband. + +"Etienne," said Madame de la Baudraye, "do you know what my lord and +master has proposed to me? In the event of my wishing to return to live +at Anzy during his absence, he has left his orders, and he hopes that my +mother's good advice will weigh with me, and that I shall go back there +with my children." + +"It is very good advice," replied Lousteau drily, knowing the passionate +disclaimer that Dinah expected, and indeed begged for with her eyes. + +The tone, the words, the cold look, all hit the hapless woman so hard, +who lived only in her love, that two large tears trickled slowly down +her cheeks, while she did not speak a word, and Lousteau only saw them +when she took out her handkerchief to wipe away these two beads of +anguish. + +"What is it, Didine?" he asked, touched to the heart by this excessive +sensibility. + +"Just as I was priding myself on having won our freedom," said she--"at +the cost of my fortune--by selling--what is most precious to a mother's +heart--selling my children!--for he is to have them from the age of +six--and I cannot see them without going to Sancerre!--and that is +torture!--Ah, dear God! What have I done----?" + +Lousteau knelt down by her and kissed her hands with a lavish display of +coaxing and petting. + +"You do not understand me," said he. "I blame myself, for I am not +worth such sacrifices, dear angel. I am, in a literary sense, a quite +second-rate man. If the day comes when I can no longer cut a figure at +the bottom of the newspaper, the editors will let me lie, like an old +shoe flung into the rubbish heap. Remember, we tight-rope dancers have +no retiring pension! The State would have too many clever men on its +hands if it started on such a career of beneficence. I am forty-two, and +I am as idle as a marmot. I feel it--I know it"--and he took her by the +hand--"my love can only be fatal to you. + +"As you know, at two-and-twenty I lived on Florine; but what is +excusable in a youth, what then seems smart and charming, is a disgrace +to a man of forty. Hitherto we have shared the burden of existence, and +it has not been lovely for this year and half. Out of devotion to me you +wear nothing but black, and that does me no credit."--Dinah gave one +of those magnanimous shrugs which are worth all the words ever +spoken.--"Yes," Etienne went on, "I know you sacrifice everything to my +whims, even your beauty. And I, with a heart worn out in past struggles, +a soul full of dark presentiments as to the future, I cannot repay your +exquisite love with an equal affection. We were very happy--without a +cloud--for a long time.--Well, then, I cannot bear to see so sweet a +poem end badly. Am I wrong?" + +Madame de la Baudraye loved Etienne so truly, that this prudence, worthy +of de Clagny, gratified her and stanched her tears. + +"He loves me for myself alone!" thought she, looking at him with smiling +eyes. + +After four years of intimacy, this woman's love now combined every shade +of affection which our powers of analysis can discern, and which modern +society has created; one of the most remarkable men of our age, whose +death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle (Stendhal), was +the first to delineate them to perfection. + +Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be +compared to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body, and +overcomes every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from him, or +his hand laid on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A kind word or +a smile wreathed the poor woman's soul with flowers; a fond look elated, +a cold look depressed her. When she walked, taking his arm and keeping +step with him in the street or on the boulevard, she was so entirely +absorbed in him that she lost all sense of herself. Fascinated by this +fellow's wit, magnetized by his airs, his vices were but trivial defects +in her eyes. She loved the puffs of cigar smoke that the wind brought +into her room from the garden; she went to inhale them, and made no +wry faces, hiding herself to enjoy them. She hated the publisher or +the newspaper editor who refused Lousteau money on the ground of the +enormous advances he had had already. She deluded herself so far as to +believe that her bohemian was writing a novel, for which the payment was +to come, instead of working off a debt long since incurred. + +This, no doubt, is true love, and includes every mode of loving; the +love of the heart and of the head--passion, caprice, and taste--to +accept Beyle's definitions. Didine loved him so wholly, that in certain +moments when her critical judgment, just by nature, and constantly +exercised since she had lived in Paris, compelled her to read to the +bottom of Lousteau's soul, sense was still too much for reason, and +suggested excuses. + +"And what am I?" she replied. "A woman who has put herself outside the +pale. Since I have sacrificed all a woman's honor, why should you not +sacrifice to me some of a man's honor? Do we not live outside the limits +of social conventionality? Why not accept from me what Nathan can accept +from Florine? We will square accounts when we part, and only death can +part us--you know. My happiness is your honor, Etienne, as my constancy +and your happiness are mine. If I fail to make you happy, all is at an +end. If I cause you a pang, condemn me. + +"Our debts are paid; we have ten thousand francs a year, and between +us we can certainly make eight thousand francs a year--I will write +theatrical articles.--With fifteen hundred francs a month we shall be as +rich as Rothschild.--Be quite easy. I will have some lovely dresses, +and give you every day some gratified vanity, as on the first night of +Nathan's play--" + +"And what about your mother, who goes to Mass every day, and wants to +bring a priest to the house and make you give up this way of life?" + +"Every one has a pet vice. You smoke, she preaches at me, poor woman! +But she takes great care of the children, she takes them out, she is +absolutely devoted, and idolizes me. Would you hinder her from crying?" + +"What will be thought of me?" + +"But we do not live for the world!" cried she, raising Etienne and +making him sit by her. "Besides, we shall be married some day--we have +the risks of a sea voyage----" + +"I never thought of that," said Lousteau simply; and he added to +himself, "Time enough to part when little La Baudraye is safe back +again." + + + +From that day forth Etienne lived in luxury; and Dinah, on first nights, +could hold her own with the best dressed women in Paris. Lousteau was +so fatuous as to affect, among his friends, the attitude of a man +overborne, bored to extinction, ruined by Madame de la Baudraye. + +"Oh, what would I not give to the friend who would deliver me from +Dinah! But no one ever can!" said he. "She loves me enough to throw +herself out of the window if I told her." + +The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against +Dinah's jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was +shamelessly unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at seeing +Dinah in such disgraceful circumstances when she might have been so +rich, and in so wretched a position at the time when her original +ambitions would have been fulfilled, came to warn her, to tell her--"You +are betrayed," and she only replied, "I know it." + +The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing. + +Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a +word. + +"Do you still love me?" she asked. + +"I would lose my soul for you!" he exclaimed, starting to his feet. + +The hapless man's eyes flashed like torches, he trembled like a leaf, +his throat was rigid, his hair thrilled to the roots; he believed he was +so blessed as to be accepted as his idol's avenger, and this poor joy +filled him with rapture. + +"Why are you so startled?" said she, making him sit down again. "That is +how I love him." + +The lawyer understood this argument _ad hominem_. And there were tears +in the eyes of the Judge, who had just condemned a man to death! + +Lousteau's satiety, that odious conclusion of such illicit relations, +had betrayed itself in a thousand little things, which are like grains +of sand thrown against the panes of the little magical hut where +those who love dwell and dream. These grains of sand, which grow to +be pebbles, had never been discerned by Dinah till they were as big +as rocks. Madame de la Baudraye had at last thoroughly understood +Lousteau's character. + +"He is," she said to her mother, "a poet, defenceless against disaster, +mean out of laziness, not for want of heart, and rather too prone to +pleasure; in short, a great cat, whom it is impossible to hate. What +would become of him without me? I hindered his marriage; he has no +prospects. His talent would perish in privations." + +"Oh, my Dinah!" Madame Piedefer had exclaimed, "what a hell you live in! +What is the feeling that gives you strength enough to persist?" + +"I will be a mother to him!" she had replied. + +There are certain horrible situations in which we come to no decision +till the moment when our friends discern our dishonor. We accept +compromises with ourself so long as we escape a censor who comes to play +prosecutor. Monsieur de Clagny, as clumsy as a tortured man, had been +torturing Dinah. + +"To preserve my love I will be all that Madame de Pompadour was to +preserve her power," said she to herself when Monsieur de Clagny had +left her. And this phrase sufficiently proves that her love was becoming +a burden to her, and would presently be a toil rather than a pleasure. + +The part now assumed by Dinah was horribly painful, and Lousteau made +it no easier to play. When he wanted to go out after dinner he would +perform the tenderest little farces of affection, and address Dinah in +words full of devotion; he would take her by the chain, and when he had +bruised her with it, even while he hurt her, the lordly ingrate would +say, "Did I wound you?" + +These false caresses and deceptions had degrading consequences for +Dinah, who believed in a revival of his love. The mother, alas, gave +way to the mistress with shameful readiness. She felt herself a mere +plaything in the man's hands, and at last she confessed to herself: + +"Well, then, I will be his plaything!" finding joy in it--the rapture of +damnation. + +When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living in +solitude, she felt her courage fail. She preferred the anticipated and +inevitable miseries of this fierce intimacy to the absence of the joys, +which were all the more exquisite because they arose from the midst of +remorse, of terrible struggles with herself, of a _No_ persuaded to +be _Yes_. At every moment she seemed to come across the pool of bitter +water found in a desert, and drunk with greater relish than the traveler +would find in sipping the finest wines at a prince's table. + +When Dinah wondered to herself at midnight: + +"Will he come home, or will he not?" she was not alive again till she +heard the familiar sound of Lousteau's boots, and his well-known ring at +the bell. + +She would often try to restrain him by giving him pleasure; she would +hope to be a match for her rivals, and leave them no hold on that +agitated heart. How many times a day would she rehearse the tragedy of +_Le Dernier Jour d'un condamne_, saying to herself, "To-morrow we part." +And how often would a word, a look, a kiss full of apparently artless +feeling, bring her back to the depths of her love! + +It was terrible. More than once had she meditated suicide as she paced +the little town garden where a few pale flowers bloomed. In fact, she +had not yet exhausted the vast treasure of devotion and love which a +loving woman bears in her heart. + +The romance of _Adolphe_ was her Bible, her study, for above all else +she would not be an Ellenore. She allowed herself no tears, she avoided +all the bitterness so cleverly described by the critic to whom we owe +an analysis of this striking work; whose comments indeed seemed to Dinah +almost superior to the book. And she read again and again this fine +essay by the only real critic who has written in the _Revue des Deux +Mondes_, an article now printed at the beginning of the new edition of +_Adolphe_. + +"No," she would say to herself, as she repeated the author's fateful +words, "no, I will not 'give my requests the form of an order,' I will +not 'fly to tears as a means of revenge,' I will not 'condemn the things +I once approved without reservation,' I will not 'dog his footsteps with +a prying eye'; if he plays truant, he shall not on his return 'see a +scornful lip, whose kiss is an unanswerable command.' No, 'my silence +shall not be a reproach nor my first word a quarrel.'--I will not be +like every other woman!" she went on, laying on her table the little +yellow paper volume which had already attracted Lousteau's remark, +"What! are you studying _Adolphe_?"--"If for one day only he should +recognize my merits and say, 'That victim never uttered a cry!'--it will +be all I ask. And besides, the others only have him for an hour; I have +him for life!" + +Thinking himself justified by his private tribunal in punishing his +wife, Monsieur de la Baudraye robbed her to achieve his cherished +enterprise of reclaiming three thousand acres of moorland, to which he +had devoted himself ever since 1836, living like a mouse. He manipulated +the property left by Monsieur Silas Piedefer so ingeniously, that he +contrived to reduce the proved value to eight hundred thousand francs, +while pocketing twelve hundred thousand. He did not announce his return; +but while his wife was enduring unspeakable woes, he was building farms, +digging trenches, and ploughing rough ground with a courage that ranked +him among the most remarkable agriculturists of the province. + +The four hundred thousand francs he had filched from his wife were spent +in three years on this undertaking, and the estate of Anzy was expected +to return seventy-two thousand francs a year of net profits after the +taxes were paid. The eight hundred thousand he invested at four and a +half per cent in the funds, buying at eighty francs, at the time of the +financial crisis brought about by the Ministry of the First of March, +as it was called. By thus securing to his wife an income of forty-eight +thousand francs he considered himself no longer in her debt. Could he +not restore the odd twelve hundred thousand as soon as the four and a +half per cents had risen above a hundred? He was now the greatest man +in Sancerre, with the exception of one--the richest proprietor in +France--whose rival he considered himself. He saw himself with an income +of a hundred and forty thousand francs, of which ninety thousand formed +the revenue from the lands he had entailed. Having calculated that +besides this net income he paid ten thousand francs in taxes, three +thousand in working expenses, ten thousand to his wife, and twelve +hundred to his mother-in-law, he would say in the literary circles of +Sancerre: + +"I am reputed miserly, and said to spend nothing; but my outlay amounts +to twenty-six thousand five hundred francs a year. And I have still to +pay for the education of my two children! I daresay it is not a pleasing +fact to the Milauds of Nevers, but the second house of La Baudraye may +yet have as noble a center as the first.--I shall most likely go to +Paris and petition the King of the French to grant me the title of +Count--Monsieur Roy is a Count--and my wife would be pleased to be +Madame la Comtesse." + +And this was said with such splendid coolness that no one would have +dared to laugh at the little man. Only Monsieur Boirouge, the Presiding +Judge, remarked: + +"In your place, I should not be happy unless I had a daughter." + +"Well, I shall go to Paris before long----" said the Baron. + +In the early part of 1842 Madame de la Baudraye, feeling that she was to +Lousteau no more than a reserve in the background, had again sacrificed +herself absolutely to secure his comfort; she had resumed her black +raiment, but now it was in sign of mourning, for her pleasure was +turning to remorse. She was too often put to shame not to feel the +weight of the chain, and her mother found her sunk in those moods of +meditation into which visions of the future cast unhappy souls in a sort +of torpor. + +Madame Piedefer, by the advice of her spiritual director, was on the +watch for the moment of exhaustion, which the priest told her would +inevitably supervene, and then she pleaded in behalf of the children. +She restricted herself to urging that Dinah and Lousteau should live +apart, not asking her to give him up. In real life these violent +situations are not closed as they are in books, by death or cleverly +contrived catastrophes; they end far less poetically--in disgust, in the +blighting of every flower of the soul, in the commonplace of habit, and +very often too in another passion, which robs a wife of the interest +which is traditionally ascribed to women. So, when common sense, the law +of social proprieties, family interest--all the mixed elements which, +since the Restoration, have been dignified by the mane of Public Morals, +out of sheer aversion to the name of the Catholic religion--where this +is seconded by a sense of insults a little too offensive; when the +fatigue of constant self-sacrifice has almost reached the point of +exhaustion; and when, under these circumstances, a too cruel blow--one +of those mean acts which a man never lets a woman know of unless he +believes himself to be her assured master--puts the crowning touch +to her revulsion and disenchantment, the moment has come for the +intervention of the friend who undertakes the cure. Madame Piedefer had +no great difficulty now in removing the film from her daughter's eyes. + +She sent for Monsieur de Clagny, who completed the work by assuring +Madame de la Baudraye that if she would give up Etienne, her husband +would allow her to keep the children and to live in Paris, and would +restore her to the command of her own fortune. + +"And what a life you are leading!" said he. "With care and judgment, and +the support of some pious and charitable persons, you may have a salon +and conquer a position. Paris is not Sancerre." + +Dinah left it to Monsieur de Clagny to negotiate a reconciliation with +the old man. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye had sold his wine well, he had sold his wool, +he had felled his timber, and, without telling his wife, he had come +to Paris to invest two hundred thousand francs in the purchase of a +delightful residence in the Rue de l'Arcade, that was being sold in +liquidation of an aristocratic House that was in difficulties. He had +been a member of the Council for the Department since 1826, and now, +paying ten thousand francs in taxes, he was doubly qualified for a +peerage under the conditions of the new legislation. + +Some time before the elections of 1842 he had put himself forward as +candidate unless he were meanwhile called to the Upper House as Peer +of France. At the same time, he asked for the title of Count, and for +promotion to the higher grade of the Legion of Honor. In the matter of +the elections, the dynastic nominations; now, in the event of Monsieur +de la Baudraye being won over to the Government, Sancerre would be +more than ever a rotten borough of royalism. Monsieur de Clagny, +whose talents and modesty were more and more highly appreciated by the +authorities, gave Monsieur de la Baudraye his support; he pointed +out that by raising this enterprising agriculturist to the peerage, a +guarantee would be offered to such important undertakings. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, then, a Count, a Peer of France, and Commander +of the Legion of Honor, was vain enough to wish to cut a figure with +a wife and handsomely appointed house.--"He wanted to enjoy life," he +said. + +He therefore addressed a letter to his wife, dictated by Monsieur de +Clagny, begging her to live under his roof and to furnish the house, +giving play to the taste of which the evidences, he said, had charmed +him at the Chateau d'Anzy. The newly made Count pointed out to his wife +that while the interests of their property forbade his leaving Sancerre, +the education of their boys required her presence in Paris. The +accommodating husband desired Monsieur de Clagny to place sixty thousand +francs at the disposal of Madame la Comtesse for the interior decoration +of their mansion, requesting that she would have a marble tablet +inserted over the gateway with the inscription: _Hotel de la Baudraye_. + +He then accounted to his wife for the money derived from the estate of +Silas Piedefer, told her of the investment at four and a half per cent +of the eight hundred thousand francs he had brought from New York, and +allowed her that income for her expenses, including the education of the +children. As he would be compelled to stay in Paris during some part of +the session of the House of Peers, he requested his wife to reserve for +him a little suite of rooms in an _entresol_ over the kitchens. + +"Bless me! why, he is growing young again--a gentleman!--a +magnifico!--What will he become next? It is quite alarming," said Madame +de la Baudraye. + +"He now fulfils all your wishes at the age of twenty," replied the +lawyer. + +The comparison of her future prospects with her present position was +unendurable to Dinah. Only the day before, Anna de Fontaine had +turned her head away in order to avoid seeing her bosom friend at the +Chamarolles' school. + +"I am a countess," said Dinah to herself. "I shall have the peer's blue +hammer-cloth on my carriage, and the leaders of the literary world in my +drawing-room--and I will look at her!"--And it was this little triumph +that told with all its weight at the moment of her rehabilitation, as +the world's contempt had of old weighed on her happiness. + + + +One fine day, in May 1842, Madame de la Baudraye paid all her little +household debts and left a thousand crowns on top of the packet of +receipted bills. After sending her mother and the children away to the +Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the +house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said: + +"I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the +pleasure of your company at the _Rocher de Cancale_." + +She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy manners +assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave of his +least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months past. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night," said +he--_une premiere_, the slang abbreviation for a first performance. + +"Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye," said Dinah +gravely. "I do not mean to understand such a word as _figged out_." + +"Didine a rebel!" said he, putting his arm round her waist. + +"There is no such person as Didine; you have killed her, my dear," she +replied, releasing herself. "I am taking you to the first performance of +_Madame la Comtesse de la Baudraye_." + +"It is true, then, that our insect is a peer of France?" + +"The nomination is to be gazetted in this evening's _Moniteur_, as I am +told by Monsieur de Clagny, who is promoted to the Court of Appeal." + +"Well, it is quite right," said the journalist. "The entomology of +society ought to be represented in the Upper House." + +"My friend, we are parting for ever," said Madame de la Baudraye, +trying to control the trembling of her voice. "I have dismissed the +two servants. When you go in, you will find the house in order, and no +debts. I shall always feel a mother's affection for you, but in secret. +Let us part calmly, without a fuss, like decent people. + +"Have you had a fault to find with my conduct during the past six +years?" + +"None, but that you have spoiled my life, and wrecked my prospects," +said he in a hard tone. "You have read Benjamin Constant's book very +diligently; you have even studied the last critique on it; but you +have read with a woman's eyes. Though you have one of those superior +intellects which would make a fortune of a poet, you have never dared to +take the man's point of view. + +"That book, my dear, is of both sexes.--We agreed that books were male +or female, dark or fair. In _Adolphe_ women see nothing but Ellenore; +young men see only Adolphe; men of experience see Ellenore and Adolphe; +political men see the whole of social existence. You did not think it +necessary to read the soul of Adolphe--any more than your critic indeed, +who saw only Ellenore. What kills that poor fellow, my dear, is that +he has sacrificed his future for a woman; that he never can be what he +might have been--an ambassador, a minister, a chamberlain, a poet--and +rich. He gives up six years of his energy at that stage of his life when +a man is ready to submit to the hardships of any apprenticeship--to +a petticoat, which he outstrips in the career of ingratitude, for the +woman who has thrown over her first lover is certain sooner or later to +desert the second. Adolphe is, in fact, a tow-haired German, who has +not spirit enough to be false to Ellenore. There are Adolphes who spare +their Ellenores all ignominious quarreling and reproaches, who say to +themselves, 'I will not talk of what I have sacrificed; I will not for +ever be showing the stump of my wrist to let that incarnate selfishness +I have made my queen,' as Ramorny does in _The Fair Maid of Perth_. But +men like that, my dear, get cast aside. + +"Adolphe is a man of birth, an aristocratic nature, who wants to get +back into the highroad to honors and recover his social birthright, his +blighted position.--You, at this moment, are playing both parts. You +are suffering from the pangs of having lost your position, and think +yourself justified in throwing over a hapless lover whose misfortune +it has been that he fancied you so far superior as to understand that, +though a man's heart ought to be true, his sex may be allowed to indulge +its caprices." + +"And do you suppose that I shall not make it my business to restore to +you all you have lost by me? Be quite easy," said Madame de la Baudraye, +astounded by this attack. "Your Ellenore is not dying; and if God +gives her life, if you amend your ways, if you give up courtesans and +actresses, we will find you a better match than a Felicie Cardot." + +The two lovers were sullen. Lousteau affected dejection, he aimed at +appearing hard and cold; while Dinah, really distressed, listened to the +reproaches of her heart. + +"Why," said Lousteau presently, "why not end as we ought to have +begun--hide our love from all eyes, and see each other in secret?" + +"Never!" cried the new-made Countess, with an icy look. "Do you not +comprehend that we are, after all, but finite creatures? Our feelings +seem infinite by reason of our anticipation of heaven, but here on earth +they are limited by the strength of our physical being. There are some +feeble, mean natures which may receive an endless number of wounds and +live on; but there are some more highly-tempered souls which snap at +last under repeated blows. You have--" + +"Oh! enough!" cried he. "No more copy! Your dissertation is unnecessary, +since you can justify yourself by merely saying--'I have ceased to +love!'" + +"What!" she exclaimed in bewilderment. "Is it I who have ceased to +love?" + +"Certainly. You have calculated that I gave you more trouble, more +vexation than pleasure, and you desert your partner--" + +"I desert!----" cried she, clasping her hands. + +"Have not you yourself just said 'Never'?" + +"Well, then, yes! _Never_," she repeated vehemently. + +This final _Never_, spoken in the fear of falling once more under +Lousteau's influence, was interpreted by him as the death-warrant of his +power, since Dinah remained insensible to his sarcastic scorn. + +The journalist could not suppress a tear. He was losing a sincere and +unbounded affection. He had found in Dinah the gentlest La Valliere, +the most delightful Pompadour that any egoist short of a king could hope +for; and, like a boy who has discovered that by dint of tormenting a +cockchafer he has killed it, Lousteau shed a tear. + +Madame de la Baudraye rushed out of the private room where they had been +dining, paid the bill, and fled home to the Rue de l'Arcade, scolding +herself and thinking herself a brute. + + + +Dinah, who had made her house a model of comfort, now metamorphosed +herself. This double metamorphosis cost thirty thousand francs more than +her husband had anticipated. + +The fatal accident which in 1842 deprived the House of Orleans of the +heir-presumptive having necessitated a meeting of the Chambers in August +of that year, little La Baudraye came to present his titles to the Upper +House sooner than he had expected, and then saw what his wife had +done. He was so much delighted, that he paid the thirty thousand +francs without a word, just as he had formerly paid eight thousand for +decorating La Baudraye. + +On his return from the Luxembourg, where he had been presented according +to custom by two of his peers--the Baron de Nucingen and the Marquis +de Montriveau--the new Count met the old Duc de Chaulieu, a former +creditor, walking along, umbrella in hand, while he himself sat perched +in a low chaise on which his coat-of-arms was resplendent, with the +motto, _Deo sic patet fides et hominibus_. This contrast filled his +heart with a large draught of the balm on which the middle class has +been getting drunk ever since 1840. + +Madame de la Baudraye was shocked to see her husband improved and +looking better than on the day of his marriage. The little dwarf, full +of rapturous delight, at sixty-four triumphed in the life which had so +long been denied him; in the family, which his handsome cousin Milaud of +Nevers had declared he would never have; and in his wife--who had asked +Monsieur and Madame de Clagny to dinner to meet the cure of the parish +and his two sponsors to the Chamber of Peers. He petted the children +with fatuous delight. + +The handsome display on the table met with his approval. + +"These are the fleeces of the Berry sheep," said he, showing Monsieur de +Nucingen the dish-covers surmounted by his newly-won coronet. "They are +of silver, you see!" + +Though consumed by melancholy, which she concealed with the +determination of a really superior woman, Dinah was charming, witty, and +above all, young again in her court mourning. + +"You might declare," cried La Baudraye to Monsieur de Nucingen with a +wave of his hand to his wife, "that the Countess was not yet thirty." + +"Ah, ha! Matame is a voman of dirty!" replied the baron, who was +prone to time-honored remarks, which he took to be the small change of +conversation. + +"In every sense of the words," replied the Countess. "I am, in fact, +five-and-thirty, and mean to set up a little passion--" + +"Oh, yes, my wife ruins me in curiosities and china images--" + +"She started that mania at an early age," said the Marquis de Montriveau +with a smile. + +"Yes," said La Baudraye, with a cold stare at the Marquis, whom he had +known at Bourges, "you know that in '25, '26, and '27, she picked a +million francs' worth of treasures. Anzy is a perfect museum." + +"What a cool hand!" thought Monsieur de Clagny, as he saw this little +country miser quite on the level of his new position. + +But misers have savings of all kinds ready for use. + +On the day after the vote on the Regency had passed the Chambers, the +little Count went back to Sancerre for the vintage and resumed his old +habits. + +In the course of that winter, the Comtesse de la Baudraye, with the +support of the Attorney-General to the Court of Appeals, tried to form a +little circle. Of course, she had an "at home" day, she made a selection +among men of mark, receiving none but those of serious purpose and ripe +years. She tried to amuse herself by going to the Opera, French and +Italian. Twice a week she appeared there with her mother and Madame de +Clagny, who was made by her husband to visit Dinah. Still, in spite of +her cleverness, her charming manners, her fashionable stylishness, she +was never really happy but with her children, on whom she lavished all +her disappointed affection. + +Worthy Monsieur de Clagny tried to recruit women for the Countess' +circle, and he succeeded; but he was more successful among the advocates +of piety than the women of fashion. + +"And they bore her!" said he to himself with horror, as he saw his idol +matured by grief, pale from remorse, and then, in all the splendor of +recovered beauty, restored by a life of luxury and care for her boys. +This devoted friend, encouraged in his efforts by her mother and by the +cure was full of expedient. Every Wednesday he introduced some celebrity +from Germany, England, Italy, or Prussia to his dear Countess; he +spoke of her as a quite exceptional woman to people to whom she hardly +addressed two words; but she listened to them with such deep attention +that they went away fully convinced of her superiority. In Paris, Dinah +conquered by silence, as at Sancerre she had conquered by loquacity. Now +and then, some smart saying about affairs, or sarcasm on an absurdity, +betrayed a woman accustomed to deal with ideas--the woman who, four +years since, had given new life to Lousteau's articles. + +This phase was to the poor lawyer's hapless passion like the late season +known as the Indian summer after a sunless year. He affected to be older +than he was, to have the right to befriend Dinah without doing her +an injury, and kept himself at a distance as though he were young, +handsome, and compromising, like a man who has happiness to conceal. He +tried to keep his little attentions a profound secret, and the trifling +gifts which Dinah showed to every one; he endeavored to suggest a +dangerous meaning for his little services. + +"He plays at passion," said the Countess, laughing. She made fun of +Monsieur de Clagny to his face, and the lawyer said, "She notices me." + +"I impress that poor man so deeply," said she to her mother, laughing, +"that if I would say Yes, I believe he would say No." + +One evening Monsieur de Clagny and his wife were taking his dear +Countess home from the theatre, and she was deeply pensive. They had +been to the first performance of Leon Gozlan's first play, _La Main +Droite et la Main Gauche_ (The Right Hand and the Left). + +"What are you thinking about?" asked the lawyer, alarmed at his idol's +dejection. + +This deep and persistent melancholy, though disguised by the Countess, +was a perilous malady for which Monsieur de Clagny knew no remedy; for +true love is often clumsy, especially when it is not reciprocated. True +love takes its expression from the character. Now, this good man loved +after the fashion of Alceste, when Madame de la Baudraye wanted to be +loved after the manner of Philinte. The meaner side of love can never +get on with the Misanthrope's loyalty. Thus, Dinah had taken care never +to open her heart to this man. How could she confess to him that she +sometimes regretted the slough she had left? + +She felt a void in this fashionable life; she had no one for whom to +dress, or whom to tell of her successes and triumphs. Sometimes the +memory of her wretchedness came to her, mingled with memories of +consuming joys. She would hate Lousteau for not taking any pains to +follow her; she would have liked to get tender or furious letters from +him. + +Dinah made no reply, so Monsieur de Clagny repeated the question, taking +the Countess' hand and pressing it between his own with devout respect. + +"Will you have the right hand or the left?" said she, smiling. + +"The left," said he, "for I suppose you mean the truth or a fib." + +"Well, then, I saw him," she said, speaking into the lawyer's ear. "And +as I saw him looking so sad, so out of heart, I said to myself, Has he a +cigar? Has he any money?" + +"If you wish for the truth, I can tell it you," said the lawyer. "He is +living as a husband with Fanny Beaupre. You have forced me to tell you +this secret; I should never have told you, for you might have suspected +me perhaps of an ungenerous motive." + +Madame de la Baudraye grasped his hand. + +"Your husband," said she to her chaperon, "is one of the rarest +souls!--Ah! Why----" + +She shrank into her corner, looking out of the window, but she did not +finish her sentence, of which the lawyer could guess the end: "Why had +not Lousteau a little of your husband's generosity of heart?" + +This information served, however, to cure Dinah of her melancholy; she +threw herself into the whirl of fashion. She wished for success, and she +achieved it; still, she did not make much way with women, and found it +difficult to get introductions. + +In the month of March, Madame Piedefer's friends the priests and +Monsieur de Clagny made a fine stroke by getting Madame de la Baudraye +appointed receiver of subscriptions for the great charitable work +founded by Madame de Carcado. Then she was commissioned to collect from +the Royal Family their donations for the benefit of the sufferers from +the earthquake at Guadeloupe. The Marquise d'Espard, to whom Monsieur +de Canalis read the list of ladies thus appointed, one evening at the +Opera, said, on hearing that of the Countess: + +"I have lived a long time in the world, and I can remember nothing finer +than the manoeuvres undertaken for the rehabilitation of Madame de la +Baudraye." + + + +In the early spring, which, by some whim of our planets, smiled on Paris +in the first week of March in 1843, making the Champs-Elysees green and +leafy before Longchamp, Fanny Beaupre's attache had seen Madame de la +Baudraye several times without being seen by her. More than once he +was stung to the heart by one of those promptings of jealousy and envy +familiar to those who are born and bred provincials, when he beheld +his former mistress comfortably ensconced in a handsome carriage, well +dressed, with dreamy eyes, and his two little boys, one at each window. +He accused himself with all the more virulence because he was waging +war with the sharpest poverty of all--poverty unconfessed. Like all +essentially light and frivolous natures, he cherished the singular point +of honor which consists in never derogating in the eyes of one's own +little public, which makes men on the Bourse commit crimes to escape +expulsion from the temple of the goddess Per-cent, and has given some +criminals courage enough to perform acts of virtue. + +Lousteau dined and breakfasted and smoked as if he were a rich man. Not +for an inheritance would he have bought any but the dearest cigars, for +himself as well as for the playwright or author with whom he went into +the shop. The journalist took his walks abroad in patent leather boots; +but he was constantly afraid of an execution on goods which, to use the +bailiff's slang, had already received the last sacrament. Fanny Beaupre +had nothing left to pawn, and her salary was pledged to pay her +debts. After exhausting every possible advance of pay from newspapers, +magazines, and publishers, Etienne knew not of what ink he could churn +gold. Gambling-houses, so ruthlessly suppressed, could no longer, as of +old, cash I O U's drawn over the green table by beggary in despair. In +short, the journalist was reduced to such extremity that he had just +borrowed a hundred francs of the poorest of his friends, Bixiou, from +whom he had never yet asked for a franc. What distressed Lousteau was +not the fact of owing five thousand francs, but seeing himself bereft +of his elegance, and of the furniture purchased at the cost of so many +privations, and added to by Madame de la Baudraye. + +On April the 3rd, a yellow poster, torn down by the porter after +being displayed on the wall, announced the sale of a handsome suite of +furniture on the following Saturday, the day fixed for sales under +legal authority. Lousteau was taking a walk, smoking cigars, and seeking +ideas--for, in Paris, ideas are in the air, they smile on you from a +street corner, they splash up with a spurt of mud from under the wheels +of a cab! Thus loafing, he had been seeking ideas for articles, and +subjects for novels for a month past, and had found nothing but friends +who carried him off to dinner or to the play, and who intoxicated his +woes, telling him that champagne would inspire him. + +"Beware," said the virulent Bixiou one night, the man who would at the +same moment give a comrade a hundred francs and stab him to the heart +with a sarcasm; "if you go to sleep drunk every night, one day you will +wake up mad." + +On the day before, the Friday, the unhappy wretch, although he was +accustomed to poverty, felt like a man condemned to death. Of old he +would have said: + +"Well, the furniture is very old! I will buy new." + +But he was incapable now of literary legerdemain. Publishers, undermined +by piracy, paid badly; the newspapers made close bargains with +hard-driven writers, as the Opera managers did with tenors that sang +flat. + +He walked on, his eye on the crowd, though seeing nothing, a cigar +in his mouth, and his hands in his pockets, every feature of his face +twitching, and an affected smile on his lips. Then he saw Madame de la +Baudraye go by in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the Rue +de la Chaussee d'Antin to drive in the Bois. + +"There is nothing else left!" said he to himself, and he went home to +smarten himself up. + +That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de +la Baudraye's door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the +Countess--a few lines, as follows: + +"Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving +him for a moment, and at once?" + +This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used. +Madame de la Baudraye had had the word _Parce que_ engraved on a +genuine Oriental carnelian--a potent word--a woman's word--the word that +accounts for everything, even for the Creation. + +The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was +her night in turn for her box. At the sight of this seal she turned +pale. + +"I will come," she said, tucking the note into her dress. + +She was firm enough to conceal her agitation, and begged her mother to +see the children put to bed. She then sent for Lousteau, and received +him in a boudoir, next to the great drawing-room, with open doors. She +was going to a ball after the Opera, and was wearing a beautiful dress +of brocade in stripes alternately plain and flowered with pale blue. Her +gloves, trimmed with tassels, showed off her beautiful white arms. She +was shimmering with lace and all the dainty trifles required by fashion. +Her hair, dressed _a la Sevigne_, gave her a look of elegance; a +necklace of pearls lay on her bosom like bubbles on snow. + +"What is the matter, monsieur?" said the Countess, putting out her +foot from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. "I thought, I +hoped, I was quite forgotten." + +"If I should reply _Never_, you would refuse to believe me," said +Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the +flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented +the room. + +For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying Lousteau, +saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might have been. + +"You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a +plank to me--for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than one +mouthful----" said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and seeming to +yield to an overpowering impulse. "Since you see me here, it is because +my affairs are going to the devil." + +"That is enough," said she; "I understand." + +There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out his +handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear. + +"How much do you want, Etienne," she went on in motherly tones. "We are +at this moment old comrades; speak to me as you would to--to Bixiou." + +"To save my furniture from vanishing into thin air to-morrow morning at +the auction mart, eighteen hundred francs! To repay my friends, as much +again! Three quarters' rent to the landlord--whom you know.--My 'uncle' +wants five hundred francs--" + +"And you!--to live on?" + +"Oh! I have my pen----" + +"It is heavier to lift than any one could believe who reads your +articles," said she, with a subtle smile.--"I have not such a sum as +you need, but come to-morrow at eight; the bailiff will surely wait till +nine, especially if you bring him away to pay him." + +She must, she felt, dismiss Lousteau, who affected to be unable to look +at her; she herself felt such pity as might cut every social Gordian +knot. + +"Thank you," she added, rising and offering her hand to Lousteau. "Your +confidence has done me good! It is long indeed since my heart has known +such joy----" + +Lousteau took her hand and pressed it tenderly to his heart. + +"A drop of water in the desert--and sent by the hand of an angel! God +always does things handsomely!" + +He spoke half in jest and half pathetically; but, believe me, as a piece +of acting it was as fine as Talma's in his famous part of _Leicester_, +which was played throughout with touches of this kind. Dinah felt his +heart beating through his coat; it was throbbing with satisfaction, for +the journalist had had a narrow escape from the hulks of justice; but +it also beat with a very natural fire at seeing Dinah rejuvenescent and +restored by wealth. + +Madame de la Baudraye, stealing an examining glance at Etienne, saw that +his expression was in harmony with the flowers of love, which, as she +thought, had blossomed again in that throbbing heart; she tried to look +once into the eyes of the man she had loved so well, but the seething +blood rushed through her veins and mounted to her brain. Their eyes met +with the same fiery glow as had encouraged Lousteau on the Quay by the +Loire to crumple Dinah's muslin gown. The Bohemian put his arm round her +waist, she yielded, and their cheeks were touching. + +"Here comes my mother, hide!" cried Dinah in alarm. And she hurried +forward to intercept Madame Piedefer. + +"Mamma," said she--this word was to the stern old lady a coaxing +expression which never failed of its effect--"will you do me a great +favor? Take the carriage and go yourself to my banker, Monsieur +Mongenod, with a note I will give you, and bring back six thousand +francs. Come, come--it is an act of charity; come into my room." + +And she dragged away her mother, who seemed very anxious to see who it +was that her daughter had been talking with in the boudoir. + +Two days afterwards, Madame Piedefer held a conference with the cure of +the parish. After listening to the lamentations of the old mother, who +was in despair, the priest said very gravely: + +"Any moral regeneration which is not based on a strong religious +sentiment, and carried out in the bosom of the Church, is built on +sand.--The many means of grace enjoined by the Catholic religion, small +as they are, and not understood, are so many dams necessary to restrain +the violence of evil promptings. Persuade your daughter to perform all +her religious duties, and we shall save her yet." + +Within ten days of this meeting the Hotel de la Baudraye was shut +up. The Countess, the children, and her mother, in short, the whole +household, including a tutor, had gone away to Sancerre, where Dinah +intended to spend the summer. She was everything that was nice to the +Count, people said. + +And so the Muse of Sancerre had simply come back to family and married +life; but certain evil tongues declared that she had been compelled +to come back, for that the little peer's wishes would no doubt be +fulfilled--he hoped for a little girl. + +Gatien and Monsieur Gravier lavished every care, every servile attention +on the handsome Countess. Gatien, who during Madame de la Baudraye's +long absence had been to Paris to learn the art of _lionnerie_ or +dandyism, was supposed to have a good chance of finding favor in the +eyes of the disenchanted "Superior Woman." Others bet on the tutor; +Madame Piedefer urged the claims of religion. + +In 1844, about the middle of June, as the Comte de la Baudraye was +taking a walk on the Mall at Sancerre with the two fine little boys, +he met Monsieur Milaud, the Public Prosecutor, who was at Sancerre on +business, and said to him: + +"These are my children, cousin." + +"Ah, ha! so these are our children!" replied the lawyer, with a +mischievous twinkle. + + +PARIS, June 1843-August 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + + Beaupre, Fanny + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + + Berthier, Madame (Felicie Cardot) + Cousin Pons + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + 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 + + Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + + Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + + Cardot (Parisian notary) + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + + Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de + The Member for Arcis + + Falcon, Jean + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + Grosstete (younger brother of F. Grosstete) + The Country Parson + + Hulot (Marshal) + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + + La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + A Prince of Bohemia + Cousin Betty + + Lebas + Cousin Betty + + Listomere, Baronne de + The Vicar of Tours + Cesar Birotteau + + Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + + Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + + Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + + Milaud + Lost Illusions + + 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 + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + + Nathan, Madame Raoul + 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 Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + + Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + + Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Ronceret, Madame Fabien du + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + + Rouget, Jean-Jacques + A Bachelor's Establishment + + Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + + Turquet, Marguerite + The Imaginary Mistress + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + + Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 1912.txt or 1912.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1912/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..57ccf12 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1912 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1912) diff --git a/old/20050516-1912.txt b/old/20050516-1912.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..273e61c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/20050516-1912.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7866 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Muse of the Department + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: James Waring + +Release Date: May 16, 2005 [EBook #1912] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + + + + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + + + + + + THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + James Waring + + + + + DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont. + + MY DEAR FERDINAND,--If the chances of the world of literature + --_habent sua fata libelli_--should allow these lines to be an + enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the + trouble you have taken--you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the + King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, + Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, + Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valois--the hundred great names that form + the Aristocracy of the "Human Comedy" owe their lordly mottoes and + ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, "the Armorial of the Etudes, + devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman," is a complete manual + of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the + arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of + friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of + the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the + Beauseants, _Pulchre sedens, melius agens_; in that of the + Espards, _Des partem leonis_; in that of the Vandenesses, _Ne se + vend_. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned + symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried + in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. + + Your old friend, + DE BALZAC. + + + + + THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + + + +On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, +infallibly attracts the traveler's eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost +height of a chain of hills, the last of the range that gives variety +to the Nivernais. The Loire floods the flats at the foot of these +slopes, leaving a yellow alluvium that is extremely fertile, excepting +in those places where it has deluged them with sand and destroyed them +forever, by one of those terrible risings which are also incidental to +the Vistula--the Loire of the northern coast. + +The hill on which the houses of Sancerre are grouped is so far from +the river that the little river-port of Saint-Thibault thrives on the +life of Sancerre. There wine is shipped and oak staves are landed, +with all the produce brought from the upper and lower Loire. At the +period when this story begins the suspension bridges at Cosne and at +Saint-Thibault were already built. Travelers from Paris to Sancerre by +the southern road were no longer ferried across the river from Cosne +to Saint-Thibault; and this of itself is enough to show that the great +cross-shuffle of 1830 was a thing of the past, for the House of +Orleans has always had a care for substantial improvements, though +somewhat after the fashion of a husband who makes his wife presents +out of her marriage portion. + +Excepting that part of Sancerre which occupies the little plateau, the +streets are more or less steep, and the town is surrounded by slopes +known as the Great Ramparts, a name which shows that they are the +highroads of the place. + +Outside the ramparts lies a belt of vineyards. Wine forms the chief +industry and the most important trade of the country, which yields +several vintages of high-class wine full of aroma, and so nearly +resembling the wines of Burgundy, that the vulgar palate is deceived. +So Sancerre finds in the wineshops of Paris the quick market +indispensable for liquor that will not keep for more than seven or +eight years. Below the town lie a few villages, Fontenoy and +Saint-Satur, almost suburbs, reminding us by their situation of the +smiling vineyards about Neuchatel in Switzerland. + +The town still bears much of its ancient aspect; the streets are +narrow and paved with pebbles carted up from the Loire. Some old +houses are to be seen there. The citadel, a relic of military power +and feudal times, stood one of the most terrible sieges of our +religious wars, when French Calvinists far outdid the ferocious +Cameronians of Walter Scott's tales. + +The town of Sancerre, rich in its greater past, but widowed now of its +military importance, is doomed to an even less glorious future, for +the course of trade lies on the right bank of the Loire. The sketch +here given shows that Sancerre will be left more and more lonely in +spite of the two bridges connecting it with Cosne. + +Sancerre, the pride of the left bank, numbers three thousand five +hundred inhabitants at most, while at Cosne there are now more than +six thousand. Within half a century the part played by these two towns +standing opposite each other has been reversed. The advantage of +situation, however, remains with the historic town, whence the view on +every side is perfectly enchanting, where the air is deliciously pure, +the vegetation splendid, and the residents, in harmony with nature, +are friendly souls, good fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though +two-thirds of the population are Calvinists. Under such conditions, +though there are the usual disadvantages of life in a small town, and +each one lives under the officious eye which makes private life almost +a public concern, on the other hand, the spirit of township--a sort of +patriotism, which cannot indeed take the place of a love of home +--flourishes triumphantly. + +Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth +to one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an +author of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful +journalists. The district included under the municipality of Sancerre, +distressed at finding itself practically ruled by seven or eight large +landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the +electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough. +This little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was +provoked, failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of +them, as the inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others. +This result showed the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy +then suggested was to rally round a champion at the next election, in +the person of one of the two men who so gloriously represented +Sancerre in Paris circles. + +This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since +1830 the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly +that real statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber. + +In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in +the brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, _dux femina fasti_, +but with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted +in this lady's past life, and so entirely comprehended her future +prospects, that it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of +her antecedent career. + + + +Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized +indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local +reputation. This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris +were attaining, each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory +for one, and of fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in +reviews, signed his name to contributions to a paper that had eight +thousand subscribers; and Bianchon, already chief physician to a +hospital, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Academy of +Sciences, had just been made a professor. + +If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a +degree of blame, it might be said that George Sand created _Sandism_, +so true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. +This leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, +_Sandism_ has its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases +her assumption of superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue- +stocking of sentiment; and she is rather less of a bore, love to some +extent neutralizing literature. The most conspicuous result of George +Sand's celebrity was to elicit the fact that France has a perfectly +enormous number of superior women, who have, however, till now been so +generous as to leave the field to the Marechal de Saxe's +granddaughter. + +The Superior Woman of Sancerre lived at La Baudraye, a town-house and +country-house in one, within ten minutes of the town, and in the +village, or, if you will, the suburb of Saint-Satur. The La Baudrayes +of the present day have, as is frequently the case, thrust themselves +in, and are but a substitute for those La Baudrayes whose name, +glorious in the Crusades, figured in the chief events of the history +of Le Berry. + +The story must be told. + +In the time of Louis XIV. a certain sheriff named Milaud, whose +forefathers had been furious Calvinists, was converted at the time of +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. To encourage this movement in +one of the strong-holds of Calvinism, the King gave said Milaud a good +appointment in the "Waters and Forests," granted him arms and the +title of Sire (or Lord) de la Baudraye, with the fief of the old and +genuine La Baudrayes. The descendants of the famous Captain la +Baudraye fell, sad to say, into one of the snares laid for heretics by +the new decrees, and were hanged--an unworthy deed of the great +King's. + +Under Louis XV. Milaud de la Baudraye, from being a mere squire, was +made Chevalier, and had influence enough to obtain for his son a +cornet's commission in the Musketeers. This officer perished at +Fontenoy, leaving a child, to whom King Louis XVI. subsequently +granted the privileges, by patent, of a farmer-general, in remembrance +of his father's death on the field of battle. + +This financier, a fashionable wit, great at charades, capping verses, +and posies to Chlora, lived in society, was a hanger-on to the Duc de +Nivernais, and fancied himself obliged to follow the nobility into +exile; but he took care to carry his money with him. Thus the rich +_emigre_ was able to assist more than one family of high rank. + +In 1800, tired of hoping, and perhaps tired of lending, he returned to +Sancerre, bought back La Baudraye out of a feeling of vanity and +imaginary pride, quite intelligible in a sheriff's grandson, though +under the consulate his prospects were but slender; all the more so, +indeed, because the ex-farmer-general had small hopes of his heir's +perpetuating the new race of La Baudraye. + +Jean Athanase Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, his only son, more than +delicate from his birth, was very evidently the child of a man whose +constitution had early been exhausted by the excesses in which rich +men indulge, who then marry at the first stage of premature old age, +and thus bring degeneracy into the highest circles of society. During +the years of the emigration Madame de la Baudraye, a girl of no +fortune, chosen for her noble birth, had patiently reared this sallow, +sickly boy, for whom she had the devoted love mothers feel for such +changeling creatures. Her death--she was a Casteran de la Tour +--contributed to bring about Monsieur de la Baudraye's return to +France. + +This Lucullus of the Milauds, when he died, left his son the fief, +stripped indeed of its fines and dues, but graced with weathercocks +bearing his coat-of-arms, a thousand louis-d'or--in 1802 a +considerable sum of money--and certain receipts for claims on very +distinguished _emigres_ enclosed in a pocketbook full of verses, with +this inscription on the wrapper, _Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas_. + +Young La Baudraye did not die, but he owed his life to habits of +monastic strictness; to the economy of action which Fontenelle +preached as the religion of the invalid; and, above all, to the air of +Sancerre and the influence of its fine elevation, whence a panorama +over the valley of the Loire may be seen extending for forty leagues. + +From 1802 to 1815 young La Baudraye added several plots to his +vineyards, and devoted himself to the culture of the vine. The +Restoration seemed to him at first so insecure that he dared not go to +Paris to claim his debts; but after Napoleon's death he tried to turn +his father's collection of autographs into money, though not +understanding the deep philosophy which had thus mixed up I O U's and +copies of verses. But the winegrower lost so much time in impressing +his identity on the Duke of Navarreins "and others," as he phrased it, +that he came back to Sancerre, to his beloved vintage, without having +obtained anything but offers of service. + +The Restoration had raised the nobility to such a degree of lustre as +made La Baudraye wish to justify his ambitions by having an heir. This +happy result of matrimony he considered doubtful, or he would not so +long have postponed the step; however, finding himself still above +ground in 1823, at the age of forty-three, a length of years which no +doctor, astrologer, or midwife would have dared to promise him, he +hoped to earn the reward of his sober life. And yet his choice showed +such a lack of prudence in regard to his frail constitution, that the +malicious wit of a country town could not help thinking it must be the +result of some deep calculation. + +Just at this time His Eminence, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Bourges, +had converted to the Catholic faith a young person, the daughter of +one of the citizen families, who were the first upholders of +Calvinism, and who, thanks to their obscurity or to some compromise +with Heaven, had escaped from the persecutions under Louis XIV. The +Piedefers--a name that was obviously one of the quaint nicknames +assumed by the champions of the Reformation--had set up as highly +respectable cloth merchants. But in the reign of Louis XVI., Abraham +Piedefer fell into difficulties, and at his death in 1786 left his two +children in extreme poverty. One of them, Tobie Piedefer, went out to +the Indies, leaving the pittance they had inherited to his elder +brother. During the Revolution Moise Piedefer bought up the +nationalized land, pulled down abbeys and churches with all the zeal +of his ancestors, oddly enough, and married a Catholic, the only +daughter of a member of the Convention who had perished on the +scaffold. This ambitious Piedefer died in 1819, leaving a little girl +of remarkable beauty. This child, brought up in the Calvinist faith, +was named Dinah, in accordance with the custom in use among the sect, +of taking their Christian names from the Bible, so as to have nothing +in common with the Saints of the Roman Church. + +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer was placed by her mother in one of the +best schools in Bourges, that kept by the Demoiselles Chamarolles, and +was soon as highly distinguished for the qualities of her mind as for +her beauty; but she found herself snubbed by girls of birth and +fortune, destined by-and-by to play a greater part in the world than a +mere plebeian, the daughter of a mother who was dependent on the +settlement of Piedefer's estate. Dinah, having raised herself for the +moment above her companions, now aimed at remaining on a level with +them for the rest of her life. She determined, therefore, to renounce +Calvinism, in the hope that the Cardinal would extend his favor to his +proselyte and interest himself in her prospects. You may from this +judge of Mademoiselle Dinah's superiority, since at the age of +seventeen she was a convert solely from ambition. + +The Archbishop, possessed with the idea that Dinah Piedefer would +adorn society, was anxious to see her married. But every family to +whom the prelate made advances took fright at a damsel gifted with the +looks of a princess, who was reputed to be the cleverest of +Mademoiselle Chamarolles' pupils and who, at the somewhat theatrical +ceremonial of prize-giving, always took a leading part. A thousand +crowns a year, which was as much as she could hope for from the estate +of La Hautoy when divided between the mother and daughter, would be a +mere trifle in comparison with the expenses into which a husband would +be led by the personal advantages of so brilliant a creature. + +As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la +Baudraye--for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of +the Cher--he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at +high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter's to +take the first comer with well-lined pockets--the first _chien +coiffe_, as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to +receive Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even +better pleased to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The +little gentleman only demanded of His Eminence a formal promise to +support his claims with the President of the Council to enable him to +recover his debts from the Duc de Navarreins "and others" by a lien on +their indemnities. This method, however, seemed to the able Minister +then occupying the Pavillon Marsan rather too sharp practice, and he +gave the vine-owner to understand that his business should be attended +to all in good time. + +It is easy to imagine the excitement produced in the Sancerre district +by the news of Monsieur de la Baudraye's imprudent marriage. + +"It is quite intelligible," said President Boirouge; "the little man +was very much startled, as I am told, at hearing that handsome young +Milaud, the Attorney-General's deputy at Nevers, say to Monsieur de +Clagny as they were looking at the turrets of La Baudraye, 'That will +be mine some day.'--'But,' says Clagny, 'he may marry and have +children.'--'Impossible!'--So you may imagine how such a changeling as +little La Baudraye must hate that colossal Milaud." + +There was at Nevers a plebeian branch of the Milauds, which had grown +so rich in the cutlery trade that the present representative of that +branch had been brought up to the civil service, in which he had +enjoyed the patronage of Marchangy, now dead. + +It will be as well to eliminate from this story, in which moral +developments play the principal part, the baser material interests +which alone occupied Monsieur de la Baudraye, by briefly relating the +results of his negotiations in Paris. This will also throw light on +certain mysterious phenomena of contemporary history, and the +underground difficulties in matters of politics which hampered the +Ministry at the time of the Restoration. + + + +The promises of Ministers were so illusory that Monsieur de la +Baudraye determined on going to Paris at the time when the Cardinal's +presence was required there by the sitting of the Chambers. + +This is how the Duc de Navarreins, the principal debtor threatened by +Monsieur de la Baudraye, got out of the scrape. + +The country gentleman, lodging at the Hotel de Mayence, Rue +Saint-Honore, near the Place Vendome, one morning received a visit +from a confidential agent of the Ministry, who was an expert in +"winding up" business. This elegant personage, who stepped out of an +elegant cab, and was dressed in the most elegant style, was requested +to walk up to No. 3--that is to say, to the third floor, to a small +room where he found his provincial concocting a cup of coffee over +his bedroom fire. + +"Is it to Monsieur Milaud de la Baudraye that I have the honor--" + +"Yes," said the little man, draping himself in his dressing-gown. + +After examining this garment, the illicit offspring of an old chine +wrapper of Madame Piedefer's and a gown of the late lamented Madame de +la Baudraye, the emissary considered the man, the dressing-gown, and +the little stove on which the milk was boiling in a tin saucepan, as +so homogeneous and characteristic, that he deemed it needless to beat +about the bush. + +"I will lay a wager, monsieur," said he, audaciously, "that you dine +for forty sous at Hurbain's in the Palais Royal." + +"Pray, why?" + +"Oh, I know you, having seen you there," replied the Parisian with +perfect gravity. "All the princes' creditors dine there. You know that +you recover scarcely ten per cent on debts from these fine gentlemen. +I would not give you five per cent on a debt to be recovered from the +estate of the late Duc d'Orleans--nor even," he added in a low voice +--"from MONSIEUR." + +"So you have come to buy up the bills?" said La Baudraye, thinking +himself very clever. + +"Buy them!" said his visitor. "Why, what do you take me for? I am +Monsieur des Lupeaulx, Master of Appeals, Secretary-General to the +Ministry, and I have come to propose an arrangement." + +"What is that?" + +"Of course, monsieur, you know the position of your debtor--" + +"Of my debtors--" + +"Well, monsieur, you understand the position of your debtors; they +stand high in the King's good graces, but they have no money, and are +obliged to make a good show.--Again, you know the difficulties of the +political situation. The aristocracy has to be rehabilitated in the +face of a very strong force of the third estate. The King's idea--and +France does him scant justice--is to create a peerage as a national +institution analogous to the English peerage. To realize this grand +idea we need years--and millions.--_Noblesse oblige_. The Duc de +Navarreins, who is, as you know, first gentleman of the Bedchamber to +the King, does not repudiate his debt; but he cannot--Now, be +reasonable.--Consider the state of politics. We are emerging from the +pit of the Revolution.--and you yourself are noble--He simply cannot +pay--" + +"Monsieur--" + +"You are hasty," said des Lupeaulx. "Listen. He cannot pay in money. +Well, then; you, a clever man, can take payment in favors--Royal or +Ministerial." + +"What! When in 1793 my father put down one hundred thousand--" + +"My dear sir, recrimination is useless. Listen to a simple statement +in political arithmetic: The collectorship at Sancerre is vacant; a +certain paymaster-general of the forces has a claim on it, but he has +no chance of getting it; you have the chance--and no claim. You will +get the place. You will hold it for three months, you will then +resign, and Monsieur Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. +In addition, the Order of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on +you." + +"Well, that is something," said the wine-grower, tempted by the money +rather than by the red ribbon. + +"But then," said des Lupeaulx, "you must show your gratitude to His +Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your +claims on him." + +La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months +later he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the +most agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who was +of course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife. + +As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la Baudraye +returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some other debtors. +This time he was made a Referendary under the Great Seal, Baron, and +Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the appointment as +Referendary; and then the Baron de la Baudraye called on his last +remaining debtors, and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of Appeals, +with an appointment as Royal Commissioner to a commercial association +established in the Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand francs, an +absolute sinecure. So the worthy La Baudraye, who was supposed to have +committed a financial blunder, had, in fact, done very good business +in the choice of a wife. + +Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate +belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year +1827 the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By +paying four hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to +further instalments, which compelled him to live for six years on the +air as it came, to use his own expression, he was able to purchase the +estate of Anzy on the banks of the Loire, about two leagues above +Sancerre, and its magnificent castle built by Philibert de l'Orme, the +admiration of every connoisseur, and for five centuries the property +of the Uxelles family. At last he was one of the great landowners of +the province! It is not absolutely certain that the satisfaction of +knowing that an entail had been created, by letters patent dated back +to December 1820, including the estates of Anzy, of La Baudraye, and +of La Hautoy, was any compensation to Dinah on finding herself reduced +to unconfessed penuriousness till 1835. + +This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye +explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias of +country folks will recognize in him the _land-hunger_ which becomes +such a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of +avarice displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin +by a want of balance between the interest on mortgages and the +products of the soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely +laughed at the little man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault +and attending to his business, like a merchant living on his +vineyards, found the answer to the riddle when the ant-lion seized his +prey, after waiting for the day when the extravagance of the Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse culminated in the sale of that splendid property. + +Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined fortunes +of Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had been content +to accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands of La +Hautoy which she handed over to him, amounted to an acknowledged +income of about fifteen thousand francs. + +During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some +alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant +residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, +pulling down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the +manor-house, which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets +and gables, she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and +lawns, and divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under +creepers. She also made everything within doors as comfortable as +their narrow circumstances allowed. + +In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah +seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing +as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his +money matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him +dignity in his wife's eyes during the first years of their married +life--so majestic is silence! + +The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see +the young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show +herself, nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled in her +home and had thoroughly studied the inhabitants, and, above all, her +taciturn husband. When, one spring morning in 1825, pretty Madame de +la Baudraye was first seen walking on the Mall in a blue velvet dress, +with her mother in black velvet, there was quite an excitement in +Sancerre. This dress confirmed the young woman's reputation for +superiority, brought up, as she had been, in the capital of Le Berry. +Every one was afraid lest in entertaining this phoenix of the +Department, the conversation should not be clever enough; and, of +course, everybody was constrained in the presence of Madame de la +Baudraye, who produced a sort of terror among the woman-folk. As they +admired a carpet of Indian shawl-pattern in the La Baudraye +drawing-room, a Pompadour writing-table carved and gilt, brocade window +curtains, and a Japanese bowl full of flowers on the round table among +a selection of the newest books; when they heard the fair Dinah +playing at sight, without making the smallest demur before seating +herself at the piano, the idea they conceived of her superiority +assumed vast proportions. That she might never allow herself to become +careless or the victim of bad taste, Dinah had determined to keep +herself up to the mark as to the fashions and latest developments of +luxury by an active correspondence with Anna Grossetete, her bosom +friend at Mademoiselle Chamarolles' school. + +Anna, thanks to a fine fortune, had married the Comte de Fontaine's +third son. Thus those ladies who visited at La Baudraye were +perpetually piqued by Dinah's success in leading the fashion; do what +they would, they were always behind, or, as they say on the turf, +distanced. + +While all these trifles gave rise to malignant envy in the ladies of +Sancerre, Dinah's conversation and wit engendered absolute aversion. +In her ambition to keep her mind on the level of Parisian brilliancy, +Madame de la Baudraye allowed no vacuous small talk in her presence, +no old-fashioned compliments, no pointless remarks; she would never +endure the yelping of tittle-tattle, the backstairs slander which +forms the staple of talk in the country. She liked to hear of +discoveries in science or art, or the latest pieces at the theatres, +the newest poems, and by airing the cant words of the day she made a +show of uttering thoughts. + +The Abbe Duret, Cure of Sancerre, an old man of a lost type of clergy +in France, a man of the world with a liking for cards, had not dared +to indulge this taste in so liberal a district as Sancerre; he, +therefore, was delighted at Madame de la Baudraye's coming, and they +got on together to admiration. The _sous-prefet_, one Vicomte de +Chargeboeuf, was delighted to find in Madame de la Baudraye's +drawing-room a sort of oasis where there was a truce to provincial +life. As to Monsieur de Clagny, the Public Prosecutor, his admiration +for the fair Dinah kept him bound to Sancerre. The enthusiastic lawyer +refused all promotion, and became a quite pious adorer of this angel +of grace and beauty. He was a tall, lean man, with a minatory +countenance set off by terrible eyes in deep black circles, under +enormous eyebrows; and his eloquence, very unlike his love-making, +could be incisive. + +Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the +Empire had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment +that had won him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces. +Having mixed himself up in certain important matters in Spain with +generals at that time in opposition, he had made the most of these +connections to the Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had +lost, promised him the Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him +to pay for the appointment. The frivolous spirit and light tone of the +Empire had become ponderous in Monsieur Gravier; he did not, or would +not, understand the wide difference between manners under the +Restoration and under the Empire. Still, he conceived of himself as +far superior to Monsieur de Clagny; his style was in better taste; he +followed the fashion, was to be seen in a buff waistcoat, gray +trousers, and neat, tightly-fitting coats; he wore a fashionable silk +tie slipped through a diamond ring, while the lawyer never dressed in +anything but black--coat, trousers, and waistcoat alike, and those +often shabby. + +These four men were the first to go into ecstasies over Dinah's +cultivation, good taste, and refinement, and pronounced her a woman of +most superior mind. Then the women said to each other, "Madame de la +Baudraye must laugh at us behind our back." + +This view, which was more or less correct, kept them from visiting at +La Baudraye. Dinah, attainted and convicted of pedantry, because she +spoke grammatically, was nicknamed the Sappho of Saint-Satur. At last +everybody made insolent game of the great qualities of the woman who +had thus roused the enmity of the ladies of Sancerre. And they ended +by denying a superiority--after all, merely comparative!--which +emphasized their ignorance, and did not forgive it. Where the whole +population is hunch-backed, a straight shape is the monstrosity; Dinah +was regarded as monstrous and dangerous, and she found herself in a +desert. + +Astonished at seeing the women of the neighborhood only at long +intervals, and for visits of a few minutes, Dinah asked Monsieur de +Clagny the reason of this state of things. + +"You are too superior a woman to be liked by other women," said the +lawyer. + +Monsieur Gravier, when questioned by the forlorn fair, only, after +much entreaty, replied: + +"Well, lady fair, you are not satisfied to be merely charming. You are +clever and well educated, you know every book that comes out, you love +poetry, you are a musician, and you talk delightfully. Women cannot +forgive so much superiority." + +Men said to Monsieur de la Baudraye: + +"You who have such a Superior Woman for a wife are very fortunate----" +And at last he himself would say: + +"I who have a Superior Woman for a wife, am very fortunate," etc. + +Madame Piedefer, flattered through her daughter, also allowed herself +to say such things--"My daughter, who is a very Superior Woman, was +writing yesterday to Madame de Fontaine such and such a thing." + +Those who know the world--France, Paris--know how true it is that many +celebrities are thus created. + + + +Two years later, by the end of the year 1825, Dinah de la Baudraye was +accused of not choosing to have any visitors but men; then it was said +that she did not care for women--and that was a crime. Not a thing +could she do, not her most trifling action, could escape criticism and +misrepresentation. After making every sacrifice that a well-bred woman +can make, and placing herself entirely in the right, Madame de la +Baudraye was so rash as to say to a false friend who condoled with her +on her isolation: + +"I would rather have my bowl empty than with anything in it!" + +This speech produced a terrible effect on Sancerre, and was cruelly +retorted on the Sappho of Saint-Satur when, seeing her childless after +five years of married life, _little_ de la Baudraye became a byword +for laughter. To understand this provincial witticism, readers may be +reminded of the Bailli de Ferrette--some, no doubt, having known him +--of whom it was said that he was the bravest man in Europe for daring +to walk on his legs, and who was accused of putting lead in his shoes +to save himself from being blown away. Monsieur de la Baudraye, a +sallow and almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the +Bailli de Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist +had been the Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere +decency, he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an +average man, whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would +have been an advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he +walked, the little vine-owner's leg-pads often twisted round on to his +shins, so little did he make a secret of them, and he would thank any +one who warned him of this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black +silk stockings, and a white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he +adopted blue trousers and boots with heels, which made Sancerre +declare that he had added two inches to his stature that he might come +up to his wife's chin. For ten years he was always seen in the same +little bottle-green coat with large white-metal buttons, and a black +stock that accentuated his cold stingy face, lighted up by gray-blue +eyes as keen and passionless as a cat's. Being very gentle, as men are +who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he seemed to make his wife happy +by never contradicting her; he allowed her to do the talking, and was +satisfied to move with the deliberate tenacity of an insect. + +Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired +for her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place, +encouraged their admiration by conversations, for which it was +subsequently asserted, she prepared herself beforehand. Finding +herself listened to with rapture, she soon began to listen to herself, +enjoyed haranguing her audience, and at last regarded her friends as +the chorus in a tragedy, there only to give her her cues. In fact, she +had a very fine collection of phrases and ideas, derived either from +books or by assimilating the opinions of her companions, and thus +became a sort of mechanical instrument, going off on a round of +phrases as soon as some chance remark released the spring. To do her +justice, Dinah was choke full of knowledge, and read everything, even +medical books, statistics, science, and jurisprudence; for she did not +know how to spend her days when she had reviewed her flower-beds and +given her orders to the gardener. Gifted with an excellent memory, and +the talent which some women have for hitting on the right word, she +could talk on any subject with the lucidity of a studied style. And so +men came from Cosne, from la Charite, and from Nevers, on the right +bank; from Lere, Vailly, Argent, Blancafort, and Aubigny, on the left +bank, to be introduced to Madame de la Baudraye, as they used in +Switzerland, to be introduced to Madame de Stael. Those who only once +heard the round of tunes emitted by this musical snuff-box went away +amazed, and told such wonders of Dinah as made all the women jealous +for ten leagues round. + +There is an indescribable mental headiness in the admiration we +inspire, or in the effect of playing a part, which fends off criticism +from reaching the idol. An atmosphere, produced perhaps by unceasing +nervous tension, forms a sort of halo, through which the world below +is seen. How otherwise can we account for the perennial good faith +which leads to so many repeated presentments of the same effects, and +the constant ignoring of warnings given by children, such a terror to +their parents, or by husbands, so familiar as they are with the +peacock airs of their wives? Monsieur de la Baudraye had the frankness +of a man who opens an umbrella at the first drop of rain. When his +wife was started on the subject of Negro emancipation or the +improvement of convict prisons, he would take up his little blue cap +and vanish without a sound, in the certainty of being able to get to +Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of puncheons, and return an hour +later to find the discussion approaching a close. Or, if he had no +business to attend to, he would go for a walk on the Mall, whence he +commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, and take a draught +of fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata in words, or a +dialectical duet. + +Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove +her devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw +herself into the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under +Art, poetry and painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the +opera. Thus she became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any +treasures that dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as +so many devoted commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had +become possessed of the Rougets' furniture, sold at Issoudun early in +1824. She purchased some very good things at Nivernais and the +Haute-Loire. At the New Year and on her birthday her friends never +failed to give her some curiosities. These fancies found favor in the +eyes of Monsieur de la Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of +sacrificing a few crowns to his wife's taste. In point of fact, his +land mania allowed him to think of nothing but the estate of Anzy. + +These "antiquities" at that time cost much less than modern furniture. +By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the +two drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the +ground floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were +crammed with masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments. +These surroundings, which were called _queer_ by the neighbors, were +quite in harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the +rage, struck the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they +came expecting something unusual; and they found their expectations +surpassed when, behind a bower of flowers, they saw these catacombs +full of old things, piled up as Sommerard used to pile them--that "Old +Mortality" of furniture. And then these finds served as so many +springs which, turned on by a question, played off an essay on Jean +Goujon, Michel Columb, Germain Pilon, Boulle, Van Huysum, and Boucher, +the great native painter of Le Berry; on Clodion, the carver of wood, +on Venetian mirrors, on Brustolone, an Italian tenor who was the +Michael-Angelo of boxwood and holm oak; on the thirteenth, fourteenth, +fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, on the glazes of +Bernard de Palissy, the enamels of Petitot, the engravings of Albrecht +Durer--whom she called Dur; on illuminations on vellum, on Gothic +architecture, early decorated, flamboyant and pure--enough to turn an +old man's brain and fire a young man with enthusiasm. + +Madame de la Baudraye, possessed with the idea of waking up Sancerre, +tried to form a so-called literary circle. The Presiding Judge, +Monsieur Boirouge, who happened to have a house and garden on his +hands, part of the Popinot-Chandier property, favored the notion of +this _coterie_. The wily Judge talked over the rules of the society +with Madame de la Baudraye; he proposed to figure as one of the +founders, and to let the house for fifteen years to the literary club. +By the time it had existed a year the members were playing dominoes, +billiards, and bouillotte, and drinking mulled wine, punch, and +liqueurs. A few elegant little suppers were then given, and some +masked balls during the Carnival. As to literature--there were the +newspapers. Politics and business were discussed. Monsieur de la +Baudraye was constantly there--on his wife's account, as she said +jestingly. + +This result deeply grieved the Superior Woman, who despaired of +Sancerre, and collected the wit of the neighborhood in her own +drawing-room. Nevertheless, and in spite of the efforts of Messieurs +de Chargeboeuf, Gravier, and de Clagny, of the Abbe Duret and the two +chief magistrates, of a young doctor, and a young Assistant Judge--all +blind admirers of Dinah's--there were occasions when, weary of +discussion, they allowed themselves an excursion into the domain of +agreeable frivolity which constitutes the common basis of worldly +conversation. Monsieur Gravier called this "from grave to gay." The +Abbe Duret's rubber made another pleasing variety on the monologues of +the oracle. The three rivals, tired of keeping their minds up to the +level of the "high range of discussion"--as they called their +conversation--but not daring to confess it, would sometimes turn with +ingratiating hints to the old priest. + +"Monsieur le Cure is dying for his game," they would say. + +The wily priest lent himself very readily to the little trick. He +protested. + +"We should lose too much by ceasing to listen to our inspired +hostess!" and so he would incite Dinah's magnanimity to take pity at +last on her dear Abbe. + +This bold manoeuvre, a device of the Sous-prefet's, was repeated with +so much skill that Dinah never suspected her slaves of escaping to the +prison yard, so to speak, of the cardtable; and they would leave her +one of the younger functionaries to harry. + +One young landowner, and the dandy of Sancerre, fell away from Dinah's +good graces in consequence of some rash demonstrations. After +soliciting the honor of admission to this little circle, where he +flattered himself he could snatch the blossom from the constituted +authorities who guarded it, he was so unfortunate as to yawn in the +middle of an explanation Dinah was favoring him with--for the fourth +time, it is true--of the philosophy of Kant. Monsieur de la +Thaumassiere, the grandson of the historian of Le Berry, was +thenceforth regarded as a man entirely bereft of soul and brains. + +The three devotees _en titre_ each submitted to these exorbitant +demands on their mind and attention, in hope of a crowning triumph, +when at last Dinah should become human; for neither of them was so +bold as to imagine that Dinah would give up her innocence as a wife +till she should have lost all her illusions. In 1826, when she was +surrounded by adorers, Dinah completed her twentieth year, and the +Abbe Duret kept her in a sort of fervid Catholicism; so her worshipers +had to be content to overwhelm her with little attentions and small +services, only too happy to be taken for the carpet-knights of this +sovereign lady, by strangers admitted to spend an evening or two at La +Baudraye. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is a fruit that must be left to ripen." This +was the opinion of Monsieur Gravier, who was waiting. + +As to the lawyer, he wrote letters four pages long, to which Dinah +replied in soothing speech as she walked, leaning on his arm, round +and round the lawn after dinner. + +Madame de la Baudraye, thus guarded by three passions, and always +under the eye of her pious mother, escaped the malignity of slander. +It was so evident to all Sancerre that no two of these three men would +ever leave the third alone with Madame de la Baudraye, that their +jealousy was a comedy to the lookers-on. + +To reach Saint-Thibault from Caesar's Gate there is a way much shorter +than that by the ramparts, down what is known in mountainous districts +as a _coursiere_, called at Sancerre _le Casse-cou_, or Break-neck +Alley. The name is significant as applied to a path down the steepest +part of the hillside, thickly strewn with stones, and shut in by the +high banks of the vineyards on each side. By way of the Break-neck the +distance from Sancerre to La Baudraye is much abridged. The ladies of +the place, jealous of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on +the Mall, looking down this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would +stop and engage in conversation--sometimes the Sous-prefet and +sometimes the Public Prosecutor--and who would listen with every sign +of impatience or uncivil absence of mind. As the turrets of La +Baudraye are visible from the Mall, many a younger man came to +contemplate the abode of Dinah while envying the ten or twelve +privileged persons who might spend their afternoons with the Queen of +the neighborhood. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye was not slow to discover the advantage he, as +Dinah's husband, held over his wife's adorers, and he made use of +them without any disguise, obtaining a remission of taxes, and gaining +two lawsuits. In every litigation he used the Public Prosecutor's name +with such good effect that the matter was carried no further, and, +like all undersized men, he was contentious and litigious in business, +though in the gentlest manner. + +At the same time, the more certainly guiltless she was, the less +conceivable did Madame de la Baudraye's position seem to the prying +eyes of these women. Frequently, at the house of the Presidente de +Boirouge, the ladies of a certain age would spend a whole evening +discussing the La Baudraye household, among themselves of course. They +all had suspicions of a mystery, a secret such as always interests +women who have had some experience of life. And, in fact, at La +Baudraye one of those slow and monotonous conjugal tragedies was being +played out which would have remained for ever unknown if the merciless +scalpel of the nineteenth century, guided by the insistent demand for +novelty, had not dissected the darkest corners of the heart, or at any +rate those which the decency of past centuries left unopened. And that +domestic drama sufficiently accounts for Dinah's immaculate virtue +during her early married life. + + + +A young lady, whose triumphs at school had been the outcome of her +pride, and whose first scheme in life had been rewarded by a victory, +was not likely to pause in such a brilliant career. Frail as Monsieur +de la Baudraye might seem, he was really an unhoped-for good match for +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer. But what was the hidden motive of this +country landowner when, at forty-four, he married a girl of seventeen; +and what could his wife make out of the bargain? This was the text of +Dinah's first meditations. + +The little man never behaved quite as his wife expected. To begin +with, he allowed her to take the five precious acres now wasted in +pleasure grounds round La Baudraye, and paid, almost with generosity, +the seven or eight thousand francs required by Dinah for improvements +in the house, enabling her to buy the furniture at the Rougets' sale +at Issoudun, and to redecorate her rooms in various styles--Mediaeval, +Louis XIV., and Pompadour. The young wife found it difficult to +believe that Monsieur de la Baudraye was so miserly as he was reputed, +or else she must have great influence with him. The illusion lasted a +year and a half. + +After Monsieur de la Baudraye's second journey to Paris, Dinah +discovered in him the Artic coldness of a provincial miser whenever +money was in question. The first time she asked for supplies she +played the sweetest of the comedies of which Eve invented the secret; +but the little man put it plainly to his wife that he gave her two +hundred francs a month for her personal expenses, and paid Madame +Piedefer twelve hundred francs a year as a charge on the lands of La +Hautoy, and that this was two hundred francs a year more than was +agreed to under the marriage settlement. + +"I say nothing of the cost of housekeeping," he said in conclusion. +"You may give your friends cake and tea in the evening, for you must +have some amusement. But I, who spent but fifteen hundred francs a +year as a bachelor, now spend six thousand, including rates and +repairs, and this is rather too much in relation to the nature of our +property. A winegrower is never sure of what his expenses may be--the +making, the duty, the casks--while the returns depend on a scorching +day or a sudden frost. Small owners, like us, whose income is far from +being fixed, must base their estimates on their minimum, for they have +no means of making up a deficit or a loss. What would become of us if +a wine merchant became bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are +so many cabbage-leaves. To live as we are living, we ought always to +have a year's income in hand and count on no more than two-thirds of +our returns." + +Any form of resistance is enough to make a woman vow to subdue it; +Dinah flung herself against a will of iron padded round with +gentleness. She tried to fill the little man's soul with jealousy and +alarms, but it was stockaded with insolent confidence. He left Dinah, +when he went to Paris, with all the conviction of Medor in Angelique's +fidelity. When she affected cold disdain, to nettle this changeling by +the scorn a courtesan sometimes shows to her "protector," and which +acts on him with the certainty of the screw of a winepress, Monsieur +de la Baudraye gazed at his wife with fixed eyes, like those of a cat +which, in the midst of domestic broils, waits till a blow is +threatened before stirring from its place. The strange, speechless +uneasiness that was perceptible under his mute indifference almost +terrified the young wife of twenty; she could not at first understand +the selfish quiescence of this man, who might be compared to a cracked +pot, and who, in order to live, regulated his existence with the +unchangeable regularity which a clockmaker requires of a clock. So the +little man always evaded his wife, while she always hit out, as it +were, ten feet above his head. + +Dinah's fits of fury when she saw herself condemned never to escape +from La Baudraye and Sancerre are more easily imagined than described +--she who had dreamed of handling a fortune and managing the dwarf +whom she, the giant, had at first humored in order to command. In the +hope of some day making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris, +she accepted the vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view +to seeing Monsieur de la Baudraye's name drawn from the electoral urn; +for she supposed him to be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice +from Paris, each time a step higher on the social ladder. But when she +struck on the man's heart, it was as though she had tapped on marble! +The man who had been Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now +Master of Appeals, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Royal +Commissioner, was but a mole throwing up its little hills round and +round a vineyard! Then some lamentations were poured into the heart of +the Public Prosecutor, of the Sous-prefet, even of Monsieur Gravier, +and they all increased in their devotion to this sublime victim; for, +like all women, she never mentioned her speculative schemes, and +--again like all women--finding such speculation vain, she ceased to +speculate. + +Dinah, tossed by mental storms, was still undecided when, in the +autumn of 1827, the news was told of the purchase by the Baron de la +Baudraye of the estate of Anzy. Then the little old man showed an +impulsion of pride and glee which for a few months changed the current +of his wife's ideas; she fancied there was a hidden vein of greatness +in the man when she found him applying for a patent of entail. In his +triumph the Baron exclaimed: + +"Dinah, you shall be a countess yet!" + +There was then a patched-up reunion between the husband and wife, such +as can never endure, and which only humiliated and fatigued a woman +whose apparent superiority was unreal, while her unseen superiority +was genuine. This whimsical medley is commoner than people think. +Dinah, who was ridiculous from the perversity of her cleverness, had +really great qualities of soul, but circumstances did not bring these +rarer powers to light, while a provincial life debased the small +change of her wit from day to day. Monsieur de la Baudraye, on the +contrary, devoid of soul, of strength, and of wit, was fated to figure +as a man of character, simply by pursuing a plan of conduct which he +was too feeble to change. + + + +There was in their lives a first phase, lasting six years, during +which Dinah, alas! became utterly provincial. In Paris there are +several kinds of women: the duchess and the financier's wife, the +ambassadress and the consul's wife, the wife of the minister who is a +minister, and of him who is no longer a minister; then there is the +lady--quite the lady--of the right bank of the Seine and of the left. +But in the country there is but one kind of woman, and she, poor +thing, is the provincial woman. + +This remark points to one of the sores of modern society. It must be +clearly understood: France in the nineteenth century is divided into +two broad zones--Paris, and the provinces. The provinces jealous of +Paris; Paris never thinking of the provinces but to demand money. Of +old, Paris was the Capital of the provinces, and the court ruled the +Capital; now, all Paris is the Court, and all the country is the town. + +However lofty, beautiful, and clever a girl born in any department of +France may be on entering life, if, like Dinah Piedefer, she marries +in the country and remains there, she inevitably becomes the +provincial woman. In spite of every determination, the commonplace of +second-rate ideas, indifference to dress, the culture of vulgar +people, swamp the sublimer essence hidden in the youthful plant; all +is over, it falls into decay. How should it be otherwise? From their +earliest years girls bred in the country see none but provincials; +they cannot imagine anything superior, their choice lies among +mediocrities; provincial fathers marry their daughters to provincial +sons; crossing the races is never thought of, and the brain inevitably +degenerates, so that in many country towns intellect is as rare as the +breed is hideous. Mankind becomes dwarfed in mind and body, for the +fatal principle of conformity of fortune governs every matrimonial +alliance. Men of talent, artists, superior brains--every bird of +brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The provincial woman, inferior in +herself, is also inferior through her husband. How is she to live +happy under this crushing twofold consciousness? + +But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and +conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and +gloomy; to reduce it, narrow it, distort it fatally. Is not one of the +most flattering unctions a woman can lay to her soul the assurance of +being something in the existence of a superior man, chosen by herself, +wittingly, as if to have some revenge on marriage, wherein her tastes +were so little consulted? But if in the country the husbands are +inferior beings, the bachelors are no less so. When a provincial wife +commits her "little sin," she falls in love with some so-called +handsome native, some indigenous dandy, a youth who wears gloves and +is supposed to ride well; but she knows at the bottom of her soul that +her fancy is in pursuit of the commonplace, more or less well dressed. +Dinah was preserved from this danger by the idea impressed upon her of +her own superiority. Even if she had not been as carefully guarded in +her early married life as she was by her mother, whose presence never +weighed upon her till the day when she wanted to be rid of it, her +pride, and her high sense of her own destinies, would have protected +her. Flattered as she was to find herself surrounded by admirers, she +saw no lover among them. No man here realized the poetical ideal which +she and Anna Grossetete had been wont to sketch. When, stirred by the +involuntary temptations suggested by the homage she received, she +asked herself, "If I had to make a choice, who should it be?" she +owned to a preference for Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a gentleman of good +family, whose appearance and manners she liked, but whose cold nature, +selfishness, and narrow ambition, never rising above a prefecture and +a good marriage, repelled her. At a word from his family, who were +alarmed lest he should be killed for an intrigue, the Vicomte had +already deserted a woman he had loved in the town where he previously +had been Sous-prefet. + +Monsieur de Clagny, on the other hand, the only man whose mind +appealed to hers, whose ambition was founded on love, and who knew +what love means, Dinah thought perfectly odious. When Dinah saw +herself condemned to six years' residence at Sancerre she was on the +point of accepting the devotion of Monsieur le Vicomte de Chargeboeuf; +but he was appointed to a prefecture and left the district. To +Monsieur de Clagny's great satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a +married man whose wife made friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no +rival to fear but Monsieur Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the +typical man of forty of whom women make use while they laugh at him, +whose hopes they intentionally and remorselessly encourage, as we are +kind to a beast of burden. In six years, among all the men who were +introduced to her from twenty leagues round, there was not one in +whose presence Dinah was conscious of the excitement caused by +personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, by the impact of a +superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, even an unhappy +one. + +Thus none of Dinah's choicest faculties had a chance of developing; +she swallowed many insults to her pride, which was constantly +suffering under the husband who so calmly walked the stage as +supernumerary in the drama of her life. Compelled to bury her wealth +of love, she showed only the surface to the world. Now and then she +would try to rouse herself, try to form some manly resolution; but she +was kept in leading strings by the need for money. And so, slowly and +in spite of the ambitious protests and grievous recriminations of her +own mind, she underwent the provincial metamorphosis here described. +Each day took with it a fragment of her spirited determination. She +had laid down a rule for the care of her person, which she gradually +departed from. Though at first she kept up with the fashions and the +little novelties of elegant life, she was obliged to limit her +purchases by the amount of her allowance. Instead of six hats, caps, +or gowns, she resigned herself to one gown each season. She was so +much admired in a certain bonnet that she made it do duty for two +seasons. So it was in everything. + +Not unfrequently her artistic sense led her to sacrifice the +requirements of her person to secure some bit of Gothic furniture. By +the seventh year she had come so low as to think it convenient to have +her morning dresses made at home by the best needlewoman in the +neighborhood; and her mother, her husband, and her friends pronounced +her charming in these inexpensive costumes which did credit to her +taste. Her ideas were imitated! As she had no standard of comparison, +Dinah fell into the snares that surround the provincial woman. If a +Parisian woman's hips are too narrow or too full, her inventive wit +and the desire to please help to find some heroic remedy; if she has +some defect, some ugly spot, or small disfigurement, she is capable of +making it an adornment; this is often seen; but the provincial woman +--never! If her waist is too short and her figure ill balanced, well, +she makes up her mind to the worst, and her adorers--or they do not +adore her--must take her as she is, while the Parisian always insists +on being taken for what she is not. Hence the preposterous bustles, +the audacious flatness, the ridiculous fulness, the hideous outlines +ingeniously displayed, to which a whole town will become accustomed, +but which are so astounding when a provincial woman makes her +appearance in Paris or among Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim, +showed it off to excess, and never knew a dull moment when it became +ridiculous; when, reduced by the dull weariness of her life, she +looked like a skeleton in clothes; and her friends, seeing her every +day, did not observe the gradual change in her appearance. + +This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of +marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the +town is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when +people meet every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de +la Baudraye, she loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again, +if she flushes a little, that is intelligible and interesting. A +little neglect is thought charming, and her face is so carefully +studied, so well known, that slight changes are scarcely noticed, and +regarded at last as "beauty spots." When Dinah ceased to have a new +dress with a new season, she seemed to have made a concession to the +philosophy of the place. + +It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as +it is with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body +if it is not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism +most sets its stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose +the briskness which Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is +used to walk and move in a world devoid of accident or change, there +is nothing to be avoided; so in Paris she walks on as raw recruits do, +never remembering that there may be hindrances, for there are none in +her way in her native place, where she is known, where she is always +in her place, and every one makes way for her. Thus she loses all the +charm of the unforeseen. + +And have you ever noticed the effect on human beings of a life in +common? By the ineffaceable instinct of simian mimicry they all tend +to copy each other. Each one, without knowing it, acquires the +gestures, the tone of voice, the manner, the attitudes, the very +countenance of others. In six years Dinah had sunk to the pitch of the +society she lived in. As she acquired Monsieur de Clagny's ideas she +assumed his tone of voice; she unconsciously fell into masculine +manners from seeing none but men; she fancied that by laughing at what +was ridiculous in them she was safe from catching it; but, as often +happens, some hue of what she laughed at remained in the grain. + +A Parisian woman sees so many examples of good taste that a contrary +result ensues. In Paris women learn to seize the hour and moment when +they may appear to advantage; while Madame de la Baudraye, accustomed +to take the stage, acquired an indefinable theatrical and domineering +manner, the air of a _prima donna_ coming forward on the boards, of +which ironical smiles would soon have cured her in the capital. + +But after she had acquired this stock of absurdities, and, deceived by +her worshipers, imagined them to be added graces, a moment of terrible +awakening came upon her like the fall of an avalanche from a mountain. +In one day she was crushed by a frightful comparison. + +In 1829, after the departure of Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, she was +excited by the anticipation of a little pleasure; she was expecting +the Baronne de Fontaine. Anna's husband, who was now Director-General +under the Minister of Finance, took advantage of leave of absence on +the occasion of his father's death to take his wife to Italy. Anna +wished to spend the day at Sancerre with her school-friend. This +meeting was strangely disastrous. Anna, who at school had been far +less handsome than Dinah, now, as Baronne de Fontaine, was a thousand +times handsomer than the Baronne de la Baudraye, in spite of her +fatigue and her traveling dress. Anna stepped out of an elegant +traveling chaise loaded with Paris milliners' boxes, and she had with +her a lady's maid, whose airs quite frightened Dinah. All the +difference between a woman of Paris and a provincial was at once +evident to Dinah's intelligent eye; she saw herself as her friend saw +her--and Anna found her altered beyond recognition. Anna spent six +thousand francs a year on herself alone, as much as kept the whole +household at La Baudraye. + +In twenty-four hours the friends had exchanged many confidences; and +the Parisian, seeing herself so far superior to the phoenix of +Mademoiselle Chamarolles' school, showed her provincial friend such +kindness, such attentions, while giving her certain explanations, as +were so many stabs to Dinah, though she perfectly understood that +Anna's advantages all lay on the surface, while her own were for ever +buried. + +When Anna had left, Madame de la Baudraye, by this time +two-and-twenty, fell into the depths of despair. + +"What is it that ails you?" asked Monsieur de Clagny, seeing her so +dejected. + +"Anna," said she, "has learned to live, while I have been learning to +endure." + +A tragi-comedy was, in fact, being enacted in Madame de la Baudraye's +house, in harmony with her struggles over money matters and her +successive transformations--a drama to which no one but Monsieur de +Clagny and the Abbe Duret ever knew the clue, when Dinah in sheer +idleness, or perhaps sheer vanity, revealed the secret of her +anonymous fame. + +Though a mixture of verse and prose is a monstrous anomaly in French +literature, there must be exceptions to the rule. This tale will be +one of the two instances in these Studies of violation of the laws of +narrative; for to give a just idea of the unconfessed struggle which +may excuse, though it cannot absolve Dinah, it is necessary to give an +analysis of a poem which was the outcome of her deep despair. + +Her patience and her resignation alike broken by the departure of the +Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, Dinah took the worthy Abbe's advice to exhale +her evil thoughts in verse--a proceeding which perhaps accounts for +some poets. + +"You will find such relief as those who write epitaphs or elegies over +those whom they have lost. Pain is soothed in the heart as lines surge +up in the brain." + +This strange production caused a great ferment in the departments of +the Allier, the Nievre, and the Cher, proud to possess a poet capable +of rivalry with the glories of Paris. _Paquita la Sevillane_, by _Jan +Diaz_, was published in the _Echo du Morvan_, a review which for +eighteen months maintained its existence in spite of provincial +indifference. Some knowing persons at Nevers declared that Jan Diaz +was making fun of the new school, just then bringing out its eccentric +verse, full of vitality and imagery, and of brilliant effects produced +by defying the Muse under pretext of adapting German, English, and +Romanesque mannerisms. + +The poem began with this ballad: + + Ah! if you knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain, + Its fervid noons, its balmy spring, + Sad daughters of the northern gloom, + Of love, of heav'n, of native home, + You never would presume to sing! + + For men are there of other mould + Than those who live in this dull cold. + And there to music low and sweet + Sevillian maids, from eve till dawn, + Dance lightly on the moonlit lawn + In satin shoes, on dainty feet. + + Ah, you would be the first to blush + Over your dancers' romp and rush, + And your too hideous carnival, + That turns your cheeks all chill and blue, + And skips the mud in hob-nail'd shoe-- + A truly dismal festival. + + To pale-faced girls, and in a squalid room, + Paquita sang; the murky town beneath + Was Rouen whence the slender spires rise + To chew the storm with teeth. + Rouen so hideous, noisy, full of rage-- + +And here followed a magnificent description of Rouen--where Dinah had +never been--written with the affected brutality which, a little later, +inspired so many imitations of Juvenal; a contrast drawn between the +life of a manufacturing town and the careless life of Spain, between +the love of Heaven and of human beauty, and the worship of machinery, +in short, between poetry and sordid money-making. + +Then Jan Diaz accounted for Paquita's horror of Normandy by saying: + + Seville, you see, had been her native home, + Seville, where skies are blue and evening sweet. + She, at thirteen, the sovereign of the town, + Had lovers at her feet. + + For her three Toreadors had gone to death + Or victory, the prize to be a kiss-- + One kiss from those red lips of sweetest breath-- + A longed-for touch of bliss! + +The features of the Spanish girl's portrait have served so often as +those of the courtesan in so many self-styled _poems_, that it would +be tiresome to quote here the hundred lines of description. To judge +of the lengths to which audacity had carried Dinah, it will be enough +to give the conclusion. According to Madame de la Baudraye's ardent +pen, Paquita was so entirely created for love that she can hardly have +met with a knight worthy of her; for + + . . . . In her passionate fire + Every man would have swooned from the heat, + When she at love's feast, in her fervid desire, + As yet had but taken her seat. + +"And yet she could quit the joys of Seville, its woods and fields of +orange-trees, for a Norman soldier who won her love and carried her +away to his hearth and home. She did not weep for her Andalusia, the +Soldier was her whole joy. . . . But the day came when he was +compelled to start for Russia in the footsteps of the great Emperor." + +Nothing could be more dainty than the description of the parting +between the Spanish girl and the Normandy Captain of Artillery, who, +in the delirium of passion expressed with feeling worthy of Byron, +exacted from Paquita a vow of absolute fidelity, in the Cathedral at +Rouen in front of the alter of the Blessed Virgin, who + + Though a Maid is a woman, and never forgives + When lovers are false to their vows. + +A large part of the poem was devoted to describing Paquita's +sufferings when alone in Rouen waiting till the campaign was over; she +stood writhing at the window bars as she watched happy couples go by; +she suppressed her passion in her heart with a determination that +consumed her; she lived on narcotics, and exhausted herself in dreams. + + Almost she died, but still her heart was true; + And when at last her soldier came again, + He found her beauty ever fresh and new-- + He had not loved in vain! + +"But he, pale and frozen by the cold of Russia, chilled to the very +marrow, met his yearning fair one with a melancholy smile." + +The whole poem was written up to this situation, which was worked out +with such vigor and boldness as too entirely justified the Abbe Duret. + +Paquita, on reaching the limits set to real love, did not, like Julie +and Heloise, throw herself into the ideal; no, she rushed into the +paths of vice, which is, no doubt, shockingly natural; but she did it +without any touch of magnificence, for lack of means, as it would be +difficult to find in Rouen men impassioned enough to place Paquita in +a suitable setting of luxury and splendor. This horrible realism, +emphasized by gloomy poetic feeling, had inspired some passages such +as modern poetry is too free with, rather too like the flayed +anatomical figures known to artists as _ecorches_. Then, by a highly +philosophical revulsion, after describing the house of ill-fame where +the Andalusian ended her days, the writer came back to the ballad at +the opening: + + Paquita now is faded, shrunk, and old, + But she it was who sang: + + "If you but knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain," etc. + +The gloomy vigor of this poem, running to about six hundred lines, and +serving as a powerful foil, to use a painter's word, to the two +_seguidillas_ at the beginning and end, the masculine utterance of +inexpressible grief, alarmed the woman who found herself admired by +three departments, under the black cloak of the anonymous. While she +fully enjoyed the intoxicating delights of success, Dinah dreaded the +malignity of provincial society, where more than one woman, if the +secret should slip out, would certainly find points of resemblance +between the writer and Paquita. Reflection came too late; Dinah +shuddered with shame at having made "copy" of some of her woes. + +"Write no more," said the Abbe Duret. "You will cease to be a woman; +you will be a poet." + +Moulins, Nevers, Bourges were searched to find Jan Diaz; but Dinah was +impenetrable. To remove any evil impression, in case any unforeseen +chance should betray her name, she wrote a charming poem in two cantos +on _The Mass-Oak_, a legend of the Nivernais: + +"Once upon a time the folks of Nevers and the folks of Saint-Saulge, +at war with each other, came at daybreak to fight a battle, in which +one or other should perish, and met in the forest of Faye. And then +there stood between them, under an oak, a priest whose aspect in the +morning sun was so commanding that the foes at his bidding heard Mass +as he performed it under the oak, and at the words of the Gospel they +made friends."--The oak is still shown in the forest of Faye. + +This poem, immeasurably superior to _Paquita la Sevillane_, was far +less admired. + +After these two attempts Madame de la Baudraye, feeling herself a +poet, had a light on her brow and a flash in her eyes that made her +handsomer than ever. She cast longing looks at Paris, aspiring to fame +--and fell back into her den of La Baudraye, her daily squabbles with +her husband, and her little circle, where everybody's character, +intentions, and remarks were too well known not to have become a bore. +Though she found relief from her dreary life in literary work, and +poetry echoed loudly in her empty life, though she thus found an +outlet for her energies, literature increased her hatred of the gray +and ponderous provincial atmosphere. + + + +When, after the Revolution of 1830, the glory of George Sand was +reflected on Le Berry, many a town envied La Chatre the privilege of +having given birth to this rival of Madame de Stael and Camille +Maupin, and were ready to do homage to minor feminine talent. Thus +there arose in France a vast number of tenth Muses, young girls or +young wives tempted from a silent life by the bait of glory. Very +strange doctrines were proclaimed as to the part women should play in +society. Though the sound common sense which lies at the root of the +French nature was not perverted, women were suffered to express ideas +and profess opinions which they would not have owned to a few years +previously. + +Monsieur de Clagny took advantage of this outbreak of freedom to +collect the works of Jan Diaz in a small volume printed by Desroziers +at Moulins. He wrote a little notice of the author, too early snatched +from the world of letters, which was amusing to those who were in the +secret, but which even then had not the merit of novelty. Such +practical jokes, capital so long as the author remains unknown, fall +rather flat if subsequently the poet stands confessed. + +From this point of view, however, the memoir of Jan Diaz, born at +Bourges in 1807, the son of a Spanish prisoner, may very likely some +day deceive the compiler of some _Universal Biography_. Nothing is +overlooked; neither the names of the professors at the Bourges +College, nor those of his deceased schoolfellows, such as Lousteau, +Bianchon, and other famous natives of the province, who, it is said, +knew the dreamy, melancholy boy, and his precocious bent towards +poetry. An elegy called _Tristesse_ (Melancholy), written at school; +the two poems _Paquita la Sevillane_ and _Le Chene de la Messe_; three +sonnets, a description of the Cathedral and the House of Jacques Coeur +at Bourges, with a tale called _Carola_, published as the work he was +engaged on at the time of his death, constituted the whole of these +literary remains; and the poet's last hours, full of misery and +despair, could not fail to wring the hearts of the feeling public of +the Nievre, the Bourbonnais, the Cher, and the Morvan, where he died +near Chateau-Chinon, unknown to all, even to the woman he had loved! + +Of this little yellow paper volume two hundred copies were printed; +one hundred and fifty were sold--about fifty in each department. This +average of tender and poetic souls in three departments of France is +enough to revive the enthusiasm of writers as to the _Furia Francese_, +which nowadays is more apt to expend itself in business than in books. + +When Monsieur de Clagny had given away a certain number of copies, +Dinah still had seven or eight, wrapped up in the newspapers which had +published notices of the work. Twenty copies forwarded to the Paris +papers were swamped in the editors' offices. Nathan was taken in as +well as several of his fellow-countrymen of Le Berry, and wrote an +article on the great man, in which he credited him with all the fine +qualities we discover in those who are dead and buried. + +Lousteau, warned by his fellow-schoolfellows, who could not remember +Jan Diaz, waited for information from Sancerre, and learned that Jan +Diaz was a pseudonym assumed by a woman. + +Then, in and around Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye became the rage; +she was the future rival of George Sand. From Sancerre to Bourges a +poem was praised which, at any other time, would certainly have been +hooted. The provincial public--like every French public, perhaps--does +not share the love of the King of the French for the happy medium: it +lifts you to the skies or drags you in the mud. + +By this time the good Abbe, Madame de la Baudraye's counselor, was +dead; he would certainly have prevented her rushing into public life. +But three years of work without recognition weighed on Dinah's soul, +and she accepted the clatter of fame as a substitute for her +disappointed ambitions. Poetry and dreams of celebrity, which had +lulled her grief since her meeting with Anna Grossetete, no longer +sufficed to exhaust the activity of her morbid heart. The Abbe Duret, +who had talked of the world when the voice of religion was impotent, +who understood Dinah, and promised her a happy future by assuring her +that God would compensate her for her sufferings bravely endured, +--this good old man could no longer stand between the opening to sin +and the handsome young woman he had called his daughter. + +The wise old priest had more than once endeavored to enlighten Dinah +as to her husband's character, telling her that the man could hate; +but women are not ready to believe in such force in weak natures, and +hatred is too constantly in action not to be a vital force. Dinah, +finding her husband incapable of love, denied him the power to hate. + +"Do not confound hatred and vengeance," said the Abbe. "They are two +different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is +the outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does +not hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all +their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. So beware of +offending Monsieur de la Baudraye; he would forgive an infidelity, +because he could make capital of it, but he would be doubly implacable +if you should touch him on the spot so cruelly wounded by Monsieur +Milaud of Nevers, and would make your life unendurable." + +Now, at the time when the whole countryside--Nevers and Sancerre, Le +Morvan and Le Berry--was priding itself on Madame de la Baudraye, and +lauding her under the name of Jan Diaz, "little La Baudraye" felt her +glory a mortal blow. He alone knew the secret source of _Paquita la +Sevillane_. When this terrible work was spoken of, everybody said of +Dinah--"Poor woman! Poor soul!" + +The women rejoiced in being able to pity her who had so long oppressed +them; never had Dinah seemed to stand higher in the eyes of the +neighborhood. + +The shriveled old man, more wrinkled, yellower, feebler than ever, +gave no sign; but Dinah sometimes detected in his eyes, as he looked +at her, a sort of icy venom which gave the lie to his increased +politeness and gentleness. She understood at last that this was not, +as she had supposed, a mere domestic squabble; but when she forced an +explanation with her "insect," as Monsieur Gravier called him, she +found the cold, hard impassibility of steel. She flew into a passion; +she reproached him for her life these eleven years past; she made +--intentionally--what women call a scene. But "little La Baudraye" sat +in an armchair with his eyes shut, and listened phlegmatically to the +storm. And, as usual, the dwarf got the better of his wife. Dinah saw +that she had done wrong in writing; she vowed never to write another +line, and she kept her vow. + +Then was there desolation in the Sancerrois. + +"Why did not Madame de la Baudraye compose any more verses?" was the +universal cry. + +At this time Madame de la Baudraye had no enemies; every one rushed to +see her, not a week passed without fresh introductions. The wife of +the presiding judge, an august _bourgeoise_, _nee_ Popinot-Chandier, +desired her son, a youth of two-and-twenty, to pay his humble respects +to La Baudraye, and flattered herself that she might see her Gatien in +the good graces of this Superior Woman.--The words Superior Woman had +superseded the absurd nickname of _The Sappho of Saint-Satur_.--This +lady, who for nine years had led the opposition, was so delighted at +the good reception accorded to her son, that she became loud in her +praises of the Muse of Sancerre. + +"After all," she exclaimed, in reply to a tirade from Madame de +Clagny, who hated her husband's supposed mistress, "she is the +handsomest and cleverest woman in the whole province!" + +After scrambling through so many brambles and setting off on so many +different roads, after dreaming of love in splendor and scenting the +darkest dramas, thinking such terrible joys would be cheaply purchased +so weary was she of her dreary existence, one day Dinah fell into the +pit she had sworn to avoid. Seeing Monsieur de Clagny always +sacrificing himself, and at last refusing a high appointment in Paris, +where his family wanted to see him, she said to herself, "He loves +me!" She vanquished her repulsion, and seemed willing to reward so +much constancy. + +It was to this impulse of generosity on her part that a coalition was +due, formed in Sancerre to secure the return of Monsieur de Clagny at +the next elections. Madame de la Baudraye had dreamed of going to +Paris in the wake of the new deputy. + +But, in spite of the most solemn promises, the hundred and fifty votes +to be recorded in favor of this adorer of the lovely Dinah--who hoped +to see this defender of the widow and the orphan wearing the gown of +the Keeper of the Seals--figured as an imposing minority of fifty +votes. The jealousy of the President de Boirouge, and Monsieur +Gravier's hatred, for he believed in the candidate's supremacy in +Dinah's heart, had been worked upon by a young Sous-prefet; and for +this worthy deed the allies got the young man made a prefet elsewhere. + +"I shall never cease to regret," said he, as he quitted Sancerre, +"that I did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would +have made my triumph complete!" + +The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on +the surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the +indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to +Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask +she had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day, +increased her hope of finding herself a widow? + +The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have +understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another +woman, had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la +Baudraye, she had indulged the hope of becoming a mother. Between +those miserable disputes over household matters and the melancholy +conviction as to her fate, quite a long time had elapsed. Then, when +she had looked for consolation, the consoler, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf +had left her. Thus, the overwhelming temptation which commonly causes +women to sin had hitherto been absent. For if there are, after all, +some women who make straight for unfaithfulness, are there not many +more who cling to hope, and do not fall till they have wandered long +in a labyrinth of secret woes? + +Such was Dinah. She had so little impulse to fail in her duty, that +she did not care enough for Monsieur de Clagny to forgive him his +defeat. + +Then the move to the Chateau d'Anzy, the rearrangement of her +collected treasures and curiosities, which derived added value from +the splendid setting which Philibert de Lorme seemed to have planned +on purpose for this museum, occupied her for several months, giving +her leisure to meditate one of those decisive steps that startle the +public, ignorant of the motives which, however, it sometimes discovers +by dint of gossip and suppositions. + +Madame de la Baudraye had been greatly struck by the reputation of +Lousteau, who was regarded as a lady's man of the first water in +consequence of his intimacies among actresses; she was anxious to know +him; she read his books, and was fired with enthusiasm, less perhaps +for his talents than for his successes with women; and to attract him +to the country, she started the notion that it was obligatory on +Sancerre to return one of its great men at the elections. She made +Gatien Boirouge write to the great physician Bianchon, whom he claimed +as a cousin through the Popinots. Then she persuaded an old friend of +the departed Madame Lousteau to stir up the journalist's ambitions by +letting him know that certain persons in Sancerre were firmly bent on +electing a deputy from among the distinguished men in Paris. + +Tired of her commonplace neighbors, Madame de la Baudraye would thus +at last meet really illustrious men, and might give her fall the +lustre of fame. + +Neither Lousteau nor Bianchon replied; they were waiting perhaps till +the holidays. Bianchon, who had won his professor's chair the year +before after a brilliant contest, could not leave his lectures. + +In the month of September, when the vintage was at its height, the two +Parisians arrived in their native province, and found it absorbed in +the unremitting toil of the wine-crop of 1836; there could therefore +be no public demonstration in their favor. "We have fallen flat," said +Lousteau to his companion, in the slang of the stage. + +In 1836, Lousteau, worn by sixteen years of struggle in the Capital, +and aged quite as much by pleasure as by penury, hard work, and +disappointments, looked eight-and-forty, though he was no more than +thirty-seven. He was already bald, and had assumed a Byronic air in +harmony with his early decay and the lines furrowed in his face by +over-indulgence in champagne. He ascribed these signs-manual of +dissipation to the severities of a literary life, declaring that the +Press was murderous; and he gave it to be understood that it consumed +superior talents, so as to lend a grace to his exhaustion. In his +native town he thought proper to exaggerate his affected contempt of +life and his spurious misanthropy. Still, his eyes could flash with +fire like a volcano supposed to be extinct, and he endeavored, by +dressing fashionably, to make up for the lack of youth that might +strike a woman's eye. + +Horace Bianchon, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, was fat +and burly, as beseems a fashionable physician, with a patriarchal air, +his hair thick and long, a prominent brow, the frame of a hard worker, +and the calm expression of a philosopher. This somewhat prosaic +personality set off his more frivolous companion to advantage. + + + +The two great men remained unrecognized during a whole morning at the +inn where they had put up, and it was only by chance that Monsieur de +Clagny heard of their arrival. Madame de la Baudraye, in despair at +this, despatched Gatien Boirouge, who had no vineyards, to beg the two +gentlemen to spend a few days at the Chateau d'Anzy. For the last year +Dinah had played the chatelaine, and spent the winter only at La +Baudraye. Monsieur Gravier, the Public Prosecutor, the Presiding +Judge, and Gatien Boirouge combined to give a banquet to the great +men, to meet the literary personages of the town. + +On hearing that the beautiful Madame de la Baudraye was Jan Diaz, the +Parisians went to spend three days at Anzy, fetched in a sort of +wagonette driven by Gatien himself. The young man, under a genuine +illusion, spoke of Madame de la Baudraye not only as the handsomest +woman in those parts, a woman so superior that she might give George +Sand a qualm, but as a woman who would produce a great sensation in +Paris. Hence the extreme though suppressed astonishment of Doctor +Bianchon and the waggish journalist when they beheld, on the garden +steps of Anzy, a lady dressed in thin black cashmere with a deep +tucker, in effect like a riding-habit cut short, for they quite +understood the pretentiousness of such extreme simplicity. Dinah also +wore a black velvet cap, like that in the portrait of Raphael, and +below it her hair fell in thick curls. This attire showed off a rather +pretty figure, fine eyes, and handsome eyelids somewhat faded by the +weariful life that has been described. In Le Berry the singularity of +this _artistic_ costume was a cloak for the romantic affectations of +the Superior Woman. + +On seeing the affectations of their too amiable hostess--which were, +indeed, affectations of soul and mind--the friends glanced at each +other, and put on a deeply serious expression to listen to Madame de +la Baudraye, who made them a set speech of thanks for coming to cheer +the monotony of her days. Dinah walked her guests round and round the +lawn, ornamented with large vases of flowers, which lay in front of +the Chateau d'Anzy. + +"How is it," said Lousteau, the practical joker, "that so handsome a +woman as you, and apparently so superior, should have remained buried +in the country? What do you do to make life endurable?" + +"Ah! that is the crux," said the lady. "It is unendurable. Utter +despair or dull resignation--there is no third alternative; that is +the arid soil in which our existence is rooted, and on which a +thousand stagnant ideas fall; they cannot fertilize the ground, but +they supply food for the etiolated flowers of our desert souls. Never +believe in indifference! Indifference is either despair or +resignation. Then each woman takes up the pursuit which, according to +her character, seems to promise some amusement. Some rush into +jam-making and washing, household management, the rural joys of the +vintage or the harvest, bottling fruit, embroidering handkerchiefs, +the cares of motherhood, the intrigues of a country town. Others +torment a much-enduring piano, which, at the end of seven years, +sounds like an old kettle, and ends its asthmatic life at the Chateau +d'Anzy. Some pious dames talk over the different brands of the Word of +God--the Abbe Fritaud as compared with the Abbe Guinard. They play +cards in the evening, dance with the same partners for twelve years +running, in the same rooms, at the same dates. This delightful life is +varied by solemn walks on the Mall, visits of politeness among the +women, who ask each other where they bought their gowns. + +"Conversation is bounded on the south by remarks on the intrigues +lying hidden under the stagnant water of provincial life, on the north +by proposed marriages, on the west by jealousies, and on the east by +sour remarks. + +"And so," she went on, striking an attitude, "you see a woman wrinkled +at nine-and-twenty, ten years before the time fixed by the rules of +Doctor Bianchon, a woman whose skin is ruined at an early age, who +turns as yellow as a quince when she is yellow at all--we have seen +some turn green. When we have reached that point, we try to justify +our normal condition; then we turn and rend the terrible passion of +Paris with teeth as sharp as rat's teeth. We have Puritan women here, +sour enough to tear the laces of Parisian finery, and eat out all the +poetry of your Parisian beauties, who undermine the happiness of +others while they cry up their walnuts and rancid bacon, glorify this +squalid mouse-hole, and the dingy color and conventual small of our +delightful life at Sancerre." + +"I admire such courage, madame," said Bianchon. "When we have to +endure such misfortunes, it is well to have the wit to make a virtue +of necessity." + +Amazed at the brilliant move by which Dinah thus placed provincial +life at the mercy of her guests, in anticipation of their sarcasms, +Gatien Boirouge nudged Lousteau's elbow, with a glance and a smile, +which said: + +"Well! did I say too much?" + +"But, madame," said Lousteau, "you are proving that we are still in +Paris. I shall steal this gem of description; it will be worth ten +thousand francs to me in an article." + +"Oh, monsieur," she retorted, "never trust provincial women." + +"And why not?" said Lousteau. + +Madame de la Baudraye was wily enough--an innocent form of cunning, to +be sure--to show the two Parisians, one of whom she would choose to be +her conquerer, the snare into which he would fall, reflecting that she +would have the upper hand at the moment when he should cease to see +it. + +"When you first come," said she, "you laugh at us. Then when you have +forgotten the impression of Paris brilliancy, and see us in our own +sphere, you pay court to us, if only as a pastime. And you, who are +famous for your past passions, will be the object of attentions which +will flatter you. Then take care!" cried Dinah, with a coquettish +gesture, raising herself above provincial absurdities and Lousteau's +irony by her own sarcastic speech. "When a poor little country-bred +woman has an eccentric passion for some superior man, some Parisian +who has wandered into the provinces, it is to her something more than +a sentiment; she makes it her occupation and part of all her life. +There is nothing more dangerous than the attachment of such a woman; +she compares, she studies, she reflects, she dreams; and she will not +give up her dream, she thinks still of the man she loves when he has +ceased to think of her. + +"Now one of the catastrophes that weigh most heavily on a woman in the +provinces is that abrupt termination of her passion which is so often +seen in England. In the country, a life under minute observation as +keen as an Indian's compels a woman either to keep on the rails or to +start aside like a steam engine wrecked by an obstacle. The strategies +of love, the coquetting which form half the composition of a Parisian +woman, are utterly unknown here." + +"That is true," said Lousteau. "There is in a country-bred woman's +heart a store of surprises, as in some toys." + +"Dear me!" Dinah went on, "a woman will have spoken to you three times +in the course of a winter, and without your knowing it, you will be +lodged in her heart. Then comes a picnic, an excursion, what not, and +all is said--or, if you prefer it, all is done! This conduct, which +seems odd to unobserving persons, is really very natural. A poet, such +as you are, or a philosopher, an observer, like Doctor Bianchon, +instead of vilifying the provincial woman and believing her depraved, +would be able to guess the wonderful unrevealed poetry, every chapter, +in short, of the sweet romance of which the last phrase falls to the +benefit of some happy sub-lieutenant or some provincial bigwig." + +"The provincial women I have met in Paris," said Lousteau, "were, in +fact, rapid in their proceedings--" + +"My word, they are strange," said the lady, giving a significant shrug +of her shoulders. + +"They are like the playgoers who book for the second performance, +feeling sure that the piece will not fail," replied the journalist. + +"And what is the cause of all these woes?" asked Bianchon. + +"Paris is the monster that brings us grief," replied the Superior +Woman. "The evil is seven leagues round, and devastates the whole +land. Provincial life is not self-existent. It is only when a nation +is divided into fifty minor states that each can have a physiognomy of +its own, and then a woman reflects the glory of the sphere where she +reigns. This social phenomenon, I am told, may be seen in Italy, +Switzerland, and Germany; but in France, as in every country where +there is but one capital, a dead level of manners must necessarily +result from centralization." + +"Then you would say that manners could only recover their +individuality and native distinction by the formation of a federation +of French states into one empire?" said Lousteau. + +"That is hardly to be wished, for France would have to conquer too +many countries," said Bianchon. + +"This misfortune is unknown in England," exclaimed Dinah. "London does +not exert such tyranny as that by which Paris oppresses France--for +which, indeed, French ingenuity will at last find a remedy; however, +it has a worse disease in its vile hypocrisy, which is a far greater +evil!" + +"The English aristocracy," said Lousteau, hastening to put a word in, +for he foresaw a Byronic paragraph, "has the advantage over ours of +assimilating every form of superiority; it lives in the midst of +magnificent parks; it is in London for no more than two months. It +lives in the country, flourishing there, and making it flourish." + +"Yes," said Madame de la Baudraye, "London is the capital of trade and +speculation and the centre of government. The aristocracy hold a +'mote' there for sixty days only; it gives and takes the passwords of +the day, looks in on the legislative cookery, reviews the girls to +marry, the carriages to be sold, exchanges greetings, and is away +again; and is so far from amusing, that it cannot bear itself for more +than the few days known as 'the season.'" + +"Hence," said Lousteau, hoping to stop this nimble tongue by an +epigram, "in Perfidious Albion, as the _Constitutionnel_ has it, you +may happen to meet a charming woman in any part of the kingdom." + +"But charming _English_ women!" replied Madame de la Baudraye with a +smile. "Here is my mother, I will introduce you," said she, seeing +Madame Piedefer coming towards them. + +Having introduced the two Paris lions to the ambitious skeleton that +called itself woman under the name of Madame Piedefer--a tall, lean +personage, with a red face, teeth that were doubtfully genuine, and +hair that was undoubtedly dyed, Dinah left her visitors to themselves +for a few minutes. + +"Well," said Gatien to Lousteau, "what do you think of her?" + +"I think that the clever woman of Sancerre is simply the greatest +chatterbox," replied the journalist. + +"A woman who wants to see you deputy!" cried Gatien. "An angel!" + +"Forgive me, I forgot you were in love with her," said Lousteau. +"Forgive the cynicism of an old scamp.--Ask Bianchon; I have no +illusions left. I see things as they are. The woman has evidently +dried up her mother like a partridge left to roast at too fierce a +fire." + +Gatien de Boirouge contrived to let Madame de la Baudraye know what +the journalist had said of her in the course of the dinner, which was +copious, not to say splendid, and the lady took care not to talk too +much while it was proceeding. This lack of conversation betrayed +Gatien's indiscretion. Etienne tried to regain his footing, but all +Dinah's advances were directed to Bianchon. + +However, half-way through the evening, the Baroness was gracious to +Lousteau again. Have you never observed what great meanness may be +committed for small ends? Thus the haughty Dinah, who would not +sacrifice herself for a fool, who in the depths of the country led +such a wretched life of struggles, of suppressed rebellion, of +unuttered poetry, who to get away from Lousteau had climbed the +highest and steepest peak of her scorn, and who would not have come +down if she had seen the sham Byron at her feet, suddenly stepped off +it as she recollected her album. + +Madame de la Baudraye had caught the mania for autographs; she +possessed an oblong volume which deserved the name of album better +than most, as two-thirds of the pages were still blank. The Baronne de +Fontaine, who had kept it for three months, had with great difficulty +obtained a line from Rossini, six bars written by Meyerbeer, the four +lines that Victor Hugo writes in every album, a verse from Lamartine, +a few words from Beranger, _Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart +d'Ulysse_ (the first words of _Telemaque_) written by George Sand, +Scribe's famous lines on the Umbrella, a sentence from Charles Nodier, +an outline of distance by Jules Dupre, the signature of David +d'Angers, and three notes written by Hector Berlioz. Monsieur de +Clagny, during a visit to Paris, added a song by Lacenaire--a much +coveted autograph, two lines from Fieschi, and an extremely short note +from Napoleon, which were pasted on to pages of the album. Then +Monsieur Gravier, in the course of a tour, had persuaded Mademoiselle +Mars to write her name on this album, with Mademoiselles Georges, +Taglioni, and Grisi, and some distinguished actors, such as Frederick +Lemaitre, Monrose, Bouffe, Rubini, Lablache, Nourrit, and Arnal; for +he knew a set of old fellows brought up in the seraglio, as they +phrased it, who did him this favor. + +This beginning of a collection was all the more precious to Dinah +because she was the only person for ten leagues round who owned an +album. Within the last two years, however, several young ladies had +acquired such books, in which they made their friends and +acquaintances write more or less absurd quotations or sentiments. You +who spend your lives in collecting autographs, simple and happy souls, +like Dutch tulip fanciers, you will excuse Dinah when, in her fear of +not keeping her guests more than two days, she begged Bianchon to +enrich the volume she handed to him with a few lines of his writing. + +The doctor made Lousteau smile by showing him this sentence on the +first page: + + "What makes the populace dangerous is that it has in its pocket an + absolution for every crime. + +J. B. DE CLAGNY." + + +"We will second the man who is brave enough to plead in favor of the +Monarchy," Desplein's great pupil whispered to Lousteau, and he wrote +below: + + "The distinction between Napoleon and a water-carrier is evident + only to Society; Nature takes no account of it. Thus Democracy, + which resists inequality, constantly appeals to Nature. + +H. BIANCHON." + + +"Ah!" cried Dinah, amazed, "you rich men take a gold piece out of your +purse as poor men bring out a farthing. . . . I do not know," she went +on, turning to Lousteau, "whether it is taking an unfair advantage of +a guest to hope for a few lines--" + +"Nay, madame, you flatter me. Bianchon is a great man, but I am too +insignificant!--Twenty years hence my name will be more difficult to +identify than that of the Public Prosecutor whose axiom, written in +your album, will designate him as an obscurer Montesquieu. And I +should want at least twenty-four hours to improvise some sufficiently +bitter reflections, for I could only describe what I feel." + +"I wish you needed a fortnight," said Madame de la Baudraye +graciously, as she handed him the book. "I should keep you here all +the longer." + + + +At five next morning all the party in the Chateau d'Anzy were astir, +little La Baudraye having arranged a day's sport for the Parisians +--less for their pleasure than to gratify his own conceit. He was +delighted to make them walk over the twelve hundred acres of waste +land that he was intending to reclaim, an undertaking that would cost +some hundred thousand francs, but which might yield an increase of +thirty to sixty thousand francs a year in the returns of the estate of +Anzy. + +"Do you know why the Public Prosecutor has not come out with us?" +asked Gatien Boirouge of Monsieur Gravier. + +"Why he told us that he was obliged to sit to-day; the minor cases are +before the Court," replied the other. + +"And did you believe that?" cried Gatien. "Well, my papa said to me, +'Monsieur Lebas will not join you early, for Monsieur de Clagny has +begged him as his deputy to sit for him!'" + +"Indeed!" said Gravier, changing countenance. "And Monsieur de la +Baudraye is gone to La Charite!" + +"But why do you meddle in such matters?" said Bianchon to Gatien. + +"Horace is right," said Lousteau. "I cannot imagine why you trouble +your heads so much about each other; you waste your time in +frivolities." + +Horace Bianchon looked at Etienne Lousteau, as much as to say that +newspaper epigrams and the satire of the "funny column" were +incomprehensible at Sancerre. + +On reaching a copse, Monsieur Gravier left the two great men and +Gatien, under the guidance of a keeper, to make their way through a +little ravine. + +"Well, we must wait for Monsieur Gravier," said Bianchon, when they +had reached a clearing. + +"You may be a great physician," said Gatien, "but you are ignorant of +provincial life. You mean to wait for Monsieur Gravier?--By this time +he is running like a hare, in spite of his little round stomach; he is +within twenty minutes of Anzy by now----" Gatien looked at his watch. +"Good! he will be just in time." + +"Where?" + +"At the chateau for breakfast," replied Gatien. "Do you suppose I +could rest easy if Madame de la Baudraye were alone with Monsieur de +Clagny? There are two of them now; they will keep an eye on each +other. Dinah will be well guarded." + +"Ah, ha! Then Madame de la Baudraye has not yet made up her mind?" +said Lousteau. + +"So mamma thinks. For my part, I am afraid that Monsieur de Clagny has +at last succeeded in bewitching Madame de la Baudraye. If he has been +able to show her that he had any chance of putting on the robes of the +Keeper of the Seals, he may have hidden his moleskin complexion, his +terrible eyes, his touzled mane, his voice like a hoarse crier's, his +bony figure, like that of a starveling poet, and have assumed all +the charms of Adonis. If Dinah sees Monsieur de Clagny as +Attorney-General, she may see him as a handsome youth. Eloquence has +great privileges.--Besides, Madame de la Baudraye is full of ambition. +She does not like Sancerre, and dreams of the glories of Paris." + +"But what interest have you in all this?" said Lousteau. "If she is in +love with the Public Prosecutor!--Ah! you think she will not love him +for long, and you hope to succeed him." + +"You who live in Paris," said Gatien, "meet as many different women as +there are days in the year. But at Sancerre, where there are not half +a dozen, and where, of those six, five set up for the most extravagant +virtue, when the handsomest of them all keeps you at an infinite +distance by looks as scornful as though she were of the blood royal, a +young man of two-and-twenty may surely be allowed to make a guess at +her secrets, since she must then treat him with some consideration." + +"Consideration! So that is what you call it in these parts?" said the +journalist with a smile. + +"I should suppose Madame de la Baudraye to have too much good taste to +trouble her head about that ugly ape," said Bianchon. + +"Horace," said Lousteau, "look here, O learned interpreter of human +nature, let us lay a trap for the Public Prosecutor; we shall be doing +our friend Gatien a service, and get a laugh out of it. I do not love +Public Prosecutors." + +"You have a keen intuition of destiny," said Horace. "But what can we +do?" + +"Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives +caught out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible +circumstances.--Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la Baudraye +and de Clagny will make." + +"Not amiss!" said Bianchon; "one or the other must surely, by look or +gesture--" + +"I know a newspaper editor," Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien, +"who, anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but +such as tell the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to +pieces; of wives boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to +read, hoping that sheer fear will keep her faithful--satisfied with +that humble alternative, poor man! 'You see, my dear, to what the +smallest error may lead you!' says he, epitomizing Arnolfe's address +to Agnes." + +"Madame de la Baudraye is quite guiltless; this youth sees double," +said Bianchon. "Madame Piedefer seems to me far too pious to invite +her daughter's lover to the Chateau d'Anzy. Madame de la Baudraye +would have to hoodwink her mother, her husband, her maid, and her +mother's maid; that is too much to do. I acquit her." + +"Well with more reason because her husband never 'quits her,'" said +Gatien, laughing at his own wit. + +"We can easily remember two or three stories that will make Dinah +quake," said Lousteau. "Young man--and you too, Bianchon--let me beg +you to maintain a stern demeanor; be thorough diplomatists, an easy +manner without exaggeration, and watch the faces of the two criminals, +you know, without seeming to do so--out of the corner of your eye, or +in a glass, on the sly. This morning we will hunt the hare, this +evening we will hunt the Public Prosecutor." + +The evening began with a triumph for Lousteau, who returned the album +to the lady with this elegy written in it: + + +SPLEEN + + You ask for verse from me, the feeble prey + Of this self-seeking world, a waif and stray + With none to whom to cling; + From me--unhappy, purblind, hopeless devil! + Who e'en in what is good see only evil + In any earthly thing! + + This page, the pastime of a dame so fair, + May not reflect the shadow of my care, + For all things have their place. + Of love, to ladies bright, the poet sings, + Of joy, and balls, and dress, and dainty things-- + Nay, or of God and Grace. + + It were a bitter jest to bid the pen + Of one so worn with life, so hating men, + Depict a scene of joy. + Would you exult in sight to one born blind, + Or--cruel! of a mother's love remind + Some hapless orphan boy? + + When cold despair has gripped a heart still fond, + When there is no young heart that will respond + To it in love, the future is a lie. + If there is none to weep when he is sad, + And share his woe, a man were better dead!-- + And so I soon must die. + + Give me your pity! often I blaspheme + The sacred name of God. Does it not seem + That I was born in vain? + Why should I bless him? Or why thank Him, since + He might have made me handsome, rich, a prince-- + And I am poor and plain? + +ETIENNE LOUSTEAU. + September 1836, Chateau d'Anzy. + + +"And you have written those verses since yesterday?" cried Clagny in a +suspicious tone. + +"Dear me, yes, as I was following the game; it is only too evident! I +would gladly have done something better for madame." + +"The verses are exquisite!" cried Dinah, casting up her eyes to +heaven. + +"They are, alas! the expression of a too genuine feeling," replied +Lousteau, in a tone of deep dejection. + +The reader will, of course, have guessed that the journalist had +stored these lines in his memory for ten years at least, for he had +written them at the time of the Restoration in disgust at being unable +to get on. Madame de la Baudraye gazed at him with such pity as the +woes of genius inspire; and Monsieur de Clagny, who caught her +expression, turned in hatred against this sham _Jeune Malade_ (the +name of an Elegy written by Millevoye). He sat down to backgammon with +the cure of Sancerre. The Presiding Judge's son was so extremely +obliging as to place a lamp near the two players in such a way as that +the light fell full on Madame de la Baudraye, who took up her work; +she was embroidering in coarse wool a wicker-plait paper-basket. The +three conspirators sat close at hand. + +"For whom are you decorating that pretty basket, madame?" said +Lousteau. "For some charity lottery, perhaps?" + +"No," she said, "I think there is too much display in charity done to +the sound of a trumpet." + +"You are very indiscreet," said Monsieur Gravier. + +"Can there be any indiscretion," said Lousteau, "in inquiring who the +happy mortal may be in whose room that basket is to stand?" + +"There is no happy mortal in the case," said Dinah; "it is for +Monsieur de la Baudraye." + +The Public Prosecutor looked slily at Madame de la Baudraye and her +work, as if he had said to himself, "I have lost my paper-basket!" + +"Why, madame, may we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, +happy in her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors +are red and black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope +that twelve years after, my wife's embroidered baskets may still be +for me." + +"And why should they not be for you?" said the lady, fixing her fine +gray eyes, full of invitation, on Etienne's face. + +"Parisians believe in nothing," said the lawyer bitterly. "The virtue +of women is doubted above all things with terrible insolence. Yes, for +some time past the books you have written, you Paris authors, your +farces, your dramas, all your atrocious literature, turn on +adultery--" + +"Come, come, Monsieur the Public Prosecutor," retorted Etienne, +laughing, "I left you to play your game in peace, I did not attack +you, and here you are bringing an indictment against me. On my honor +as a journalist, I have launched above a hundred articles against the +writers you speak of; but I confess that in attacking them it was to +attempt something like criticism. Be just; if you condemn them, you +must condemn Homer, whose _Iliad_ turns on Helen of Troy; you must +condemn Milton's _Paradise Lost_. Eve and her serpent seem to me a +pretty little case of symbolical adultery; you must suppress the +Psalms of David, inspired by the highly adulterous love affairs of +that Louis XIV. of Judah; you must make a bonfire of _Mithridate, le +Tartuffe, l'Ecole des Femmes, Phedre, Andromaque, le Mariage de +Figaro_, Dante's _Inferno_, Petrarch's Sonnets, all the works of +Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the romances of the Middle Ages, the History +of France, and of Rome, etc., etc. Excepting Bossuet's _Histoire des +Variations_ and Pascal's _Provinciales_, I do not think there are many +books left to read if you insist on eliminating all those in which +illicit love is mentioned." + +"Much loss that would be!" said Monsieur de Clagny. + +Etienne, nettled by the superior air assumed by Monsieur de Clagny, +wanted to infuriate him by one of those cold-drawn jests which consist +in defending an opinion in which we have no belief, simply to rouse +the wrath of a poor man who argues in good faith; a regular +journalist's pleasantry. + +"If we take up the political attitude into which you would force +yourself," he went on, without heeding the lawyer's remark, "and +assume the part of Public Prosecutor of all the ages--for every +Government has its public ministry--well, the Catholic religion is +infected at its fountain-head by a startling instance of illegal +union. In the opinion of King Herod, and of Pilate as representing the +Roman Empire, Joseph's wife figured as an adulteress, since, by her +avowal, Joseph was not the father of Jesus. The heathen judge could no +more recognize the Immaculate Conception than you yourself would admit +the possibility of such a miracle if a new religion should nowadays be +preached as based on a similar mystery. Do you suppose that a judge +and jury in a police court would give credence to the operation of the +Holy Ghost! And yet who can venture to assert that God will never +again redeem mankind? Is it any better now than it was under +Tiberius?" + +"Your argument is blasphemy," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"I grant it," said the journalist, "but not with malicious intent. You +cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he +sentenced Jesus, and Anytus--who spoke for the aristocratic party at +Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented +established social interests which held themselves legitimate, +invested with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves. +Pilate and Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public +prosecutors who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle; +who, at this day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms +against the throne as established by the revolution of July, and the +innovators who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under +pretence of organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the +great families of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals; +to those ancient aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of +the Mountain; and if their followers had been victorious, they would +have produced a little 'ninety-three' in the Roman Empire or in +Attica." + +"What are you trying to come to, monsieur?" asked the lawyer. + +"To adultery!--For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe +may very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in +adultery; as we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is +an epitome of the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never +had the least intention of constituting that camel-driver His +Prophet." + +"If there were many men like you in France--and there are more than +enough, unfortunately--all government would be impossible." + +"And there would be no religion at all," said Madame Piedefer, who had +been making strangely wry faces all through this discussion. + +"You are paining them very much," said Bianchon to Lousteau in an +undertone. "Do not talk of religion; you are saying things that are +enough to upset them." + +"If I were a writer or a romancer," said Monsieur Gravier, "I should +take the side of the luckless husbands. I, who have seen many things, +and strange things too, know that among the ranks of deceived husbands +there are some whose attitude is not devoid of energy, men who, at a +crisis, can be very dramatic, to use one of your words, monsieur," he +said, addressing Etienne. + +"You are very right, my dear Monsieur Gravier," said Lousteau. "I +never thought that deceived husbands were ridiculous; on the contrary, +I think highly of them--" + +"Do you not think a husband's confidence a sublime thing?" said +Bianchon. "He believes in his wife, he does not suspect her, he trusts +her implicitly. But if he is so weak as to trust her, you make game of +him; if he is jealous and suspicious, you hate him; what, then, I ask +you, is the happy medium for a man of spirit?" + +"If Monsieur de Clagny had not just expressed such vehement +disapproval of the immorality of stories in which the matrimonial +compact is violated, I could tell you of a husband's revenge," said +Lousteau. + +Monsieur de Clagny threw the dice with a convulsive jerk, and dared +not look up at the journalist. + +"A story, from you!" cried Madame de la Baudraye. "I should hardly +have dared to hope for such a treat--" + +"It is not my story, madame; I am not clever enough to invent such a +tragedy. It was told me--and how delightfully!--by one of our greatest +writers, the finest literary musician of our day, Charles Nodier." + +"Well, tell it," said Dinah. "I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have +no comparison to fear." + +"Not long after the 18th Brumaire," Etienne began, "there was, as you +know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee. The First Consul, +anxious before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations +with the rebel chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, +while combining his plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of +Italian diplomacy, he also set the Machiavelian springs of the police +in movement, Fouche then being at its head. And none of these means +were superfluous to stifle the fire of war then blaring in the West. + +"At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the +Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between +certain magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the +Royalist party. The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he +landed--for he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner. +However, as a man of practical intelligence, he had calculated all the +risks of the undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, +and the men told off to take him were afraid of blundering. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir--I now remember his name--had studied his +part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, +persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly +that he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the +spies had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too +minute. In this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an +arbitrary act than to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister +attached great importance. In those days of liberty the agents of the +powers in authority cared little enough for what we now regard as +_legal_. The Chevalier was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until +the superior officials should come to some decision as to his +identity. He had not long to wait for it; orders were given to guard +the prisoner closely in spite of his denials. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to +further orders, to the Castle of l'Escarpe, a name which sufficiently +indicates its situation. This fortress, perched on very high rocks, +has precipices for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep +and dangerous paths; and, like every ancient castle, its principal +gate has a drawbridge over a wide moat. The commandant of this prison, +delighted to have charge of a man of family whose manners were most +agreeable, who expressed himself well, and seemed highly educated, +received the Chevalier as a godsend; he offered him the freedom of the +place on parole, that they might together the better defy its dulness. +The prisoner was more than content. + +"Beauvoir was a loyal gentleman, but, unfortunately, he was also a +very handsome youth. He had attractive features, a dashing air, a +pleasing address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full +of enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable +leader of guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant +gave his prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his +table, and at first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This +officer was a Corsican and married; his wife was pretty and charming, +and he thought her, perhaps, not to be trusted--at any rate, he was as +jealous as a Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The +lady took a fancy to Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his +taste; perhaps they loved! Love in a prison is quick work. Did they +commit some imprudence? Was the sentiment they entertained something +warmer than the superficial gallantry which is almost a duty of men +towards women? + +"Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the +story; it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself +justified in treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir +was placed in the dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and +fettered in accordance with the time-honored traditions of the +treatment lavished on captives. His cell, under the fortress-yard, was +vaulted with hard stone, the walls were of desperate thickness; the +tower overlooked the precipice. + +"When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of +escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort +and the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the +trifles which in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours +and the days; he studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he +became absorbed in himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine; +then, at the end of a fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible +malady, that fever for liberty, which drives prisoners to those heroic +efforts of which the prodigious achievements seem to us impossible, +though true, and which my friend the doctor" (and he turned to +Bianchon) "would perhaps ascribe to some unknown forces too recondite +for his physiological analysis to detect, some mysteries of the human +will of which the obscurity baffles science." + +Bianchon shook his head in negation. + +"Beauvoir was eating his heart out, for death alone could set him +free. One morning the turnkey, whose duty it was to bring him his +food, instead of leaving him when he had given him his meagre +pittance, stood with his arms folded, looking at him with strange +meaning. Conversation between them was brief, and the warder never +began it. The Chevalier was therefore greatly surprised when the man +said to him: 'Of course, monsieur, you know your own business when you +insist on being always called Monsieur Lebrun, or citizen Lebrun. It +is no concern of mine; ascertaining your name is no part of my duty. +It is all the same to me whether you call yourself Peter or Paul. If +every man minds his own business, the cows will not stray. At the same +time, _I_ know,' said he, with a wink, 'that you are Monsieur +Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier de Beauvoir, and cousin to Madame +la Duchesse de Maille.--Heh?' he added after a short silence, during +which he looked at his prisoner. + +"Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine +that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known. + +"'Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I +gain by that?' said he. + +"'Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,' replied the jailer in +an undertone. 'I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a +minute! If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot +out of hand. So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than +will just earn the money.--Look here,' said he, taking a small file +out of his pocket, 'this is your key; with this you can cut through +one of your bars. By the Mass, but it will not be any easy job,' he +went on, glancing at the narrow loophole that let daylight into the +dungeon. + +"It was in a splayed recess under the deep cornice that ran round the +top of the tower, between the brackets that supported the embrasures. + +"'Monsieur,' said the man, 'you must take care to saw through the +iron low enough to get your body through.' + +"'I will get through, never fear,' said the prisoner. + +"'But high enough to leave a stanchion to fasten a cord to,' the +warder went on. + +"'And where is the cord?' asked Beauvoir. + +"'Here,' said the man, throwing down a knotted rope. 'It is made of +raveled linen, that you may be supposed to have contrived it yourself, +and it is long enough. When you have got to the bottom knot, let +yourself drop gently, and the rest you must manage for yourself. You +will probably find a carriage somewhere in the neighborhood, and +friends looking out for you. But I know nothing about that.--I need +not remind you that there is a man-at-arms to the right of the tower. +You will take care, of course, to choose a dark night, and wait till +the sentinel is asleep. You must take your chance of being shot; +but--' + +"'All right! All right! At least I shall not rot here,' cried the +young man. + +"'Well, that may happen nevertheless,' replied the jailer, with a +stupid expression. + +"Beauvoir thought this was merely one of the aimless remarks that such +folks indulge in. The hope of freedom filled him with such joy that he +could not be troubled to consider the words of a man who was no more +than a better sort of peasant. He set to work at once, and had filed +the bars through in the course of the day. Fearing a visit from the +Governor, he stopped up the breaches with bread crumb rubbed in rust +to make it look like iron; he hid his rope, and waited for a favorable +night with the intensity of anticipation, the deep anguish of soul +that makes a prisoner's life dramatic. + +"At last, one murky night, an autumn night, he finished cutting +through the bars, tied the cord firmly to the stump, and perched +himself on the sill outside, holding on by one hand to the piece of +iron remaining. Then he waited for the darkest hour of the night, when +the sentinels would probably be asleep; this would be not long before +dawn. He knew the hours of their rounds, the length of each watch, +every detail with which prisoners, almost involuntarily, become +familiar. He waited till the moment when one of the men-at-arms had +spent two-thirds of his watch and gone into his box for shelter from +the fog. Then, feeling sure that the chances were at the best for his +escape, he let himself down knot by knot, hanging between earth and +sky, and clinging to his rope with the strength of a giant. All was +well. At the last knot but one, just as he was about to let himself +drop, a prudent impulse led him to feel for the ground with his feet, +and he found no footing. The predicament was awkward for a man bathed +in sweat, tired, and perplexed, and in a position where his life was +at stake on even chances. He was about to risk it, when a trivial +incident stopped him; his hat fell off; happily, he listened for the +noise it must make in striking the ground, and he heard not a sound. + +"The prisoner felt vaguely suspicious as to this state of affairs. He +began to wonder whether the Commandant had not laid a trap for him +--but if so, why? Torn by doubts, he almost resolved to postpone the +attempt till another night. At any rate, he would wait for the first +gleam of day, when it would still not be impossible to escape. His +great strength enabled him to climb up again to his window; still, he +was almost exhausted by the time he gained the sill, where he crouched +on the lookout, exactly like a cat on the parapet of a gutter. Before +long, by the pale light of dawn, he perceived as he waved the rope +that there was a little interval of a hundred feet between the lowest +knot and the pointed rocks below. + +"'Thank you, my friend, the Governor!' said he, with characteristic +coolness. Then, after a brief meditation on this skilfully-planned +revenge, he thought it wise to return to his cell. + +"He laid his outer clothes conspicuously on the bed, left the rope +outside to make it seem that he had fallen, and hid himself behind the +door to await the arrival of the treacherous turnkey, arming himself +with one of the iron bars he had filed out. The jailer, who returned +rather earlier than usual to secure the dead man's leavings, opened +the door, whistling as he came in; but when he was at arm's length, +Beauvoir hit him such a tremendous blow on the head that the wretch +fell in a heap without a cry; the bar had cracked his skull. + +"The Chevalier hastily stripped him and put on his clothes, mimicked +his walk, and, thanks to the early hour and the undoubting confidence +of the warders of the great gate, he walked out and away." + +It did not seem to strike either the lawyer or Madame de la Baudraye +that there was in this narrative the least allusion that should apply +to them. Those in the little plot looked inquiringly at each other, +evidently surprised at the perfect coolness of the two supposed +lovers. + +"Oh! I can tell you a better story than that," said Bianchon. + +"Let us hear," said the audience, at a sign from Lousteau, conveying +that Bianchon had a reputation as a story-teller. + +Among the stock of narratives he had in store, for every clever man +has a fund of anecdotes as Madame de la Baudraye had a collection of +phrases, the doctor chose that which is known as _La Grande Breteche_, +and is so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the +_Gymnase-Dramatique_ under the title of _Valentine_. So it is not +necessary to repeat it here, though it was then new to the inhabitants +of the Chateau d'Anzy. And it was told with the same finish of gesture +and tone which had won such praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle +des Touches' supper-party he had told it for the first time. The final +picture of the Spanish grandee, starved to death where he stood in the +cupboard walled up by Madame de Merret's husband, and that husband's +last word as he replied to his wife's entreaty, "You swore on that +crucifix that there was no one in that closet!" produced their full +effect. There was a silent minute, highly flattering to Bianchon. + +"Do you know, gentlemen," said Madame de la Baudraye, "love must be a +mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a +position?" + +"I, who have certainly seen some strange things in the course of my +life," said Gravier, "was cognizant in Spain of an adventure of the +same kind." + +"You come forward after two great performers," said Madame de la +Baudraye, with coquettish flattery, as she glanced at the two +Parisians. "But never mind--proceed." + +"Some little time after his entry into Madrid," said the +Receiver-General, "the Grand Duke of Berg invited the magnates of the +capital to an entertainment given to the newly conquered city by the +French army. In spite of the splendor of the affair, the Spaniards +were not very cheerful; their ladies hardly danced at all, and most of +the company sat down to cards. The gardens of the Duke's palace were +so brilliantly illuminated, that the ladies could walk about in as +perfect safety as in broad daylight. The fete was of imperial +magnificence. Nothing was grudged to give the Spaniards a high idea of +the Emperor, if they were to measure him by the standard of his +officers. + +"In an arbor near the house, between one and two in the morning, a +party of French officers were discussing the chances of war, and the +not too hopeful outlook prognosticated by the conduct of the Spaniards +present at that grand ball. + +"'I can only tell you,' said the surgeon-major of the company of +which I was paymaster, 'I applied formally to Prince Murat only +yesterday to be recalled. Without being afraid exactly of leaving my +bones in the Peninsula, I would rather dress the wounds made by our +worthy neighbors the Germans. Their weapons do not run quite so deep +into the body as these Castilian daggers. Besides, a certain dread of +Spain is, with me, a sort of superstition. From my earliest youth I +have read Spanish books, and a heap of gloomy romances and tales of +adventures in this country have given me a serious prejudice against +its manners and customs. + +"'Well, now, since my arrival in Madrid, I have already been, not +indeed the hero, but the accomplice of a dangerous intrigue, as dark +and mysterious as any romance by Lady (Mrs.) Radcliffe. I am apt to +attend to my presentiments, and I am off to-morrow. Murat will not +refuse me leave, for, thanks to our varied services, we always have +influential friends.' + +"'Since you mean to cut your stick, tell us what's up,' said an old +Republican colonel, who cared not a rap for Imperial gentility and +choice language. + +"The surgeon-major looked about him cautiously, as if to make sure who +were his audience, and being satisfied that no Spaniard was within +hearing, he said: + +"'We are none but Frenchmen--then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. +About six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at +night, after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few +yards from mine. We had come away together from the +Quartermaster-General's, where we had played rather high at +_bouillotte_. Suddenly, at the corner of a narrow high-street, two +strangers, or rather, two demons, rushed upon me and flung a large +cloak round my head and arms. I yelled out, as you may suppose, like a +dog that is thrashed, but the cloth smothered my voice, and I was +lifted into a chaise with dexterous rapidity. When my two companions +released me from the cloak, I heard these dreadful words spoken by a +woman, in bad French: + +"'"If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very +least suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will +stab you without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.--Now, I +will tell you why you have been carried off. If you will take the +trouble to put your hand out in this direction, you will find your +case of instruments lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to +your rooms, in your name. You will need them. We are taking you to a +house that you may save the honor of a lady who is about to give birth +to a child that she wishes to place in this gentleman's keeping +without her husband's knowledge. Though monsieur rarely leaves his +wife, with whom he is still passionately in love, watching over her +with all the vigilance of Spanish jealousy, she had succeeded in +concealing her condition; he believes her to be ill. You must bring +the child into the world. The dangers of this enterprise do not +concern us: only, you must obey us, otherwise the lover, who is +sitting opposite to you in this carriage, and who does not understand +a word of French, will kill you on the least rash movement." + +"'"And who are you?" I asked, feeling for the speaker's hand, for +her arm was inside the sleeve of a soldier's uniform. + +"'"I am my lady's waiting-woman," said she, "and ready to reward you +with my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our +necessities." + +"'"Gladly," said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a +perilous adventure. + +"'Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure +of the girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her +tone of voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the +first to accept all the chances of this strange act of kidnapping, for +she kept silence very obligingly, and the coach had not been more than +ten minutes on the way when she accepted and returned a very +satisfactory kiss. The lover, who sat opposite to me, took no offence +at an occasional quite involuntary kick; as he did not understand +French, I conclude he paid no heed to them. + +"'"I can be your mistress on one condition only," said the woman, in +reply to the nonsense I poured into her ear, carried away by the +fervor of an improvised passion, to which everything was unpropitious. + +"'"And what is it?" + +"'"That you will never attempt to find out whose servant I am. If I +am to go to you, it must be at night, and you must receive me in the +dark." + +"'"Very good," said I. + +"'We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden +wall. + +"'"You must allow me to bandage your eyes," said the maid. "You can +lean on my arm, and I will lead you." + +"'She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot +at the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously +fitted to the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who +had sat opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was +slender, and who walked with an elegant jauntiness'--_meneho_, as they +call it," Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, "a word which +describes the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of +their dress that shall be nameless.--'The waiting-woman'--it is the +surgeon-major who is speaking," the narrator went on--"'led me along +the gravel walks of a large garden, till at a certain spot she +stopped. From the louder sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we +were close to the house. "Now silence!" said she in a whisper, "and +mind what you are about. Do not overlook any of my signals; I cannot +speak without terrible danger for both of us, and at this moment your +life is of the first importance." Then she added: "My mistress is in a +room on the ground floor. To get into it we must pass through her +husband's room and close to his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and +follow me closely, so as not to knock against the furniture or tread +anywhere but on the carpets I laid down." + +"'Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much +delay. + +"'The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of +the house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl's light +hand removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, +badly lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous +husband had fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack, +as it were. + +"'On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with +a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and +flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her +mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it: I never saw +finer limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string +thrown on the fire. The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her +legs by setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both +hands she held on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with +every vein painfully swelled. She might have been a criminal +undergoing torture. But she did not utter a cry; there was not a +sound, all three speechless and motionless. The husband snored with +reassuring regularity. I wanted to study the waiting-woman's face, but +she had put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our +drive, and I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a +pleasingly rounded figure. + +"'The lover threw some towels over his mistress' legs and folded the +muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady +with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once +before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I +turned to the maid in order to tell her this. Instantly the suspicious +stranger drew his dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the +woman, who explained in a word or two to him in a low voice. On +hearing my opinion, a quick, slight shudder ran through him from head +to foot like a lightning flash; I fancied I could see him turn pale +under his black velvet mask. + +"'The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in +despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some +glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her +head negatively. I understood that I was not to drink anything in +spite of the dreadful thirst that parched my throat. The lover was +thirsty too; he took an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, +and drank it off. + +"'At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed +me that now was the time to operate. I summoned all my courage, and in +about an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting it +up to extract it. The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, +understanding that I had saved the mother's life. Large tears fell on +his cloak. The woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted +animal, and was bathed in sweat. + +"'At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her +husband's room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard +the rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain. +We all paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the +eyeholes of their masks, gave each other a look that said, "If he +wakes, shall we kill him?" + +"'At that instant I put out my hand to take the glass of lemonade the +Spaniard had drunk of. He, thinking that I was about to take one of +the full glasses, sprang forward like a cat, and laid his long dagger +over the two poisoned goblets, leaving me his own, and signing to me +to drink what was left. So much was conveyed by this quick action, and +it was so full of good feeling, that I forgave him his atrocious +schemes for killing me, and thus burying every trace of this event. + +"'After two hours of care and alarms, the maid and I put her mistress +to bed. The lover, forced into so perilous an adventure, had, to +provide means in case of having to fly, a packet of diamonds stuck to +paper; these he put into my pocket without my knowing it; and I may +add parenthetically, that as I was ignorant of the Spaniard's +magnificent gift, my servant stole the jewels the day after, and went +off with a perfect fortune. + +"'I whispered my instructions to the waiting-woman as to the further +care of her patient, and wanted to be gone. The maid remained with her +mistress, which was not very reassuring, but I was on my guard. The +lover made a bundle of the dead infant and the blood-stained clothes, +tying it up tightly, and hiding it under his cloak; he passed his hand +over my eyes as if to bid me to see nothing, and signed to me to take +hold of the skirt of his coat. He went first out of the room, and I +followed, not without a parting glance at my lady of an hour. She, +seeing the Spaniard had gone out, snatched off her mask and showed me +an exquisite face. + +"'When I found myself in the garden, in the open air, I confess that +I breathed as if a heavy load had been lifted from my breast. I +followed my guide at a respectful distance, watching his least +movement with keen attention. Having reached the little door, he took +my hand and pressed a seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen +him wearing on a finger of his left hand, and I gave him to understand +that this significant sign would be obeyed. In the street two horses +were waiting; we each mounted one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held +his own between his teeth, for his right hand held the bloodstained +bundle, and we went off at lightning speed. + +"'I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we +came by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard +fled towards the Atocha gate.' + +"'And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman +was whom you had attended?' the Colonel asked of the surgeon. + +"'One thing only,' he replied. 'When I turned the unknown lady over, +I happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as +a lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.'--At this instant the rash +speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his, +followed his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes +shone through a clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object +of our attention, the man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A +young captain rushed in pursuit. + +"'By Heaven!' cried the surgeon, 'that basilisk stare has chilled me +through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take +leave of you; you will bury me here!' + +"'What a fool you are!' exclaimed Colonel Hulot. 'Falcon is on the +track of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to +account.' + +"'Well,' cried one and another, seeing the captain return quite out +of breath. + +"'The devil's in it,' said Falcon; 'the man went through a wall, I +believe! As I do not suppose that he is a wizard, I fancy he must +belong to the house! He knows every corner and turning, and easily +escaped.' + +"'I am done for,' said the surgeon, in a gloomy voice. + +"'Come, come, keep calm, Bega,' said I (his name was Bega), 'we will +sit on watch with you till you leave. We will not leave you this +evening.' + +"In point of fact, three young officers who had been losing at play +went home with the surgeon to his lodgings, and one of us offered to +stay with him. + +"Within two days Bega had obtained his recall to France; he made +arrangements to travel with a lady to whom Murat had given a strong +escort, and had just finished dinner with a party of friends, when his +servant came to say that a young lady wished to speak to him. The +surgeon and the three officers went down suspecting mischief. The +stranger could only say, 'Be on your guard--' when she dropped down +dead. It was the waiting-woman, who, finding she had been poisoned, +had hoped to arrive in time to warn her lover. + +"'Devil take it!' cried Captain Falcon, 'that is what I call love! No +woman on earth but a Spaniard can run about with a dose of poison in +her inside!' + +"Bega remained strangely pensive. To drown the dark presentiments that +haunted him, he sat down to table again, and with his companions drank +immoderately. The whole party went early to bed, half drunk. + +"In the middle of the night the hapless Bega was aroused by the sharp +rattle of the curtain rings pulled violently along the rods. He sat up +in bed, in the mechanical trepidation which we all feel on waking with +such a start. He saw standing before him a Spaniard wrapped in a +cloak, who fixed on him the same burning gaze that he had seen through +the bushes. + +"Bega shouted out, 'Help, help, come at once, friends!' But the +Spaniard answered his cry of distress with a bitter laugh.--'Opium +grows for all!' said he. + +"Having thus pronounced sentence as it were, the stranger pointed to +the three other men sleeping soundly, took from under his cloak the +arm of a woman, freshly amputated, and held it out to Bega, pointing +to a mole like that he had so rashly described. 'Is it the same?' he +asked. By the light of the lantern the man had set on the bed, Bega +recognized the arm, and his speechless amazement was answer enough. + +"Without waiting for further information, the lady's husband stabbed +him to the heart." + +"You must tell that to the marines!" said Lousteau. "It needs their +robust faith to swallow it! Can you tell me which told the tale, the +dead man or the Spaniard?" + +"Monsieur," replied the Receiver-General, "I nursed poor Bega, who +died five days after in dreadful suffering.--That is not the end. + +"At the time of the expedition sent out to restore Ferdinand VII. I +was appointed to a place in Spain; but, happily for me, I got no +further than Tours when I was promised the post of Receiver here at +Sancerre. On the eve of setting out I was at a ball at Madame de +Listomere's, where we were to meet several Spaniards of high rank. On +rising from the card-table, I saw a Spanish grandee, an _afrancesado_ +in exile, who had been about a fortnight in Touraine. He had arrived +very late at this ball--his first appearance in society--accompanied +by his wife, whose right arm was perfectly motionless. Everybody made +way in silence for this couple, whom we all watched with some +excitement. Imagine a picture by Murillo come to life. Under black and +hollow brows the man's eyes were like a fixed blaze; his face looked +dried up, his bald skull was red, and his frame was a terror to +behold, he was so emaciated. His wife--no, you cannot imagine her. Her +figure had the supple swing for which the Spaniards created the word +_meneho_; though pale, she was still beautiful; her complexion was +dazzlingly fair--a rare thing in a Spaniard; and her gaze, full of the +Spanish sun, fell on you like a stream of melted lead. + +"'Madame,' said I to her, towards the end of the evening, 'what +occurrence led to the loss of your arm?' + +"'I lost it in the war of independence,' said she." + +"Spain is a strange country," said Madame de la Baudraye. "It still +shows traces of Arab manners." + +"Oh!" said the journalist, laughing, "the mania for cutting off arms +is an old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our +newspaper hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the +Spanish stage so early as 1570--" + +"Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?" said +Monsieur Gravier, nettled by Lousteau's impertinent tone. + +"Quite incapable of such a thing," said the journalist with grave +irony. + +"Pooh!" said Bianchon, "the inventions of romances and play-writers +are quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real +life, as the events of real life are made use of on the stage or +adapted to a tale. I have seen the comedy of _Tartufe_ played out +--with the exception of the close; Orgon's eyes could not be opened +to the truth." + +"And the tragi-comedy of _Adolphe_ by Benjamin Constant is constantly +enacted," cried Lousteau. + +"And do you suppose," asked Madame de la Baudraye, "that such +adventures as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and +in France?" + +"Dear me!" cried Clagny, "of the ten or twelve startling crimes that +are annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with +circumstances at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing +them in romantic details. Indeed, is not this proved by the reports in +the _Gazette des Tribunaux_--the Police news--in my opinion, one of +the worst abuses of the Press? This newspaper, which was started only +in 1826 or '27, was not in existence when I began my professional +career, and the facts of the crime I am about to speak of were not +known beyond the limits of the department where it was committed. + +"In the quarter of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours a woman whose +husband had disappeared at the time when the army of the Loire was +disbanded, and who had mourned him deeply, was conspicuous for her +excess of devotion. When the mission priests went through all the +provinces to restore the crosses that had been destroyed and to efface +the traces of revolutionary impiety, this widow was one of their most +zealous proselytes, she carried a cross and nailed to it a silver +heart pierced by an arrow; and, for a long time after, she went every +evening to pray at the foot of the cross which was erected behind the +Cathedral apse. + +"At last, overwhelmed by remorse, she confessed to a horrible crime. +She had killed her husband, as Fualdes was murdered, by bleeding him; +she had salted the body and packed it in pieces into old casks, +exactly as if it have been pork; and for a long time she had taken a +piece every morning and thrown it into the Loire. Her confessor +consulted his superiors, and told her that it would be his duty to +inform the public prosecutor. The woman awaited the action of the Law. +The public prosecutor and the examining judge, on examining the +cellar, found the husband's head still in pickle in one of the casks. +--'Wretched woman,' said the judge to the accused, 'since you were so +barbarous as to throw your husband's body into the river, why did you +not get rid of the head? Then there would have been no proof.' + +"'I often tried, monsieur,' said she, 'but it was too heavy.'" + +"Well, and what became of the woman?" asked the two Parisians. + +"She was sentenced and executed at Tours," replied the lawyer; "but +her repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her +monstrous crime." + +"And do you suppose, said Bianchon, "that we know all the tragedies +that are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public +never lifts?--It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to +judge of crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to +intervene as the police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart +of the matter." + +"The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor," said +Madame de la Baudraye guilelessly, "that the crime would sometimes +seem almost excusable if the accused could tell all." + +This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had +told, left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah's +position. + +At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place +in the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, +candle in hand, for mysterious conversations. + +Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this +entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye's +innocence to light. + +"But, after all," said Lousteau, "our hostess' serenity may indicate +deep depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public +Prosecutor looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La +Baudraye should be put in pickle----" + +"He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the +course of the night?" said Gatien. + +"We will know!" cried Monsieur Gravier. + +In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are +considered admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur +Gravier, who had seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on +the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The +ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with +the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of +a door by means of two little flattened pills of wax, fixed so high +up, or so low down, that the trick is never suspected. If the gallant +comes out of his own door and opens the other, the broken hair tells +the tale. + +When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist, +the receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and +silently fastened up the two doors, agreeing to come again at five in +the morning to examine the state of the fastenings. Imagine their +astonishment and Gatien's delight when all four, candle in hand, and +with hardly any clothes on, came to look at the hairs, and found them +in perfect preservation on both doors. + +"Is it the same wax?" asked Monsieur Gravier. + +"Are they the same hairs?" asked Lousteau. + +"Yes," replied Gatien. + +"This quite alters the matter!" cried Lousteau. "You have been beating +the bush for a will-o'-the-wisp." + +Monsieur Gravier and Gatien exchanged questioning glances which were +meant to convey, "Is there not something offensive to us in that +speech? Ought we to laugh or to be angry?" + +"If Dinah is virtuous," said the journalist in a whisper to Bianchon, +"she is worth an effort on my part to pluck the fruit of her first +love." + +The idea of carrying by storm a fortress that had for nine years stood +out against the besiegers of Sancerre smiled on Lousteau. + +With this notion in his head, he was the first to go down and into the +garden, hoping to meet his hostess. And this chance fell out all the +more easily because Madame de la Baudraye on her part wished to +converse with her critic. Half such chances are planned. + +"You were out shooting yesterday, monsieur," said Madame de la +Baudraye. "This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any +new amusement; unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you +may study more of our provincial life than you can see here, for you +have made but one mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying +about the handsomest girl in the world is not less true of the poor +provincial woman!" + +"That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech +I made simply to make him confess that he adored you," said Etienne. +"Your silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout +the evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we +never commit in Paris.--What can I say? I do not flatter myself that +you will understand me. In fact, I laid a plot for the telling of all +those stories yesterday solely to see whether I could rouse you and +Monsieur de Clagny to a pang of remorse.--Oh! be quite easy; your +innocence is fully proved. + +"If you had the slightest fancy for that estimable magistrate, you +would have lost all your value in my eyes.--I love perfection. + +"You do not, you cannot love that cold, dried-up, taciturn little +usurer on wine casks and land, who would leave any man in the lurch +for twenty-five centimes on a renewal. Oh, I have fully recognized +Monsieur de la Baudraye's similarity to a Parisian bill-discounter; +their nature is identical.--At eight-and-twenty, handsome, well +conducted, and childless--I assure you, madame, I never saw the +problem of virtue more admirably expressed.--The author of _Paquita la +Sevillane_ must have dreamed many dreams! + +"I can speak of such things without the hypocritical gloss lent them +by young men, for I am old before my time. I have no illusions left. +Can a man have any illusions in the trade I follow?" + +By opening the game in this tone, Lousteau cut out all excursions in +the _Pays de Tendre_, where genuine passion beats the bush so long; he +went straight to the point and placed himself in a position to force +the offer of what women often make a man pray for, for years; witness +the hapless Public Prosecutor, to whom the greatest favor had +consisted in clasping Dinah's hand to his heart more tenderly than +usual as they walked, happy man! + +And Madame de la Baudraye, to be true to her reputation as a Superior +Woman, tried to console the Manfred of the Press by prophesying such a +future of love as he had not had in his mind. + +"You have sought pleasure," said she, "but you have never loved. +Believe me, true love often comes late in life. Remember Monsieur de +Gentz, who fell in love in his old age with Fanny Ellsler, and left +the Revolution of July to take its course while he attended the +dancer's rehearsals." + +"It seems to me unlikely," replied Lousteau. "I can still believe in +love, but I have ceased to believe in woman. There are in me, I +suppose, certain defects which hinder me from being loved, for I have +often been thrown over. Perhaps I have too strong a feeling for the +ideal--like all men who have looked too closely into reality----" + +Madame de la Baudraye at last heard the mind of a man who, flung into +the wittiest Parisian circles, represented to her its most daring +axioms, its almost artless depravity, its advanced convictions; who, +if he were not really superior, acted superiority extremely well. +Etienne, performing before Dinah, had all the success of a first +night. _Paquita_ of Sancerre scented the storms, the atmosphere of +Paris. She spent one of the most delightful days of her life with +Lousteau and Bianchon, who told her strange tales about the great men +of the day, the anecdotes which will some day form the _Ana_ of our +century; sayings and doings that were the common talk of Paris, but +quite new to her. + +Of course, Lousteau spoke very ill of the great female celebrity of Le +Berry, with the obvious intention of flattering Madame de la Baudraye +and leading her into literary confidences, by suggesting that she +could rival so great a writer. This praise intoxicated Madame de la +Baudraye; and Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Gravier, and Gatien, all +thought her warmer in her manner to Etienne than she had been on the +previous day. Dinah's three _attaches_ greatly regretted having all +gone to Sancerre to blow the trumpet in honor of the evening at Anzy; +nothing, to hear them, had ever been so brilliant. The Hours had fled +on feet so light that none had marked their pace. The two Parisians +they spoke of as perfect prodigies. + +These exaggerated reports loudly proclaimed on the Mall brought +sixteen persons to Anzy that evening, some in family coaches, some in +wagonettes, and a few bachelors on hired saddle horses. By about seven +o'clock this provincial company had made a more or less graceful entry +into the huge Anzy drawing-room, which Dinah, warned of the invasion, +had lighted up, giving it all the lustre it was capable of by taking +the holland covers off the handsome furniture, for she regarded this +assembly as one of her great triumphs. Lousteau, Bianchon, and Dinah +exchanged meaning looks as they studied the attitudes and listened to +the speeches of these visitors, attracted by curiosity. + +What invalided ribbons, what ancestral laces, what ancient flowers, +more imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some +perennial caps! The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon's cousin, exchanged +a few words with the doctor, from whom she extracted some "advice +gratis" by expatiating on certain pains in the chest, which she +declared were nervous, but which he ascribed to chronic indigestion. + +"Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the +English do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an +English malady," Bianchon replied very gravely. + +"He is certainly a great physician," said the Presidente, coming back +to Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the +Mayor's wife. + +"They say," replied Madame de Clagny behind her fan, "that Dinah sent +for him, not so much with a view to the elections as to ascertain why +she has no children." + +In the first excitement of this success, Lousteau introduced the great +doctor as the only possible candidate at the ensuing elections. But +Bianchon, to the great satisfaction of the new Sous-prefet, remarked +that it seemed to him almost impossible to give up science in favor of +politics. + +"Only a physician without a practice," said he, "could care to be +returned as a deputy. Nominate statesmen, thinkers, men whose +knowledge is universal, and who are capable of placing themselves on +the high level which a legislator should occupy. That is what is +lacking in our Chambers, and what our country needs." + +Two or three young ladies, some of the younger men, and the elder +women stared at Lousteau as if he were a mountebank. + +"Monsieur Gatien Boirouge declares that Monsieur Lousteau makes twenty +thousand francs a year by his writings," observed the Mayor's wife to +Madame de Clagny. "Can you believe it?" + +"Is it possible? Why, a Public Prosecutor gets but a thousand crowns!" + +"Monsieur Gatien," said Madame Chandier, "get Monsieur Lousteau to +talk a little louder. I have not heard him yet." + +"What pretty boots he wears," said Mademoiselle Chandier to her +brother, "and how they shine!" + +"Yes--patent leather." + +"Why haven't you the same?" + +Lousteau began to feel that he was too much on show, and saw in the +manners of the good townsfolk indications of the desires that had +brought them there. + +"What trick can I play them?" thought he. + +At this moment the footman, so called--a farm-servant put into livery +--brought in the letters and papers, and among them a packet of proof, +which the journalist left for Bianchon; for Madame de la Baudraye, on +seeing the parcel, of which the form and string were obviously from +the printers, exclaimed: + +"What, does literature pursue you even here?" + +"Not literature," replied he, "but a review in which I am now +finishing a story to come out ten days hence. I have reached the stage +of '_To be concluded in our next_,' so I was obliged to give my +address to the printer. Oh, we eat very hard-earned bread at the hands +of these speculators in black and white! I will give you a description +of these editors of magazines." + +"When will the conversation begin?" Madame de Clagny asked of Dinah, +as one might ask, "When do the fireworks go off?" + +"I fancied we should hear some amusing stories," said Madame Popinot +to her cousin, the Presidente Boirouge. + +At this moment, when the good folks of Sancerre were beginning to +murmur like an impatient pit, Lousteau observed that Bianchon was lost +in meditation inspired by the wrapper round the proofs. + +"What is it?" asked Etienne. + +"Why, here is the most fascinating romance possible on some spoiled +proof used to wrap yours in. Here, read it. _Olympia, or Roman +Revenge_." + +"Let us see," said Lousteau, taking the sheet the doctor held out to +him, and he read aloud as follows:-- + + 240 OLYMPIA + + cavern. Rinaldo, indignant at his + companions' cowardice, for they had + no courage but in the open field, and + dared not venture into Rome, looked + at them with scorn. + + "Then I go alone?" said he. He + seemed to reflect, and then he went + on: "You are poor wretches. I shall + proceed alone, and have the rich + booty to myself.--You hear me! + Farewell." + + "My Captain," said Lamberti, "if + you should be captured without + having succeeded?" + + "God protects me!" said Rinaldo, + pointing to the sky. + + With these words he went out, + and on his way he met the steward + +"That is the end of the page," said Lousteau, to whom every one had +listened devoutly. + +"He is reading his work to us," said Gatien to Madame +Popinot-Chandier's son. + +"From the first word, ladies," said the journalist, jumping at an +opportunity of mystifying the natives, "it is evident that the +brigands are in a cave. But how careless romancers of that date were +as to details which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied +under the name of 'local color.' If the robbers were in a cavern, +instead of pointing to the sky he ought to have pointed to the vault +above him.--In spite of this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man +of spirit, and his appeal to God is quite Italian. There must have +been a touch of local color in this romance. Why, what with brigands, +and a cavern, and one Lamberti who could foresee future possibilities +--there is a whole melodrama in that page. Add to these elements a +little intrigue, a peasant maiden with her hair dressed high, short +skirts, and a hundred or so of bad couplets.--Oh! the public will +crowd to see it! And then Rinaldo--how well the name suits Lafont! By +giving him black whiskers, tightly-fitting trousers, a cloak, a +moustache, a pistol, and a peaked hat--if the manager of the +Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to pay for a few newspaper +articles, that would secure fifty performances, and six thousand +francs for the author's rights, if only I were to cry it up in my +columns. + +"To proceed:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + The Duchess of Bracciano found + her glove. Adolphe, who had brought + her back to the orange grove, might + certainly have supposed that there + was some purpose in her forgetful- + ness, for at this moment the arbor + was deserted. The sound of the fes- + tivities was audible in the distance. + The puppet show that had been + promised had attracted all the + guests to the ballroom. Never had + Olympia looked more beautiful. + Her lover's eyes met hers with an + answering glow, and they under- + stood each other. There was a mo- + ment of silence, delicious to their + souls, and impossible to describe. + They sat down on the same bench + where they had sat in the presence + of the Cavaliere Paluzzi and the + +"Devil take it! Our Rinaldo has vanished!" cried Lousteau. "But a +literary man once started by this page would make rapid progress in +the comprehension of the plot. The Duchesse Olympia is a lady who +could intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor." + +"Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an +office, the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom, +it is impossible to discern in Olympia--" Bianchon began. + +"A woman of thirty," Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing +some all too medical term. + +"Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty," the doctor went on, "for an +Italian woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty." + +"From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed," said +Lousteau. "And this Cavaliere Paluzzi--what a man!--The style is weak +in these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise +Office, and wrote the novel to pay his tailor!" + +"In his time," said Bianchon, "the censor flourished; you must show as +much indulgence to a man who underwent the ordeal by scissors in 1805 +as to those who went to the scaffold in 1793." + +"Do you understand in the least?" asked Madame Gorju timidly of Madame +de Clagny. + +The Public Prosecutor's wife, who, to use a phrase of Monsieur +Gravier's, might have put a Cossack to flight in 1814, straightened +herself in her chair like a horseman in his stirrups, and made a face +at her neighbor, conveying, "They are looking at us; we must smile as +if we understood." + +"Charming!" said the Mayoress to Gatien. "Pray go on, Monsieur +Lousteau." + +Lousteau looked at the two women, two Indian idols, and contrived to +keep his countenance. He thought it desirable to say, "Attention!" +before going on as follows:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 209 + + dress rustled in the silence. Sud- + denly Cardinal Borborigano stood + before the Duchess. + + "His face was gloomy, his brow + was dark with clouds, and a bitter + smile lurked in his wrinkles. + + "Madame," said he, "you are under + suspicion. If you are guilty, fly. If + you are not, still fly; because, + whether criminal or innocent, you + will find it easier to defend yourself + from a distance." + + "I thank your Eminence for your + solicitude," said she. "The Duke of + Bracciano will reappear when I find + it needful to prove that he is alive." + +"Cardinal Borborigano!" exclaimed Bianchon. "By the Pope's keys! If +you do not agree with me that there is a magnificent creation in the +very name, if at those words _dress rustled in the silence_ you do not +feel all the poetry thrown into the part of Schedoni by Mrs. Radcliffe +in _The Black Penitent_, you do not deserve to read a romance." + +"For my part," said Dinah, who had some pity on the eighteen faces +gazing up at Lousteau, "I see how the story is progressing. I know it +all. I am in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose +wife, as bold as she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a +volcano. Every night, at every kiss, she says to herself, 'All will be +discovered!'" + +"Can you see her," said Lousteau, "clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her +arms, to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?--Adolphe I +see as a well-made young man, but not clever--the sort of man an +Italian woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do +not know, but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by +Pixerecourt. Or we can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the +background like a figure in one of Victor Hugo's plays." + +"He, perhaps, is the husband," exclaimed Madame de la Baudraye. + +"Do you understand anything of it all?" Madame Piedefer asked of the +Presidente. + +"Why, it is charming!" said Dinah to her mother. + +All the good folks of Sancerre sat with eyes as large as five-franc +pieces. + +"Go on, I beg," said the hostess. + +Lousteau went on:-- + + 210 OLYMPIA + + "Your key----" + + "Have you lost it?" + + "It is in the arbor." + + "Let us hasten." + + "Can the Cardinal have taken it?" + + "No, here it is." + + "What danger we have escaped!" + + Olympia looked at the key, and + fancied she recognized it as her own. + But Rinaldo had changed it; his + cunning had triumphed; he had the + right key. Like a modern Cartouche, + he was no less skilful than bold, + and suspecting that nothing but a + vast treasure could require a duchess + to carry it constantly at her belt. + +"Guess!" cried Lousteau. "The corresponding page is not here. We must +look to page 212 to relieve our anxiety." + + 212 OLYMPIA + + "If the key had been lost?" + + "He would now be a dead man." + + "Dead? But ought you not to + grant the last request he made, and + to give him his liberty on the con- + ditions----" + + "You do not know him." + + "But--" + + "Silence! I took you for my + lover, not for my confessor." + + Adolphe was silent. + +"And then comes an exquisite galloping goat, a tail-piece drawn by +Normand, and cut by Duplat.--the names are signed," said Lousteau. + +"Well, and then?" said such of the audience as understood. + +"That is the end of the chapter," said Lousteau. "The fact of this +tailpiece changes my views as to the authorship. To have his book got +up, under the Empire, with vignettes engraved on wood, the writer must +have been a Councillor of State, or Madame Barthelemy-Hadot, or the +late lamented Desforges, or Sewrin." + +"'Adolphe was silent.'--Ah!" cried Bianchon, "the Duchess must have +been under thirty." + +"If there is no more, invent a conclusion," said Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"You see," said Lousteau, "the waste sheet has been printed fair on +one side only. In printer's lingo, it is a back sheet, or, to make it +clearer, the other side which would have to be printed is covered all +over with pages printed one above another, all experiments in making +up. It would take too long to explain to you all the complications of +a making-up sheet; but you may understand that it will show no more +trace of the first twelve pages that were printed on it than you would +in the least remember the first stroke of the bastinado if a Pasha +condemned you to have fifty on the soles of your feet." + +"I am quite bewildered," said Madame Popinot-Chandier to Monsieur +Gravier. "I am vainly trying to connect the Councillor of State, the +Cardinal, the key, and the making-up----" + +"You have not the key to the jest," said Monsieur Gravier. "Well! no +more have I, fair lady, if that can comfort you." + +"But here is another sheet," said Bianchon, hunting on the table where +the proofs had been laid. + +"Capital!" said Lousteau, "and it is complete and uninjured. It is +signed IV.; J, Second Edition. Ladies, the figure IV. means that this +is part of the fourth volume. The letter J, the tenth letter of the +alphabet, shows that this is the tenth sheet. And it is perfectly +clear to me, that in spite of any publisher's tricks, this romance in +four duodecimo volumes, had a great success, since it came to a second +edition.--We will read on and find a clue to the mystery. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 21 + + corridor; but finding that he was + pursued by the Duchess' people + +"Oh, get along!" + +"But," said Madame de la Baudraye, "some important events have taken +place between your waste sheet and this page." + +"This complete sheet, madame, this precious made-up sheet. But does +the waste sheet in which the Duchess forgets her gloves in the arbor +belong to the fourth volume? Well, deuce take it--to proceed. + + Rinaldo saw no safer refuge than to + make forthwith for the cellar where + the treasures of the Bracciano fam- + ily no doubt lay hid. As light of + foot as Camilla sung by the Latin + poet, he flew to the entrance to the + Baths of Vespasian. The torchlight + already flickered on the walls when + Rinaldo, with the readiness be- + stowed on him by nature, discovered + the door concealed in the stone- + work, and suddenly vanished. A + hideous thought then flashed on + Rinaldo's brain like lightning rend- + ing a cloud: He was imprisoned! + He felt the wall with uneasy haste + +"Yes, this made-up sheet follows the waste sheet. The last page of the +damaged sheet was 212, and this is 217. In fact, since Rinaldo, who in +the earlier fragment stole the key of the Duchess' treasure by +exchanging it for another very much like it, is now--on the made-up +sheet--in the palace of the Dukes of Bracciano, the story seems to me +to be advancing to a conclusion of some kind. I hope it is as clear to +you as it is to me.--I understand that the festivities are over, the +lovers have returned to the Bracciano Palace; it is night--one o'clock +in the morning. Rinaldo will have a good time." + +"And Adolphe too!" said President Boirouge, who was considered rather +free in his speech. + +"And the style!" said Bianchon.--"Rinaldo, who saw _no better refuge +than to make for the cellar_." + +"It is quite clear that neither Maradan, nor Treuttel and Wurtz, nor +Doguereau, were the printers," said Lousteau, "for they employed +correctors who revised the proofs, a luxury in which our publishers +might very well indulge, and the writers of the present day, would +benefit greatly. Some scrubby pamphlet printer on the Quay--" + +"What quay?" a lady asked of her neighbor. "They spoke of baths--" + +"Pray go on," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"At any rate, it is not by a councillor," said Bianchon. + +"It may be by Madame Hadot," replied Lousteau. + +"What has Madame Hadot of La Charite to do with it?" the Presidente +asked of her son. + +"This Madame Hadot, my dear friend," the hostess answered, "was an +authoress, who lived at the time of the Consulate." + +"What, did women write in the Emperor's time?" asked Madame +Popinot-Chandier. + +"What of Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael?" cried the Public +Prosecutor, piqued on Dinah's account by this remark. + +"To be sure!" + +"I beg you to go on," said Madame de la Baudraye to Lousteau. + +Lousteau went on saying: "Page 218. + + 218 OLYMPIA + + and gave a shriek of despair when + he had vainly sought any trace of a + secret spring. It was impossible to + ignore the horrible truth. The door, + cleverly constructed to serve the + vengeful purposes of the Duchess, + could not be opened from within. + Rinaldo laid his cheek against the + wall in various spots; nowhere + could he feel the warmer air from + the passage. He had hoped he + might find a crack that would show + him where there was an opening in + the wall, but nothing, nothing! The + whole seemed to be of one block of + marble. + + Then he gave a hollow roar like + that of a hyaena---- + +"Well, we fancied that the cry of the hyaena was a recent invention of +our own!" said Lousteau, "and here it was already known to the +literature of the Empire. It is even introduced with a certain skill +in natural history, as we see in the word _hollow_." + +"Make no more comments, monsieur," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"There, you see!" cried Bianchon. "Interest, the romantic demon, has +you by the collar, as he had me a while ago." + +"Read on," cried de Clagny, "I understand." + +"What a coxcomb!" said the Presiding Judge in a whisper to his +neighbor the Sous-prefet. + +"He wants to please Madame de la Baudraye," replied the new +Sous-prefet. + +"Well, then I will read straight on," said Lousteau solemnly. + +Everybody listened in dead silence. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + A deep groan answered Rinaldo's + cry, but in his alarm he took it for + an echo, so weak and hollow was + the sound. It could not proceed + from any human breast. + + "Santa Maria!" said the voice. + + "If I stir from this spot I shall + never find it again," thought Ri- + naldo, when he had recovered his + usual presence of mind. "If I knock, + I shall be discovered. What am I + to do?" + + "Who is here?" asked the voice. + + "Hallo!" cried the brigand; "do + the toads here talk?" + + "I am the Duke of Bracciano. + Whoever you may be, if you are not + a follower of the Duchess', in the + name of all the saints, come towards + me." + + 220 OLYMPIA + + "I should have to know where to + find you, Monsieur le Duc," said Ri- + naldo, with the insolence of a man + who knows himself to be necessary. + + "I can see you, my friend, for my + eyes are accustomed to the darkness. + Listen: walk straight forward-- + good; now turn to the left--come + on--this way. There, we are close + to each other." + + Rinaldo putting out his hands as + a precaution, touched some iron + bars. + + "I am being deceived," cried the + bandit. + + "No, you are touching my cage. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 221 + + Sit down on a broken shaft of por- + phyry that is there." + + "How can the Duke of Bracciano + be in a cage?" asked the brigand. + + "My friend, I have been here for + thirty months, standing up, unable + to sit down----But you, who are + you?" + + "I am Rinaldo, prince of the Cam- + pagna, the chief of four-and-twenty + brave men whom the law describes + as miscreants, whom all the ladies + admire, and whom judges hang in + obedience to an old habit." + + "God be praised! I am saved. + An honest man would have been + afraid, whereas I am sure of coming + to an understanding with you," + cried the Duke. "Oh, my worthy + + 222 OLYMPIA + + deliverer, you must be armed to the + teeth." + + "_E verissimo_" (most true). + + "Do you happen to have--" + + "Yes, files, pincers--_Corpo di + Bacco_! I came to borrow the treas- + ures of the Bracciani on a long + loan." + + "You will earn a handsome share + of them very legitimately, my good + Rinaldo, and we may possibly go + man hunting together--" + + "You surprise me, Eccellenza!" + + "Listen to me, Rinaldo. I will + say nothing of the craving for + vengeance that gnaws at my heart. + I have been here for thirty months + --you too are Italian--you will un- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 223 + + derstand me! Alas, my friend, my + fatigue and my horrible incarcera- + tion are nothing in comparison + with the rage that devours my soul. + The Duchess of Bracciano is still + one of the most beautiful women in + Rome. I loved her well enough to + be jealous--" + + "You, her husband!" + + "Yes, I was wrong, no doubt." + + "It is not the correct thing, to be + sure," said Rinaldo. + + "My jealousy was roused by the + Duchess' conduct," the Duke went + on. "The event proved me right. A + young Frenchman fell in love with + Olympia, and she loved him. I had + proofs of their reciprocal affection + +"Pray excuse me, ladies," said Lousteau, "but I find it impossible to +go on without remarking to you how direct this Empire literature is, +going to the point without any details, a characteristic, as it seems +to me, of a primitive time. The literature of that period holds a +place between the summaries of chapters in _Telemaque_ and the +categorical reports of a public office. It had ideas, but refrained +from expressing them, it was so scornful! It was observant, but would +not communicate its observations to any one, it was so miserly! Nobody +but Fouche ever mentioned what he had observed. 'At that time,' to +quote the words of one of the most imbecile critics in the _Revue des +Deux Mondes_, 'literature was content with a clear sketch and the +simple outline of all antique statues. It did not dance over its +periods.'--I should think not! It had no periods to dance over. It had +no words to play with. You were plainly told that Lubin loved +Toinette; that Toinette did not love Lubin; that Lubin killed Toinette +and the police caught Lubin, who was put in prison, tried at the +assizes, and guillotined.--A strong sketch, a clear outline! What a +noble drama! Well, in these days the barbarians make words sparkle." + +"Like a hair in a frost," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"So those are the airs you affect?"[*] retorted Lousteau. + +[*] The rendering given above is only intended to link the various + speeches into coherence; it has no resemblance with the French. In + the original, "Font chatoyer les _mots_." + + "Et quelquefois les _morts_," dit Monsieur de Clagny. + + "Ah! Lousteau! vous vous donnez de ces R-la (airs-la)." + + Literally: "And sometimes the dead."--"Ah, are those the airs you + assume?"--the play on the insertion of the letter R (_mots, + morts_) has no meaning in English. + +"What can he mean?" asked Madame de Clagny, puzzled by this vile pun. + +"I seem to be walking in the dark," replied the Mayoress. + +"The jest would be lost in an explanation," remarked Gatien. + +"Nowadays," Lousteau went on, "a novelist draws characters, and +instead of a 'simple outline,' he unveils the human heart and gives +you some interest either in Lubin or in Toinette." + +"For my part, I am alarmed at the progress of public knowledge in the +matter of literature," said Bianchon. "Like the Russians, beaten by +Charles XII., who at least learned the art of war, the reader has +learned the art of writing. Formerly all that was expected of a +romance was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared +for that, not even the author; as to ideas--zero; as to local color +--_non est_. By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, +pathos, and complete information; he insists on the five literary +senses--Invention, Style, Thought, Learning, and Feeling. Then some +criticism commenting on everything. The critic, incapable of inventing +anything but calumny, pronounces every work that proceeds from a not +perfect brain to be deformed. Some magicians, as Walter Scott, for +instance, having appeared in the world, who combined all the five +literary senses, such writers as had but one--wit or learning, style or +feeling --these cripples, these acephalous, maimed or purblind creatures +--in a literary sense--have taken to shrieking that all is lost, and +have preached a crusade against men who were spoiling the business, or +have denounced their works." + +"The history of your last literary quarrel!" Dinah observed. + +"For pity's sake, come back to the Duke of Bracciano," cried Monsieur +de Clagny. + +To the despair of all the company, Lousteau went on with the made-up +sheet. + + 224 OLYMPIA + + I then wished to make sure of my + misfortune that I might be avenged + under the protection of Providence + and the Law. The Duchess guessed + my intentions. We were at war in + our purposes before we fought with + poison in our hands. We tried to + tempt each other to such confidence + as we could not feel, I to induce her + to drink a potion, she to get posses- + sion of me. She was a woman, and + she won the day; for women have a + snare more than we men. I fell into + it--I was happy; but I awoke next + day in this iron cage. All through + the day I bellowed with rage in the + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 225 + + darkness of this cellar, over which + is the Duchess' bedroom. At night + an ingenious counterpoise acting as + a lift raised me through the floor, + and I saw the Duchess in her lover's + arms. She threw me a piece of + bread, my daily pittance. + + "Thus have I lived for thirty + months! From this marble prison + my cries can reach no ear. There is + no chance for me. I will hope no + more. Indeed, the Duchess' room is + at the furthest end of the palace, + and when I am carried up there + none can hear my voice. Each time + I see my wife she shows me the + + 226 OLYMPIA + + poison I had prepared for her and + her lover. I crave it for myself, but + she will not let me die; she gives + me bread, and I eat it. + + "I have done well to eat and live; + I had not reckoned on robbers!" + + "Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools + the honest men are asleep, we are + wide awake." + + "Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall + be yours; we will share my treasure + like brothers; I would give you + everything--even to my Duchy----" + + "Eccellenza, procure from the + Pope an absolution _in articulo mor- + tis_. It would be of more use to me + in my walk of life." + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 227 + + "What you will. Only file + through the bars of my cage and + lend me your dagger. We have but + little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my + teeth were but files!--I have tried + to eat through this iron." + + "Eccellenza," said Rinaldo, "I + have already filed through one bar." + + "You are a god!" + + "Your wife was at the fete given + by the Princess Villaviciosa. She + brought home her little Frenchman; + she is drunk with love.--You have + plenty of time." + + "Have you done?" + + "Yes." + + 228 OLYMPIA + + "Your dagger?" said the Duke + eagerly to the brigand. + + "Here it is." + + "Good. I hear the clatter of the + spring." + + "Do not forget me!" cried the + robber, who knew what gratitude + was. + + "No more than my father," cried + the Duke. + + "Good-bye!" said Rinaldo. "Lord! + How he flies up!" he added to him- + self as the Duke disappeared.--"No + more than his father! If that is + all he means to do for me.--And I + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 229 + + had sworn a vow never to injure a + woman!" + + But let us leave the robber for a + moment to his meditations and go + up, like the Duke, to the rooms in + the palace. + +"Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank," said +the journalist. "Then there are two more blank pages before we come to +the word it is such a joy to write when one is unhappily so happy as +to be a novelist--_Conclusion_! + + CONCLUSION + + Never had the Duchess been more + lovely; she came from her bath + clothed like a goddess, and on seeing + + 234 OLYMPIA + + Adolphe voluptuously reclining on + piles of cushions-- + + "You are beautiful," said she. + + "And so are you, Olympia!" + + "And you still love me?" + + "More and more," said he. + + "Ah, none but a Frenchman + knows how to love!" cried the + Duchess. "Do you love me well to- + night?" + + "Yes." + + "Then come!" + + And with an impulse of love and + hate--whether it was that Cardinal + Borborigano had reminded her of + her husband, or that she felt un- + wonted passion to display, she + pressed the springs and held out her + arms. + +"That is all," said Lousteau, "for the foreman has torn off the rest +in wrapping up my proofs. But it is enough to show that the author was +full of promise." + +"I cannot make head or tail of it," said Gatien Boirouge, who was the +first to break the silence of the party from Sancerre. + +"Nor I," replied Monsieur Gravier. + +"And yet it is a novel of the time of the Empire," said Lousteau. + +"By the way in which the brigand is made to speak," said Monsieur +Gravier, "it is evident that the author knew nothing of Italy. +Banditti do not allow themselves such graceful conceits." + +Madame Gorju came up to Bianchon, seeing him pensive, and with a +glance towards her daughter Mademoiselle Euphemie Gorju, the owner of +a fairly good fortune--"What a rhodomontade!" said she. "The +prescriptions you write are worth more than all that rubbish." + +The Mayoress had elaborately worked up this speech, which, in her +opinion, showed strong judgment. + +"Well, madame, we must be lenient, we have but twenty pages out of a +thousand," said Bianchon, looking at Mademoiselle Gorju, whose figure +threatened terrible things after the birth of her first child. + +"Well, Monsieur de Clagny," said Lousteau, "we were talking yesterday +of the forms of revenge invented by husbands. What do you say to those +invented by wives?" + +"I say," replied the Public Prosecutor, "that the romance is not by a +Councillor of State, but by a woman. For extravagant inventions the +imagination of women far outdoes that of men; witness _Frankenstein_ +by Mrs. Shelley, _Leone Leoni_ by George Sand, the works of Anne +Radcliffe, and the _Nouveau Promethee_ (New Prometheus) of Camille de +Maupin." + +Dinah looked steadily at Monsieur de Clagny, making him feel, by an +expression that gave him a chill, that in spite of the illustrious +examples he had quoted, she regarded this as a reflection on _Paquita +la Sevillane_. + +"Pooh!" said little Baudraye, "the Duke of Bracciano, whom his wife +puts into a cage, and to whom she shows herself every night in the +arms of her lover, will kill her--and do you call that revenge?--Our +laws and our society are far more cruel." + +"Why, little La Baudraye is talking!" said Monsieur Boirouge to his +wife. + +"Why, the woman is left to live on a small allowance, the world turns +its back on her, she has no more finery, and no respect paid her--the +two things which, in my opinion, are the sum-total of woman," said the +little old man. + +"But she has happiness!" said Madame de la Baudraye sententiously. + +"No," said the master of the house, lighting his candle to go to bed, +"for she has a lover." + +"For a man who thinks of nothing but his vine-stocks and poles, he has +some spunk," said Lousteau. + +"Well, he must have something!" replied Bianchon. + +Madame de la Baudraye, the only person who could hear Bianchon's +remark, laughed so knowingly, and at the same time so bitterly, that +the physician could guess the mystery of this woman's life; her +premature wrinkles had been puzzling him all day. + +But Dinah did not guess, on her part, the ominous prophecy contained +for her in her husband's little speech, which her kind old Abbe Duret, +if he had been alive, would not have failed to elucidate. Little La +Baudraye had detected in Dinah's eyes, when she glanced at the +journalist returning the ball of his jests, that swift and luminous +flash of tenderness which gilds the gleam of a woman's eye when +prudence is cast to the winds, and she is fairly carried away. Dinah +paid no more heed to her husband's hint to her to observe the +proprieties than Lousteau had done to Dinah's significant warnings on +the day of his arrival. + +Any other man than Bianchon would have been surprised at Lousteau's +immediate success; but he was so much the doctor, that he was not even +nettled at Dinah's marked preference for the newspaper-rather than the +prescription-writer! In fact, Dinah, herself famous, was naturally +more alive to wit than to fame. Love generally prefers contrast to +similitude. Everything was against the physician--his frankness, his +simplicity, and his profession. And this is why: Women who want to +love--and Dinah wanted to love as much as to be loved--have an +instinctive aversion for men who are devoted to an absorbing +occupation; in spite of superiority, they are all women in the matter +of encroachment. Lousteau, a poet and journalist, and a libertine with +a veneer of misanthropy, had that tinsel of the intellect, and led the +half-idle life that attracts women. The blunt good sense and keen +insight of the really great man weighed upon Dinah, who would not +confess her own smallness even to herself. She said in her mind--"The +doctor is perhaps the better man, but I do not like him." + +Then, again, she reflected on his professional duties, wondering +whether a woman could ever be anything but a _subject_ to a medical +man, who saw so many subjects in the course of a day's work. The first +sentence of the aphorism written by Bianchon in her album was a +medical observation striking so directly at woman, that Dinah could +not fail to be hit by it. And then Bianchon was leaving on the morrow; +his practice required his return. What woman, short of having Cupid's +mythological dart in her heart, could decide in so short a time? + +These little things, which lead to such great catastrophes--having +been seen in a mass by Bianchon, he pronounced the verdict he had come +to as to Madame de la Baudraye in a few words to Lousteau, to the +journalist's great amazement. + +While the two friends stood talking together, a storm was gathering in +the Sancerre circle, who could not in the least understand Lousteau's +paraphrases and commentaries, and who vented it on their hostess. Far +from finding in his talk the romance which the Public Prosecutor, the +Sous-prefet, the Presiding Judge, and his deputy, Lebas, had +discovered there--to say nothing of Monsieur de la Baudraye and Dinah +--the ladies now gathered round the tea-table, took the matter as a +practical joke, and accused the Muse of Sancerre of having a finger in +it. They had all looked forward to a delightful evening, and had all +strained in vain every faculty of their mind. Nothing makes provincial +folks so angry as the notion of having been a laughing-stock for Paris +folks. + +Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, "Do go and talk +to the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior." + +Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah's great superiority over the best +women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were +graceful, her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight--in +short, she stood out against this background of old faces, shy and +ill-dressed girls, like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of +Paris faded from his brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial +surroundings; and while he had too much imagination to remain +unimpressed by the royal splendor of this chateau, the beautiful +carvings, and the antique beauty of the rooms, he had also too much +experience to overlook the value of the personality which completed +this gem of the Renaissance. So by the time the visitors from Sancerre +had taken their leave one by one--for they had an hour's drive before +them--when no one remained in the drawing-room but Monsieur de Clagny, +Monsieur Lebas, Gatien, and Monsieur Gravier, who were all to sleep at +Anzy--the journalist had already changed his mind about Dinah. His +opinion had gone through the evolution that Madame de la Baudraye had +so audaciously prophesied at their first meeting. + +"Ah, what things they will say about us on the drive home!" cried the +mistress of the house, as she returned to the drawing-room after +seeing the President and the Presidente to their carriage with Madame +and Mademoiselle Popinot-Chandier. + +The rest of the evening had its pleasant side. In the intimacy of a +small party each one brought to the conversation his contribution of +epigrams on the figure the visitors from Sancerre had cut during +Lousteau's comments on the paper wrapped round the proofs. + +"My dear fellow," said Bianchon to Lousteau as they went to bed--they +had an enormous room with two beds in it--"you will be the happy man +of this woman's choice--_nee_ Piedefer!" + +"Do you think so?" + +"It is quite natural. You are supposed here to have had many +mistresses in Paris; and to a woman there is something indescribably +inviting in a man whom other women favor--something attractive and +fascinating; is it that she prides herself on being longer remembered +than all the rest? that she appeals to his experience, as a sick man +will pay more to a famous physician? or that she is flattered by the +revival of a world-worn heart?" + +"Vanity and the senses count for so much in love affairs," said +Lousteau, "that there may be some truth in all those hypotheses. +However, if I remain, it will be in consequence of the certificate of +innocence, without ignorance, that you have given Dinah. She is +handsome, is she not?" + +"Love will make her beautiful," said the doctor. "And, after all, she +will be a rich widow some day or other! And a child would secure her +the life-interest in the Master of La Baudraye's fortune--" + +"Why, it is quite an act of virtue to make love to her," said +Lousteau, rolling himself up in the bed-clothes, "and to-morrow, with +your help--yes, to-morrow, I--well, good-night." + +On the following day, Madame de la Baudraye, to whom her husband had +six months since given a pair of horses, which he also used in the +fields, and an old carriage that rattled on the road, decided that she +would take Bianchon so far on his way as Cosne, where he would get +into the Lyons diligence as it passed through. She also took her +mother and Lousteau, but she intended to drop her mother at La +Baudraye, to go on to Cosne with the two Parisians, and return alone +with Etienne. She was elegantly dressed, as the journalist at once +perceived--bronze kid boots, gray silk stockings, a muslin dress, a +green silk scarf with shaded fringe at the ends, and a pretty black +lace bonnet with flowers in it. As to Lousteau, the wretch had assumed +his war-paint--patent leather boots, trousers of English kerseymere +with pleats in front, a very open waistcoat showing a particularly +fine shirt and the black brocade waterfall of his handsome cravat, and +a very thin, very short black riding-coat. + +Monsieur de Clagny and Monsieur Gravier looked at each other, feeling +rather silly as they beheld the two Parisians in the carriage, while +they, like two simpletons, were left standing at the foot of the +steps. Monsieur de la Baudraye, who stood at the top waving his little +hand in a little farewell to the doctor, could not forbear from +smiling as he heard Monsieur de Clagny say to Monsieur Gravier: + +"You should have escorted them on horseback." + +At this juncture, Gatien, riding Monsieur de la Baudraye's quiet +little mare, came out of the side road from the stables and joined the +party in the chaise. + +"Ah, good," said the Receiver-General, "the boy has mounted guard." + +"What a bore!" cried Dinah as she saw Gatien. "In thirteen years--for +I have been married nearly thirteen years--I have never had three +hours' liberty. + +"Married, madame?" said the journalist with a smile. "You remind me of +a saying of Michaud's--he was so witty! He was setting out for the +Holy Land, and his friends were remonstrating with him, urging his +age, and the perils of such an expedition. 'And then,' said one, 'you +are married.'--'Married!' said he, 'so little married.'" + +Even the rigid Madame Piedefer could not repress a smile. + +"I should not be surprised to see Monsieur de Clagny mounted on my +pony to complete the escort," said Dinah. + +"Well, if the Public Prosecutor does not pursue us, you can get rid of +this little fellow at Sancerre. Bianchon must, of course, have left +something behind on his table--the notes for the first lecture of his +course--and you can ask Gatien to go back to Anzy to fetch it." + +This simple little plot put Madame de la Baudraye into high spirits. +From the road between Anzy to Sancerre, a glorious landscape +frequently comes into view, of the noble stretches of the Loire, +looking like a lake, and it was got over very pleasantly, for Dinah +was happy in finding herself well understood. Love was discussed in +theory, a subject allowing lovers _in petto_ to take the measure, as +it were, of each other's heart. The journalist took a tone of refined +corruption to prove that love obeys no law, that the character of the +lovers gives infinite variety to its incidents, that the circumstances +of social life add to the multiplicity of its manifestations, that in +love all is possible and true, and that any given woman, after +resisting every temptation and the seductions of the most passionate +lover, may be carried off her feet in the course of a few hours by a +fancy, an internal whirlwind of which God alone would ever know the +secret! + +"Why," said he, "is not that the key to all the adventures we have +talked over these three days past?" + +For these three days, indeed, Dinah's lively imagination had been full +of the most insidious romances, and the conversation of the two +Parisians had affected the woman as the most mischievous reading might +have done. Lousteau watched the effects of this clever manoeuvre, to +seize the moment when his prey, whose readiness to be caught was +hidden under the abstraction caused by irresolution, should be quite +dizzy. + +Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce +was duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his +room at Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; +Madame Piedefer went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went +on to Cosne alone with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the +lady, Bianchon riding backwards. The two friends talked affectionately +and with deep compassion for the fate of this choice nature so ill +understood and in the midst of such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon +served Lousteau well by making fun of the Public Prosecutor, of +Monsieur Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a tone of such genuine +contempt in his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye dared not take the +part of her adorers. + +"I perfectly understand the position you have maintained," said the +doctor as they crossed the Loire. "You were inaccessible excepting to +that brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those +men, it is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early +stage of life, is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined +woman. To you, now, love is indispensable." + +"Indispensable!" cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. "Do you +mean that you prescribe love to me?" + +"If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be +hideous," replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone. + +"Monsieur!" said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened. + +"Forgive my friend," said Lousteau, half jestingly. "He is always the +medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he +is quite disinterested--it is for your sake only that he speaks--as is +evident, since he is starting in an hour--" + +At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with +the arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye. +Gules, a pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three +cross-crosslets argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared +azure, chained or. The ironical motto, _Deo sic patet fides et +hominibus_, had been inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier +the satirical. + +"Let us get out; they will come and find us," said the Baroness, +desiring her coachman to keep watch. + +Dinah took Bianchon's arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the +Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The +physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau +a good turn. + +"You have been attracted by Etienne," said Bianchon to Dinah; "he has +appealed strongly to your imagination; last night we were talking +about you.--He loves you. But he is frivolous, and difficult to hold; +his poverty compels him to live in Paris, while everything condemns +you to live at Sancerre.--Take a lofty view of life. Make Lousteau +your friend; do not ask too much of him; he will come three times a +year to spend a few days with you, and you will owe to him your +beauty, happiness, and fortune. Monsieur de la Baudraye may live to be +a hundred; but he might die in a few days if he should leave off the +flannel winding-sheet in which he swathes himself. So run no risks, be +prudent both of you.--Say not a work--I have read your heart." + +Madame de la Baudraye was defenceless under this serried attack, and +in the presence of a man who spoke at once as a doctor, a confessor, +and confidential friend. + +"Indeed!" said she. "Can you suppose that any woman would care to +compete with a journalist's mistresses?--Monsieur Lousteau strikes me +as agreeable and witty; but he is _blase_, etc., etc.----" + +Dinah had turned back, and was obliged to check the flow of words by +which she tried to disguise her intentions; for Etienne, who seemed to +be studying progress in Cosne, was coming to meet them. + +"Believe me," said Bianchon, "what he wants is to be truly loved; and +if he alters his course of life, it will be to the benefit of his +talent." + +Dinah's coachman hurried up breathlessly to say that the diligence had +come in, and they walked on quickly, Madame de la Baudraye between the +two men. + +"Good-bye, my children!" said Bianchon, before they got into the town, +"you have my blessing!" + +He released Madame de la Baudraye's hand from his arm, and allowed +Lousteau to draw it into his, with a tender look, as he pressed it to +his heart. What a difference to Dinah! Etienne's arm thrilled her +deeply. Bianchon's had not stirred her in the least. She and the +journalist exchanged one of those glowing looks that are more than an +avowal. + +"Only provincial women wear muslin gowns in these days," thought +Lousteau to himself, "the only stuff which shows every crease. This +woman, who has chosen me for her lover, will make a fuss over her +frock! If she had but put on a foulard skirt, I should be happy.--What +is the meaning of these difficulties----" + +While Lousteau was wondering whether Dinah had put on a muslin gown on +purpose to protect herself by an insuperable obstacle, Bianchon, with +the help of the coachman, was seeing his luggage piled on the +diligence. Finally, he came to take leave of Dinah, who was +excessively friendly with him. + +"Go home, Madame la Baronne, leave me here--Gatien will be coming," he +added in an undertone. "It is getting late," said he aloud. +"Good-bye!" + +"Good-bye--great man!" cried Lousteau, shaking hands with Bianchon. + +When the journalist and Madame de la Baudraye, side by side in the +rickety old chaise, had recrossed the Loire, they both were unready to +speak. In these circumstances, the first words that break the silence +are full of terrible meaning. + +"Do you know how much I love you?" said the journalist point blank. + +Victory might gratify Lousteau, but defeat could cause him no grief. +This indifference was the secret of his audacity. He took Madame de la +Baudraye's hand as he spoke these decisive words, and pressed it in +both his; but Dinah gently released it. + +"Yes, I am as good as an actress or a _grisette_," she said in a voice +that trembled, though she spoke lightly. "But can you suppose that a +woman who, in spite of her absurdities, has some intelligence, will +have reserved the best treasures of her heart for a man who will +regard her merely as a transient pleasure?--I am not surprised to hear +from your lips the words which so many men have said to me--but----" + +The coachman turned round. + +"Here comes Monsieur Gatien," said he. + +"I love you, I will have you, you shall be mine, for I have never felt +for any woman the passion I have for you!" said Lousteau in her ear. + +"In spite of my will, perhaps?" said she, with a smile. + +"At least you must seem to have been assaulted to save my honor," said +the Parisian, to whom the fatal immaculateness of clean muslin +suggested a ridiculous notion. + +Before Gatien had reached the end of the bridge, the outrageous +journalist had crumpled up Madame de la Baudraye's muslin dress to +such an effect that she was absolutely not presentable. + +"Oh, monsieur!" she exclaimed in dignified reproof. + +"You defied me," said the Parisian. + +But Gatien now rode up with the vehemence of a duped lover. To regain +a little of Madame de la Baudraye's esteem, Lousteau did his best to +hide the tumbled dress from Gatien's eyes by leaning out of the chaise +to speak to him from Dinah's side. + +"Go back to our inn," said he, "there is still time; the diligence +does not start for half an hour. The papers are on the table of the +room Bianchon was in; he wants them particularly, for he will be lost +without his notes for the lecture." + +"Pray go, Gatien," said Dinah to her young adorer, with an imperious +glance. And the boy thus commanded turned his horse and was off with a +loose rein. + +"Go quickly to La Baudraye," cried Lousteau to the coachman. "Madame +is not well--Your mother only will know the secret of my trick," added +he, taking his seat by Dinah. + +"You call such infamous conduct a trick?" cried Madame de la Baudraye, +swallowing down a few tears that dried up with the fire of outraged +pride. + +She leaned back in the corner of the chaise, crossed her arms, and +gazed out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at +Lousteau. The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked +till they reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to +be seen by any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and +burst into tears. + +"If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go," +said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet. + +It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her +daughter: + +"What is the matter? What has happened?" + +"Give your daughter another dress at once," said the audacious +Parisian in the prim old lady's ear. + +Hearing the mad gallop of Gatien's horse, Madame de la Baudraye fled +to her bedroom, followed by her mother. + +"There are no papers at the inn," said Gatien to Lousteau, who went +out to meet him. + +"And you found none at the Chateau d'Anzy either?" replied Lousteau. + +"You have been making a fool of me," said Gatien, in a cold, set +voice. + +"Quite so," replied Lousteau. "Madame de la Baudraye was greatly +annoyed by your choosing to follow her without being invited. Believe +me, to bore a woman is a bad way of courting her. Dinah has played you +a trick, and you have given her a laugh; it is more than any of you +has done in these thirteen years past. You owe that success to +Bianchon, for your cousin was the author of the Farce of the +'Manuscript.'--Will the horse get over it?" asked Lousteau with a +laugh, while Gatien was wondering whether to be angry or not. + +"The horse!" said Gatien. + +At this moment Madame de la Baudraye came in, dressed in a velvet +gown, and accompanied by her mother, who shot angry flashes at +Lousteau. It would have been too rash for Dinah to seem cold or severe +to Lousteau in Gatien's presence; and Etienne, taking advantage of +this, offered his arm to the supposed Lucretia; however, she declined +it. + +"Do you mean to cast off a man who has vowed to live for you?" said +he, walking close beside her. "I shall stop at Sancerre and go home +to-morrow." + +"Are you coming, mamma?" said Madame de la Baudraye to Madame +Piedefer, thus avoiding a reply to the direct challenge by which +Lousteau was forcing her to a decision. + +Lousteau handed the mother into the chaise, he helped Madame de la +Baudraye by gently taking her arm, and he and Gatien took the front +seat, leaving the saddle horse at La Baudraye. + +"You have changed your gown," said Gatien, blunderingly, to Dinah. + +"Madame la Baronne was chilled by the cool air off the river," replied +Lousteau. "Bianchon advised her to put on a warm dress." + +Dinah turned as red as a poppy, and Madame Piedefer assumed a stern +expression. + +"Poor Bianchon! he is on the road to Paris. A noble soul!" said +Lousteau. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Madame de la Baudraye, "he is high-minded, full of +delicate feeling----" + +"We were in such good spirits when we set out," said Lousteau; "now +you are overdone, and you speak to me so bitterly--why? Are you not +accustomed to being told how handsome and how clever you are? For my +part, I say boldly, before Gatien, I give up Paris; I mean to stay at +Sancerre and swell the number of your _cavalieri serventi_. I feel so +young again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and +all its wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.--Yes, +my life seems in a way purified." + +Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at +last there was a moment when this serpent's rhodomontade was really so +inspired by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas +of which the meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response +in Dinah's heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to +crown Lousteau's joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he made +Madame de la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so +seriously compromise her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is +finally committed. + +As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in +the middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set +off the facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying: + +"When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they +do not love, they cannot forgive anything--not even our virtues.--Do +you forgive me," he added in Madame de la Baudraye's ear, and pressing +her arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help +smiling. + +All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in +the most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus +giving vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy +abstraction of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness. + +After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother +left the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then +remarked to Monsieur de Clagny: + +"Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a +muslin gown came home in a velvet?" + +"As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a +brass nail and was torn all the way down," replied Lousteau. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such +different explanations. + +The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it +as a hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left +Dinah's three adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then +Gatien was cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur +Gravier and Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the +return from Cosne Lousteau had been alone with Dinah, and even more so +on hearing the two versions explaining the lady's change of dress. And +the three discomfited gentlemen were in a very awkward position for +the rest of the evening. + +Next day each, on various business, was obliged to leave Anzy; Dinah +remained with her mother, Lousteau, and her husband. The annoyance +vented by the three victims gave rise to an organized rebellion in +Sancerre. The surrender of the Muse of Le Berry, of the Nivernais, and +of Morvan was the cause of a perfect hue and cry of slander, evil +report, and various guesses in which the story of the muslin gown held +a prominent place. No dress Dinah had ever worn had been so much +commented on, or was half as interesting to the girls, who could not +conceive what the connection might be, that made the married women +laugh, between love and a muslin gown. + +The Presidente Boirouge, furious at her son's discomfiture, forgot the +praise she had lavished on the poem of _Paquita_, and fulminated +terrific condemnation on the woman who could publish such a +disgraceful work. + +"The wretched woman commits every crime she writes about," said she. +"Perhaps she will come to the same end as her heroine!" + +Dinah's fate among the good folks of Sancerre was like that of +Marechal Soult in the opposition newspapers; as long as he is minister +he lost the battle of Toulouse; whenever he is out of the Government +he won it! While she was virtuous, Dinah was a match for Camille de +Maupin, a rival of the most famous women; but as soon as she was +happy, she was an _unhappy creature_. + +Monsieur de Clagny was her valiant champion; he went several times to +the Chateau d'Anzy to acquire the right to contradict the rumors +current as to the woman he still faithfully adored, even in her fall; +and he maintained that she and Lousteau were engaged together on some +great work. But the lawyer was laughed to scorn. + +The month of October was lovely; autumn is the finest season in the +valley of the Loire; but in 1836 it was unusually glorious. Nature +seemed to aid and abet Dinah, who, as Bianchon had predicted, +gradually developed a heart-felt passion. In one month she was an +altered woman. She was surprised to find in herself so many inert and +dormant qualities, hitherto in abeyance. To her Lousteau seemed an +angel; for heart-love, the crowning need of a great nature, had made a +new woman of her. Dinah was alive! She had found an outlet for her +powers, she saw undreamed-of vistas in the future--in short, she was +happy, happy without alarms or hindrances. The vast castle, the +gardens, the park, the forest, favored love. + +Lousteau found in Madame de la Baudraye an artlessness, nay, if you +will, an innocence of mind which made her very original; there was +much more of the unexpected and winning in her than in a girl. +Lousteau was quite alive to a form of flattery which in most women is +assumed, but which in Dinah was genuine; she really learned from him +the ways of love; he really was the first to reign in her heart. And, +indeed, he took the trouble to be exceedingly amiable. + +Men, like women, have a stock in hand of recitatives, of _cantabile_, +of _nocturnes_, airs and refrains--shall we say of recipes, although +we speak of love--which each one believes to be exclusively his own. +Men who have reached Lousteau's age try to distribute the "movements" +of this repertoire through the whole opera of a passion. Lousteau, +regarding this adventure with Dinah as a mere temporary connection, +was eager to stamp himself on her memory in indelible lines; and +during that beautiful October he was prodigal of his most entrancing +melodies and most elaborate _barcarolles_. In fact, he exhausted every +resource of the stage management of love, to use an expression +borrowed from the theatrical dictionary, and admirably descriptive of +his manoeuvres. + +"If that woman ever forgets me!" he would sometimes say to himself as +they returned together from a long walk in the woods, "I will owe her +no grudge--she will have found something better." + +When two beings have sung together all the duets of that enchanting +score, and still love each other, it may be said that they love truly. + +Lousteau, however, had not time to repeat himself, for he was to leave +Anzy in the early days of November. His paper required his presence in +Paris. Before breakfast, on the day before he was to leave, the +journalist and Dinah saw the master of the house come in with an +artist from Nevers, who restored carvings of all kinds. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Lousteau. "What is to be done to the +chateau?" + +"This is what I am going to do," said the little man, leading +Lousteau, the local artist, and Dinah out on the terrace. + +He pointed out, on the front of the building, a shield supported by +two sirens, not unlike that which may be seen on the arcade, now +closed, through which there used to be a passage from the Quai des +Tuileries to the courtyard of the old Louvre, and over which the words +may still be seen, "_Bibliotheque du Cabinet du Roi_." This shield +bore the arms of the noble House of Uxelles, namely, Or and gules +party per fess, with two lions or, dexter and sinister as supporters. +Above, a knight's helm, mantled of the tincture of the shield, and +surmounted by a ducal coronet. Motto, _Cy paroist!_ A proud and +sonorous device. + +"I want to put my own coat of arms in the place of that of the +Uxelles; and as they are repeated six times on the two fronts and the +two wings, it is not a trifling affair." + +"Your arms, so new, and since 1830!" exclaimed Dinah. + +"Have I not created an entail?" + +"I could understand it if you had children," said the journalist. + +"Oh!" said the old man, "Madame de la Baudraye is still young; there +is no time lost." + +This allusion made Lousteau smile; he did not understand Monsieur de +la Baudraye. + +"There, Didine!" said he in Dinah's ear, "what a waste of remorse!" + +Dinah begged him to give her one day more, and the lovers parted after +the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a +piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn +pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her! + +Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau, +in the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and +little La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in +her drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and +Gravier, she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn: + +"I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been +loved for my own sake." + +And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his +feelings, on the end of his base passions, and so forth. Of Dinah's +three worshipers, Monsieur de Clagny only said to her: "I love you, +come what may"--and Dinah accepted him as her confidant, lavished on +him all the marks of friendship which women can devise for the Gurths +who are ready thus to wear the collar of gilded slavery. + + + +In Paris once more, Lousteau had, in a few weeks, lost the impression +of the happy time he had spent at the Chateau d'Anzy. This is why: +Lousteau lived by his pen. + +In this century, especially since the triumph of the _bourgeoisie_ +--the commonplace, money-saving citizen--who takes good care not to +imitate Francis I. or Louis XIV.--to live by the pen is a form of +penal servitude to which a galley-slave would prefer death. To live by +the pen means to create--to create to-day, and to-morrow, and +incessantly--or to seem to create; and the imitation costs as dear as +the reality. So, besides his daily contribution to a newspaper, which +was like the stone of Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing +down on to the feather of his pen, Etienne worked for three or four +literary magazines. Still, do not be alarmed; he put no artistic +conscientiousness into his work. This man of Sancerre had a facility, +a carelessness, if you call it so, which ranked him with those writers +who are mere scriveners, literary hacks. In Paris, in our day, +hack-work cuts a man off from every pretension to a literary position. +When he can do no more, or no longer cares for advancement, the man +who can write becomes a journalist and a hack. + +The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in +every walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career, +publishers and authors, all make much of these writers of the ready +pen. Lousteau, a thorough man about town, lived at scarcely any +expense beyond paying his rent. He had boxes at all the theatres; the +sale of the books he reviewed or left unreviewed paid for his gloves; +and he would say to those authors who published at their own expense, +"I have your book always in my hands!" He took toll from vanity in the +form of drawings or pictures. Every day had its engagements to dinner, +every night its theatre, every morning was filled up with callers, +visits, and lounging. His serial in the paper, two novels a year for +weekly magazines, and his miscellaneous articles were the tax he paid +for this easy-going life. And yet, to reach this position, Etienne had +struggled for ten years. + +At the present time, known to the literary world, liked for the good +or the mischief he did with equally facile good humor, he let himself +float with the stream, never caring for the future. He ruled a little +set of newcomers, he had friendships--or rather, habits of fifteen +years' standing, and men with whom he supped, and dined, and indulged +his wit. He earned from seven to eight hundred francs a month, a sum +which he found quite insufficient for the prodigality peculiar to the +impecunious. Indeed, Lousteau found himself now just as hard up as +when, on first appearing in Paris, he had said to himself, "If I had +but five hundred francs a month, I should be rich!" + +The cause of this phenomenon was as follows: Lousteau lived in the Rue +des Martyrs in pretty ground-floor rooms with a garden, and splendidly +furnished. When he settled there in 1833 he had come to an agreement +with an upholsterer that kept his pocket money low for a long time. +These rooms were let for twelve hundred francs. The months of January, +April, July, and October were, as he phrased it, his indigent months. +The rent and the porter's account cleaned him out. Lousteau took no +fewer hackney cabs, spend a hundred francs in breakfasts all the same, +smoked thirty francs' worth of cigars, and could never refuse the +mistress of a day a dinner or a new dress. He thus dipped so deeply +into the fluctuating earnings of the following months, that he could +no more find a hundred francs on his chimney-piece now, when he was +making seven or eight hundred francs a month, than he could in 1822, +when he was hardly getting two hundred. + +Tired, sometimes, by the incessant vicissitudes of a literary life, +and as much bored by amusement as a courtesan, Lousteau would get out +of the tideway and sit on the bank, and say to one and another of his +intimate allies--Nathan or Bixiou, as they sat smoking in his scrap of +garden, looking out on an evergreen lawn as big as a dinner-table: + +"What will be the end of us? White hairs are giving us respectful +hints!" + +"Lord! we shall marry when we choose to give as much thought to the +matter as we give to a drama or a novel," said Nathan. + +"And Florine?" retorted Bixiou. + +"Oh, we all have a Florine," said Etienne, flinging away the end of +his cigar and thinking of Madame Schontz. + +Madame Schontz was a pretty enough woman to put a very high price on +the interest on her beauty, while reserving absolute ownership for +Lousteau, the man of her heart. Like all those women who get the name +in Paris of _Lorettes_, from the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette, +round about which they dwell, she lived in the Rue Flechier, a stone's +throw from Lousteau. This lady took a pride and delight in teasing her +friends by boasting of having a Wit for her lover. + +These details of Lousteau's life and fortune are indispensable, for +this penury and this bohemian existence of a man to whom Parisian +luxury had become a necessity, were fated to have a cruel influence on +Dinah's life. Those to whom the bohemia of Paris is familiar will now +understand how it was that, by the end of a fortnight, the journalist, +up to his ears in the literary environment, could laugh about his +Baroness with his friends and even with Madame Schontz. To such +readers as regard such things as utterly mean, it is almost useless to +make excuses which they will not accept. + +"What did you do at Sancerre?" asked Bixiou the first time he met +Lousteau. + +"I did good service to three worthy provincials--a Receiver-General of +Taxes, a little cousin of his, and a Public Prosecutor, who for ten +years had been dancing round and round one of the hundred 'Tenth +Muses' who adorn the Departments," said he. "But they had no more +dared to touch her than we touch a decorated cream at dessert till +some strong-minded person has made a hole in it." + +"Poor boy!" said Bixiou. "I said you had gone to Sancerre to turn +Pegasus out to grass." + +"Your joke is as stupid as my Muse is handsome," retorted Lousteau. +"Ask Bianchon, my dear fellow." + +"A Muse and a Poet! A homoeopathic cure then!" said Bixiou. + +On the tenth day Lousteau received a letter with the Sancerre +post-mark. + +"Good! very good!" said Lousteau. + +"'Beloved friend, idol of my heart and soul----' twenty pages of it! +all at one sitting, and dated midnight! She writes when she finds +herself alone. Poor woman! Ah, ha! And a postscript-- + +"'I dare not ask you to write to me as I write, every day; still, I +hope to have a few lines from my dear one every week, to relieve my +mind.'--What a pity to burn it all! it is really well written," said +Lousteau to himself, as he threw the ten sheets of paper into the fire +after having read them. "That woman was born to reel off copy!" + +Lousteau was not much afraid of Madame Schontz, who really loved him +for himself, but he had supplanted a friend in the heart of a +Marquise. This Marquise, a lady nowise coy, sometimes dropped in +unexpectedly at his rooms in the evening, arriving veiled in a hackney +coach; and she, as a literary woman, allowed herself to hunt through +all his drawers. + +A week later, Lousteau, who hardly remembered Dinah, was startled by +another budget from Sancerre--eight leaves, sixteen pages! He heard a +woman's step; he thought it announced a search from the Marquise, and +tossed these rapturous and entrancing proofs of affections into the +fire--unread! + +"A woman's letter!" exclaimed Madame Schontz, as she came in. "The +paper, the wax, are scented--" + +"Here you are, sir," said a porter from the coach office, setting down +two huge hampers in the ante-room. "Carriage paid. Please to sign my +book." + +"Carriage paid!" cried Madame Schontz. "It must have come from +Sancerre." + +"Yes, madame," said the porter. + +"Your Tenth Muse is a remarkably intelligent woman," said the +courtesan, opening one of the hampers, while Lousteau was writing his +name. "I like a Muse who understands housekeeping, and who can make +game pies as well as blots. And, oh! what beautiful flowers!" she went +on, opening the second hamper. "Why, you could get none finer in +Paris!--And here, and here! A hare, partridges, half a roebuck!--We +will ask your friends and have a famous dinner, for Athalie has a +special talent for dressing venison." + +Lousteau wrote to Dinah; but instead of writing from the heart, he was +clever. The letter was all the more insidious; it was like one of +Mirabeau's letters to Sophie. The style of a true lover is +transparent. It is a clear stream which allows the bottom of the heart +to be seen between two banks, bright with the trifles of existence, +and covered with the flowers of the soul that blossom afresh every +day, full of intoxicating beauty--but only for two beings. As soon as +a love letter has any charm for a third reader, it is beyond doubt the +product of the head, not of the heart. But a woman will always be +beguiled; she always believes herself to be the determining cause of +this flow of wit. + +By the end of December Lousteau had ceased to read Dinah's letters; +they lay in a heap in a drawer of his chest that was never locked, +under his shirts, which they scented. + +Then one of those chances came to Lousteau which such bohemians ought +to clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz, +who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her +one morning on business. + +"My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying." + +"I can marry very often, happily, my dear." + +"When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I +need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got +into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is +an honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it +dark. He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he +will give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he +has three other children; but--and it is not a bad idea--he will add a +hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the +damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des +Lombards----" + +"Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?" + +"Dead." + +"What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue +des Lombards." + +"But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the +seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy +caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless, the +man entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business--A +judgment from heaven, I call it!" + +"Where did you hear the story?" + +"From Malaga; the notary is her _milord_." + +"What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder, +Florentine's first friend?" + +"Just so. Malaga, whose 'fancy' is a little tomtit of a fiddler of +eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. +Besides, she has no cause to do him an ill turn.--Indeed, Monsieur +Cardot wants a man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will +be proud to have a famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel +yourself all over.--You will pay your debts, you will have twelve +thousand francs a year, and be a father without any trouble on your +part; what do you say to that to the good? And, after all, you only +marry a very consolable widow. There is an income of fifty thousand +francs in the house, and the value of the connection, so in due time +you may look forward to not less than fifteen thousand francs a year +more for your share, and you will enter a family holding a fine +political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old Camusot, the +depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre." + +"Yes," said Lousteau, "old Camusot married little Daddy Cardot's +eldest daughter, and they had high times together!" + +"Well!" Madame Schontz went on, "and Madame Cardot, the notary's wife, +was a Chiffreville--manufacturers of chemical products, the +aristocracy of these days! Potash, I tell you! Still, this is the +unpleasant side of the matter. You will have a terrible mother-in-law, +a woman capable of killing her daughter if she knew--! This Cardot +woman is a bigot; she has lips like two faded narrow pink ribbons. + +"A man of the town like you would never pass muster with that woman, +who, in her well-meaning way, will spy out your bachelor life and know +every fact of the past. However, Cardot says he means to exert his +paternal authority. The poor man will be obliged to do the civil to +his wife for some days; a woman made of wood, my dear fellow; Malaga, +who has seen her, calls her a penitential scrubber. Cardot is a man of +forty; he will be mayor of his district, and perhaps be elected +deputy. He is prepared to give in lieu of the hundred thousand francs +a nice little house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, with a forecourt and a +garden, which cost him no more than sixty thousand at the time of the +July overthrow; he would sell, and that would be an opportunity for +you to go and come at the house, to see the daughter, and be civil to +the mother.--And it would give you a look of property in Madame +Cardot's eyes. You would be housed like a prince in that little +mansion. Then, by Camusot's interest, you may get an appointment as +librarian to some public office where there is no library.--Well, and +then if you invest your money in backing up a newspaper, you will get +ten thousand francs a year on it, you can earn six, your librarianship +will bring you in four.--Can you do better for yourself? + +"If you were to marry a lamb without spot, it might be a light woman +by the end of two years. What is the damage?--an anticipated dividend! +It is quite the fashion. + +"Take my word for it, you can do no better than come to dine with +Malaga to-morrow. You will meet your father-in-law; he will know the +secret has been let out--by Malaga, with whom he cannot be angry--and +then you are master of the situation. As to your wife!--Why her +misconduct leaves you as free as a bachelor----" + +"Your language is as blunt as a cannon ball." + +"I love you for your own sake, that is all--and I can reason. Well! +why do you stand there like a wax image of Abd-el-Kader? There is +nothing to meditate over. Marriage is heads or tails--well, you have +tossed heads up." + +"You shall have my reply to-morrow," said Lousteau. + +"I would sooner have it at once; Malaga will write you up to-night." + +"Well, then, yes." + +Lousteau spent the evening in writing a long letter to the Marquise, +giving her the reasons which compelled him to marry; his constant +poverty, the torpor of his imagination, his white hairs, his moral and +physical exhaustion--in short, four pages of arguments.--"As to Dinah, +I will send her a circular announcing the marriage," said he to +himself. "As Bixiou says, I have not my match for knowing how to dock +the tail of a passion." + +Lousteau, who at first had been on some ceremony with himself, by next +day had come to the point of dreading lest the marriage should not +come off. He was pressingly civil to the notary. + +"I knew monsieur your father," said he, "at Florentine's, so I may +well know you here, at Mademoiselle Turquet's. Like father, like son. +A very good fellow and a philosopher, was little Daddy Cardot--excuse +me, we always called him so. At that time, Florine, Florentine, +Tullia, Coralie, and Mariette were the five fingers of your hand, so +to speak--it is fifteen years ago. My follies, as you may suppose, are +a thing of the past.--In those days it was pleasure that ran away with +me; now I am ambitious; but, in our day, to get on at all a man must +be free from debt, have a good income, a wife, and a family. If I pay +taxes enough to qualify me, I may be a deputy yet, like any other +man." + +Maitre Cardot appreciated this profession of faith. Lousteau had laid +himself out to please and the notary liked him, feeling himself more +at his ease, as may be easily imagined, with a man who had known his +father's secrets than he would have been with another. On the +following day Lousteau was introduced to the Cardot family as the +purchaser of the house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, and three days later +he dined there. + +Cardot lived in an old house near the Place du Chatelet. In this house +everything was "good." Economy covered every scrap of gilding with +green gauze; all the furniture wore holland covers. Though it was +impossible to feel a shade of uneasiness as to the wealth of the +inhabitants, at the end of half an hour no one could suppress a yawn. +Boredom perched in every nook; the curtains hung dolefully; the +dining-room was like Harpagon's. Even if Lousteau had not known all +about Malaga, he could have guessed that the notary's real life was +spent elsewhere. + +The journalist saw a tall, fair girl with blue eyes, at once shy and +languishing. The elder brother took a fancy to him; he was the fourth +clerk in the office, but strongly attracted by the snares of literary +fame, though destined to succeed his father. The younger sister was +twelve years old. Lousteau, assuming a little Jesuitical air, played +the Monarchist and Churchman for the benefit of the mother, was quite +smooth, deliberate, and complimentary. + +Within three weeks of their introduction, at his fourth dinner there, +Felicie Cardot, who had been watching Lousteau out of the corner of +her eye, carried him a cup of coffee where he stood in the window +recess, and said in a low voice, with tears in her eyes: + +"I will devote my whole life, monsieur, to thanking you for your +sacrifice in favor of a poor girl----" + +Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her +accent, her attitude. "She would make a good man happy," thought he, +pressing her hand in reply. + +Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before +him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was +most delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the +wily notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no +tie that could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie. + +"You may perhaps think I go rather too far," said the bigot to the +journalist; "but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one +must think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to be +rid of their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges +forward his daughter's marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only +point on which we differ.--Though with a man like you, monsieur, a +literary man whose youth has been preserved by hard work from the +moral shipwreck now so prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you +would be the first to laugh at me if I looked for a husband for my +daughter with my eyes shut. I know you are not an innocent, and I +should be very sorry for my Felicie if you were" (this was said in a +whisper); "but if you had any _liaison_--For instance, monsieur, you +have heard of Madame Roguin, the wife of a notary who, unhappily for +our faculty, was sadly notorious. Madame Roguin has, ever since 1820, +been kept by a banker--" + +"Yes, du Tillet," replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he +recollected how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du +Tillet. + +"Yes.--Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at +the thought that Madame du Tillet's fate might be your child's? At her +age, and _nee_ de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and +more. Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who +had such a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, +you take her and leave her.--There is no danger, in my opinion, from +women of that stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one +down and another to come on!--But a woman who has sinned against duty +must hug her sin, her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can +ever have an excuse. At least, that is the view I hold of a +respectable woman's fall, and that is what makes it so terrible----" + +Instead of looking for the meaning of these speeches, Etienne made a +jest of them at Malaga's, whither he went with his father-in-law +elect; for the notary and the journalist were the best of friends. + +Lousteau had already given himself the airs of a person of importance; +his life at last was to have a purpose; he was in luck's way, and in a +few days would be the owner of a delightful little house in the Rue +Saint-Lazare; he was going to be married to a charming woman, he would +have about twenty thousand francs a year, and could give the reins to +his ambition; the young lady loved him, and he would be connected with +several respectable families. In short, he was in full sail on the +blue waters of hope. + + + +Madame Cardot had expressed a wish to see the prints for _Gil Blas_, +one of the illustrated volumes which the French publishers were at +that time bringing out, and Lousteau had taken the first numbers for +the lady's inspection. The lawyer's wife had a scheme of her own, she +had borrowed the book merely to return it; she wanted an excuse for +walking in on her future son-in-law quite unexpectedly. The sight of +those bachelor rooms, which her husband had described as charming, +would tell her more, she thought, as to Lousteau's habits of life than +any information she could pick up. Her sister-in-law, Madame Camusot, +who knew nothing of the fateful secret, was terrified at such a +marriage for her niece. Monsieur Camusot, a Councillor of the Supreme +Court, old Camusot's son by his first marriage, had given his +step-mother, who was Cardot's sister, a far from flattering account +of the journalist. + +Lousteau, clever as he was, did not think it strange that the wife of +a rich notary should wish to inspect a volume costing fifteen francs +before deciding on the purchase. Your clever man never condescends to +study the middle-class, who escape his ken by this want of attention; +and while he is making game of them, they are at leisure to throttle +him. + +So one day early in January 1837, Madame Cardot and her daughter took +a hackney coach and went to the Rue des Martyrs to return the parts of +_Gil Blas_ to Felicie's betrothed, both delighted at the thought of +seeing Lousteau's rooms. These domiciliary visitations are not unusual +in the old citizen class. The porter at the front gate was not in; but +his daughter, on being informed by the worthy lady that she was in the +presence of Monsieur Lousteau's future mother-in-law and bride, handed +over the key of the apartment--all the more readily because Madame +Cardot placed a gold piece in her hand. + +It was by this time about noon, the hour at which the journalist would +return from breakfasting at the Cafe Anglais. As he crossed the open +space between the Church of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the Rue des +Martyrs, Lousteau happened to look at a hired coach that was toiling +up the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, and he fancied it was a dream when +he saw the face of Dinah! He stood frozen to the spot when, on +reaching his house, he beheld his Didine at the coach door. + +"What has brought you here?" he inquired.--He adopted the familiar +_tu_. The formality of _vous_ was out of the question to a woman he +must get rid of. + +"Why, my love," cried she, "have you not read my letters?" + +"Certainly I have," said Lousteau. + +"Well, then?" + +"Well, then?" + +"You are a father," replied the country lady. + +"Faugh!" cried he, disregarding the barbarity of such an exclamation. +"Well," thought he to himself, "she must be prepared for the blow." + +He signed to the coachman to wait, gave his hand to Madame de la +Baudraye, and left the man with the chaise full of trunks, vowing that +he would send away _illico_, as he said to himself, the woman and her +luggage, back to the place she had come from. + +"Monsieur, monsieur," called out little Pamela. + +The child had some sense, and felt that three women must not be +allowed to meet in a bachelor's rooms. + +"Well, well!" said Lousteau, dragging Dinah along. + +Pamela concluded that the lady must be some relation; however, she +added: + +"The key is in the door; your mother-in-law is there." + +In his agitation, while Madame de la Baudraye was pouring out a flood +of words, Etienne understood the child to say, "Mother is there," the +only circumstance that suggested itself as possible, and he went in. + +Felicie and her mother, who were by this time in the bed-room, crept +into a corner on seeing Etienne enter with a woman. + +"At last, Etienne, my dearest, I am yours for life!" cried Dinah, +throwing her arms round his neck, and clasping him closely, while he +took the key from the outside of the door. "Life is a perpetual +anguish to me in that house at Anzy. I could bear it no longer; and +when the time came for me to proclaim my happiness--well, I had not +the courage.--Here I am, your wife with your child! And you have not +written to me; you have left me two months without a line." + +"But, Dinah, you place me in the greatest difficulty--" + +"Do you love me?" + +"How can I do otherwise than love you?--But would you not have been +wiser to remain at Sancerre?--I am in the most abject poverty, and I +fear to drag you into it--" + +"Your misery will be paradise to me. I only ask to live here, never to +go out--" + +"Good God! that is all very fine in words, but--" Dinah sat down and +melted into tears as she heard this speech, roughly spoken. + +Lousteau could not resist this distress. He clasped the Baroness in +his arms and kissed her. + +"Do not cry, Didine!" said he; and, as he uttered the words, he saw in +the mirror the figure of Madame Cardot, looking at him from the +further end of the rooms. "Come, Didine, go with Pamela and get your +trunks unloaded," said he in her ear. "Go; do not cry; we will be +happy!" + +He led her to the door, and then came back to divert the storm. + +"Monsieur," said Madame Cardot, "I congratulate myself on having +resolved to see for myself the home of the man who was to have been my +son-in-law. If my daughter were to die of it, she should never be the +wife of such a man as you. You must devote yourself to making your +Didine happy, monsieur." + +And the virtuous lady walked out, followed by Felicie, who was crying +too, for she had become accustomed to Etienne. The dreadful Madame +Cardot got into her hackney-coach again, staring insolently at the +hapless Dinah, in whose heart the sting still rankled of "that is all +very fine in words"; but who, nevertheless, like every woman in love, +believed in the murmured, "Do not cry, Didine!" + +Lousteau, who was not lacking in the sort of decision which grows out +of the vicissitudes of a storm-tossed life, reflected thus: + +"Didine is high-minded; when once she knows of my proposed marriage, +she will sacrifice herself for my future prospects, and I know how I +can manage to let her know." Delighted at having hit on a trick of +which the success seemed certain, he danced round to a familiar tune: + +"_Larifla, fla, fla!_--And Didine once out of the way," he went on, +talking to himself, "I will treat Maman Cardot to a call and a +novelette: I have seduced her Felicie at Saint-Eustache--Felicie, +guilty through passion, bears in her bosom the pledge of our affection +--and _larifla, fla, fla!_ the father _Ergo_, the notary, his wife, +and his daughter are caught, nabbed----" + +And, to her great amazement, Dinah discovered Etienne performing a +prohibited dance. + +"Your arrival and our happiness have turned my head with joy," said +he, to explain this crazy mood. + +"And I had fancied you had ceased to love me!" exclaimed the poor +woman, dropping the handbag she was carrying, and weeping with joy as +she sank into a chair. + +"Make yourself at home, my darling," said Etienne, laughing in his +sleeve; "I must write two lines to excuse myself from a bachelor +party, for I mean to devote myself to you. Give your orders; you are +at home." + +Etienne wrote to Bixiou: + + "MY DEAR BOY,--My Baroness has dropped into my arms, and will be + fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar + stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase. I rely + on you to come here, like one of Moliere's old men, to scold your + nephew Leandre for his folly, while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in + my bedroom; you must work on her feelings; strike hard, be brutal, + offensive. I, you understand, shall express my blind devotion, and + shall seem to be deaf, so that you may have to shout at me. + + "Come, if you can, at seven o'clock. + +"Yours, +"E. LOUSTEAU." + + +Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who, in all +Paris, most delighted in such practical jokes--in the slang of +artists, a _"charge"_--Lousteau made a great show of settling the Muse +of Sancerre in his apartment. He busied himself in arranging the +luggage she had brought, and informed her as to the persons and ways +of the house with such perfect good faith, and a glee which overflowed +in kind words and caresses, that Dinah believed herself the +best-beloved woman in the world. These rooms, where everything bore +the stamp of fashion, pleased her far better than her old chateau. + +Pamela Migeon, the intelligent damsel of fourteen, was questioned by +the journalist as to whether she would like to be waiting-maid to the +imposing Baroness. Pamela, perfectly enchanted, entered on her duties +at once, by going off to order dinner from a restaurant on the +boulevard. Dinah was able to judge of the extreme poverty that lay +hidden under the purely superficial elegance of this bachelor home +when she found none of the necessaries of life. As she took possession +of the closets and drawers, she indulged in the fondest dreams; she +would alter Etienne's habits, she would make him home-keeping, she +would fill his cup of domestic happiness. + +The novelty of the position hid its disastrous side; Dinah regarded +reciprocated love as the absolution of her sin; she did not yet look +beyond the walls of these rooms. Pamela, whose wits were as sharp as +those of a _lorette_, went straight to Madame Schontz to beg the loan +of some plate, telling her what had happened to Lousteau. After making +the child welcome to all she had, Madame Schontz went off to her +friend Malaga, that Cardot might be warned of the catastrophe that had +befallen his future son-in-law. + +The journalist, not in the least uneasy about the crisis as affecting +his marriage, was more and more charming to the lady from the +provinces. The dinner was the occasion of the delightful child's-play +of lovers set at liberty, and happy to be free. When they had had +their coffee, and Lousteau was sitting in front of the fire, Dinah on +his knee, Pamela ran in with a scared face. + +"Here is Monsieur Bixiou!" said she. + +"Go into the bedroom," said the journalist to his mistress; "I will +soon get rid of him. He is one of my most intimate friends, and I +shall have to explain to him my new start in life." + +"Oh, ho! dinner for two, and a blue velvet bonnet!" cried Bixiou. "I +am off.--Ah! that is what comes of marrying--one must go through some +partings. How rich one feels when one begins to move one's sticks, +heh?" + +"Who talks of marrying?" said Lousteau. + +"What! are you not going to be married, then?" cried Bixiou. + +"No!" + +"No? My word, what next? Are you making a fool of yourself, if you +please?--What!--You, who, by the mercy of Heaven, have come across +twenty thousand francs a year, and a house, and a wife connected with +all the first families of the better middle class--a wife, in short, +out of the Rue des Lombards--" + +"That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!" + +"Be off? I have a friend's privileges, and I shall take every +advantage of them.--What has come over you?" + +"What has 'come over' me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother, +and we are going to live together happily to the end of our days.--You +would have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now." + +"Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this +woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place +she came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs in +Paris? She will wound all your vanities. Have you forgotten what a +provincial is? She will bore you as much when she is happy as when she +is sad; she will have as great a talent for escaping grace as a +Parisian has in inventing it. + +"Lousteau, listen to me. That a passion should lead you to forget to +some extent the times in which we live, is conceivable; but I, my dear +fellow, have not the mythological bandage over my eyes.--Well, then +consider your position. For fifteen years you have been tossing in the +literary world; you are no longer young, you have padded the hoof till +your soles are worn through!--Yes, my boy, you turn your socks under +like a street urchin to hide the holes, so that the legs cover the +heels! In short, the joke is too stale. Your excuses are more familiar +than a patent medicine--" + +"I may say to you, like the Regent to Cardinal Dubois, 'That is +kicking enough!'" said Lousteau, laughing. + +"Oh, venerable young man," replied Bixiou, "the iron has touched the +sore to the quick. You are worn out, aren't you? Well, then; in the +heyday of youth, under the pressure of penury, what have you done? You +are not in the front rank, and you have not a thousand francs of your +own. That is the sum-total of the situation. Can you, in the decline +of your powers, support a family by your pen, when your wife, if she +is an honest woman, will not have at her command the resources of the +woman of the streets, who can extract her thousand-franc note from the +depths where milord keeps it safe? You are rushing into the lowest +depths of the social theatre. + +"And this is only the financial side. Now, consider the political +position. We are struggling in an essentially _bourgeois_ age, in +which honor, virtue, high-mindedness, talent, learning--genius, in +short, is summed up in paying your way, owing nobody anything, and +conducting your affairs with judgment. Be steady, be respectable, have +a wife, and children, pay your rent and taxes, serve in the National +Guard, and be on the same pattern as all the men of your company--then +you may indulge in the loftiest pretensions, rise to the Ministry! +--and you have the best chances possible, since you are no Montmorency. +You were preparing to fulfil all the conditions insisted on for +turning out a political personage, you are capable of every mean trick +that is necessary in office, even of pretending to be commonplace--you +would have acted it to the life. And just for a woman, who will leave +you in the lurch--the end of every eternal passion--in three, five, or +seven years--after exhausting your last physical and intellectual +powers, you turn your back on the sacred Hearth, on the Rue des +Lombards, on a political career, on thirty thousand francs per annum, +on respectability and respect!--Ought that to be the end of a man who +has done with illusions? + +"If you had kept a pot boiling for some actress who gave you your fun +for it--well; that is what you may call a cabinet matter. But to live +with another man's wife? It is a draft at sight on disaster; it is +bolting the bitter pills of vice with none of the gilding." + +"That will do. One word answers it all; I love Madame de la Baudraye, +and prefer her to every fortune, to every position the world can +offer.--I may have been carried away by a gust of ambition, but +everything must give way to the joy of being a father." + +"Ah, ha! you have a fancy for paternity? But, wretched man, we are the +fathers only of our legitimate children. What is a brat that does not +bear your name? The last chapter of the romance.--Your child will be +taken from you! We have seen that story in twenty plays these ten +years past. + +"Society, my dear boy, will drop upon you sooner or later. Read +_Adolphe_ once more.--Dear me! I fancy I can see you when you and she +are used to each other;--I see you dejected, hang-dog, bereft of +position and fortune, and fighting like the shareholders of a bogus +company when they are tricked by a director!--Your director is +happiness." + +"Say no more, Bixiou." + +"But I have only just begun," said Bixiou. "Listen, my dear boy. +Marriage has been out of favor for some time past; but, apart from the +advantages it offers in being the only recognized way of certifying +heredity, as it affords a good-looking young man, though penniless, +the opportunity of making his fortune in two months, it survives in +spite of disadvantages. And there is not the man living who would not +repent, sooner or later, of having, by his own fault, lost the chance +of marrying thirty thousand francs a year." + +"You won't understand me," cried Lousteau, in a voice of exasperation. +"Go away--she is there----" + +"I beg your pardon; why did you not tell me sooner?--You are of age, +and so is she," he added in a lower voice, but loud enough to be heard +by Dinah. "She will make you repent bitterly of your happiness!----" + +"If it is a folly, I intend to commit it.--Good-bye." + +"A man gone overboard!" cried Bixiou. + +"Devil take those friends who think they have a right to preach to +you," said Lousteau, opening the door of the bedroom, where he found +Madame de la Baudraye sunk in an armchair and dabbing her eyes with an +embroidered handkerchief. + +"Oh, why did I come here?" sobbed she. "Good Heavens, why indeed? +--Etienne, I am not so provincial as you think me.--You are making +a fool of me." + +"Darling angel," replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting +her from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, +"we have both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While +I was loving you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married +here, but I refused.--Oh! I was extremely distressed----" + +"I am going," cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to +the door. + +"You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune +so lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired +creature, with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself +with a stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the +score of bigotry--" + +Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau's ear: + +"Madame Schontz!" + +Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out. + +"It is all over with you, my dear," said the woman. "Cardot does not +mean to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady +made a scene--something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude, +the head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk's deputy for two years, +agrees to take the girl with the business." + +"Mean wretch!" exclaimed Lousteau. "What! in two hours he has made up +his mind?" + +"Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead +man's little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from +overhearing a few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary +relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The +clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend +mass! A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and +Cardot will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense +financial concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been +waked from a sweet dream." + +"I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--" + +"And a mistress," said Madame Schontz, smiling. "Here you are, more +than married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to +get home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes +nor your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I +will be faithful to him and cut Malaga's acquaintance. + +"Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse," she went +on. "Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?" she +exclaimed. "You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she +only needs Lady Dudley's turban!" + +"What is it now?" asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the +rustle of a silk dress and the murmur of a woman's voice. + +"It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.--I have just +had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off +my marriage----" + +"So that was the party which you gave up?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, I will be more than your wife--I am your slave, I give you my +life," said the poor deluded creature. "I did not believe I could love +you more than I did!--Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your +whole life?" + +"Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine." + +"Swear to me," said she, "that only death shall divide us." + +Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating +prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment +where he had taken the lorette's farewell kiss, and that of the +drawing-room, where the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a +succession of shocks, Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye's +precarious health, his fine fortune, and Bianchon's remark about +Dinah, "She will be a rich widow!" and he said to himself, "I would a +hundred times rather have Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than +Felicie!" + +His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play the +farce of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean +self-interestedness and his false vehemence of passion had disastrous +results. Madame de la Baudraye, when she set out from Sancerre for +Paris, had intended to live in rooms of her own quite near to +Lousteau; but the proofs of devotion her lover had given her by giving +up such brilliant prospects, and yet more the perfect happiness of the +first days of their illicit union, kept her from mentioning such a +parting. The second day was to be--and indeed was--a high festival, in +which such a suggestion proposed to "her angel" would have been a +discordant note. + +Lousteau, on his part, anxious to make Dinah feel herself dependent on +him, kept her in a state of constant intoxication by incessant +amusement. These circumstances hindered two persons so clever as these +were from avoiding the slough into which they fell--that of a life in +common, a piece of folly of which, unfortunately, many instances may +be seen in Paris in literary circles. + +And thus was the whole programme played out of a provincial amour, so +satirically described by Lousteau to Madame de la Baudraye--a fact +which neither he nor she remembered. Passion is born a deaf-mute. + + + +This winter in Paris was to Madame de la Baudraye all that the month +of October had been at Sancerre. Etienne, to initiate "his wife" into +Paris life, varied this honeymoon by evenings at the play, where Dinah +would only go to the stage box. At first Madame de la Baudraye +preserved some remnants of her countrified modesty; she was afraid of +being seen; she hid her happiness. She would say: + +"Monsieur de Clagny or Monsieur Gravier may have followed me to +Paris." She was afraid on Sancerre even in Paris. + +Lousteau, who was excessively vain, educated Dinah, took her to the +best dressmakers, and pointed out to her the most fashionable women, +advising her to take them as models for imitation. And Madame de la +Baudraye's provincial appearance was soon a thing of the past. +Lousteau, when his friends met him, was congratulated on his conquest. + +All through that season Etienne wrote little and got very much into +debt, though Dinah, who was proud, bought all her clothes out of her +savings, and fancied she had not been the smallest expense to her +beloved. By the end of three months Dinah was acclimatized; she had +reveled in the music at the Italian opera; she knew the pieces "on" at +all theatres, and the actors and jests of the day; she had become +inured to this life of perpetual excitement, this rapid torrent in +which everything is forgotten. She no longer craned her neck or stood +with her nose in the air, like an image of Amazement, at the constant +surprises that Paris has for a stranger. She had learned to breathe +that witty, vitalizing, teeming atmosphere where clever people feel +themselves in their element, and which they can no longer bear to +quit. + +One morning, as she read the papers, for Lousteau had them all, two +lines carried her back to Sancerre and the past, two lines that seemed +not unfamiliar--as follows: + +"Monsieur le Baron de Clagny, Public Prosecutor to the Criminal Court +at Sancerre, has been appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor to the +Supreme Court in Paris." + +"How well that worthy lawyer loves you!" said the journalist, smiling. + +"Poor man!" said she. "What did I tell you? He is following me." + +Etienne and Dinah were just then at the most dazzling and fervid stage +of a passion when each is perfectly accustomed to the other, and yet +love has not lost its freshness and relish. The lovers know each other +well, but all is not yet understood; they have not been a second time +to the same secret haunts of the soul; they have not studied each +other till they know, as they must later, the very thought, word, and +gesture that responds to every event, the greatest and the smallest. +Enchantment reigns; there are no collisions, no differences of +opinion, no cold looks. Their two souls are always on the same side. +And Dinah would speak the magical words, emphasized by the yet more +magical expression and looks which every woman can use under such +circumstances. + +"When you cease to love me, kill me.--If you should cease to love me, +I believe I could kill you first and myself after." + +To this sweet exaggeration, Lousteau would reply: + +"All I ask of God is to see you as constant as I shall be. It is you +who will desert me!" + +"My love is supreme." + +"Supreme," echoed Lousteau. "Come, now? Suppose I am dragged away to a +bachelor party, and find there one of my former mistresses, and she +makes fun of me; I, out of vanity, behave as if I were free, and do +not come in here till next morning--would you still love me?" + +"A woman is only sure of being loved when she is preferred; and if you +came back to me, if--Oh! you make me understand what the happiness +would be of forgiving the man I adore." + +"Well, then, I am truly loved for the first time in my life!" cried +Lousteau. + +"At last you understand that!" said she. + +Lousteau proposed that they should each write a letter setting forth +the reasons which would compel them to end by suicide. Once in +possession of such a document, each might kill the other without +danger in case of infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither +wrote the letter. + +The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would +deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice +everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la +Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke. + +Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the +power derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which +both lovers put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her +modesty, her masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to +ambitious souls, which formed the basis of her character. Lousteau +involuntarily held her in high esteem. As a Parisian, Dinah was +superior to the most fascinating courtesan; she could be as amusing +and as witty as Malaga; but her extensive information, her habits of +mind, her vast reading enabled her to generalize her wit, while the +Florines and the Schontzes exerted theirs over a very narrow circle. + +"There is in Dinah," said Etienne to Bixiou, "the stuff to make both a +Ninon and a De Stael." + +"A woman who combines an encyclopaedia and a seraglio is very +dangerous," replied the mocking spirit. + +When the expected infant became a visible fact, Madame de la Baudraye +would be seen no more; but before shutting herself up, never to go out +unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first +performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the +minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as +constituting "all Paris." Dinah, who had never been at a first night's +performance, was very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time +arrived at such a pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in +her misconduct; she exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the +world; she was determined to look it in the face without turning her +head aside. + +She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate +looks and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave +her an expression of refinement, and her black hair in smooth bands +enhanced her pallor. Her brilliant gray eyes looked finer than ever, +set in dark rings. But a terribly distressing incident awaited her. By +a very simple chance, the box given to the journalist, on the first +tier, was next to that which Anna Grossetete had taken. The two +intimate friends did not even bow; neither chose to acknowledge the +other. At the end of the first act Lousteau left his seat, abandoning +Dinah to the fire of eyes, the glare of opera-glasses; while the +Baronne de Fontaine and the Comtesse Marie de Vandenesse, who +accompanied her, received some of the most distinguished men of +fashion. + +Dinah's solitude was all the more distressing because she had not the +art of putting a good face to the matter by examining the company +through her opera-glass. In vain did she try to assume a dignified and +thoughtful attitude, and fix her eyes on vacancy; she was +overpoweringly conscious of being the object of general attention; she +could not disguise her discomfort, and lapsed a little into +provincialism, displaying her handkerchief and making involuntary +movements of which she had almost cured herself. At last, between the +second and third acts, a man had himself admitted to Dinah's box! It +was Monsieur de Clagny. + +"I am happy to see you, to tell you how much I am pleased by your +promotion," said she. + +"Oh! Madame, for whom should I come to Paris----?" + +"What!" said she. "Have I anything to do with your appointment?" + +"Everything," said he. "Since you left Sancerre, it had become +intolerable to me; I was dying--" + +"Your sincere friendship does me good," replied she, holding out her +hand. "I am in a position to make much of my true friends; I now know +their value.--I feared I must have lost your esteem, but the proof you +have given me by this visit touches me more deeply than your ten +years' attachment." + +"You are an object of curiosity to the whole house," said the lawyer. +"Oh! my dear, is this a part for you to be playing? Could you not be +happy and yet remain honored?--I have just heard that you are Monsieur +Etienne Lousteau's mistress, that you live together as man and wife! +--You have broken for ever with society; even if you should some day +marry your lover, the time will come when you will feel the want of +the respectability you now despise. Ought you not to be in a home of +your own with your mother, who loves you well enough to protect you +with her aegis?--Appearances at least would be saved." + +"I am in the wrong to have come here," replied she, "that is all.--I +have bid farewell to all the advantages which the world confers on +women who know how to reconcile happiness and the proprieties. My +abnegation is so complete that I only wish I could clear a vast space +about me to make a desert of my love, full of God, of _him_, and of +myself.--We have made too many sacrifices on both sides not to be +united--united by disgrace if you will, but indissolubly one. I am +happy; so happy that I can love freely, my friend, and confide in you +more than of old--for I need a friend." + +The lawyer was magnanimous, nay, truly great. To this declaration, in +which Dinah's soul thrilled, he replied in heartrending tones: + +"I wanted to go to see you, to be sure that you were loved: I shall +now be easy and no longer alarmed as to your future.--But will your +lover appreciate the magnitude of your sacrifice; is there any +gratitude in his affection?" + +"Come to the Rue des Martyrs and you will see!" + +"Yes, I will call," he replied. "I have already passed your door +without daring to inquire for you.--You do not yet know the literary +world. There are glorious exceptions, no doubt; but these men of +letters drag terrible evils in their train; among these I account +publicity as one of the greatest, for it blights everything. A woman +may commit herself with--" + +"With a Public Prosecutor?" the Baronne put in with a smile. + +"Well!--and then after a rupture there is still something to fall back +on; the world has known nothing. But with a more or less famous man +the public is thoroughly informed. Why look there! What an example you +have close at hand! You are sitting back to back with the Comtesse +Marie Vandenesse, who was within an ace of committing the utmost folly +for a more celebrated man than Lousteau--for Nathan--and now they do +not even recognize each other. After going to the very edge of the +precipice, the Countess was saved, no one knows how; she neither left +her husband nor her house; but as a famous man was scorned, she was +the talk of the town for a whole winter. But her husband's great +fortune, great name, and high position, but for the admirable +management of that true statesman--whose conduct to his wife, they +say, was perfect--she would have been ruined; in her position no other +woman would have remained respected as she is." + +"And how was Sancerre when you came away?" asked Madame de la +Baudraye, to change the subject. + +"Monsieur de la Baudraye announced that your expected confinement +after so many years made it necessary that it should take place in +Paris, and that he had insisted on your going to be attended by the +first physicians," replied Monsieur de Clagny, guessing what it was +that Dinah most wanted to know. "And so, in spite of the commotion to +which your departure gave rise, you still have your legal status." + +"Why!" she exclaimed, "can Monsieur de la Baudraye still hope----" + +"Your husband, madame, did what he always does--made a little +calculation." + +The lawyer left the box when the journalist returned, bowing with +dignity. + +"You are a greater hit than the piece," said Etienne to Dinah. + +This brief triumph brought greater happiness to the poor woman than +she had ever known in the whole of her provincial existence; still, as +they left the theatre she was very grave. + +"What ails you, my Didine?" asked Lousteau. + +"I am wondering how a woman succeeds in conquering the world?" + +"There are two ways. One is by being Madame de Stael, the other is by +having two hundred thousand francs a year." + +"Society," said she, "asserts its hold on us by appealing to our +vanity, our love of appearances.--Pooh! We will be philosophers!" + + + +That evening was the last gleam of the delusive well-being in which +Madame de la Baudraye had lived since coming to Paris. Three days +later she observed a cloud on Lousteau's brow as he walked round the +little garden-plot smoking a cigar. This woman, who had acquired from +her husband the habit and the pleasure of never owing anybody a sou, +was informed that the household was penniless, with two quarters' rent +owing, and on the eve, in fact, of an execution. + +This reality of Paris life pierced Dinah's heart like a thorn; she +repented of having tempted Etienne into the extravagances of love. It +is so difficult to pass from pleasure to work, that happiness has +wrecked more poems than sorrows ever helped to flow in sparkling jets. +Dinah, happy in seeing Etienne taking his ease, smoking a cigar after +breakfast, his face beaming as he basked like a lizard in the +sunshine, could not summon up courage enough to make herself the +bum-bailiff of a magazine. + +It struck her that through the worthy Migeon, Pamela's father, she +might pawn the few jewels she possessed, on which her "uncle," for she +was learning to talk the slang of the town, advanced her nine hundred +francs. She kept three hundred for her baby-clothes and the expenses +of her illness, and joyfully presented the sum due to Lousteau, who +was ploughing, furrow by furrow, or, if you will, line by line, +through a novel for a periodical. + +"Dearest heart," said she, "finish your novel without making any +sacrifice to necessity; polish the style, work up the subject.--I have +played the fine lady too long; I am going to be the housewife and +attend to business." + +For the last four months Etienne had been taking Dinah to the Cafe +Riche to dine every day, a corner being always kept for them. The +countrywoman was in dismay at being told that five hundred francs were +owing for the last fortnight. + +"What! we have been drinking wine at six francs a bottle! A sole +_Normande_ costs five francs!--and twenty centimes for a roll?" she +exclaimed, as she looked through the bill Lousteau showed her. + +"Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at +a restaurant or by a cook," said Lousteau. + +"Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a +prince." + +Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two +servants' rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her +mother, begging her to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand +francs. She received two trunks full of linen, some plate, and two +thousand francs, sent by the hand of an honest and pious cook +recommended her by her mother. + +Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur +de Clagny came to call at four o'clock, after coming out of court, and +found Madame de la Baudraye making a little cap. The sight of this +proud and ambitious woman, whose mind was so accomplished, and who had +queened it so well at the Chateau d'Anzy, now condescending to +household cares and sewing for the coming infant, moved the poor +lawyer, who had just left the bench. And as he saw the pricks on one +of the taper fingers he had so often kissed, he understood that Madame +de la Baudraye was not merely playing at this maternal task. + +In the course of this first interview the magistrate saw to the depths +of Dinah's soul. This perspicacity in a man so much in love was a +superhuman effort. He saw that Didine meant to be the journalist's +guardian spirit and lead him into a nobler road; she had seen that the +difficulties of his practical life were due to some moral defects. +Between two beings united by love--in one so genuine, and in the other +so well feigned--more than one confidence had been exchanged in the +course of four months. Notwithstanding the care with which Etienne +wrapped up his true self, a word now and then had not failed to +enlighten Dinah as to the previous life of a man whose talents were so +hampered by poverty, so perverted by bad examples, so thwarted by +obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. "He will be a greater man if +life is easy to him," said she to herself. And she strove to make him +happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by dint of such +economy and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus Dinah +became a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of her +soul towards the heights. + +"His happiness will be my absolution." + +These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the +lawyer, accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of +his triumph, flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first +performance, had very plainly shown the lawyer what Lousteau's purpose +was. To Etienne, Madame de la Baudraye was, to use his own phrase, "a +fine feather in his cap." Far from preferring the joys of a shy and +mysterious passion, of hiding such exquisite happiness from the eyes +of the world, he found a vulgar satisfaction in displaying the first +woman of respectability who had ever honored him with her affection. + +The Judge, however, was for some time deceived by the attentions which +any man would lavish on any woman in Madame de la Baudraye's +situation, and Lousteau made them doubly charming by the ingratiating +ways characteristic of men whose manners are naturally attractive. +There are, in fact, men who have something of the monkey in them by +nature, and to whom the assumption of the most engaging forms of +sentiment is so easy that the actor is not detected; and Lousteau's +natural gifts had been fully developed on the stage on which he had +hitherto figured. + +Between the months of April and July, when Dinah expected her +confinement, she discovered why it was that Lousteau had not triumphed +over poverty; he was idle and had no power of will. The brain, to be +sure, must obey its own laws; it recognizes neither the exigencies of +life nor the voice of honor; a man cannot write a great book because a +woman is dying, or to pay a discreditable debt, or to bring up a +family; at the same time, there is no great talent without a strong +will. These twin forces are requisite for the erection of the vast +edifice of personal glory. A distinguished genius keeps his brain in a +productive condition, just as the knights of old kept their weapons +always ready for battle. They conquer indolence, they deny themselves +enervating pleasures, or indulge only to a fixed limit proportioned to +their powers. This explains the life of such men as Walter Scott, +Cuvier, Voltaire, Newton, Buffon, Bayle, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Lopez de +Vega, Calderon, Boccacio, Aretino, Aristotle--in short, every man who +delighted, governed, or led his contemporaries. + +A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his +talent. Though Talent has its germ in a cultivated gift, Will means +the incessant conquest of his instincts, of proclivities subdued and +mortified, and difficulties of every kind heroically defeated. The +abuse of smoking encouraged Lousteau's indolence. Tobacco, which can +lull grief, inevitably numbs a man's energy. + +Then, while the cigar deteriorated him physically, criticism as a +profession morally stultified a man so easily tempted by pleasure. +Criticism is as fatal to the critic as seeing two sides to a question +is to a pleader. In these professions the judgment is undermined, the +mind loses its lucid rectitude. The writer lives by taking sides. +Thus, we may distinguish two kinds of criticism, as in painting we may +distinguish art from practical dexterity. Criticism, after the pattern +of most contemporary leader-writers, is the expression of judgments +formed at random in a more or less witty way, just as an advocate +pleads in court on the most contradictory briefs. The newspaper critic +always finds a subject to work up in the book he is discussing. Done +after this fashion, the business is well adapted to indolent brains, +to men devoid of the sublime faculty of imagination, or, possessed of +it indeed, but lacking courage to cultivate it. Every play, every book +comes to their pen as a subject, making no demand on their +imagination, and of which they simply write a report, seriously or in +irony, according to the mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever +it may be, French wit can always justify it, being admirably ready to +defend either side of any case. And conscience counts for so little, +these _bravi_ have so little value for their own words, that they will +loudly praise in the greenroom the work they tear to tatters in print. + +Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to +another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of +the new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old. +Madame de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on +the Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on +the same occasion. She admired the maxim he preached: + +"We are the attorneys of public opinion." + +The other kind of criticism is a science. It necessitates a thorough +comprehension of each work, a lucid insight into the tendencies of the +age, the adoption of a system, and faith in fixed principles--that is +to say, a scheme of jurisprudence, a summing-up, and a verdict. The +critic is then a magistrate of ideas, the censor of his time; he +fulfils a sacred function; while in the former case he is but an +acrobat who turns somersaults for a living so long as he had a leg to +stand on. Between Claude Vignon and Lousteau lay the gulf that divides +mere dexterity from art. + +Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by +no means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She +saw Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most +discreditable compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a +picture from which sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him +by saying, "He is a poet!" so anxious was she to justify him in her +own eyes. When she thus guessed the secret of many a writer's +existence, she also guessed that Lousteau's pen could never be trusted +to as a resource. + +Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had +thought of for her own sake. Through her mother she tried to negotiate +with her husband for an allowance, but without Etienne's knowledge; +for, as she thought, it would be an offence to his delicate feelings, +which must be considered. A few days before the end of July, Dinah +crumbled up in her wrath the letter from her mother containing +Monsieur de la Baudraye's ultimatum: + +"Madame de la Baudraye cannot need an allowance in Paris when she can +live in perfect luxury at her Chateau of Anzy: she may return." + +Lousteau picked up this letter and read it. + +"I will avenge you!" said he to Dinah in the ominous tone that +delights a woman when her antipathies are flattered. + +Five days after this Bianchon and Duriau, the famous ladies' doctor, +were engaged at Lousteau's; for he, ever since little La Baudraye's +reply, had been making a great display of his joy and importance over +the advent of the infant. Monsieur de Clagny and Madame Piedefer--sent +for in all haste were to be the godparents, for the cautious +magistrate feared lest Lousteau should commit some compromising +blunder. Madame de la Baudraye gave birth to a boy that might have +filled a queen with envy who hoped for an heir-presumptive. + +Bianchon and Monsieur de Clagny went off to register the child at the +Mayor's office as the son of Monsieur and Madame de la Baudraye, +unknown to Etienne, who, on his part, rushed off to a printer's to +have this circular set up: + + _"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son. + + "Monsieur Etienne Lousteau has the pleasure of informing you of + the fact. + + "The mother and child are doing well."_ + +Lousteau had already sent out sixty of these announcements when +Monsieur de Clagny, on coming to make inquiries, happened to see the +list of persons at Sancerre to whom Lousteau proposed to send this +amazing notice, written below the names of the persons in Paris to +whom it was already gone. The lawyer confiscated the list and the +remainder of the circulars, showed them to Madame Piedefer, begging +her on no account to allow Lousteau to carry on this atrocious jest, +and jumped into a cab. The devoted friend then ordered from the same +printer another announcement in the following words: + + _"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son. + + "Monsieur le Baron de la Baudraye has the honor of informing you + of the fact. + + "Mother and child are doing well."_ + +After seeing the proofs destroyed, the form of type, everything that +could bear witness to the existence of the former document, Monsieur +de Clagny set to work to intercept those that had been sent; in many +cases he changed them at the porter's lodge, he got back thirty into +his own hands, and at last, after three days of hard work, only one of +the original notes existed, that, namely sent to Nathan. + +Five times had the lawyer called on the great man without finding him. +By the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an +interview, the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some +persons regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab +to which every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others +said they had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the La +Baudraye family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of +journalists; in short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a +curiosity. Florine, with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about, +stamped in the post as paid, and addressed in Etienne's hand. So, as +soon as the judge spoke of the announcement, Nathan began to smile. + +"Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?" cried he. "That +autograph is one of those weapons which an athlete in the circus +cannot afford to lay down. That note proves that Lousteau has no +heart, no taste, no dignity; that he knows nothing of the world nor of +public morality; that he insults himself when he can find no one else +to insult.--None but the son of a provincial citizen imported from +Sancerre to become a poet, but who is only the _bravo_ of some +contemptible magazine, could ever have sent out such a circular +letter, as you must allow, monsieur. This is a document indispensable +to the archives of the age.--To-day Lousteau flatters me, to-morrow he +may ask for my head.--Excuse me, I forgot you were a judge. + +"I have gone through a passion for a lady, a great lady, as far +superior to Madame de la Baudraye as your fine feeling, monsieur, is +superior to Lousteau's vulgar retaliation; but I would have died +rather than utter her name. A few months of her airs and graces cost +me a hundred thousand francs and my prospects for life; but I do not +think the price too high!--And I have never murmured!--If a woman +betrays the secret of her passion, it is the supreme offering of her +love, but a man!--He must be a Lousteau! + +"No, I would not give up that paper for a thousand crowns." + +"Monsieur," said the lawyer at last, after an eloquent battle lasting +half an hour, "I have called on fifteen or sixteen men of letters +about this affair, and can it be that you are the only one immovable +by an appeal of honor? It is not for Etienne Lousteau that I plead, +but for a woman and child, both equally ignorant of the damage done to +their fortune, their prospects, and their honor.--Who knows, monsieur, +whether you might not some day be compelled to plead for some favor of +justice for a friend, for some person whose honor was dearer to you +than your own.--It might be remembered against you that you had been +ruthless.--Can such a man as you are hesitate?" added Monsieur de +Clagny. + +"I only wished you to understand the extent of the sacrifice," replied +Nathan, giving up the letter, as he reflected on the judge's influence +and accepted this implied bargain. + +When the journalist's stupid jest had been counteracted, Monsieur de +Clagny went to give him a rating in the presence of Madame Piedefer; +but he found Lousteau fuming with irritation. + +"What I did monsieur, I did with a purpose!" replied Etienne. +"Monsieur de la Baudraye has sixty thousand francs a year and refuses +to make his wife an allowance; I wished to make him feel that the +child is in my power." + +"Yes, monsieur, I quite suspected it," replied the lawyer. "For that +reason I readily agreed to be little Polydore's godfather, and he is +registered as the son of the Baron and Baronne de la Baudraye; if you +have the feelings of a father, you ought to rejoice in knowing that +the child is heir to one of the finest entailed estates in France." + +"And pray, sir, is the mother to die of hunger?" + +"Be quite easy," said the lawyer bitterly, having dragged from +Lousteau the expression of feeling he had so long been expecting. "I +will undertake to transact the matter with Monsieur de la Baudraye." + +Monsieur de Clagny left the house with a chill at his heart. + +Dinah, his idol, was loved for her money. Would she not, when too +late, have her eyes opened? + +"Poor woman!" said the lawyer, as he walked away. And this justice we +will do him--for to whom should justice be done unless to a Judge?--he +loved Dinah too sincerely to regard her degradation as a means of +triumph one day; he was all pity and devotion; he really loved her. + + + +The care and nursing of the infant, its cries, the quiet needed for +the mother during the first few days, and the ubiquity of Madame +Piedefer, were so entirely adverse to literary labors, that Lousteau +moved up to the three rooms taken on the first floor for the old +bigot. The journalist, obliged to go to the first performances without +Dinah, and living apart from her, found an indescribable charm in the +use of his liberty. More than once he submitted to be taken by the arm +and dragged off to some jollification; more than once he found himself +at the house of a friend's mistress in the heart of bohemia. He again +saw women brilliantly young and splendidly dressed, in whom economy +seemed treason to their youth and power. Dinah, in spite of her +striking beauty, after nursing her baby for three months, could not +stand comparison with these perishable blossoms, so soon faded, but so +showy as long as they live rooted in opulence. + +Home life had, nevertheless, a strong attraction for Etienne. In three +months the mother and daughter, with the help of the cook from +Sancerre and of little Pamela, had given the apartment a quite changed +appearance. The journalist found his breakfast and his dinner served +with a sort of luxury. Dinah, handsome and nicely dressed, was careful +to anticipate her dear Etienne's wishes, and he felt himself the king +of his home, where everything, even the baby, was subject to his +selfishness. Dinah's affection was to be seen in every trifle, +Lousteau could not possibly cease the entrancing deceptions of his +unreal passion. + +Dinah, meanwhile, was aware of a source of ruin, both to her love and +to the household, in the kind of life into which Lousteau had allowed +himself to drift. At the end of ten months she weaned her baby, +installed her mother in the upstairs rooms, and restored the family +intimacy which indissolubly links a man and woman when the woman is +loving and clever. One of the most striking circumstances in Benjamin +Constant's novel, one of the explanations of Ellenore's desertion, is +the want of daily--or, if you will, of nightly--intercourse between +her and Adolphe. Each of the lovers has a separate home; they have +both submitted to the world and saved appearances. Ellenore, +repeatedly left to herself, is compelled to vast labors of affection +to expel the thoughts of release which captivate Adolphe when absent. +The constant exchange of glances and thoughts in domestic life gives a +woman such power that a man needs stronger reasons for desertion than +she will ever give him so long as she loves him. + +This was an entirely new phase both to Etienne and to Dinah. Dinah +intended to be indispensable; she wanted to infuse fresh energy into +this man, whose weakness smiled upon her, for she thought it a +security. She found him subjects, sketched the treatment, and at a +pinch, would write whole chapters. She revived the vitality of this +dying talent by transfusing fresh blood into his veins; she supplied +him with ideas and opinions. In short, she produced two books which +were a success. More than once she saved Lousteau's self-esteem by +dictating, correcting, or finishing his articles when he was in +despair at his own lack of ideas. The secret of this collaboration was +strictly preserved; Madame Piedefer knew nothing of it. + +This mental galvanism was rewarded by improved pay, enabling them to +live comfortably till the end of 1838. Lousteau became used to seeing +Dinah do his work, and he paid her--as the French people say in their +vigorous lingo--in "monkey money," nothing for her pains. This +expenditure in self-sacrifice becomes a treasure which generous souls +prize, and the more she gave the more she loved Lousteau; the time +soon came when Dinah felt that it would be too bitter a grief ever to +give him up. + +But then another child was coming, and this year was a terrible trial. +In spite of the precautions of the two women, Etienne contracted +debts; he worked himself to death to pay them off while Dinah was laid +up; and, knowing him as she did, she thought him heroic. But after +this effort, appalled at having two women, two children, and two maids +on his hands, he was incapable of the struggle to maintain a family by +his pen when he had failed to maintain even himself. So he let things +take their chance. Then the ruthless speculator exaggerated the farce +of love-making at home to secure greater liberty abroad. + +Dinah proudly endured the burden of life without support. The one +idea, "He loves me!" gave her superhuman strength. She worked as hard +as the most energetic spirits of our time. At the risk of her beauty +and health, Didine was to Lousteau what Mademoiselle Delachaux was to +Gardane in Diderot's noble and true tale. But while sacrificing +herself, she committed the magnanimous blunder of sacrificing dress. +She had her gowns dyed, and wore nothing but black. She stank of +black, as Malaga said, making fun mercilessly of Lousteau. + +By the end of 1839, Etienne, following the example of Louis XV., had, +by dint of gradual capitulations of conscience, come to the point of +establishing a distinction between his own money and the housekeeping +money, just as Louis XV. drew the line between his privy purse and the +public moneys. He deceived Dinah as to his earnings. On discovering +this baseness, Madame de la Baudraye went through fearful tortures of +jealousy. She wanted to live two lives--the life of the world and the +life of a literary woman; she accompanied Lousteau to every +first-night performance, and could detect in him many impulses of +wounded vanity, for her black attire rubbed off, as it were, on him, +clouding his brow, and sometimes leading him to be quite brutal. He +was really the woman of the two; and he had all a woman's exacting +perversity; he would reproach Dinah for the dowdiness of her +appearance, even while benefiting by the sacrifice, which to a +mistress is so cruel--exactly like a woman who, after sending a man +through a gutter to save her honor, tells him she "cannot bear dirt!" +when he comes out. + +Dinah then found herself obliged to gather up the rather loose reins +of power by which a clever woman drives a man devoid of will. But in +so doing she could not fail to lose much of her moral lustre. Such +suspicions as she betrayed drag a woman into quarrels which lead to +disrespect, because she herself comes down from the high level on +which she had at first placed herself. Next she made some concession; +Lousteau was allowed to entertain several of his friends--Nathan, +Bixiou, Blondet, Finot, whose manners, language, and intercourse were +depraving. They tried to convince Madame de la Baudraye that her +principles and aversions were a survival of provincial prudishness; +and they preached the creed of woman's superiority. + +Before long, her jealousy put weapons into Lousteau's hands. During +the carnival of 1840, she disguised herself to go to the balls at the +Opera-house, and to suppers where she met courtesans, in order to keep +an eye on all Etienne's amusements. + +On the day of Mid-Lent--or rather, at eight on the morning after +--Dinah came home from the ball in her fancy dress to go to bed. She +had gone to spy on Lousteau, who, believing her to be ill, had engaged +himself for that evening to Fanny Beaupre. The journalist, warned by a +friend, had behaved so as to deceive the poor woman, only too ready to +be deceived. + +As she stepped out of the hired cab, Dinah met Monsieur de la +Baudraye, to whom the porter pointed her out. The little old man took +his wife by the arm, saying, in an icy tone: + +"So this is you, madame!" + +This sudden advent of conjugal authority, before which she felt +herself so small, and, above all, these words, almost froze the heart +of the unhappy woman caught in the costume of a _debardeur_. To escape +Etienne's eye the more effectually, she had chosen a dress he was not +likely to detect her in. She took advantage of the mask she still had +on to escape without replying, changed her dress, and went up to her +mother's rooms, where she found her husband waiting for her. In spite +of her assumed dignity, she blushed in the old man's presence. + +"What do you want of me, monsieur?" she asked. "Are we not separated +forever?" + +"Actually, yes," said Monsieur de la Baudraye. "Legally, no." + +Madame Piedefer was telegraphing signals to her daughter, which Dinah +presently observed and understood. + +"Nothing could have brought you here but your own interests," she +said, in a bitter tone. + +"_Our_ interests," said the little man coldly, "for we have two +children.--Your Uncle Silas Piedefer is dead, at New York, where, +after having made and lost several fortunes in various parts of the +world, he has finally left some seven or eight hundred thousand francs +--they say twelve--but there is stock-in-trade to be sold. I am the +chief in our common interests, and act for you." + +"Oh!" cried Dinah, "in everything that relates to business, I trust no +one but Monsieur de Clagny. He knows the law, come to terms with him; +what he does, will be done right." + +"I have no occasion for Monsieur de Clagny," answered Monsieur de la +Baudraye, "to take my children from you--" + +"Your children!" exclaimed Dinah. "Your children, to whom you have not +sent a sou! _Your_ children!" She burst into a loud shout of laughter; +but Monsieur de la Baudraye's unmoved coolness threw ice on the +explosion. + +"Your mother has just brought them to show me," he went on. "They are +charming boys. I do not intend to part from them. I shall take them to +our house at Anzy, if it were only to save them from seeing their +mother disguised like a--" + +"Silence!" said Madame de la Baudraye imperatively. "What do you want +of me that brought you here?" + +"A power of attorney to receive our Uncle Silas' property." + +Dinah took a pen, wrote two lines to Monsieur de Clagny, and desired +her husband to call again in the afternoon. + +At five o'clock, Monsieur de Clagny--who had been promoted to the post +of Attorney-General--enlightened Madame de la Baudraye as to her +position; still, he undertook to arrange everything by a bargain with +the old fellow, whose visit had been prompted by avarice alone. +Monsieur de la Baudraye, to whom his wife's power of attorney was +indispensable to enable him to deal with the business as he wished, +purchased it by certain concessions. In the first place, he undertook +to allow her ten thousand francs a year so long as she found it +convenient--so the document was worded--to reside in Paris; the +children, each on attaining the age of six, were to be placed in +Monsieur de la Baudraye's keeping. Finally, the lawyer extracted the +payment of the allowance in advance. + +Little La Baudraye, who came jauntily enough to say good-bye to his +wife and _his_ children, appeared in a white india-rubber overcoat. He +was so firm on his feet, and so exactly like the La Baudraye of 1836, +that Dinah despaired of ever burying the dreadful little dwarf. From +the garden, where he was smoking a cigar, the journalist could watch +Monsieur de la Baudraye for so long as it took the little reptile to +cross the forecourt, but that was enough for Lousteau; it was plain to +him that the little man had intended to wreck every hope of his dying +that his wife might have conceived. + +This short scene made a considerable change in the writer's secret +scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the +position. + +His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as +much as it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two +sides of the account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry +quits. Considering how small his income was, and how hardly he earned +it, Lousteau regarded himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It +was, no doubt, a favorable moment for throwing the woman over. Tired +at the end of three years of playing a comedy which never can become a +habit, he was perpetually concealing his weariness; and this fellow, +who was accustomed to disguise none of his feelings, compelled himself +to wear a smile at home like that of a debtor in the presence of his +creditor. This compulsion was every day more intolerable. + +Hitherto the immense advantages he foresaw in the future had given him +strength; but when he saw Monsieur de la Baudraye embark for the +United States, as briskly as if it were to go down to Rouen in a +steamboat, he ceased to believe in the future. + +He went in from the garden to the pretty drawing-room, where Dinah had +just taken leave of her husband. + +"Etienne," said Madame de la Baudraye, "do you know what my lord and +master has proposed to me? In the event of my wishing to return to +live at Anzy during his absence, he has left his orders, and he hopes +that my mother's good advice will weigh with me, and that I shall go +back there with my children." + +"It is very good advice," replied Lousteau drily, knowing the +passionate disclaimer that Dinah expected, and indeed begged for with +her eyes. + +The tone, the words, the cold look, all hit the hapless woman so hard, +who lived only in her love, that two large tears trickled slowly down +her cheeks, while she did not speak a word, and Lousteau only saw them +when she took out her handkerchief to wipe away these two beads of +anguish. + +"What is it, Didine?" he asked, touched to the heart by this excessive +sensibility. + +"Just as I was priding myself on having won our freedom," said she +--"at the cost of my fortune--by selling--what is most precious to a +mother's heart--selling my children!--for he is to have them from the +age of six--and I cannot see them without going to Sancerre!--and that +is torture!--Ah, dear God! What have I done----?" + +Lousteau knelt down by her and kissed her hands with a lavish display +of coaxing and petting. + +"You do not understand me," said he. "I blame myself, for I am not +worth such sacrifices, dear angel. I am, in a literary sense, a quite +second-rate man. If the day comes when I can no longer cut a figure at +the bottom of the newspaper, the editors will let me lie, like an old +shoe flung into the rubbish heap. Remember, we tight-rope dancers have +no retiring pension! The State would have too many clever men on its +hands if it started on such a career of beneficence. I am forty-two, +and I am as idle as a marmot. I feel it--I know it"--and he took her +by the hand--"my love can only be fatal to you. + +"As you know, at two-and-twenty I lived on Florine; but what is +excusable in a youth, what then seems smart and charming, is a +disgrace to a man of forty. Hitherto we have shared the burden of +existence, and it has not been lovely for this year and half. Out of +devotion to me you wear nothing but black, and that does me no +credit."--Dinah gave one of those magnanimous shrugs which are worth +all the words ever spoken.--"Yes," Etienne went on, "I know you +sacrifice everything to my whims, even your beauty. And I, with a +heart worn out in past struggles, a soul full of dark presentiments as +to the future, I cannot repay your exquisite love with an equal +affection. We were very happy--without a cloud--for a long time. +--Well, then, I cannot bear to see so sweet a poem end badly. Am I +wrong?" + +Madame de la Baudraye loved Etienne so truly, that this prudence, +worthy of de Clagny, gratified her and stanched her tears. + +"He loves me for myself alone!" thought she, looking at him with +smiling eyes. + +After four years of intimacy, this woman's love now combined every +shade of affection which our powers of analysis can discern, and which +modern society has created; one of the most remarkable men of our age, +whose death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle +(Stendhal), was the first to delineate them to perfection. + +Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be +compared to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body, +and overcomes every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from +him, or his hand laid on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A +kind word or a smile wreathed the poor woman's soul with flowers; a +fond look elated, a cold look depressed her. When she walked, taking +his arm and keeping step with him in the street or on the boulevard, +she was so entirely absorbed in him that she lost all sense of +herself. Fascinated by this fellow's wit, magnetized by his airs, his +vices were but trivial defects in her eyes. She loved the puffs of +cigar smoke that the wind brought into her room from the garden; she +went to inhale them, and made no wry faces, hiding herself to enjoy +them. She hated the publisher or the newspaper editor who refused +Lousteau money on the ground of the enormous advances he had had +already. She deluded herself so far as to believe that her bohemian +was writing a novel, for which the payment was to come, instead of +working off a debt long since incurred. + +This, no doubt, is true love, and includes every mode of loving; the +love of the heart and of the head--passion, caprice, and taste--to +accept Beyle's definitions. Didine loved him so wholly, that in +certain moments when her critical judgment, just by nature, and +constantly exercised since she had lived in Paris, compelled her to +read to the bottom of Lousteau's soul, sense was still too much for +reason, and suggested excuses. + +"And what am I?" she replied. "A woman who has put herself outside the +pale. Since I have sacrificed all a woman's honor, why should you not +sacrifice to me some of a man's honor? Do we not live outside the +limits of social conventionality? Why not accept from me what Nathan +can accept from Florine? We will square accounts when we part, and +only death can part us--you know. My happiness is your honor, Etienne, +as my constancy and your happiness are mine. If I fail to make you +happy, all is at an end. If I cause you a pang, condemn me. + +"Our debts are paid; we have ten thousand francs a year, and between +us we can certainly make eight thousand francs a year--I will write +theatrical articles.--With fifteen hundred francs a month we shall be +as rich as Rothschild.--Be quite easy. I will have some lovely +dresses, and give you every day some gratified vanity, as on the first +night of Nathan's play--" + +"And what about your mother, who goes to Mass every day, and wants to +bring a priest to the house and make you give up this way of life?" + +"Every one has a pet vice. You smoke, she preaches at me, poor woman! +But she takes great care of the children, she takes them out, she is +absolutely devoted, and idolizes me. Would you hinder her from +crying?" + +"What will be thought of me?" + +"But we do not live for the world!" cried she, raising Etienne and +making him sit by her. "Besides, we shall be married some day--we have +the risks of a sea voyage----" + +"I never thought of that," said Lousteau simply; and he added to +himself, "Time enough to part when little La Baudraye is safe back +again." + + + +From that day forth Etienne lived in luxury; and Dinah, on first +nights, could hold her own with the best dressed women in Paris. +Lousteau was so fatuous as to affect, among his friends, the attitude +of a man overborne, bored to extinction, ruined by Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"Oh, what would I not give to the friend who would deliver me from +Dinah! But no one ever can!" said he. "She loves me enough to throw +herself out of the window if I told her." + +The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against +Dinah's jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was +shamelessly unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at +seeing Dinah in such disgraceful circumstances when she might have +been so rich, and in so wretched a position at the time when her +original ambitions would have been fulfilled, came to warn her, to +tell her--"You are betrayed," and she only replied, "I know it." + +The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing. + +Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a +word. + +"Do you still love me?" she asked. + +"I would lose my soul for you!" he exclaimed, starting to his feet. + +The hapless man's eyes flashed like torches, he trembled like a leaf, +his throat was rigid, his hair thrilled to the roots; he believed he +was so blessed as to be accepted as his idol's avenger, and this poor +joy filled him with rapture. + +"Why are you so startled?" said she, making him sit down again. "That +is how I love him." + +The lawyer understood this argument _ad hominem_. And there were tears +in the eyes of the Judge, who had just condemned a man to death! + +Lousteau's satiety, that odious conclusion of such illicit relations, +had betrayed itself in a thousand little things, which are like grains +of sand thrown against the panes of the little magical hut where those +who love dwell and dream. These grains of sand, which grow to be +pebbles, had never been discerned by Dinah till they were as big as +rocks. Madame de la Baudraye had at last thoroughly understood +Lousteau's character. + +"He is," she said to her mother, "a poet, defenceless against +disaster, mean out of laziness, not for want of heart, and rather too +prone to pleasure; in short, a great cat, whom it is impossible to +hate. What would become of him without me? I hindered his marriage; he +has no prospects. His talent would perish in privations." + +"Oh, my Dinah!" Madame Piedefer had exclaimed, "what a hell you live +in! What is the feeling that gives you strength enough to persist?" + +"I will be a mother to him!" she had replied. + +There are certain horrible situations in which we come to no decision +till the moment when our friends discern our dishonor. We accept +compromises with ourself so long as we escape a censor who comes to +play prosecutor. Monsieur de Clagny, as clumsy as a tortured man, had +been torturing Dinah. + +"To preserve my love I will be all that Madame de Pompadour was to +preserve her power," said she to herself when Monsieur de Clagny had +left her. And this phrase sufficiently proves that her love was +becoming a burden to her, and would presently be a toil rather than a +pleasure. + +The part now assumed by Dinah was horribly painful, and Lousteau made +it no easier to play. When he wanted to go out after dinner he would +perform the tenderest little farces of affection, and address Dinah in +words full of devotion; he would take her by the chain, and when he +had bruised her with it, even while he hurt her, the lordly ingrate +would say, "Did I wound you?" + +These false caresses and deceptions had degrading consequences for +Dinah, who believed in a revival of his love. The mother, alas, gave +way to the mistress with shameful readiness. She felt herself a mere +plaything in the man's hands, and at last she confessed to herself: + +"Well, then, I will be his plaything!" finding joy in it--the rapture +of damnation. + +When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living +in solitude, she felt her courage fail. She preferred the anticipated +and inevitable miseries of this fierce intimacy to the absence of the +joys, which were all the more exquisite because they arose from the +midst of remorse, of terrible struggles with herself, of a _No_ +persuaded to be _Yes_. At every moment she seemed to come across the +pool of bitter water found in a desert, and drunk with greater relish +than the traveler would find in sipping the finest wines at a prince's +table. + +When Dinah wondered to herself at midnight: + +"Will he come home, or will he not?" she was not alive again till she +heard the familiar sound of Lousteau's boots, and his well-known ring +at the bell. + +She would often try to restrain him by giving him pleasure; she would +hope to be a match for her rivals, and leave them no hold on that +agitated heart. How many times a day would she rehearse the tragedy of +_Le Dernier Jour d'un condamne_, saying to herself, "To-morrow we +part." And how often would a word, a look, a kiss full of apparently +artless feeling, bring her back to the depths of her love! + +It was terrible. More than once had she meditated suicide as she paced +the little town garden where a few pale flowers bloomed. In fact, she +had not yet exhausted the vast treasure of devotion and love which a +loving woman bears in her heart. + +The romance of _Adolphe_ was her Bible, her study, for above all else +she would not be an Ellenore. She allowed herself no tears, she +avoided all the bitterness so cleverly described by the critic to whom +we owe an analysis of this striking work; whose comments indeed seemed +to Dinah almost superior to the book. And she read again and again +this fine essay by the only real critic who has written in the _Revue +des Deux Mondes_, an article now printed at the beginning of the new +edition of _Adolphe_. + +"No," she would say to herself, as she repeated the author's fateful +words, "no, I will not 'give my requests the form of an order,' I will +not 'fly to tears as a means of revenge,' I will not 'condemn the +things I once approved without reservation,' I will not 'dog his +footsteps with a prying eye'; if he plays truant, he shall not on his +return 'see a scornful lip, whose kiss is an unanswerable command.' +No, 'my silence shall not be a reproach nor my first word a quarrel.' +--I will not be like every other woman!" she went on, laying on her +table the little yellow paper volume which had already attracted +Lousteau's remark, "What! are you studying _Adolphe_?"--"If for one +day only he should recognize my merits and say, 'That victim never +uttered a cry!'--it will be all I ask. And besides, the others only +have him for an hour; I have him for life!" + +Thinking himself justified by his private tribunal in punishing his +wife, Monsieur de la Baudraye robbed her to achieve his cherished +enterprise of reclaiming three thousand acres of moorland, to which he +had devoted himself ever since 1836, living like a mouse. He +manipulated the property left by Monsieur Silas Piedefer so +ingeniously, that he contrived to reduce the proved value to eight +hundred thousand francs, while pocketing twelve hundred thousand. He +did not announce his return; but while his wife was enduring +unspeakable woes, he was building farms, digging trenches, and +ploughing rough ground with a courage that ranked him among the most +remarkable agriculturists of the province. + +The four hundred thousand francs he had filched from his wife were +spent in three years on this undertaking, and the estate of Anzy was +expected to return seventy-two thousand francs a year of net profits +after the taxes were paid. The eight hundred thousand he invested at +four and a half per cent in the funds, buying at eighty francs, at the +time of the financial crisis brought about by the Ministry of the +First of March, as it was called. By thus securing to his wife an +income of forty-eight thousand francs he considered himself no longer +in her debt. Could he not restore the odd twelve hundred thousand as +soon as the four and a half per cents had risen above a hundred? He +was now the greatest man in Sancerre, with the exception of one--the +richest proprietor in France--whose rival he considered himself. He +saw himself with an income of a hundred and forty thousand francs, of +which ninety thousand formed the revenue from the lands he had +entailed. Having calculated that besides this net income he paid ten +thousand francs in taxes, three thousand in working expenses, ten +thousand to his wife, and twelve hundred to his mother-in-law, he +would say in the literary circles of Sancerre: + +"I am reputed miserly, and said to spend nothing; but my outlay +amounts to twenty-six thousand five hundred francs a year. And I have +still to pay for the education of my two children! I daresay it is not +a pleasing fact to the Milauds of Nevers, but the second house of La +Baudraye may yet have as noble a center as the first.--I shall most +likely go to Paris and petition the King of the French to grant me the +title of Count--Monsieur Roy is a Count--and my wife would be pleased +to be Madame la Comtesse." + +And this was said with such splendid coolness that no one would have +dared to laugh at the little man. Only Monsieur Boirouge, the +Presiding Judge, remarked: + +"In your place, I should not be happy unless I had a daughter." + +"Well, I shall go to Paris before long----" said the Baron. + +In the early part of 1842 Madame de la Baudraye, feeling that she was +to Lousteau no more than a reserve in the background, had again +sacrificed herself absolutely to secure his comfort; she had resumed +her black raiment, but now it was in sign of mourning, for her +pleasure was turning to remorse. She was too often put to shame not to +feel the weight of the chain, and her mother found her sunk in those +moods of meditation into which visions of the future cast unhappy +souls in a sort of torpor. + +Madame Piedefer, by the advice of her spiritual director, was on the +watch for the moment of exhaustion, which the priest told her would +inevitably supervene, and then she pleaded in behalf of the children. +She restricted herself to urging that Dinah and Lousteau should live +apart, not asking her to give him up. In real life these violent +situations are not closed as they are in books, by death or cleverly +contrived catastrophes; they end far less poetically--in disgust, in +the blighting of every flower of the soul, in the commonplace of +habit, and very often too in another passion, which robs a wife of the +interest which is traditionally ascribed to women. So, when common +sense, the law of social proprieties, family interest--all the mixed +elements which, since the Restoration, have been dignified by the mane +of Public Morals, out of sheer aversion to the name of the Catholic +religion--where this is seconded by a sense of insults a little too +offensive; when the fatigue of constant self-sacrifice has almost +reached the point of exhaustion; and when, under these circumstances, +a too cruel blow--one of those mean acts which a man never lets a +woman know of unless he believes himself to be her assured master +--puts the crowning touch to her revulsion and disenchantment, the +moment has come for the intervention of the friend who undertakes the +cure. Madame Piedefer had no great difficulty now in removing the film +from her daughter's eyes. + +She sent for Monsieur de Clagny, who completed the work by assuring +Madame de la Baudraye that if she would give up Etienne, her husband +would allow her to keep the children and to live in Paris, and would +restore her to the command of her own fortune. + +"And what a life you are leading!" said he. "With care and judgment, +and the support of some pious and charitable persons, you may have a +salon and conquer a position. Paris is not Sancerre." + +Dinah left it to Monsieur de Clagny to negotiate a reconciliation with +the old man. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye had sold his wine well, he had sold his wool, +he had felled his timber, and, without telling his wife, he had come +to Paris to invest two hundred thousand francs in the purchase of a +delightful residence in the Rue de l'Arcade, that was being sold in +liquidation of an aristocratic House that was in difficulties. He had +been a member of the Council for the Department since 1826, and now, +paying ten thousand francs in taxes, he was doubly qualified for a +peerage under the conditions of the new legislation. + +Some time before the elections of 1842 he had put himself forward as +candidate unless he were meanwhile called to the Upper House as Peer +of France. At the same time, he asked for the title of Count, and for +promotion to the higher grade of the Legion of Honor. In the matter of +the elections, the dynastic nominations; now, in the event of Monsieur +de la Baudraye being won over to the Government, Sancerre would be +more than ever a rotten borough of royalism. Monsieur de Clagny, whose +talents and modesty were more and more highly appreciated by the +authorities, gave Monsieur de la Baudraye his support; he pointed out +that by raising this enterprising agriculturist to the peerage, a +guarantee would be offered to such important undertakings. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, then, a Count, a Peer of France, and +Commander of the Legion of Honor, was vain enough to wish to cut a +figure with a wife and handsomely appointed house.--"He wanted to +enjoy life," he said. + +He therefore addressed a letter to his wife, dictated by Monsieur de +Clagny, begging her to live under his roof and to furnish the house, +giving play to the taste of which the evidences, he said, had charmed +him at the Chateau d'Anzy. The newly made Count pointed out to his +wife that while the interests of their property forbade his leaving +Sancerre, the education of their boys required her presence in Paris. +The accommodating husband desired Monsieur de Clagny to place sixty +thousand francs at the disposal of Madame la Comtesse for the interior +decoration of their mansion, requesting that she would have a marble +tablet inserted over the gateway with the inscription: _Hotel de la +Baudraye_. + +He then accounted to his wife for the money derived from the estate of +Silas Piedefer, told her of the investment at four and a half per cent +of the eight hundred thousand francs he had brought from New York, and +allowed her that income for her expenses, including the education of +the children. As he would be compelled to stay in Paris during some +part of the session of the House of Peers, he requested his wife to +reserve for him a little suite of rooms in an _entresol_ over the +kitchens. + +"Bless me! why, he is growing young again--a gentleman!--a magnifico! +--What will he become next? It is quite alarming," said Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"He now fulfils all your wishes at the age of twenty," replied the +lawyer. + +The comparison of her future prospects with her present position was +unendurable to Dinah. Only the day before, Anna de Fontaine had turned +her head away in order to avoid seeing her bosom friend at the +Chamarolles' school. + +"I am a countess," said Dinah to herself. "I shall have the peer's +blue hammer-cloth on my carriage, and the leaders of the literary +world in my drawing-room--and I will look at her!"--And it was this +little triumph that told with all its weight at the moment of her +rehabilitation, as the world's contempt had of old weighed on her +happiness. + + + +One fine day, in May 1842, Madame de la Baudraye paid all her little +household debts and left a thousand crowns on top of the packet of +receipted bills. After sending her mother and the children away to the +Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the +house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said: + +"I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the +pleasure of your company at the _Rocher de Cancale_." + +She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy +manners assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave +of his least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months +past. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night," said he +--_une premiere_, the slang abbreviation for a first performance. + +"Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye," said +Dinah gravely. "I do not mean to understand such a word as _figged +out_." + +"Didine a rebel!" said he, putting his arm round her waist. + +"There is no such person as Didine; you have killed her, my dear," she +replied, releasing herself. "I am taking you to the first performance +of _Madame la Comtesse de la Baudraye_." + +"It is true, then, that our insect is a peer of France?" + +"The nomination is to be gazetted in this evening's _Moniteur_, as I +am told by Monsieur de Clagny, who is promoted to the Court of +Appeal." + +"Well, it is quite right," said the journalist. "The entomology of +society ought to be represented in the Upper House." + +"My friend, we are parting for ever," said Madame de la Baudraye, +trying to control the trembling of her voice. "I have dismissed the +two servants. When you go in, you will find the house in order, and no +debts. I shall always feel a mother's affection for you, but in +secret. Let us part calmly, without a fuss, like decent people. + +"Have you had a fault to find with my conduct during the past six +years?" + +"None, but that you have spoiled my life, and wrecked my prospects," +said he in a hard tone. "You have read Benjamin Constant's book very +diligently; you have even studied the last critique on it; but you +have read with a woman's eyes. Though you have one of those superior +intellects which would make a fortune of a poet, you have never dared +to take the man's point of view. + +"That book, my dear, is of both sexes.--We agreed that books were male +or female, dark or fair. In _Adolphe_ women see nothing but Ellenore; +young men see only Adolphe; men of experience see Ellenore and +Adolphe; political men see the whole of social existence. You did not +think it necessary to read the soul of Adolphe--any more than your +critic indeed, who saw only Ellenore. What kills that poor fellow, my +dear, is that he has sacrificed his future for a woman; that he never +can be what he might have been--an ambassador, a minister, a +chamberlain, a poet--and rich. He gives up six years of his energy at +that stage of his life when a man is ready to submit to the hardships +of any apprenticeship--to a petticoat, which he outstrips in the +career of ingratitude, for the woman who has thrown over her first +lover is certain sooner or later to desert the second. Adolphe is, in +fact, a tow-haired German, who has not spirit enough to be false to +Ellenore. There are Adolphes who spare their Ellenores all ignominious +quarreling and reproaches, who say to themselves, 'I will not talk of +what I have sacrificed; I will not for ever be showing the stump of my +wrist to let that incarnate selfishness I have made my queen,' as +Ramorny does in _The Fair Maid of Perth_. But men like that, my dear, +get cast aside. + +"Adolphe is a man of birth, an aristocratic nature, who wants to get +back into the highroad to honors and recover his social birthright, +his blighted position.--You, at this moment, are playing both parts. +You are suffering from the pangs of having lost your position, and +think yourself justified in throwing over a hapless lover whose +misfortune it has been that he fancied you so far superior as to +understand that, though a man's heart ought to be true, his sex may be +allowed to indulge its caprices." + +"And do you suppose that I shall not make it my business to restore to +you all you have lost by me? Be quite easy," said Madame de la +Baudraye, astounded by this attack. "Your Ellenore is not dying; and +if God gives her life, if you amend your ways, if you give up +courtesans and actresses, we will find you a better match than a +Felicie Cardot." + +The two lovers were sullen. Lousteau affected dejection, he aimed at +appearing hard and cold; while Dinah, really distressed, listened to +the reproaches of her heart. + +"Why," said Lousteau presently, "why not end as we ought to have begun +--hide our love from all eyes, and see each other in secret?" + +"Never!" cried the new-made Countess, with an icy look. "Do you not +comprehend that we are, after all, but finite creatures? Our feelings +seem infinite by reason of our anticipation of heaven, but here on +earth they are limited by the strength of our physical being. There +are some feeble, mean natures which may receive an endless number of +wounds and live on; but there are some more highly-tempered souls +which snap at last under repeated blows. You have--" + +"Oh! enough!" cried he. "No more copy! Your dissertation is +unnecessary, since you can justify yourself by merely saying--'I have +ceased to love!'" + +"What!" she exclaimed in bewilderment. "Is it I who have ceased to +love?" + +"Certainly. You have calculated that I gave you more trouble, more +vexation than pleasure, and you desert your partner--" + +"I desert!----" cried she, clasping her hands. + +"Have not you yourself just said 'Never'?" + +"Well, then, yes! _Never_," she repeated vehemently. + +This final _Never_, spoken in the fear of falling once more under +Lousteau's influence, was interpreted by him as the death-warrant of +his power, since Dinah remained insensible to his sarcastic scorn. + +The journalist could not suppress a tear. He was losing a sincere and +unbounded affection. He had found in Dinah the gentlest La Valliere, +the most delightful Pompadour that any egoist short of a king could +hope for; and, like a boy who has discovered that by dint of +tormenting a cockchafer he has killed it, Lousteau shed a tear. + +Madame de la Baudraye rushed out of the private room where they had +been dining, paid the bill, and fled home to the Rue de l'Arcade, +scolding herself and thinking herself a brute. + + + +Dinah, who had made her house a model of comfort, now metamorphosed +herself. This double metamorphosis cost thirty thousand francs more +than her husband had anticipated. + +The fatal accident which in 1842 deprived the House of Orleans of the +heir-presumptive having necessitated a meeting of the Chambers in +August of that year, little La Baudraye came to present his titles to +the Upper House sooner than he had expected, and then saw what his +wife had done. He was so much delighted, that he paid the thirty +thousand francs without a word, just as he had formerly paid eight +thousand for decorating La Baudraye. + +On his return from the Luxembourg, where he had been presented +according to custom by two of his peers--the Baron de Nucingen and the +Marquis de Montriveau--the new Count met the old Duc de Chaulieu, a +former creditor, walking along, umbrella in hand, while he himself sat +perched in a low chaise on which his coat-of-arms was resplendent, +with the motto, _Deo sic patet fides et hominibus_. This contrast +filled his heart with a large draught of the balm on which the middle +class has been getting drunk ever since 1840. + +Madame de la Baudraye was shocked to see her husband improved and +looking better than on the day of his marriage. The little dwarf, full +of rapturous delight, at sixty-four triumphed in the life which had so +long been denied him; in the family, which his handsome cousin Milaud +of Nevers had declared he would never have; and in his wife--who had +asked Monsieur and Madame de Clagny to dinner to meet the cure of the +parish and his two sponsors to the Chamber of Peers. He petted the +children with fatuous delight. + +The handsome display on the table met with his approval. + +"These are the fleeces of the Berry sheep," said he, showing Monsieur +de Nucingen the dish-covers surmounted by his newly-won coronet. "They +are of silver, you see!" + +Though consumed by melancholy, which she concealed with the +determination of a really superior woman, Dinah was charming, witty, +and above all, young again in her court mourning. + +"You might declare," cried La Baudraye to Monsieur de Nucingen with a +wave of his hand to his wife, "that the Countess was not yet thirty." + +"Ah, ha! Matame is a voman of dirty!" replied the baron, who was prone +to time-honored remarks, which he took to be the small change of +conversation. + +"In every sense of the words," replied the Countess. "I am, in fact, +five-and-thirty, and mean to set up a little passion--" + +"Oh, yes, my wife ruins me in curiosities and china images--" + +"She started that mania at an early age," said the Marquis de +Montriveau with a smile. + +"Yes," said La Baudraye, with a cold stare at the Marquis, whom he had +known at Bourges, "you know that in '25, '26, and '27, she picked a +million francs' worth of treasures. Anzy is a perfect museum." + +"What a cool hand!" thought Monsieur de Clagny, as he saw this little +country miser quite on the level of his new position. + +But misers have savings of all kinds ready for use. + +On the day after the vote on the Regency had passed the Chambers, the +little Count went back to Sancerre for the vintage and resumed his old +habits. + +In the course of that winter, the Comtesse de la Baudraye, with the +support of the Attorney-General to the Court of Appeals, tried to form +a little circle. Of course, she had an "at home" day, she made a +selection among men of mark, receiving none but those of serious +purpose and ripe years. She tried to amuse herself by going to the +Opera, French and Italian. Twice a week she appeared there with her +mother and Madame de Clagny, who was made by her husband to visit +Dinah. Still, in spite of her cleverness, her charming manners, her +fashionable stylishness, she was never really happy but with her +children, on whom she lavished all her disappointed affection. + +Worthy Monsieur de Clagny tried to recruit women for the Countess' +circle, and he succeeded; but he was more successful among the +advocates of piety than the women of fashion. + +"And they bore her!" said he to himself with horror, as he saw his +idol matured by grief, pale from remorse, and then, in all the +splendor of recovered beauty, restored by a life of luxury and care +for her boys. This devoted friend, encouraged in his efforts by her +mother and by the cure was full of expedient. Every Wednesday he +introduced some celebrity from Germany, England, Italy, or Prussia to +his dear Countess; he spoke of her as a quite exceptional woman to +people to whom she hardly addressed two words; but she listened to +them with such deep attention that they went away fully convinced of +her superiority. In Paris, Dinah conquered by silence, as at Sancerre +she had conquered by loquacity. Now and then, some smart saying about +affairs, or sarcasm on an absurdity, betrayed a woman accustomed to +deal with ideas--the woman who, four years since, had given new life +to Lousteau's articles. + +This phase was to the poor lawyer's hapless passion like the late +season known as the Indian summer after a sunless year. He affected to +be older than he was, to have the right to befriend Dinah without +doing her an injury, and kept himself at a distance as though he were +young, handsome, and compromising, like a man who has happiness to +conceal. He tried to keep his little attentions a profound secret, and +the trifling gifts which Dinah showed to every one; he endeavored to +suggest a dangerous meaning for his little services. + +"He plays at passion," said the Countess, laughing. She made fun of +Monsieur de Clagny to his face, and the lawyer said, "She notices me." + +"I impress that poor man so deeply," said she to her mother, laughing, +"that if I would say Yes, I believe he would say No." + +One evening Monsieur de Clagny and his wife were taking his dear +Countess home from the theatre, and she was deeply pensive. They had +been to the first performance of Leon Gozlan's first play, _La Main +Droite et la Main Gauche_ (The Right Hand and the Left). + +"What are you thinking about?" asked the lawyer, alarmed at his idol's +dejection. + +This deep and persistent melancholy, though disguised by the Countess, +was a perilous malady for which Monsieur de Clagny knew no remedy; for +true love is often clumsy, especially when it is not reciprocated. +True love takes its expression from the character. Now, this good man +loved after the fashion of Alceste, when Madame de la Baudraye wanted +to be loved after the manner of Philinte. The meaner side of love can +never get on with the Misanthrope's loyalty. Thus, Dinah had taken +care never to open her heart to this man. How could she confess to him +that she sometimes regretted the slough she had left? + +She felt a void in this fashionable life; she had no one for whom to +dress, or whom to tell of her successes and triumphs. Sometimes the +memory of her wretchedness came to her, mingled with memories of +consuming joys. She would hate Lousteau for not taking any pains to +follow her; she would have liked to get tender or furious letters from +him. + +Dinah made no reply, so Monsieur de Clagny repeated the question, +taking the Countess' hand and pressing it between his own with devout +respect. + +"Will you have the right hand or the left?" said she, smiling. + +"The left," said he, "for I suppose you mean the truth or a fib." + +"Well, then, I saw him," she said, speaking into the lawyer's ear. +"And as I saw him looking so sad, so out of heart, I said to myself, +Has he a cigar? Has he any money?" + +"If you wish for the truth, I can tell it you," said the lawyer. "He +is living as a husband with Fanny Beaupre. You have forced me to tell +you this secret; I should never have told you, for you might have +suspected me perhaps of an ungenerous motive." + +Madame de la Baudraye grasped his hand. + +"Your husband," said she to her chaperon, "is one of the rarest souls! +--Ah! Why----" + +She shrank into her corner, looking out of the window, but she did not +finish her sentence, of which the lawyer could guess the end: "Why had +not Lousteau a little of your husband's generosity of heart?" + +This information served, however, to cure Dinah of her melancholy; she +threw herself into the whirl of fashion. She wished for success, and +she achieved it; still, she did not make much way with women, and +found it difficult to get introductions. + +In the month of March, Madame Piedefer's friends the priests and +Monsieur de Clagny made a fine stroke by getting Madame de la Baudraye +appointed receiver of subscriptions for the great charitable work +founded by Madame de Carcado. Then she was commissioned to collect +from the Royal Family their donations for the benefit of the sufferers +from the earthquake at Guadeloupe. The Marquise d'Espard, to whom +Monsieur de Canalis read the list of ladies thus appointed, one +evening at the Opera, said, on hearing that of the Countess: + +"I have lived a long time in the world, and I can remember nothing +finer than the manoeuvres undertaken for the rehabilitation of Madame +de la Baudraye." + + + +In the early spring, which, by some whim of our planets, smiled on +Paris in the first week of March in 1843, making the Champs-Elysees +green and leafy before Longchamp, Fanny Beaupre's attache had seen +Madame de la Baudraye several times without being seen by her. More +than once he was stung to the heart by one of those promptings of +jealousy and envy familiar to those who are born and bred provincials, +when he beheld his former mistress comfortably ensconced in a handsome +carriage, well dressed, with dreamy eyes, and his two little boys, one +at each window. He accused himself with all the more virulence because +he was waging war with the sharpest poverty of all--poverty +unconfessed. Like all essentially light and frivolous natures, he +cherished the singular point of honor which consists in never +derogating in the eyes of one's own little public, which makes men on +the Bourse commit crimes to escape expulsion from the temple of the +goddess Per-cent, and has given some criminals courage enough to +perform acts of virtue. + +Lousteau dined and breakfasted and smoked as if he were a rich man. +Not for an inheritance would he have bought any but the dearest +cigars, for himself as well as for the playwright or author with whom +he went into the shop. The journalist took his walks abroad in patent +leather boots; but he was constantly afraid of an execution on goods +which, to use the bailiff's slang, had already received the last +sacrament. Fanny Beaupre had nothing left to pawn, and her salary was +pledged to pay her debts. After exhausting every possible advance of +pay from newspapers, magazines, and publishers, Etienne knew not of +what ink he could churn gold. Gambling-houses, so ruthlessly +suppressed, could no longer, as of old, cash I O U's drawn over the +green table by beggary in despair. In short, the journalist was +reduced to such extremity that he had just borrowed a hundred francs +of the poorest of his friends, Bixiou, from whom he had never yet +asked for a franc. What distressed Lousteau was not the fact of owing +five thousand francs, but seeing himself bereft of his elegance, and +of the furniture purchased at the cost of so many privations, and +added to by Madame de la Baudraye. + +On April the 3rd, a yellow poster, torn down by the porter after being +displayed on the wall, announced the sale of a handsome suite of +furniture on the following Saturday, the day fixed for sales under +legal authority. Lousteau was taking a walk, smoking cigars, and +seeking ideas--for, in Paris, ideas are in the air, they smile on you +from a street corner, they splash up with a spurt of mud from under +the wheels of a cab! Thus loafing, he had been seeking ideas for +articles, and subjects for novels for a month past, and had found +nothing but friends who carried him off to dinner or to the play, and +who intoxicated his woes, telling him that champagne would inspire +him. + +"Beware," said the virulent Bixiou one night, the man who would at the +same moment give a comrade a hundred francs and stab him to the heart +with a sarcasm; "if you go to sleep drunk every night, one day you +will wake up mad." + +On the day before, the Friday, the unhappy wretch, although he was +accustomed to poverty, felt like a man condemned to death. Of old he +would have said: + +"Well, the furniture is very old! I will buy new." + +But he was incapable now of literary legerdemain. Publishers, +undermined by piracy, paid badly; the newspapers made close bargains +with hard-driven writers, as the Opera managers did with tenors that +sang flat. + +He walked on, his eye on the crowd, though seeing nothing, a cigar in +his mouth, and his hands in his pockets, every feature of his face +twitching, and an affected smile on his lips. Then he saw Madame de la +Baudraye go by in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the +Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin to drive in the Bois. + +"There is nothing else left!" said he to himself, and he went home to +smarten himself up. + +That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de la +Baudraye's door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the +Countess--a few lines, as follows: + +"Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving +him for a moment, and at once?" + +This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used. +Madame de la Baudraye had had the word _Parce que_ engraved on a +genuine Oriental carnelian--a potent word--a woman's word--the word +that accounts for everything, even for the Creation. + +The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was +her night in turn for her box. At the sight of this seal she turned +pale. + +"I will come," she said, tucking the note into her dress. + +She was firm enough to conceal her agitation, and begged her mother to +see the children put to bed. She then sent for Lousteau, and received +him in a boudoir, next to the great drawing-room, with open doors. She +was going to a ball after the Opera, and was wearing a beautiful dress +of brocade in stripes alternately plain and flowered with pale blue. +Her gloves, trimmed with tassels, showed off her beautiful white arms. +She was shimmering with lace and all the dainty trifles required by +fashion. Her hair, dressed _a la Sevigne_, gave her a look of +elegance; a necklace of pearls lay on her bosom like bubbles on snow. + +"What is the matter, monsieur?" said the Countess, putting out her +foot from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. "I thought, +I hoped, I was quite forgotten." + +"If I should reply _Never_, you would refuse to believe me," said +Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the +flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented +the room. + +For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying +Lousteau, saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might +have been. + +"You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a +plank to me--for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than +one mouthful----" said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and +seeming to yield to an overpowering impulse. "Since you see me here, +it is because my affairs are going to the devil." + +"That is enough," said she; "I understand." + +There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out +his handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear. + +"How much do you want, Etienne," she went on in motherly tones. "We +are at this moment old comrades; speak to me as you would to--to +Bixiou." + +"To save my furniture from vanishing into thin air to-morrow morning +at the auction mart, eighteen hundred francs! To repay my friends, as +much again! Three quarters' rent to the landlord--whom you know.--My +'uncle' wants five hundred francs--" + +"And you!--to live on?" + +"Oh! I have my pen----" + +"It is heavier to lift than any one could believe who reads your +articles," said she, with a subtle smile.--"I have not such a sum as +you need, but come to-morrow at eight; the bailiff will surely wait +till nine, especially if you bring him away to pay him." + +She must, she felt, dismiss Lousteau, who affected to be unable to +look at her; she herself felt such pity as might cut every social +Gordian knot. + +"Thank you," she added, rising and offering her hand to Lousteau. +"Your confidence has done me good! It is long indeed since my heart +has known such joy----" + +Lousteau took her hand and pressed it tenderly to his heart. + +"A drop of water in the desert--and sent by the hand of an angel! God +always does things handsomely!" + +He spoke half in jest and half pathetically; but, believe me, as a +piece of acting it was as fine as Talma's in his famous part of +_Leicester_, which was played throughout with touches of this kind. +Dinah felt his heart beating through his coat; it was throbbing with +satisfaction, for the journalist had had a narrow escape from the +hulks of justice; but it also beat with a very natural fire at seeing +Dinah rejuvenescent and restored by wealth. + +Madame de la Baudraye, stealing an examining glance at Etienne, saw +that his expression was in harmony with the flowers of love, which, as +she thought, had blossomed again in that throbbing heart; she tried to +look once into the eyes of the man she had loved so well, but the +seething blood rushed through her veins and mounted to her brain. +Their eyes met with the same fiery glow as had encouraged Lousteau on +the Quay by the Loire to crumple Dinah's muslin gown. The Bohemian put +his arm round her waist, she yielded, and their cheeks were touching. + +"Here comes my mother, hide!" cried Dinah in alarm. And she hurried +forward to intercept Madame Piedefer. + +"Mamma," said she--this word was to the stern old lady a coaxing +expression which never failed of its effect--"will you do me a great +favor? Take the carriage and go yourself to my banker, Monsieur +Mongenod, with a note I will give you, and bring back six thousand +francs. Come, come--it is an act of charity; come into my room." + +And she dragged away her mother, who seemed very anxious to see who it +was that her daughter had been talking with in the boudoir. + +Two days afterwards, Madame Piedefer held a conference with the cure +of the parish. After listening to the lamentations of the old mother, +who was in despair, the priest said very gravely: + +"Any moral regeneration which is not based on a strong religious +sentiment, and carried out in the bosom of the Church, is built on +sand.--The many means of grace enjoined by the Catholic religion, +small as they are, and not understood, are so many dams necessary to +restrain the violence of evil promptings. Persuade your daughter to +perform all her religious duties, and we shall save her yet." + +Within ten days of this meeting the Hotel de la Baudraye was shut up. +The Countess, the children, and her mother, in short, the whole +household, including a tutor, had gone away to Sancerre, where Dinah +intended to spend the summer. She was everything that was nice to the +Count, people said. + +And so the Muse of Sancerre had simply come back to family and married +life; but certain evil tongues declared that she had been compelled to +come back, for that the little peer's wishes would no doubt be +fulfilled--he hoped for a little girl. + +Gatien and Monsieur Gravier lavished every care, every servile +attention on the handsome Countess. Gatien, who during Madame de la +Baudraye's long absence had been to Paris to learn the art of +_lionnerie_ or dandyism, was supposed to have a good chance of finding +favor in the eyes of the disenchanted "Superior Woman." Others bet on +the tutor; Madame Piedefer urged the claims of religion. + +In 1844, about the middle of June, as the Comte de la Baudraye was +taking a walk on the Mall at Sancerre with the two fine little boys, +he met Monsieur Milaud, the Public Prosecutor, who was at Sancerre on +business, and said to him: + +"These are my children, cousin." + +"Ah, ha! so these are our children!" replied the lawyer, with a +mischievous twinkle. + + + +PARIS, June 1843-August 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Beaupre, Fanny + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Berthier, Madame (Felicie Cardot) + Cousin Pons + +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 + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + 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 + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de + The Member for Arcis + +Falcon, Jean + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + +Grosstete (younger brother of F. Grosstete) + The Country Parson + +Hulot (Marshal) + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + +La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + A Prince of Bohemia + Cousin Betty + +Lebas + Cousin Betty + +Listomere, Baronne de + The Vicar of Tours + Cesar Birotteau + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + +Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Milaud + Lost Illusions + +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 + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + 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 Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + +Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Ronceret, Madame Fabien du + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Rouget, Jean-Jacques + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + +Turquet, Marguerite + The Imaginary Mistress + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + +Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Muse of the Department, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 1912.txt or 1912.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/9/1/1912/ + +Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com +and John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz + + + + + +The Muse of the Department + +by Honore de Balzac + +Translated by James Waring + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Monsieur le Comte Ferdinand de Gramont. + + MY DEAR FERDINAND,--If the chances of the world of literature-- + /habent sua fata libelli/--should allow these lines to be an + enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the + trouble you have taken--you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at- + Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, + Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, + Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Valois--the hundred great names that form + the Aristocracy of the "Human Comedy" owe their lordly mottoes and + ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, "the Armorial of the Etudes, + devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman," is a complete manual + of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the + arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of + friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of + the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the + Beauseants, /Pulchre sedens, melius agens/; in that of the + Espards, /Des partem leonis/; in that of the Vandenesses, /Ne se + vend/. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned + symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried + in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. + +Your old friend, +DE BALZAC. + + + + +THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT + + + + +On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, +infallibly attracts the traveler's eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost +height of a chain of hills, the last of the range that gives variety +to the Nivernais. The Loire floods the flats at the foot of these +slopes, leaving a yellow alluvium that is extremely fertile, excepting +in those places where it has deluged them with sand and destroyed them +forever, by one of those terrible risings which are also incidental to +the Vistula--the Loire of the northern coast. + +The hill on which the houses of Sancerre are grouped is so far from +the river that the little river-port of Saint-Thibault thrives on the +life of Sancerre. There wine is shipped and oak staves are landed, +with all the produce brought from the upper and lower Loire. At the +period when this story begins the suspension bridges at Cosne and at +Saint-Thibault were already built. Travelers from Paris to Sancerre by +the southern road were no longer ferried across the river from Cosne +to Saint-Thibault; and this of itself is enough to show that the great +cross-shuffle of 1830 was a thing of the past, for the House of +Orleans has always had a care for substantial improvements, though +somewhat after the fashion of a husband who makes his wife presents +out of her marriage portion. + +Excepting that part of Sancerre which occupies the little plateau, the +streets are more or less steep, and the town is surrounded by slopes +known as the Great Ramparts, a name which shows that they are the +highroads of the place. + +Outside the ramparts lies a belt of vineyards. Wine forms the chief +industry and the most important trade of the country, which yields +several vintages of high-class wine full of aroma, and so nearly +resembling the wines of Burgundy, that the vulgar palate is deceived. +So Sancerre finds in the wineshops of Paris the quick market +indispensable for liquor that will not keep for more than seven or +eight years. Below the town lie a few villages, Fontenoy and Saint- +Satur, almost suburbs, reminding us by their situation of the smiling +vineyards about Neuchatel in Switzerland. + +The town still bears much of its ancient aspect; the streets are +narrow and paved with pebbles carted up from the Loire. Some old +houses are to be seen there. The citadel, a relic of military power +and feudal times, stood one of the most terrible sieges of our +religious wars, when French Calvinists far outdid the ferocious +Cameronians of Walter Scott's tales. + +The town of Sancerre, rich in its greater past, but widowed now of its +military importance, is doomed to an even less glorious future, for +the course of trade lies on the right bank of the Loire. The sketch +here given shows that Sancerre will be left more and more lonely in +spite of the two bridges connecting it with Cosne. + +Sancerre, the pride of the left bank, numbers three thousand five +hundred inhabitants at most, while at Cosne there are now more than +six thousand. Within half a century the part played by these two towns +standing opposite each other has been reversed. The advantage of +situation, however, remains with the historic town, whence the view on +every side is perfectly enchanting, where the air is deliciously pure, +the vegetation splendid, and the residents, in harmony with nature, +are friendly souls, good fellows, and devoid of Puritanism, though +two-thirds of the population are Calvinists. Under such conditions, +though there are the usual disadvantages of life in a small town, and +each one lives under the officious eye which makes private life almost +a public concern, on the other hand, the spirit of township--a sort of +patriotism, which cannot indeed take the place of a love of home-- +flourishes triumphantly. + +Thus the town of Sancerre is exceedingly proud of having given birth +to one of the glories of modern medicine, Horace Bianchon, and to an +author of secondary rank, Etienne Lousteau, one of our most successful +journalists. The district included under the municipality of Sancerre, +distressed at finding itself practically ruled by seven or eight large +landowners, the wire-pullers of the elections, tried to shake off the +electoral yoke of a creed which had reduced it to a rotten borough. +This little conspiracy, plotted by a handful of men whose vanity was +provoked, failed through the jealousy which the elevation of one of +them, as the inevitable result, roused in the breasts of the others. +This result showed the radical defect of the scheme, and the remedy +then suggested was to rally round a champion at the next election, in +the person of one of the two men who so gloriously represented +Sancerre in Paris circles. + +This idea was extraordinarily advanced for the provinces, for since +1830 the nomination of parochial dignitaries has increased so greatly +that real statesmen are becoming rare indeed in the lower chamber. + +In point of fact, this plan, of very doubtful outcome, was hatched in +the brain of the Superior Woman of the borough, /dux femina fasti/, +but with a view to personal interest. This idea was so widely rooted +in this lady's past life, and so entirely comprehended her future +prospects, that it can scarcely be understood without some sketch of +her antecedent career. + + + +Sancerre at that time could boast of a Superior Woman, long misprized +indeed, but now, about 1836, enjoying a pretty extensive local +reputation. This, too, was the period at which two Sancerrois in Paris +were attaining, each in his own line, to the highest degree of glory +for one, and of fashion for the other. Etienne Lousteau, a writer in +reviews, signed his name to contributions to a paper that had eight +thousand subscribers; and Bianchon, already chief physician to a +hospital, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and member of the Academy of +Sciences, had just been made a professor. + +If it were not that the word would to many readers seem to imply a +degree of blame, it might be said that George Sand created /Sandism/, +so true is it that, morally speaking, all good has a reverse of evil. +This leprosy of sentimentality would have been charming. Still, +/Sandism/ has its good side, in that the woman attacked by it bases +her assumption of superiority on feelings scorned; she is a blue- +stocking of sentiment; and she is rather less of a bore, love to some +extent neutralizing literature. The most conspicuous result of George +Sand's celebrity was to elicit the fact that France has a perfectly +enormous number of superior women, who have, however, till now been so +generous as to leave the field to the Marechal de Saxe's +granddaughter. + +The Superior Woman of Sancerre lived at La Baudraye, a town-house and +country-house in one, within ten minutes of the town, and in the +village, or, if you will, the suburb of Saint-Satur. The La Baudrayes +of the present day have, as is frequently the case, thrust themselves +in, and are but a substitute for those La Baudrayes whose name, +glorious in the Crusades, figured in the chief events of the history +of Le Berry. + +The story must be told. + +In the time of Louis XIV. a certain sheriff named Milaud, whose +forefathers had been furious Calvinists, was converted at the time of +the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. To encourage this movement in +one of the strong-holds of Calvinism, the King gave said Milaud a good +appointment in the "Waters and Forests," granted him arms and the +title of Sire (or Lord) de la Baudraye, with the fief of the old and +genuine La Baudrayes. The descendants of the famous Captain la +Baudraye fell, sad to say, into one of the snares laid for heretics by +the new decrees, and were hanged--an unworthy deed of the great +King's. + +Under Louis XV. Milaud de la Baudraye, from being a mere squire, was +made Chevalier, and had influence enough to obtain for his son a +cornet's commission in the Musketeers. This officer perished at +Fontenoy, leaving a child, to whom King Louis XVI. subsequently +granted the privileges, by patent, of a farmer-general, in remembrance +of his father's death on the field of battle. + +This financier, a fashionable wit, great at charades, capping verses, +and posies to Chlora, lived in society, was a hanger-on to the Duc de +Nivernais, and fancied himself obliged to follow the nobility into +exile; but he took care to carry his money with him. Thus the rich +/emigre/ was able to assist more than one family of high rank. + +In 1800, tired of hoping, and perhaps tired of lending, he returned to +Sancerre, bought back La Baudraye out of a feeling of vanity and +imaginary pride, quite intelligible in a sheriff's grandson, though +under the consulate his prospects were but slender; all the more so, +indeed, because the ex-farmer-general had small hopes of his heir's +perpetuating the new race of La Baudraye. + +Jean Athanase Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, his only son, more than +delicate from his birth, was very evidently the child of a man whose +constitution had early been exhausted by the excesses in which rich +men indulge, who then marry at the first stage of premature old age, +and thus bring degeneracy into the highest circles of society. During +the years of the emigration Madame de la Baudraye, a girl of no +fortune, chosen for her noble birth, had patiently reared this sallow, +sickly boy, for whom she had the devoted love mothers feel for such +changeling creatures. Her death--she was a Casteran de la Tour-- +contributed to bring about Monsieur de la Baudraye's return to France. + +This Lucullus of the Milauds, when he died, left his son the fief, +stripped indeed of its fines and dues, but graced with weathercocks +bearing his coat-of-arms, a thousand louis-d'or--in 1802 a +considerable sum of money--and certain receipts for claims on very +distinguished /emigres/ enclosed in a pocketbook full of verses, with +this inscription on the wrapper, /Vanitas vanitatum et omnia vanitas/. + +Young La Baudraye did not die, but he owed his life to habits of +monastic strictness; to the economy of action which Fontenelle +preached as the religion of the invalid; and, above all, to the air of +Sancerre and the influence of its fine elevation, whence a panorama +over the valley of the Loire may be seen extending for forty leagues. + +From 1802 to 1815 young La Baudraye added several plots to his +vineyards, and devoted himself to the culture of the vine. The +Restoration seemed to him at first so insecure that he dared not go to +Paris to claim his debts; but after Napoleon's death he tried to turn +his father's collection of autographs into money, though not +understanding the deep philosophy which had thus mixed up I O U's and +copies of verses. But the winegrower lost so much time in impressing +his identity on the Duke of Navarreins "and others," as he phrased it, +that he came back to Sancerre, to his beloved vintage, without having +obtained anything but offers of service. + +The Restoration had raised the nobility to such a degree of lustre as +made La Baudraye wish to justify his ambitions by having an heir. This +happy result of matrimony he considered doubtful, or he would not so +long have postponed the step; however, finding himself still above +ground in 1823, at the age of forty-three, a length of years which no +doctor, astrologer, or midwife would have dared to promise him, he +hoped to earn the reward of his sober life. And yet his choice showed +such a lack of prudence in regard to his frail constitution, that the +malicious wit of a country town could not help thinking it must be the +result of some deep calculation. + +Just at this time His Eminence, Monseigneur the Archbishop of Bourges, +had converted to the Catholic faith a young person, the daughter of +one of the citizen families, who were the first upholders of +Calvinism, and who, thanks to their obscurity or to some compromise +with Heaven, had escaped from the persecutions under Louis XIV. The +Piedefers--a name that was obviously one of the quaint nicknames +assumed by the champions of the Reformation--had set up as highly +respectable cloth merchants. But in the reign of Louis XVI., Abraham +Piedefer fell into difficulties, and at his death in 1786 left his two +children in extreme poverty. One of them, Tobie Piedefer, went out to +the Indies, leaving the pittance they had inherited to his elder +brother. During the Revolution Moise Piedefer bought up the +nationalized land, pulled down abbeys and churches with all the zeal +of his ancestors, oddly enough, and married a Catholic, the only +daughter of a member of the Convention who had perished on the +scaffold. This ambitious Piedefer died in 1819, leaving a little girl +of remarkable beauty. This child, brought up in the Calvinist faith, +was named Dinah, in accordance with the custom in use among the sect, +of taking their Christian names from the Bible, so as to have nothing +in common with the Saints of the Roman Church. + +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer was placed by her mother in one of the +best schools in Bourges, that kept by the Demoiselles Chamarolles, and +was soon as highly distinguished for the qualities of her mind as for +her beauty; but she found herself snubbed by girls of birth and +fortune, destined by-and-by to play a greater part in the world than a +mere plebeian, the daughter of a mother who was dependent on the +settlement of Piedefer's estate. Dinah, having raised herself for the +moment above her companions, now aimed at remaining on a level with +them for the rest of her life. She determined, therefore, to renounce +Calvinism, in the hope that the Cardinal would extend his favor to his +proselyte and interest himself in her prospects. You may from this +judge of Mademoiselle Dinah's superiority, since at the age of +seventeen she was a convert solely from ambition. + +The Archbishop, possessed with the idea that Dinah Piedefer would +adorn society, was anxious to see her married. But every family to +whom the prelate made advances took fright at a damsel gifted with the +looks of a princess, who was reputed to be the cleverest of +Mademoiselle Chamarolles' pupils and who, at the somewhat theatrical +ceremonial of prize-giving, always took a leading part. A thousand +crowns a year, which was as much as she could hope for from the estate +of La Hautoy when divided between the mother and daughter, would be a +mere trifle in comparison with the expenses into which a husband would +be led by the personal advantages of so brilliant a creature. + +As soon as all these facts came to the ears of little Polydore de la +Baudraye--for they were the talk of every circle in the Department of +the Cher--he went to Bourges just when Madame Piedefer, a devotee at +high services, had almost made up her own mind and her daughter's to +take the first comer with well-lined pockets--the first /chien +coiffe/, as they say in Le Berry. And if the Cardinal was delighted to +receive Monsieur de la Baudraye, Monsieur de la Baudraye was even +better pleased to receive a wife from the hands of the Cardinal. The +little gentleman only demanded of His Eminence a formal promise to +support his claims with the President of the Council to enable him to +recover his debts from the Duc de Navarreins "and others" by a lien on +their indemnities. This method, however, seemed to the able Minister +then occupying the Pavillon Marsan rather too sharp practice, and he +gave the vine-owner to understand that his business should be attended +to all in good time. + +It is easy to imagine the excitement produced in the Sancerre district +by the news of Monsieur de la Baudraye's imprudent marriage. + +"It is quite intelligible," said President Boirouge; "the little man +was very much startled, as I am told, at hearing that handsome young +Milaud, the Attorney-General's deputy at Nevers, say to Monsieur de +Clagny as they were looking at the turrets of La Baudraye, 'That will +be mine some day.'--'But,' says Clagny, 'he may marry and have +children.'--'Impossible!'--So you may imagine how such a changeling as +little La Baudraye must hate that colossal Milaud." + +There was at Nevers a plebeian branch of the Milauds, which had grown +so rich in the cutlery trade that the present representative of that +branch had been brought up to the civil service, in which he had +enjoyed the patronage of Marchangy, now dead. + +It will be as well to eliminate from this story, in which moral +developments play the principal part, the baser material interests +which alone occupied Monsieur de la Baudraye, by briefly relating the +results of his negotiations in Paris. This will also throw light on +certain mysterious phenomena of contemporary history, and the +underground difficulties in matters of politics which hampered the +Ministry at the time of the Restoration. + + + +The promises of Ministers were so illusory that Monsieur de la +Baudraye determined on going to Paris at the time when the Cardinal's +presence was required there by the sitting of the Chambers. + +This is how the Duc de Navarreins, the principal debtor threatened by +Monsieur de la Baudraye, got out of the scrape. + +The country gentleman, lodging at the Hotel de Mayence, Rue Saint- +Honore, near the Place Vendome, one morning received a visit from a +confidential agent of the Ministry, who was an expert in "winding up" +business. This elegant personage, who stepped out of an elegant cab, +and was dressed in the most elegant style, was requested to walk up to +No. 3--that is to say, to the third floor, to a small room where he +found his provincial concocting a cup of coffee over his bedroom fire. + +"Is it to Monsieur Milaud de la Baudraye that I have the honor--" + +"Yes," said the little man, draping himself in his dressing-gown. + +After examining this garment, the illicit offspring of an old chine +wrapper of Madame Piedefer's and a gown of the late lamented Madame de +la Baudraye, the emissary considered the man, the dressing-gown, and +the little stove on which the milk was boiling in a tin saucepan, as +so homogeneous and characteristic, that he deemed it needless to beat +about the bush. + +"I will lay a wager, monsieur," said he, audaciously, "that you dine +for forty sous at Hurbain's in the Palais Royal." + +"Pray, why?" + +"Oh, I know you, having seen you there," replied the Parisian with +perfect gravity. "All the princes' creditors dine there. You know that +you recover scarcely ten per cent on debts from these fine gentlemen. +I would not give you five per cent on a debt to be recovered from the +estate of the late Duc d'Orleans--nor even," he added in a low voice-- +"from MONSIEUR." + +"So you have come to buy up the bills?" said La Baudraye, thinking +himself very clever. + +"Buy them!" said his visitor. "Why, what do you take me for? I am +Monsieur des Lupeaulx, Master of Appeals, Secretary-General to the +Ministry, and I have come to propose an arrangement." + +"What is that?" + +"Of course, monsieur, you know the position of your debtor--" + +"Of my debtors--" + +"Well, monsieur, you understand the position of your debtors; they +stand high in the King's good graces, but they have no money, and are +obliged to make a good show.--Again, you know the difficulties of the +political situation. The aristocracy has to be rehabilitated in the +face of a very strong force of the third estate. The King's idea--and +France does him scant justice--is to create a peerage as a national +institution analogous to the English peerage. To realize this grand +idea we need years--and millions.--/Noblesse oblige/. The Duc de +Navarreins, who is, as you know, first gentleman of the Bedchamber to +the King, does not repudiate his debt; but he cannot--Now, be +reasonable.--Consider the state of politics. We are emerging from the +pit of the Revolution.--and you yourself are noble--He simply cannot +pay--" + +"Monsieur--" + +"You are hasty," said des Lupeaulx. "Listen. He cannot pay in money. +Well, then; you, a clever man, can take payment in favors--Royal or +Ministerial." + +"What! When in 1793 my father put down one hundred thousand--" + +"My dear sir, recrimination is useless. Listen to a simple statement +in political arithmetic: The collectorship at Sancerre is vacant; a +certain paymaster-general of the forces has a claim on it, but he has +no chance of getting it; you have the chance--and no claim. You will +get the place. You will hold it for three months, you will then +resign, and Monsieur Gravier will give twenty thousand francs for it. +In addition, the Order of the Legion of Honor will be conferred on +you." + +"Well, that is something," said the wine-grower, tempted by the money +rather than by the red ribbon. + +"But then," said des Lupeaulx, "you must show your gratitude to His +Excellency by restoring to Monseigneur the Duc de Navarreins all your +claims on him." + +La Baudraye returned to Sancerre as Collector of Taxes. Six months +later he was superseded by Monsieur Gravier, regarded as one of the +most agreeable financiers who had served under the Empire, and who was +of course presented by Monsieur de la Baudraye to his wife. + +As soon as he was released from his functions, Monsieur de la Baudraye +returned to Paris to come to an understanding with some other debtors. +This time he was made a Referendary under the Great Seal, Baron, and +Officer of the Legion of Honor. He sold the appointment as +Referendary; and then the Baron de la Baudraye called on his last +remaining debtors, and reappeared at Sancerre as Master of Appeals, +with an appointment as Royal Commissioner to a commercial association +established in the Nivernais, at a salary of six thousand francs, an +absolute sinecure. So the worthy La Baudraye, who was supposed to have +committed a financial blunder, had, in fact, done very good business +in the choice of a wife. + +Thanks to sordid economy and an indemnity paid him for the estate +belonging to his father, nationalized and sold in 1793, by the year +1827 the little man could realize the dream of his whole life. By +paying four hundred thousand francs down, and binding himself to +further instalments, which compelled him to live for six years on the +air as it came, to use his own expression, he was able to purchase the +estate of Anzy on the banks of the Loire, about two leagues above +Sancerre, and its magnificent castle built by Philibert de l'Orme, the +admiration of every connoisseur, and for five centuries the property +of the Uxelles family. At last he was one of the great landowners of +the province! It is not absolutely certain that the satisfaction of +knowing that an entail had been created, by letters patent dated back +to December 1820, including the estates of Anzy, of La Baudraye, and +of La Hautoy, was any compensation to Dinah on finding herself reduced +to unconfessed penuriousness till 1835. + +This sketch of the financial policy of the first Baron de la Baudraye +explains the man completely. Those who are familiar with the manias of +country folks will recognize in him the /land-hunger/ which becomes +such a consuming passion to the exclusion of every other; a sort of +avarice displayed in the sight of the sun, which often leads to ruin +by a want of balance between the interest on mortgages and the +products of the soil. Those who, from 1802 till 1827, had merely +laughed at the little man as they saw him trotting to Saint-Thibault +and attending to his business, like a merchant living on his +vineyards, found the answer to the riddle when the ant-lion seized his +prey, after waiting for the day when the extravagance of the Duchesse +de Maufrigneuse culminated in the sale of that splendid property. + +Madame Piedefer came to live with her daughter. The combined fortunes +of Monsieur de la Baudraye and his mother-in-law, who had been content +to accept an annuity of twelve hundred francs on the lands of La +Hautoy which she handed over to him, amounted to an acknowledged +income of about fifteen thousand francs. + +During the early days of her married life, Dinah had effected some +alterations which had made the house at La Baudraye a very pleasant +residence. She turned a spacious forecourt into a formal garden, +pulling down wine-stores, presses, and shabby outhouses. Behind the +manor-house, which, though small, did not lack style with its turrets +and gables, she laid out a second garden with shrubs, flower-beds, and +lawns, and divided it from the vineyards by a wall hidden under +creepers. She also made everything within doors as comfortable as +their narrow circumstances allowed. + +In order not to be ruined by a young lady so very superior as Dinah +seemed to be, Monsieur de la Baudraye was shrewd enough to say nothing +as to the recovery of debts in Paris. This dead secrecy as to his +money matters gave a touch of mystery to his character, and lent him +dignity in his wife's eyes during the first years of their married +life--so majestic is silence! + +The alterations effected at La Baudraye made everybody eager to see +the young mistress, all the more so because Dinah would never show +herself, nor receive any company, before she felt quite settled in her +home and had thoroughly studied the inhabitants, and, above all, her +taciturn husband. When, one spring morning in 1825, pretty Madame de +la Baudraye was first seen walking on the Mall in a blue velvet dress, +with her mother in black velvet, there was quite an excitement in +Sancerre. This dress confirmed the young woman's reputation for +superiority, brought up, as she had been, in the capital of Le Berry. +Every one was afraid lest in entertaining this phoenix of the +Department, the conversation should not be clever enough; and, of +course, everybody was constrained in the presence of Madame de la +Baudraye, who produced a sort of terror among the woman-folk. As they +admired a carpet of Indian shawl-pattern in the La Baudraye drawing- +room, a Pompadour writing-table carved and gilt, brocade window +curtains, and a Japanese bowl full of flowers on the round table among +a selection of the newest books; when they heard the fair Dinah +playing at sight, without making the smallest demur before seating +herself at the piano, the idea they conceived of her superiority +assumed vast proportions. That she might never allow herself to become +careless or the victim of bad taste, Dinah had determined to keep +herself up to the mark as to the fashions and latest developments of +luxury by an active correspondence with Anna Grossetete, her bosom +friend at Mademoiselle Chamarolles' school. + +Anna, thanks to a fine fortune, had married the Comte de Fontaine's +third son. Thus those ladies who visited at La Baudraye were +perpetually piqued by Dinah's success in leading the fashion; do what +they would, they were always behind, or, as they say on the turf, +distanced. + +While all these trifles gave rise to malignant envy in the ladies of +Sancerre, Dinah's conversation and wit engendered absolute aversion. +In her ambition to keep her mind on the level of Parisian brilliancy, +Madame de la Baudraye allowed no vacuous small talk in her presence, +no old-fashioned compliments, no pointless remarks; she would never +endure the yelping of tittle-tattle, the backstairs slander which +forms the staple of talk in the country. She liked to hear of +discoveries in science or art, or the latest pieces at the theatres, +the newest poems, and by airing the cant words of the day she made a +show of uttering thoughts. + +The Abbe Duret, Cure of Sancerre, an old man of a lost type of clergy +in France, a man of the world with a liking for cards, had not dared +to indulge this taste in so liberal a district as Sancerre; he, +therefore, was delighted at Madame de la Baudraye's coming, and they +got on together to admiration. The /sous-prefet/, one Vicomte de +Chargeboeuf, was delighted to find in Madame de la Baudraye's drawing- +room a sort of oasis where there was a truce to provincial life. As to +Monsieur de Clagny, the Public Prosecutor, his admiration for the fair +Dinah kept him bound to Sancerre. The enthusiastic lawyer refused all +promotion, and became a quite pious adorer of this angel of grace and +beauty. He was a tall, lean man, with a minatory countenance set off +by terrible eyes in deep black circles, under enormous eyebrows; and +his eloquence, very unlike his love-making, could be incisive. + +Monsieur Gravier was a little, round man, who in the days of the +Empire had been a charming ballad-singer; it was this accomplishment +that had won him the high position of Paymaster-General of the forces. +Having mixed himself up in certain important matters in Spain with +generals at that time in opposition, he had made the most of these +connections to the Minister, who, in consideration of the place he had +lost, promised him the Receivership at Sancerre, and then allowed him +to pay for the appointment. The frivolous spirit and light tone of the +Empire had become ponderous in Monsieur Gravier; he did not, or would +not, understand the wide difference between manners under the +Restoration and under the Empire. Still, he conceived of himself as +far superior to Monsieur de Clagny; his style was in better taste; he +followed the fashion, was to be seen in a buff waistcoat, gray +trousers, and neat, tightly-fitting coats; he wore a fashionable silk +tie slipped through a diamond ring, while the lawyer never dressed in +anything but black--coat, trousers, and waistcoat alike, and those +often shabby. + +These four men were the first to go into ecstasies over Dinah's +cultivation, good taste, and refinement, and pronounced her a woman of +most superior mind. Then the women said to each other, "Madame de la +Baudraye must laugh at us behind our back." + +This view, which was more or less correct, kept them from visiting at +La Baudraye. Dinah, attainted and convicted of pedantry, because she +spoke grammatically, was nicknamed the Sappho of Saint-Satur. At last +everybody made insolent game of the great qualities of the woman who +had thus roused the enmity of the ladies of Sancerre. And they ended +by denying a superiority--after all, merely comparative!--which +emphasized their ignorance, and did not forgive it. Where the whole +population is hunch-backed, a straight shape is the monstrosity; Dinah +was regarded as monstrous and dangerous, and she found herself in a +desert. + +Astonished at seeing the women of the neighborhood only at long +intervals, and for visits of a few minutes, Dinah asked Monsieur de +Clagny the reason of this state of things. + +"You are too superior a woman to be liked by other women," said the +lawyer. + +Monsieur Gravier, when questioned by the forlorn fair, only, after +much entreaty, replied: + +"Well, lady fair, you are not satisfied to be merely charming. You are +clever and well educated, you know every book that comes out, you love +poetry, you are a musician, and you talk delightfully. Women cannot +forgive so much superiority." + +Men said to Monsieur de la Baudraye: + +"You who have such a Superior Woman for a wife are very fortunate----" +And at last he himself would say: + +"I who have a Superior Woman for a wife, am very fortunate," etc. + +Madame Piedefer, flattered through her daughter, also allowed herself +to say such things--"My daughter, who is a very Superior Woman, was +writing yesterday to Madame de Fontaine such and such a thing." + +Those who know the world--France, Paris--know how true it is that many +celebrities are thus created. + + + +Two years later, by the end of the year 1825, Dinah de la Baudraye was +accused of not choosing to have any visitors but men; then it was said +that she did not care for women--and that was a crime. Not a thing +could she do, not her most trifling action, could escape criticism and +misrepresentation. After making every sacrifice that a well-bred woman +can make, and placing herself entirely in the right, Madame de la +Baudraye was so rash as to say to a false friend who condoled with her +on her isolation: + +"I would rather have my bowl empty than with anything in it!" + +This speech produced a terrible effect on Sancerre, and was cruelly +retorted on the Sappho of Saint-Satur when, seeing her childless after +five years of married life, /little/ de la Baudraye became a byword +for laughter. To understand this provincial witticism, readers may be +reminded of the Bailli de Ferrette--some, no doubt, having known him-- +of whom it was said that he was the bravest man in Europe for daring +to walk on his legs, and who was accused of putting lead in his shoes +to save himself from being blown away. Monsieur de la Baudraye, a +sallow and almost diaphanous creature, would have been engaged by the +Bailli de Ferrette as first gentleman-in-waiting if that diplomatist +had been the Grand Duke of Baden instead of being merely his envoy. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, whose legs were so thin that, for mere +decency, he wore false calves, whose thighs were like the arms of an +average man, whose body was not unlike that of a cockchafer, would +have been an advantageous foil to the Bailli de Ferrette. As he +walked, the little vine-owner's leg-pads often twisted round on to his +shins, so little did he make a secret of them, and he would thank any +one who warned him of this little mishap. He wore knee-breeches, black +silk stockings, and a white waistcoat till 1824. After his marriage he +adopted blue trousers and boots with heels, which made Sancerre +declare that he had added two inches to his stature that he might come +up to his wife's chin. For ten years he was always seen in the same +little bottle-green coat with large white-metal buttons, and a black +stock that accentuated his cold stingy face, lighted up by gray-blue +eyes as keen and passionless as a cat's. Being very gentle, as men are +who act on a fixed plan of conduct, he seemed to make his wife happy +by never contradicting her; he allowed her to do the talking, and was +satisfied to move with the deliberate tenacity of an insect. + +Dinah, adored for her beauty, in which she had no rival, and admired +for her cleverness by the most gentlemanly men of the place, +encouraged their admiration by conversations, for which it was +subsequently asserted, she prepared herself beforehand. Finding +herself listened to with rapture, she soon began to listen to herself, +enjoyed haranguing her audience, and at last regarded her friends as +the chorus in a tragedy, there only to give her her cues. In fact, she +had a very fine collection of phrases and ideas, derived either from +books or by assimilating the opinions of her companions, and thus +became a sort of mechanical instrument, going off on a round of +phrases as soon as some chance remark released the spring. To do her +justice, Dinah was choke full of knowledge, and read everything, even +medical books, statistics, science, and jurisprudence; for she did not +know how to spend her days when she had reviewed her flower-beds and +given her orders to the gardener. Gifted with an excellent memory, and +the talent which some women have for hitting on the right word, she +could talk on any subject with the lucidity of a studied style. And so +men came from Cosne, from la Charite, and from Nevers, on the right +bank; from Lere, Vailly, Argent, Blancafort, and Aubigny, on the left +bank, to be introduced to Madame de la Baudraye, as they used in +Switzerland, to be introduced to Madame de Stael. Those who only once +heard the round of tunes emitted by this musical snuff-box went away +amazed, and told such wonders of Dinah as made all the women jealous +for ten leagues round. + +There is an indescribable mental headiness in the admiration we +inspire, or in the effect of playing a part, which fends off criticism +from reaching the idol. An atmosphere, produced perhaps by unceasing +nervous tension, forms a sort of halo, through which the world below +is seen. How otherwise can we account for the perennial good faith +which leads to so many repeated presentments of the same effects, and +the constant ignoring of warnings given by children, such a terror to +their parents, or by husbands, so familiar as they are with the +peacock airs of their wives? Monsieur de la Baudraye had the frankness +of a man who opens an umbrella at the first drop of rain. When his +wife was started on the subject of Negro emancipation or the +improvement of convict prisons, he would take up his little blue cap +and vanish without a sound, in the certainty of being able to get to +Saint-Thibault to see off a cargo of puncheons, and return an hour +later to find the discussion approaching a close. Or, if he had no +business to attend to, he would go for a walk on the Mall, whence he +commanded the lovely panorama of the Loire valley, and take a draught +of fresh air while his wife was performing a sonata in words, or a +dialectical duet. + +Once fairly established as a Superior Woman, Dinah was eager to prove +her devotion to the most remarkable creations of art. She threw +herself into the propaganda of the romantic school, including, under +Art, poetry and painting, literature and sculpture, furniture and the +opera. Thus she became a mediaevalist. She was also interested in any +treasures that dated from the Renaissance, and employed her allies as +so many devoted commission agents. Soon after she was married, she had +become possessed of the Rougets' furniture, sold at Issoudun early in +1824. She purchased some very good things at Nivernais and the Haute- +Loire. At the New Year and on her birthday her friends never failed to +give her some curiosities. These fancies found favor in the eyes of +Monsieur de la Baudraye; they gave him an appearance of sacrificing a +few crowns to his wife's taste. In point of fact, his land mania +allowed him to think of nothing but the estate of Anzy. + +These "antiquities" at that time cost much less than modern furniture. +By the end of five or six years the ante-room, the dining-room, the +two drawing-rooms, and the boudoir which Dinah had arranged on the +ground floor of La Baudraye, every spot even to the staircase, were +crammed with masterpieces collected in the four adjacent departments. +These surroundings, which were called /queer/ by the neighbors, were +quite in harmony with Dinah. All these Marvels, so soon to be the +rage, struck the imagination of the strangers introduced to her; they +came expecting something unusual; and they found their expectations +surpassed when, behind a bower of flowers, they saw these catacombs +full of old things, piled up as Sommerard used to pile them--that "Old +Mortality" of furniture. And then these finds served as so many +springs which, turned on by a question, played off an essay on Jean +Goujon, Michel Columb, Germain Pilon, Boulle, Van Huysum, and Boucher, +the great native painter of Le Berry; on Clodion, the carver of wood, +on Venetian mirrors, on Brustolone, an Italian tenor who was the +Michael-Angelo of boxwood and holm oak; on the thirteenth, fourteenth, +fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, on the glazes of +Bernard de Palissy, the enamels of Petitot, the engravings of Albrecht +Durer--whom she called Dur; on illuminations on vellum, on Gothic +architecture, early decorated, flamboyant and pure--enough to turn an +old man's brain and fire a young man with enthusiasm. + +Madame de la Baudraye, possessed with the idea of waking up Sancerre, +tried to form a so-called literary circle. The Presiding Judge, +Monsieur Boirouge, who happened to have a house and garden on his +hands, part of the Popinot-Chandier property, favored the notion of +this /coterie/. The wily Judge talked over the rules of the society +with Madame de la Baudraye; he proposed to figure as one of the +founders, and to let the house for fifteen years to the literary club. +By the time it had existed a year the members were playing dominoes, +billiards, and bouillotte, and drinking mulled wine, punch, and +liqueurs. A few elegant little suppers were then given, and some +masked balls during the Carnival. As to literature--there were the +newspapers. Politics and business were discussed. Monsieur de la +Baudraye was constantly there--on his wife's account, as she said +jestingly. + +This result deeply grieved the Superior Woman, who despaired of +Sancerre, and collected the wit of the neighborhood in her own +drawing-room. Nevertheless, and in spite of the efforts of Messieurs +de Chargeboeuf, Gravier, and de Clagny, of the Abbe Duret and the two +chief magistrates, of a young doctor, and a young Assistant Judge--all +blind admirers of Dinah's--there were occasions when, weary of +discussion, they allowed themselves an excursion into the domain of +agreeable frivolity which constitutes the common basis of worldly +conversation. Monsieur Gravier called this "from grave to gay." The +Abbe Duret's rubber made another pleasing variety on the monologues of +the oracle. The three rivals, tired of keeping their minds up to the +level of the "high range of discussion"--as they called their +conversation--but not daring to confess it, would sometimes turn with +ingratiating hints to the old priest. + +"Monsieur le Cure is dying for his game," they would say. + +The wily priest lent himself very readily to the little trick. He +protested. + +"We should lose too much by ceasing to listen to our inspired +hostess!" and so he would incite Dinah's magnanimity to take pity at +last on her dear Abbe. + +This bold manoeuvre, a device of the Sous-prefet's, was repeated with +so much skill that Dinah never suspected her slaves of escaping to the +prison yard, so to speak, of the cardtable; and they would leave her +one of the younger functionaries to harry. + +One young landowner, and the dandy of Sancerre, fell away from Dinah's +good graces in consequence of some rash demonstrations. After +soliciting the honor of admission to this little circle, where he +flattered himself he could snatch the blossom from the constituted +authorities who guarded it, he was so unfortunate as to yawn in the +middle of an explanation Dinah was favoring him with--for the fourth +time, it is true--of the philosophy of Kant. Monsieur de la +Thaumassiere, the grandson of the historian of Le Berry, was +thenceforth regarded as a man entirely bereft of soul and brains. + +The three devotees /en titre/ each submitted to these exorbitant +demands on their mind and attention, in hope of a crowning triumph, +when at last Dinah should become human; for neither of them was so +bold as to imagine that Dinah would give up her innocence as a wife +till she should have lost all her illusions. In 1826, when she was +surrounded by adorers, Dinah completed her twentieth year, and the +Abbe Duret kept her in a sort of fervid Catholicism; so her worshipers +had to be content to overwhelm her with little attentions and small +services, only too happy to be taken for the carpet-knights of this +sovereign lady, by strangers admitted to spend an evening or two at La +Baudraye. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is a fruit that must be left to ripen." This +was the opinion of Monsieur Gravier, who was waiting. + +As to the lawyer, he wrote letters four pages long, to which Dinah +replied in soothing speech as she walked, leaning on his arm, round +and round the lawn after dinner. + +Madame de la Baudraye, thus guarded by three passions, and always +under the eye of her pious mother, escaped the malignity of slander. +It was so evident to all Sancerre that no two of these three men would +ever leave the third alone with Madame de la Baudraye, that their +jealousy was a comedy to the lookers-on. + +To reach Saint-Thibault from Caesar's Gate there is a way much shorter +than that by the ramparts, down what is known in mountainous districts +as a /coursiere/, called at Sancerre /le Casse-cou/, or Break-neck +Alley. The name is significant as applied to a path down the steepest +part of the hillside, thickly strewn with stones, and shut in by the +high banks of the vineyards on each side. By way of the Break-neck the +distance from Sancerre to La Baudraye is much abridged. The ladies of +the place, jealous of the Sappho of Saint-Satur, were wont to walk on +the Mall, looking down this Longchamp of the bigwigs, whom they would +stop and engage in conversation--sometimes the Sous-prefet and +sometimes the Public Prosecutor--and who would listen with every sign +of impatience or uncivil absence of mind. As the turrets of La +Baudraye are visible from the Mall, many a younger man came to +contemplate the abode of Dinah while envying the ten or twelve +privileged persons who might spend their afternoons with the Queen of +the neighborhood. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye was not slow to discover the advantage he, as +Dinah's husband, held over his wife's adorers, and he made use of +them without any disguise, obtaining a remission of taxes, and gaining +two lawsuits. In every litigation he used the Public Prosecutor's name +with such good effect that the matter was carried no further, and, +like all undersized men, he was contentious and litigious in business, +though in the gentlest manner. + +At the same time, the more certainly guiltless she was, the less +conceivable did Madame de la Baudraye's position seem to the prying +eyes of these women. Frequently, at the house of the Presidente de +Boirouge, the ladies of a certain age would spend a whole evening +discussing the La Baudraye household, among themselves of course. They +all had suspicions of a mystery, a secret such as always interests +women who have had some experience of life. And, in fact, at La +Baudraye one of those slow and monotonous conjugal tragedies was being +played out which would have remained for ever unknown if the merciless +scalpel of the nineteenth century, guided by the insistent demand for +novelty, had not dissected the darkest corners of the heart, or at any +rate those which the decency of past centuries left unopened. And that +domestic drama sufficiently accounts for Dinah's immaculate virtue +during her early married life. + + + +A young lady, whose triumphs at school had been the outcome of her +pride, and whose first scheme in life had been rewarded by a victory, +was not likely to pause in such a brilliant career. Frail as Monsieur +de la Baudraye might seem, he was really an unhoped-for good match for +Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer. But what was the hidden motive of this +country landowner when, at forty-four, he married a girl of seventeen; +and what could his wife make out of the bargain? This was the text of +Dinah's first meditations. + +The little man never behaved quite as his wife expected. To begin +with, he allowed her to take the five precious acres now wasted in +pleasure grounds round La Baudraye, and paid, almost with generosity, +the seven or eight thousand francs required by Dinah for improvements +in the house, enabling her to buy the furniture at the Rougets' sale +at Issoudun, and to redecorate her rooms in various styles--Mediaeval, +Louis XIV., and Pompadour. The young wife found it difficult to +believe that Monsieur de la Baudraye was so miserly as he was reputed, +or else she must have great influence with him. The illusion lasted a +year and a half. + +After Monsieur de la Baudraye's second journey to Paris, Dinah +discovered in him the Artic coldness of a provincial miser whenever +money was in question. The first time she asked for supplies she +played the sweetest of the comedies of which Eve invented the secret; +but the little man put it plainly to his wife that he gave her two +hundred francs a month for her personal expenses, and paid Madame +Piedefer twelve hundred francs a year as a charge on the lands of La +Hautoy, and that this was two hundred francs a year more than was +agreed to under the marriage settlement. + +"I say nothing of the cost of housekeeping," he said in conclusion. +"You may give your friends cake and tea in the evening, for you must +have some amusement. But I, who spent but fifteen hundred francs a +year as a bachelor, now spend six thousand, including rates and +repairs, and this is rather too much in relation to the nature of our +property. A winegrower is never sure of what his expenses may be--the +making, the duty, the casks--while the returns depend on a scorching +day or a sudden frost. Small owners, like us, whose income is far from +being fixed, must base their estimates on their minimum, for they have +no means of making up a deficit or a loss. What would become of us if +a wine merchant became bankrupt? In my opinion, promissory notes are +so many cabbage-leaves. To live as we are living, we ought always to +have a year's income in hand and count on no more than two-thirds of +our returns." + +Any form of resistance is enough to make a woman vow to subdue it; +Dinah flung herself against a will of iron padded round with +gentleness. She tried to fill the little man's soul with jealousy and +alarms, but it was stockaded with insolent confidence. He left Dinah, +when he went to Paris, with all the conviction of Medor in Angelique's +fidelity. When she affected cold disdain, to nettle this changeling by +the scorn a courtesan sometimes shows to her "protector," and which +acts on him with the certainty of the screw of a winepress, Monsieur +de la Baudraye gazed at his wife with fixed eyes, like those of a cat +which, in the midst of domestic broils, waits till a blow is +threatened before stirring from its place. The strange, speechless +uneasiness that was perceptible under his mute indifference almost +terrified the young wife of twenty; she could not at first understand +the selfish quiescence of this man, who might be compared to a cracked +pot, and who, in order to live, regulated his existence with the +unchangeable regularity which a clockmaker requires of a clock. So the +little man always evaded his wife, while she always hit out, as it +were, ten feet above his head. + +Dinah's fits of fury when she saw herself condemned never to escape +from La Baudraye and Sancerre are more easily imagined than described +--she who had dreamed of handling a fortune and managing the dwarf +whom she, the giant, had at first humored in order to command. In the +hope of some day making her appearance on the greater stage of Paris, +she accepted the vulgar incense of her attendant knights with a view +to seeing Monsieur de la Baudraye's name drawn from the electoral urn; +for she supposed him to be ambitious, after seeing him return thrice +from Paris, each time a step higher on the social ladder. But when she +struck on the man's heart, it was as though she had tapped on marble! +The man who had been Receiver-General and Referendary, who was now +Master of Appeals, Officer of the Legion of Honor, and Royal +Commissioner, was but a mole throwing up its little hills round and +round a vineyard! Then some lamentations were poured into the heart of +the Public Prosecutor, of the Sous-prefet, even of Monsieur Gravier, +and they all increased in their devotion to this sublime victim; for, +like all women, she never mentioned her speculative schemes, and-- +again like all women--finding such speculation vain, she ceased to +speculate. + +Dinah, tossed by mental storms, was still undecided when, in the +autumn of 1827, the news was told of the purchase by the Baron de la +Baudraye of the estate of Anzy. Then the little old man showed an +impulsion of pride and glee which for a few months changed the current +of his wife's ideas; she fancied there was a hidden vein of greatness +in the man when she found him applying for a patent of entail. In his +triumph the Baron exclaimed: + +"Dinah, you shall be a countess yet!" + +There was then a patched-up reunion between the husband and wife, such +as can never endure, and which only humiliated and fatigued a woman +whose apparent superiority was unreal, while her unseen superiority +was genuine. This whimsical medley is commoner than people think. +Dinah, who was ridiculous from the perversity of her cleverness, had +really great qualities of soul, but circumstances did not bring these +rarer powers to light, while a provincial life debased the small +change of her wit from day to day. Monsieur de la Baudraye, on the +contrary, devoid of soul, of strength, and of wit, was fated to figure +as a man of character, simply by pursuing a plan of conduct which he +was too feeble to change. + + + +There was in their lives a first phase, lasting six years, during +which Dinah, alas! became utterly provincial. In Paris there are +several kinds of women: the duchess and the financier's wife, the +ambassadress and the consul's wife, the wife of the minister who is a +minister, and of him who is no longer a minister; then there is the +lady--quite the lady--of the right bank of the Seine and of the left. +But in the country there is but one kind of woman, and she, poor +thing, is the provincial woman. + +This remark points to one of the sores of modern society. It must be +clearly understood: France in the nineteenth century is divided into +two broad zones--Paris, and the provinces. The provinces jealous of +Paris; Paris never thinking of the provinces but to demand money. Of +old, Paris was the Capital of the provinces, and the court ruled the +Capital; now, all Paris is the Court, and all the country is the town. + +However lofty, beautiful, and clever a girl born in any department of +France may be on entering life, if, like Dinah Piedefer, she marries +in the country and remains there, she inevitably becomes the +provincial woman. In spite of every determination, the commonplace of +second-rate ideas, indifference to dress, the culture of vulgar +people, swamp the sublimer essence hidden in the youthful plant; all +is over, it falls into decay. How should it be otherwise? From their +earliest years girls bred in the country see none but provincials; +they cannot imagine anything superior, their choice lies among +mediocrities; provincial fathers marry their daughters to provincial +sons; crossing the races is never thought of, and the brain inevitably +degenerates, so that in many country towns intellect is as rare as the +breed is hideous. Mankind becomes dwarfed in mind and body, for the +fatal principle of conformity of fortune governs every matrimonial +alliance. Men of talent, artists, superior brains--every bird of +brilliant plumage flies to Paris. The provincial woman, inferior in +herself, is also inferior through her husband. How is she to live +happy under this crushing twofold consciousness? + +But there is a third and terrible element besides her congenital and +conjugal inferiority which contributes to make the figure arid and +gloomy; to reduce it, narrow it, distort it fatally. Is not one of the +most flattering unctions a woman can lay to her soul the assurance of +being something in the existence of a superior man, chosen by herself, +wittingly, as if to have some revenge on marriage, wherein her tastes +were so little consulted? But if in the country the husbands are +inferior beings, the bachelors are no less so. When a provincial wife +commits her "little sin," she falls in love with some so-called +handsome native, some indigenous dandy, a youth who wears gloves and +is supposed to ride well; but she knows at the bottom of her soul that +her fancy is in pursuit of the commonplace, more or less well dressed. +Dinah was preserved from this danger by the idea impressed upon her of +her own superiority. Even if she had not been as carefully guarded in +her early married life as she was by her mother, whose presence never +weighed upon her till the day when she wanted to be rid of it, her +pride, and her high sense of her own destinies, would have protected +her. Flattered as she was to find herself surrounded by admirers, she +saw no lover among them. No man here realized the poetical ideal which +she and Anna Grossetete had been wont to sketch. When, stirred by the +involuntary temptations suggested by the homage she received, she +asked herself, "If I had to make a choice, who should it be?" she +owned to a preference for Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, a gentleman of good +family, whose appearance and manners she liked, but whose cold nature, +selfishness, and narrow ambition, never rising above a prefecture and +a good marriage, repelled her. At a word from his family, who were +alarmed lest he should be killed for an intrigue, the Vicomte had +already deserted a woman he had loved in the town where he previously +had been Sous-prefet. + +Monsieur de Clagny, on the other hand, the only man whose mind +appealed to hers, whose ambition was founded on love, and who knew +what love means, Dinah thought perfectly odious. When Dinah saw +herself condemned to six years' residence at Sancerre she was on the +point of accepting the devotion of Monsieur le Vicomte de Chargeboeuf; +but he was appointed to a prefecture and left the district. To +Monsieur de Clagny's great satisfaction, the new Sous-prefet was a +married man whose wife made friends with Dinah. The lawyer had now no +rival to fear but Monsieur Gravier. Now Monsieur Gravier was the +typical man of forty of whom women make use while they laugh at him, +whose hopes they intentionally and remorselessly encourage, as we are +kind to a beast of burden. In six years, among all the men who were +introduced to her from twenty leagues round, there was not one in +whose presence Dinah was conscious of the excitement caused by +personal beauty, by a belief in promised happiness, by the impact of a +superior soul, or the anticipation of a love affair, even an unhappy +one. + +Thus none of Dinah's choicest faculties had a chance of developing; +she swallowed many insults to her pride, which was constantly +suffering under the husband who so calmly walked the stage as +supernumerary in the drama of her life. Compelled to bury her wealth +of love, she showed only the surface to the world. Now and then she +would try to rouse herself, try to form some manly resolution; but she +was kept in leading strings by the need for money. And so, slowly and +in spite of the ambitious protests and grievous recriminations of her +own mind, she underwent the provincial metamorphosis here described. +Each day took with it a fragment of her spirited determination. She +had laid down a rule for the care of her person, which she gradually +departed from. Though at first she kept up with the fashions and the +little novelties of elegant life, she was obliged to limit her +purchases by the amount of her allowance. Instead of six hats, caps, +or gowns, she resigned herself to one gown each season. She was so +much admired in a certain bonnet that she made it do duty for two +seasons. So it was in everything. + +Not unfrequently her artistic sense led her to sacrifice the +requirements of her person to secure some bit of Gothic furniture. By +the seventh year she had come so low as to think it convenient to have +her morning dresses made at home by the best needlewoman in the +neighborhood; and her mother, her husband, and her friends pronounced +her charming in these inexpensive costumes which did credit to her +taste. Her ideas were imitated! As she had no standard of comparison, +Dinah fell into the snares that surround the provincial woman. If a +Parisian woman's hips are too narrow or too full, her inventive wit +and the desire to please help to find some heroic remedy; if she has +some defect, some ugly spot, or small disfigurement, she is capable of +making it an adornment; this is often seen; but the provincial woman-- +never! If her waist is too short and her figure ill balanced, well, +she makes up her mind to the worst, and her adorers--or they do not +adore her--must take her as she is, while the Parisian always insists +on being taken for what she is not. Hence the preposterous bustles, +the audacious flatness, the ridiculous fulness, the hideous outlines +ingeniously displayed, to which a whole town will become accustomed, +but which are so astounding when a provincial woman makes her +appearance in Paris or among Parisians. Dinah, who was extremely slim, +showed it off to excess, and never knew a dull moment when it became +ridiculous; when, reduced by the dull weariness of her life, she +looked like a skeleton in clothes; and her friends, seeing her every +day, did not observe the gradual change in her appearance. + +This is one of the natural results of a provincial life. In spite of +marriage, a young woman preserves her beauty for some time, and the +town is proud of her; but everybody sees her every day, and when +people meet every day their perception is dulled. If, like Madame de +la Baudraye, she loses her color, it is scarcely noticed; or, again, +if she flushes a little, that is intelligible and interesting. A +little neglect is thought charming, and her face is so carefully +studied, so well known, that slight changes are scarcely noticed, and +regarded at last as "beauty spots." When Dinah ceased to have a new +dress with a new season, she seemed to have made a concession to the +philosophy of the place. + +It is the same with matters of speech, choice of words and ideas, as +it is with matters of feeling. The mind can rust as well as the body +if it is not rubbed up in Paris; but the thing on which provincialism +most sets its stamp is gesture, gait, and movement; these soon lose +the briskness which Paris constantly keeps alive. The provincial is +used to walk and move in a world devoid of accident or change, there +is nothing to be avoided; so in Paris she walks on as raw recruits do, +never remembering that there may be hindrances, for there are none in +her way in her native place, where she is known, where she is always +in her place, and every one makes way for her. Thus she loses all the +charm of the unforeseen. + +And have you ever noticed the effect on human beings of a life in +common? By the ineffaceable instinct of simian mimicry they all tend +to copy each other. Each one, without knowing it, acquires the +gestures, the tone of voice, the manner, the attitudes, the very +countenance of others. In six years Dinah had sunk to the pitch of the +society she lived in. As she acquired Monsieur de Clagny's ideas she +assumed his tone of voice; she unconsciously fell into masculine +manners from seeing none but men; she fancied that by laughing at what +was ridiculous in them she was safe from catching it; but, as often +happens, some hue of what she laughed at remained in the grain. + +A Parisian woman sees so many examples of good taste that a contrary +result ensues. In Paris women learn to seize the hour and moment when +they may appear to advantage; while Madame de la Baudraye, accustomed +to take the stage, acquired an indefinable theatrical and domineering +manner, the air of a /prima donna/ coming forward on the boards, of +which ironical smiles would soon have cured her in the capital. + +But after she had acquired this stock of absurdities, and, deceived by +her worshipers, imagined them to be added graces, a moment of terrible +awakening came upon her like the fall of an avalanche from a mountain. +In one day she was crushed by a frightful comparison. + +In 1829, after the departure of Monsieur de Chargeboeuf, she was +excited by the anticipation of a little pleasure; she was expecting +the Baronne de Fontaine. Anna's husband, who was now Director-General +under the Minister of Finance, took advantage of leave of absence on +the occasion of his father's death to take his wife to Italy. Anna +wished to spend the day at Sancerre with her school-friend. This +meeting was strangely disastrous. Anna, who at school had been far +less handsome than Dinah, now, as Baronne de Fontaine, was a thousand +times handsomer than the Baronne de la Baudraye, in spite of her +fatigue and her traveling dress. Anna stepped out of an elegant +traveling chaise loaded with Paris milliners' boxes, and she had with +her a lady's maid, whose airs quite frightened Dinah. All the +difference between a woman of Paris and a provincial was at once +evident to Dinah's intelligent eye; she saw herself as her friend saw +her--and Anna found her altered beyond recognition. Anna spent six +thousand francs a year on herself alone, as much as kept the whole +household at La Baudraye. + +In twenty-four hours the friends had exchanged many confidences; and +the Parisian, seeing herself so far superior to the phoenix of +Mademoiselle Chamarolles' school, showed her provincial friend such +kindness, such attentions, while giving her certain explanations, as +were so many stabs to Dinah, though she perfectly understood that +Anna's advantages all lay on the surface, while her own were for ever +buried. + +When Anna had left, Madame de la Baudraye, by this time two-and- +twenty, fell into the depths of despair. + +"What is it that ails you?" asked Monsieur de Clagny, seeing her so +dejected. + +"Anna," said she, "has learned to live, while I have been learning to +endure." + +A tragi-comedy was, in fact, being enacted in Madame de la Baudraye's +house, in harmony with her struggles over money matters and her +successive transformations--a drama to which no one but Monsieur de +Clagny and the Abbe Duret ever knew the clue, when Dinah in sheer +idleness, or perhaps sheer vanity, revealed the secret of her +anonymous fame. + +Though a mixture of verse and prose is a monstrous anomaly in French +literature, there must be exceptions to the rule. This tale will be +one of the two instances in these Studies of violation of the laws of +narrative; for to give a just idea of the unconfessed struggle which +may excuse, though it cannot absolve Dinah, it is necessary to give an +analysis of a poem which was the outcome of her deep despair. + +Her patience and her resignation alike broken by the departure of the +Vicomte de Chargeboeuf, Dinah took the worthy Abbe's advice to exhale +her evil thoughts in verse--a proceeding which perhaps accounts for +some poets. + +"You will find such relief as those who write epitaphs or elegies over +those whom they have lost. Pain is soothed in the heart as lines surge +up in the brain." + +This strange production caused a great ferment in the departments of +the Allier, the Nievre, and the Cher, proud to possess a poet capable +of rivalry with the glories of Paris. /Paquita la Sevillane/, by /Jan +Diaz/, was published in the /Echo du Morvan/, a review which for +eighteen months maintained its existence in spite of provincial +indifference. Some knowing persons at Nevers declared that Jan Diaz +was making fun of the new school, just then bringing out its eccentric +verse, full of vitality and imagery, and of brilliant effects produced +by defying the Muse under pretext of adapting German, English, and +Romanesque mannerisms. + +The poem began with this ballad: + + Ah! if you knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain, + Its fervid noons, its balmy spring, + Sad daughters of the northern gloom, + Of love, of heav'n, of native home, + You never would presume to sing! + + For men are there of other mould + Than those who live in this dull cold. + And there to music low and sweet + Sevillian maids, from eve till dawn, + Dance lightly on the moonlit lawn + In satin shoes, on dainty feet. + + Ah, you would be the first to blush + Over your dancers' romp and rush, + And your too hideous carnival, + That turns your cheeks all chill and blue, + And skips the mud in hob-nail'd shoe-- + A truly dismal festival. + + To pale-faced girls, and in a squalid room, + Paquita sang; the murky town beneath + Was Rouen whence the slender spires rise + To chew the storm with teeth. + Rouen so hideous, noisy, full of rage-- + +And here followed a magnificent description of Rouen--where Dinah had +never been--written with the affected brutality which, a little later, +inspired so many imitations of Juvenal; a contrast drawn between the +life of a manufacturing town and the careless life of Spain, between +the love of Heaven and of human beauty, and the worship of machinery, +in short, between poetry and sordid money-making. + +Then Jan Diaz accounted for Paquita's horror of Normandy by saying: + + Seville, you see, had been her native home, + Seville, where skies are blue and evening sweet. + She, at thirteen, the sovereign of the town, + Had lovers at her feet. + + For her three Toreadors had gone to death + Or victory, the prize to be a kiss-- + One kiss from those red lips of sweetest breath-- + A longed-for touch of bliss! + +The features of the Spanish girl's portrait have served so often as +those of the courtesan in so many self-styled /poems/, that it would +be tiresome to quote here the hundred lines of description. To judge +of the lengths to which audacity had carried Dinah, it will be enough +to give the conclusion. According to Madame de la Baudraye's ardent +pen, Paquita was so entirely created for love that she can hardly have +met with a knight worthy of her; for + + . . . . In her passionate fire + Every man would have swooned from the heat, + When she at love's feast, in her fervid desire, + As yet had but taken her seat. + +"And yet she could quit the joys of Seville, its woods and fields of +orange-trees, for a Norman soldier who won her love and carried her +away to his hearth and home. She did not weep for her Andalusia, the +Soldier was her whole joy. . . . But the day came when he was +compelled to start for Russia in the footsteps of the great Emperor." + +Nothing could be more dainty than the description of the parting +between the Spanish girl and the Normandy Captain of Artillery, who, +in the delirium of passion expressed with feeling worthy of Byron, +exacted from Paquita a vow of absolute fidelity, in the Cathedral at +Rouen in front of the alter of the Blessed Virgin, who + + Though a Maid is a woman, and never forgives + When lovers are false to their vows. + +A large part of the poem was devoted to describing Paquita's +sufferings when alone in Rouen waiting till the campaign was over; she +stood writhing at the window bars as she watched happy couples go by; +she suppressed her passion in her heart with a determination that +consumed her; she lived on narcotics, and exhausted herself in dreams. + + Almost she died, but still her heart was true; + And when at last her soldier came again, + He found her beauty ever fresh and new-- + He had not loved in vain! + +"But he, pale and frozen by the cold of Russia, chilled to the very +marrow, met his yearning fair one with a melancholy smile." + +The whole poem was written up to this situation, which was worked out +with such vigor and boldness as too entirely justified the Abbe Duret. + +Paquita, on reaching the limits set to real love, did not, like Julie +and Heloise, throw herself into the ideal; no, she rushed into the +paths of vice, which is, no doubt, shockingly natural; but she did it +without any touch of magnificence, for lack of means, as it would be +difficult to find in Rouen men impassioned enough to place Paquita in +a suitable setting of luxury and splendor. This horrible realism, +emphasized by gloomy poetic feeling, had inspired some passages such +as modern poetry is too free with, rather too like the flayed +anatomical figures known to artists as /ecorches/. Then, by a highly +philosophical revulsion, after describing the house of ill-fame where +the Andalusian ended her days, the writer came back to the ballad at +the opening: + + Paquita now is faded, shrunk, and old, + But she it was who sang: + + "If you but knew the fragrant plain, + The air, the sky, of golden Spain," etc. + +The gloomy vigor of this poem, running to about six hundred lines, and +serving as a powerful foil, to use a painter's word, to the two +/seguidillas/ at the beginning and end, the masculine utterance of +inexpressible grief, alarmed the woman who found herself admired by +three departments, under the black cloak of the anonymous. While she +fully enjoyed the intoxicating delights of success, Dinah dreaded the +malignity of provincial society, where more than one woman, if the +secret should slip out, would certainly find points of resemblance +between the writer and Paquita. Reflection came too late; Dinah +shuddered with shame at having made "copy" of some of her woes. + +"Write no more," said the Abbe Duret. "You will cease to be a woman; +you will be a poet." + +Moulins, Nevers, Bourges were searched to find Jan Diaz; but Dinah was +impenetrable. To remove any evil impression, in case any unforeseen +chance should betray her name, she wrote a charming poem in two cantos +on /The Mass-Oak/, a legend of the Nivernais: + +"Once upon a time the folks of Nevers and the folks of Saint-Saulge, +at war with each other, came at daybreak to fight a battle, in which +one or other should perish, and met in the forest of Faye. And then +there stood between them, under an oak, a priest whose aspect in the +morning sun was so commanding that the foes at his bidding heard Mass +as he performed it under the oak, and at the words of the Gospel they +made friends."--The oak is still shown in the forest of Faye. + +This poem, immeasurably superior to /Paquita la Sevillane/, was far +less admired. + +After these two attempts Madame de la Baudraye, feeling herself a +poet, had a light on her brow and a flash in her eyes that made her +handsomer than ever. She cast longing looks at Paris, aspiring to fame +--and fell back into her den of La Baudraye, her daily squabbles with +her husband, and her little circle, where everybody's character, +intentions, and remarks were too well known not to have become a bore. +Though she found relief from her dreary life in literary work, and +poetry echoed loudly in her empty life, though she thus found an +outlet for her energies, literature increased her hatred of the gray +and ponderous provincial atmosphere. + + + +When, after the Revolution of 1830, the glory of George Sand was +reflected on Le Berry, many a town envied La Chatre the privilege of +having given birth to this rival of Madame de Stael and Camille +Maupin, and were ready to do homage to minor feminine talent. Thus +there arose in France a vast number of tenth Muses, young girls or +young wives tempted from a silent life by the bait of glory. Very +strange doctrines were proclaimed as to the part women should play in +society. Though the sound common sense which lies at the root of the +French nature was not perverted, women were suffered to express ideas +and profess opinions which they would not have owned to a few years +previously. + +Monsieur de Clagny took advantage of this outbreak of freedom to +collect the works of Jan Diaz in a small volume printed by Desroziers +at Moulins. He wrote a little notice of the author, too early snatched +from the world of letters, which was amusing to those who were in the +secret, but which even then had not the merit of novelty. Such +practical jokes, capital so long as the author remains unknown, fall +rather flat if subsequently the poet stands confessed. + +From this point of view, however, the memoir of Jan Diaz, born at +Bourges in 1807, the son of a Spanish prisoner, may very likely some +day deceive the compiler of some /Universal Biography/. Nothing is +overlooked; neither the names of the professors at the Bourges +College, nor those of his deceased schoolfellows, such as Lousteau, +Bianchon, and other famous natives of the province, who, it is said, +knew the dreamy, melancholy boy, and his precocious bent towards +poetry. An elegy called /Tristesse/ (Melancholy), written at school; +the two poems /Paquita la Sevillane/ and /Le Chene de la Messe/; three +sonnets, a description of the Cathedral and the House of Jacques Coeur +at Bourges, with a tale called /Carola/, published as the work he was +engaged on at the time of his death, constituted the whole of these +literary remains; and the poet's last hours, full of misery and +despair, could not fail to wring the hearts of the feeling public of +the Nievre, the Bourbonnais, the Cher, and the Morvan, where he died +near Chateau-Chinon, unknown to all, even to the woman he had loved! + +Of this little yellow paper volume two hundred copies were printed; +one hundred and fifty were sold--about fifty in each department. This +average of tender and poetic souls in three departments of France is +enough to revive the enthusiasm of writers as to the /Furia Francese/, +which nowadays is more apt to expend itself in business than in books. + +When Monsieur de Clagny had given away a certain number of copies, +Dinah still had seven or eight, wrapped up in the newspapers which had +published notices of the work. Twenty copies forwarded to the Paris +papers were swamped in the editors' offices. Nathan was taken in as +well as several of his fellow-countrymen of Le Berry, and wrote an +article on the great man, in which he credited him with all the fine +qualities we discover in those who are dead and buried. + +Lousteau, warned by his fellow-schoolfellows, who could not remember +Jan Diaz, waited for information from Sancerre, and learned that Jan +Diaz was a pseudonym assumed by a woman. + +Then, in and around Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye became the rage; +she was the future rival of George Sand. From Sancerre to Bourges a +poem was praised which, at any other time, would certainly have been +hooted. The provincial public--like every French public, perhaps--does +not share the love of the King of the French for the happy medium: it +lifts you to the skies or drags you in the mud. + +By this time the good Abbe, Madame de la Baudraye's counselor, was +dead; he would certainly have prevented her rushing into public life. +But three years of work without recognition weighed on Dinah's soul, +and she accepted the clatter of fame as a substitute for her +disappointed ambitions. Poetry and dreams of celebrity, which had +lulled her grief since her meeting with Anna Grossetete, no longer +sufficed to exhaust the activity of her morbid heart. The Abbe Duret, +who had talked of the world when the voice of religion was impotent, +who understood Dinah, and promised her a happy future by assuring her +that God would compensate her for her sufferings bravely endured,-- +this good old man could no longer stand between the opening to sin and +the handsome young woman he had called his daughter. + +The wise old priest had more than once endeavored to enlighten Dinah +as to her husband's character, telling her that the man could hate; +but women are not ready to believe in such force in weak natures, and +hatred is too constantly in action not to be a vital force. Dinah, +finding her husband incapable of love, denied him the power to hate. + +"Do not confound hatred and vengeance," said the Abbe. "They are two +different sentiments. One is the instinct of small minds; the other is +the outcome of law which great souls obey. God is avenged, but He does +not hate. Hatred is a vice of narrow souls; they feed it with all +their meanness, and make it a pretext for sordid tyranny. So beware of +offending Monsieur de la Baudraye; he would forgive an infidelity, +because he could make capital of it, but he would be doubly implacable +if you should touch him on the spot so cruelly wounded by Monsieur +Milaud of Nevers, and would make your life unendurable." + +Now, at the time when the whole countryside--Nevers and Sancerre, Le +Morvan and Le Berry--was priding itself on Madame de la Baudraye, and +lauding her under the name of Jan Diaz, "little La Baudraye" felt her +glory a mortal blow. He alone knew the secret source of /Paquita la +Sevillane/. When this terrible work was spoken of, everybody said of +Dinah--"Poor woman! Poor soul!" + +The women rejoiced in being able to pity her who had so long oppressed +them; never had Dinah seemed to stand higher in the eyes of the +neighborhood. + +The shriveled old man, more wrinkled, yellower, feebler than ever, +gave no sign; but Dinah sometimes detected in his eyes, as he looked +at her, a sort of icy venom which gave the lie to his increased +politeness and gentleness. She understood at last that this was not, +as she had supposed, a mere domestic squabble; but when she forced an +explanation with her "insect," as Monsieur Gravier called him, she +found the cold, hard impassibility of steel. She flew into a passion; +she reproached him for her life these eleven years past; she made-- +intentionally--what women call a scene. But "little La Baudraye" sat +in an armchair with his eyes shut, and listened phlegmatically to the +storm. And, as usual, the dwarf got the better of his wife. Dinah saw +that she had done wrong in writing; she vowed never to write another +line, and she kept her vow. + +Then was there desolation in the Sancerrois. + +"Why did not Madame de la Baudraye compose any more verses?" was the +universal cry. + +At this time Madame de la Baudraye had no enemies; every one rushed to +see her, not a week passed without fresh introductions. The wife of +the presiding judge, an august /bourgeoise/, /nee/ Popinot-Chandier, +desired her son, a youth of two-and-twenty, to pay his humble respects +to La Baudraye, and flattered herself that she might see her Gatien in +the good graces of this Superior Woman.--The words Superior Woman had +superseded the absurd nickname of /The Sappho of Saint-Satur/.--This +lady, who for nine years had led the opposition, was so delighted at +the good reception accorded to her son, that she became loud in her +praises of the Muse of Sancerre. + +"After all," she exclaimed, in reply to a tirade from Madame de +Clagny, who hated her husband's supposed mistress, "she is the +handsomest and cleverest woman in the whole province!" + +After scrambling through so many brambles and setting off on so many +different roads, after dreaming of love in splendor and scenting the +darkest dramas, thinking such terrible joys would be cheaply purchased +so weary was she of her dreary existence, one day Dinah fell into the +pit she had sworn to avoid. Seeing Monsieur de Clagny always +sacrificing himself, and at last refusing a high appointment in Paris, +where his family wanted to see him, she said to herself, "He loves +me!" She vanquished her repulsion, and seemed willing to reward so +much constancy. + +It was to this impulse of generosity on her part that a coalition was +due, formed in Sancerre to secure the return of Monsieur de Clagny at +the next elections. Madame de la Baudraye had dreamed of going to +Paris in the wake of the new deputy. + +But, in spite of the most solemn promises, the hundred and fifty votes +to be recorded in favor of this adorer of the lovely Dinah--who hoped +to see this defender of the widow and the orphan wearing the gown of +the Keeper of the Seals--figured as an imposing minority of fifty +votes. The jealousy of the President de Boirouge, and Monsieur +Gravier's hatred, for he believed in the candidate's supremacy in +Dinah's heart, had been worked upon by a young Sous-prefet; and for +this worthy deed the allies got the young man made a prefet elsewhere. + +"I shall never cease to regret," said he, as he quitted Sancerre, +"that I did not succeed in pleasing Madame de la Baudraye; that would +have made my triumph complete!" + +The household that was thus racked by domestic troubles was calm on +the surface; here were two ill-assorted but resigned beings, and the +indescribable propriety, the lie that society insists on, and which to +Dinah was an unendurable yoke. Why did she long to throw off the mask +she had worn for twelve years? Whence this weariness which, every day, +increased her hope of finding herself a widow? + +The reader who has noted all the phases of her existence will have +understood the various illusions by which Dinah, like many another +woman, had been deceived. After an attempt to master Monsieur de la +Baudraye, she had indulged the hope of becoming a mother. Between +those miserable disputes over household matters and the melancholy +conviction as to her fate, quite a long time had elapsed. Then, when +she had looked for consolation, the consoler, Monsieur de Chargeboeuf +had left her. Thus, the overwhelming temptation which commonly causes +women to sin had hitherto been absent. For if there are, after all, +some women who make straight for unfaithfulness, are there not many +more who cling to hope, and do not fall till they have wandered long +in a labyrinth of secret woes? + +Such was Dinah. She had so little impulse to fail in her duty, that +she did not care enough for Monsieur de Clagny to forgive him his +defeat. + +Then the move to the Chateau d'Anzy, the rearrangement of her +collected treasures and curiosities, which derived added value from +the splendid setting which Philibert de Lorme seemed to have planned +on purpose for this museum, occupied her for several months, giving +her leisure to meditate one of those decisive steps that startle the +public, ignorant of the motives which, however, it sometimes discovers +by dint of gossip and suppositions. + +Madame de la Baudraye had been greatly struck by the reputation of +Lousteau, who was regarded as a lady's man of the first water in +consequence of his intimacies among actresses; she was anxious to know +him; she read his books, and was fired with enthusiasm, less perhaps +for his talents than for his successes with women; and to attract him +to the country, she started the notion that it was obligatory on +Sancerre to return one of its great men at the elections. She made +Gatien Boirouge write to the great physician Bianchon, whom he claimed +as a cousin through the Popinots. Then she persuaded an old friend of +the departed Madame Lousteau to stir up the journalist's ambitions by +letting him know that certain persons in Sancerre were firmly bent on +electing a deputy from among the distinguished men in Paris. + +Tired of her commonplace neighbors, Madame de la Baudraye would thus +at last meet really illustrious men, and might give her fall the +lustre of fame. + +Neither Lousteau nor Bianchon replied; they were waiting perhaps till +the holidays. Bianchon, who had won his professor's chair the year +before after a brilliant contest, could not leave his lectures. + +In the month of September, when the vintage was at its height, the two +Parisians arrived in their native province, and found it absorbed in +the unremitting toil of the wine-crop of 1836; there could therefore +be no public demonstration in their favor. "We have fallen flat," said +Lousteau to his companion, in the slang of the stage. + +In 1836, Lousteau, worn by sixteen years of struggle in the Capital, +and aged quite as much by pleasure as by penury, hard work, and +disappointments, looked eight-and-forty, though he was no more than +thirty-seven. He was already bald, and had assumed a Byronic air in +harmony with his early decay and the lines furrowed in his face by +over-indulgence in champagne. He ascribed these signs-manual of +dissipation to the severities of a literary life, declaring that the +Press was murderous; and he gave it to be understood that it consumed +superior talents, so as to lend a grace to his exhaustion. In his +native town he thought proper to exaggerate his affected contempt of +life and his spurious misanthropy. Still, his eyes could flash with +fire like a volcano supposed to be extinct, and he endeavored, by +dressing fashionably, to make up for the lack of youth that might +strike a woman's eye. + +Horace Bianchon, who wore the ribbon of the Legion of Honor, was fat +and burly, as beseems a fashionable physician, with a patriarchal air, +his hair thick and long, a prominent brow, the frame of a hard worker, +and the calm expression of a philosopher. This somewhat prosaic +personality set off his more frivolous companion to advantage. + + + +The two great men remained unrecognized during a whole morning at the +inn where they had put up, and it was only by chance that Monsieur de +Clagny heard of their arrival. Madame de la Baudraye, in despair at +this, despatched Gatien Boirouge, who had no vineyards, to beg the two +gentlemen to spend a few days at the Chateau d'Anzy. For the last year +Dinah had played the chatelaine, and spent the winter only at La +Baudraye. Monsieur Gravier, the Public Prosecutor, the Presiding +Judge, and Gatien Boirouge combined to give a banquet to the great +men, to meet the literary personages of the town. + +On hearing that the beautiful Madame de la Baudraye was Jan Diaz, the +Parisians went to spend three days at Anzy, fetched in a sort of +wagonette driven by Gatien himself. The young man, under a genuine +illusion, spoke of Madame de la Baudraye not only as the handsomest +woman in those parts, a woman so superior that she might give George +Sand a qualm, but as a woman who would produce a great sensation in +Paris. Hence the extreme though suppressed astonishment of Doctor +Bianchon and the waggish journalist when they beheld, on the garden +steps of Anzy, a lady dressed in thin black cashmere with a deep +tucker, in effect like a riding-habit cut short, for they quite +understood the pretentiousness of such extreme simplicity. Dinah also +wore a black velvet cap, like that in the portrait of Raphael, and +below it her hair fell in thick curls. This attire showed off a rather +pretty figure, fine eyes, and handsome eyelids somewhat faded by the +weariful life that has been described. In Le Berry the singularity of +this /artistic/ costume was a cloak for the romantic affectations of +the Superior Woman. + +On seeing the affectations of their too amiable hostess--which were, +indeed, affectations of soul and mind--the friends glanced at each +other, and put on a deeply serious expression to listen to Madame de +la Baudraye, who made them a set speech of thanks for coming to cheer +the monotony of her days. Dinah walked her guests round and round the +lawn, ornamented with large vases of flowers, which lay in front of +the Chateau d'Anzy. + +"How is it," said Lousteau, the practical joker, "that so handsome a +woman as you, and apparently so superior, should have remained buried +in the country? What do you do to make life endurable?" + +"Ah! that is the crux," said the lady. "It is unendurable. Utter +despair or dull resignation--there is no third alternative; that is +the arid soil in which our existence is rooted, and on which a +thousand stagnant ideas fall; they cannot fertilize the ground, but +they supply food for the etiolated flowers of our desert souls. Never +believe in indifference! Indifference is either despair or +resignation. Then each woman takes up the pursuit which, according to +her character, seems to promise some amusement. Some rush into jam- +making and washing, household management, the rural joys of the +vintage or the harvest, bottling fruit, embroidering handkerchiefs, +the cares of motherhood, the intrigues of a country town. Others +torment a much-enduring piano, which, at the end of seven years, +sounds like an old kettle, and ends its asthmatic life at the Chateau +d'Anzy. Some pious dames talk over the different brands of the Word of +God--the Abbe Fritaud as compared with the Abbe Guinard. They play +cards in the evening, dance with the same partners for twelve years +running, in the same rooms, at the same dates. This delightful life is +varied by solemn walks on the Mall, visits of politeness among the +women, who ask each other where they bought their gowns. + +"Conversation is bounded on the south by remarks on the intrigues +lying hidden under the stagnant water of provincial life, on the north +by proposed marriages, on the west by jealousies, and on the east by +sour remarks. + +"And so," she went on, striking an attitude, "you see a woman wrinkled +at nine-and-twenty, ten years before the time fixed by the rules of +Doctor Bianchon, a woman whose skin is ruined at an early age, who +turns as yellow as a quince when she is yellow at all--we have seen +some turn green. When we have reached that point, we try to justify +our normal condition; then we turn and rend the terrible passion of +Paris with teeth as sharp as rat's teeth. We have Puritan women here, +sour enough to tear the laces of Parisian finery, and eat out all the +poetry of your Parisian beauties, who undermine the happiness of +others while they cry up their walnuts and rancid bacon, glorify this +squalid mouse-hole, and the dingy color and conventual small of our +delightful life at Sancerre." + +"I admire such courage, madame," said Bianchon. "When we have to +endure such misfortunes, it is well to have the wit to make a virtue +of necessity." + +Amazed at the brilliant move by which Dinah thus placed provincial +life at the mercy of her guests, in anticipation of their sarcasms, +Gatien Boirouge nudged Lousteau's elbow, with a glance and a smile, +which said: + +"Well! did I say too much?" + +"But, madame," said Lousteau, "you are proving that we are still in +Paris. I shall steal this gem of description; it will be worth ten +thousand francs to me in an article." + +"Oh, monsieur," she retorted, "never trust provincial women." + +"And why not?" said Lousteau. + +Madame de la Baudraye was wily enough--an innocent form of cunning, to +be sure--to show the two Parisians, one of whom she would choose to be +her conquerer, the snare into which he would fall, reflecting that she +would have the upper hand at the moment when he should cease to see +it. + +"When you first come," said she, "you laugh at us. Then when you have +forgotten the impression of Paris brilliancy, and see us in our own +sphere, you pay court to us, if only as a pastime. And you, who are +famous for your past passions, will be the object of attentions which +will flatter you. Then take care!" cried Dinah, with a coquettish +gesture, raising herself above provincial absurdities and Lousteau's +irony by her own sarcastic speech. "When a poor little country-bred +woman has an eccentric passion for some superior man, some Parisian +who has wandered into the provinces, it is to her something more than +a sentiment; she makes it her occupation and part of all her life. +There is nothing more dangerous than the attachment of such a woman; +she compares, she studies, she reflects, she dreams; and she will not +give up her dream, she thinks still of the man she loves when he has +ceased to think of her. + +"Now one of the catastrophes that weigh most heavily on a woman in the +provinces is that abrupt termination of her passion which is so often +seen in England. In the country, a life under minute observation as +keen as an Indian's compels a woman either to keep on the rails or to +start aside like a steam engine wrecked by an obstacle. The strategies +of love, the coquetting which form half the composition of a Parisian +woman, are utterly unknown here." + +"That is true," said Lousteau. "There is in a country-bred woman's +heart a store of surprises, as in some toys." + +"Dear me!" Dinah went on, "a woman will have spoken to you three times +in the course of a winter, and without your knowing it, you will be +lodged in her heart. Then comes a picnic, an excursion, what not, and +all is said--or, if you prefer it, all is done! This conduct, which +seems odd to unobserving persons, is really very natural. A poet, such +as you are, or a philosopher, an observer, like Doctor Bianchon, +instead of vilifying the provincial woman and believing her depraved, +would be able to guess the wonderful unrevealed poetry, every chapter, +in short, of the sweet romance of which the last phrase falls to the +benefit of some happy sub-lieutenant or some provincial bigwig." + +"The provincial women I have met in Paris," said Lousteau, "were, in +fact, rapid in their proceedings--" + +"My word, they are strange," said the lady, giving a significant shrug +of her shoulders. + +"They are like the playgoers who book for the second performance, +feeling sure that the piece will not fail," replied the journalist. + +"And what is the cause of all these woes?" asked Bianchon. + +"Paris is the monster that brings us grief," replied the Superior +Woman. "The evil is seven leagues round, and devastates the whole +land. Provincial life is not self-existent. It is only when a nation +is divided into fifty minor states that each can have a physiognomy of +its own, and then a woman reflects the glory of the sphere where she +reigns. This social phenomenon, I am told, may be seen in Italy, +Switzerland, and Germany; but in France, as in every country where +there is but one capital, a dead level of manners must necessarily +result from centralization." + +"Then you would say that manners could only recover their +individuality and native distinction by the formation of a federation +of French states into one empire?" said Lousteau. + +"That is hardly to be wished, for France would have to conquer too +many countries," said Bianchon. + +"This misfortune is unknown in England," exclaimed Dinah. "London does +not exert such tyranny as that by which Paris oppresses France--for +which, indeed, French ingenuity will at last find a remedy; however, +it has a worse disease in its vile hypocrisy, which is a far greater +evil!" + +"The English aristocracy," said Lousteau, hastening to put a word in, +for he foresaw a Byronic paragraph, "has the advantage over ours of +assimilating every form of superiority; it lives in the midst of +magnificent parks; it is in London for no more than two months. It +lives in the country, flourishing there, and making it flourish." + +"Yes," said Madame de la Baudraye, "London is the capital of trade and +speculation and the centre of government. The aristocracy hold a +'mote' there for sixty days only; it gives and takes the passwords of +the day, looks in on the legislative cookery, reviews the girls to +marry, the carriages to be sold, exchanges greetings, and is away +again; and is so far from amusing, that it cannot bear itself for more +than the few days known as 'the season.' " + +"Hence," said Lousteau, hoping to stop this nimble tongue by an +epigram, "in Perfidious Albion, as the /Constitutionnel/ has it, you +may happen to meet a charming woman in any part of the kingdom." + +"But charming /English/ women!" replied Madame de la Baudraye with a +smile. "Here is my mother, I will introduce you," said she, seeing +Madame Piedefer coming towards them. + +Having introduced the two Paris lions to the ambitious skeleton that +called itself woman under the name of Madame Piedefer--a tall, lean +personage, with a red face, teeth that were doubtfully genuine, and +hair that was undoubtedly dyed, Dinah left her visitors to themselves +for a few minutes. + +"Well," said Gatien to Lousteau, "what do you think of her?" + +"I think that the clever woman of Sancerre is simply the greatest +chatterbox," replied the journalist. + +"A woman who wants to see you deputy!" cried Gatien. "An angel!" + +"Forgive me, I forgot you were in love with her," said Lousteau. +"Forgive the cynicism of an old scamp.--Ask Bianchon; I have no +illusions left. I see things as they are. The woman has evidently +dried up her mother like a partridge left to roast at too fierce a +fire." + +Gatien de Boirouge contrived to let Madame de la Baudraye know what +the journalist had said of her in the course of the dinner, which was +copious, not to say splendid, and the lady took care not to talk too +much while it was proceeding. This lack of conversation betrayed +Gatien's indiscretion. Etienne tried to regain his footing, but all +Dinah's advances were directed to Bianchon. + +However, half-way through the evening, the Baroness was gracious to +Lousteau again. Have you never observed what great meanness may be +committed for small ends? Thus the haughty Dinah, who would not +sacrifice herself for a fool, who in the depths of the country led +such a wretched life of struggles, of suppressed rebellion, of +unuttered poetry, who to get away from Lousteau had climbed the +highest and steepest peak of her scorn, and who would not have come +down if she had seen the sham Byron at her feet, suddenly stepped off +it as she recollected her album. + +Madame de la Baudraye had caught the mania for autographs; she +possessed an oblong volume which deserved the name of album better +than most, as two-thirds of the pages were still blank. The Baronne de +Fontaine, who had kept it for three months, had with great difficulty +obtained a line from Rossini, six bars written by Meyerbeer, the four +lines that Victor Hugo writes in every album, a verse from Lamartine, +a few words from Beranger, /Calypso ne pouvait se consoler du depart +d'Ulysse/ (the first words of /Telemaque/) written by George Sand, +Scribe's famous lines on the Umbrella, a sentence from Charles Nodier, +an outline of distance by Jules Dupre, the signature of David +d'Angers, and three notes written by Hector Berlioz. Monsieur de +Clagny, during a visit to Paris, added a song by Lacenaire--a much +coveted autograph, two lines from Fieschi, and an extremely short note +from Napoleon, which were pasted on to pages of the album. Then +Monsieur Gravier, in the course of a tour, had persuaded Mademoiselle +Mars to write her name on this album, with Mademoiselles Georges, +Taglioni, and Grisi, and some distinguished actors, such as Frederick +Lemaitre, Monrose, Bouffe, Rubini, Lablache, Nourrit, and Arnal; for +he knew a set of old fellows brought up in the seraglio, as they +phrased it, who did him this favor. + +This beginning of a collection was all the more precious to Dinah +because she was the only person for ten leagues round who owned an +album. Within the last two years, however, several young ladies had +acquired such books, in which they made their friends and +acquaintances write more or less absurd quotations or sentiments. You +who spend your lives in collecting autographs, simple and happy souls, +like Dutch tulip fanciers, you will excuse Dinah when, in her fear of +not keeping her guests more than two days, she begged Bianchon to +enrich the volume she handed to him with a few lines of his writing. + +The doctor made Lousteau smile by showing him this sentence on the +first page: + + "What makes the populace dangerous is that it has in its pocket an + absolution for every crime. + +J. B. DE CLAGNY." + + +"We will second the man who is brave enough to plead in favor of the +Monarchy," Desplein's great pupil whispered to Lousteau, and he wrote +below: + + "The distinction between Napoleon and a water-carrier is evident + only to Society; Nature takes no account of it. Thus Democracy, + which resists inequality, constantly appeals to Nature. + +H. BIANCHON." + + +"Ah!" cried Dinah, amazed, "you rich men take a gold piece out of your +purse as poor men bring out a farthing. . . . I do not know," she went +on, turning to Lousteau, "whether it is taking an unfair advantage of +a guest to hope for a few lines--" + +"Nay, madame, you flatter me. Bianchon is a great man, but I am too +insignificant!--Twenty years hence my name will be more difficult to +identify than that of the Public Prosecutor whose axiom, written in +your album, will designate him as an obscurer Montesquieu. And I +should want at least twenty-four hours to improvise some sufficiently +bitter reflections, for I could only describe what I feel." + +"I wish you needed a fortnight," said Madame de la Baudraye +graciously, as she handed him the book. "I should keep you here all +the longer." + + + +At five next morning all the party in the Chateau d'Anzy were astir, +little La Baudraye having arranged a day's sport for the Parisians-- +less for their pleasure than to gratify his own conceit. He was +delighted to make them walk over the twelve hundred acres of waste +land that he was intending to reclaim, an undertaking that would cost +some hundred thousand francs, but which might yield an increase of +thirty to sixty thousand francs a year in the returns of the estate of +Anzy. + +"Do you know why the Public Prosecutor has not come out with us?" +asked Gatien Boirouge of Monsieur Gravier. + +"Why he told us that he was obliged to sit to-day; the minor cases are +before the Court," replied the other. + +"And did you believe that?" cried Gatien. "Well, my papa said to me, +'Monsieur Lebas will not join you early, for Monsieur de Clagny has +begged him as his deputy to sit for him!' " + +"Indeed!" said Gravier, changing countenance. "And Monsieur de la +Baudraye is gone to La Charite!" + +"But why do you meddle in such matters?" said Bianchon to Gatien. + +"Horace is right, said Lousteau. "I cannot imagine why you trouble +your heads so much about each other; you waste your time in +frivolities." + +Horace Bianchon looked at Etienne Lousteau, as much as to say that +newspaper epigrams and the satire of the "funny column" were +incomprehensible at Sancerre. + +On reaching a copse, Monsieur Gravier left the two great men and +Gatien, under the guidance of a keeper, to make their way through a +little ravine. + +"Well, we must wait for Monsieur Gravier," said Bianchon, when they +had reached a clearing. + +"You may be a great physician," said Gatien, "but you are ignorant of +provincial life. You mean to wait for Monsieur Gravier?--By this time +he is running like a hare, in spite of his little round stomach; he is +within twenty minutes of Anzy by now----" Gatien looked at his watch. +"Good! he will be just in time." + +"Where?" + +"At the chateau for breakfast," replied Gatien. "Do you suppose I +could rest easy if Madame de la Baudraye were alone with Monsieur de +Clagny? There are two of them now; they will keep an eye on each +other. Dinah will be well guarded." + +"Ah, ha! Then Madame de la Baudraye has not yet made up her mind?" +said Lousteau. + +"So mamma thinks. For my part, I am afraid that Monsieur de Clagny has +at last succeeded in bewitching Madame de la Baudraye. If he has been +able to show her that he had any chance of putting on the robes of the +Keeper of the Seals, he may have hidden his moleskin complexion, his +terrible eyes, his touzled mane, his voice like a hoarse crier's, his +bony figure, like that of a starveling poet, and have assumed all the +charms of Adonis. If Dinah sees Monsieur de Clagny as Attorney- +General, she may see him as a handsome youth. Eloquence has great +privileges.--Besides, Madame de la Baudraye is full of ambition. She +does not like Sancerre, and dreams of the glories of Paris." + +"But what interest have you in all this?" said Lousteau. "If she is in +love with the Public Prosecutor!--Ah! you think she will not love him +for long, and you hope to succeed him." + +"You who live in Paris," said Gatien, "meet as many different women as +there are days in the year. But at Sancerre, where there are not half +a dozen, and where, of those six, five set up for the most extravagant +virtue, when the handsomest of them all keeps you at an infinite +distance by looks as scornful as though she were of the blood royal, a +young man of two-and-twenty may surely be allowed to make a guess at +her secrets, since she must then treat him with some consideration." + +"Consideration! So that is what you call it in these parts?" said the +journalist with a smile. + +"I should suppose Madame de la Baudraye to have too much good taste to +trouble her head about that ugly ape," said Bianchon. + +"Horace," said Lousteau, "look here, O learned interpreter of human +nature, let us lay a trap for the Public Prosecutor; we shall be doing +our friend Gatien a service, and get a laugh out of it. I do not love +Public Prosecutors." + +"You have a keen intuition of destiny," said Horace. "But what can we +do?" + +"Well, after dinner we will tell sundry little anecdotes of wives +caught out by their husbands, killed, murdered under the most terrible +circumstances.--Then we shall see the faces that Madame de la Baudraye +and de Clagny will make." + +"Not amiss!" said Bianchon; "one or the other must surely, by look or +gesture--" + +"I know a newspaper editor," Lousteau went on, addressing Gatien, +"who, anxious to forefend a grievous fate, will take no stories but +such as tell the tale of lovers burned, hewn, pounded, or cut to +pieces; of wives boiled, fried, or baked; he takes them to his wife to +read, hoping that sheer fear will keep her faithful--satisfied with +that humble alternative, poor man! 'You see, my dear, to what the +smallest error may lead you!' says he, epitomizing Arnolfe's address +to Agnes." + +"Madame de la Baudraye is quite guiltless; this youth sees double," +said Bianchon. "Madame Piedefer seems to me far too pious to invite +her daughter's lover to the Chateau d'Anzy. Madame de la Baudraye +would have to hoodwink her mother, her husband, her maid, and her +mother's maid; that is too much to do. I acquit her." + +"Well with more reason because her husband never 'quits her,' " said +Gatien, laughing at his own wit. + +"We can easily remember two or three stories that will make Dinah +quake," said Lousteau. "Young man--and you too, Bianchon--let me beg +you to maintain a stern demeanor; be thorough diplomatists, an easy +manner without exaggeration, and watch the faces of the two criminals, +you know, without seeming to do so--out of the corner of your eye, or +in a glass, on the sly. This morning we will hunt the hare, this +evening we will hunt the Public Prosecutor." + +The evening began with a triumph for Lousteau, who returned the album +to the lady with this elegy written in it: + + +SPLEEN + + You ask for verse from me, the feeble prey + Of this self-seeking world, a waif and stray + With none to whom to cling; + From me--unhappy, purblind, hopeless devil! + Who e'en in what is good see only evil + In any earthly thing! + + This page, the pastime of a dame so fair, + May not reflect the shadow of my care, + For all things have their place. + Of love, to ladies bright, the poet sings, + Of joy, and balls, and dress, and dainty things-- + Nay, or of God and Grace. + + It were a bitter jest to bid the pen + Of one so worn with life, so hating men, + Depict a scene of joy. + Would you exult in sight to one born blind, + Or--cruel! of a mother's love remind + Some hapless orphan boy? + + When cold despair has gripped a heart still fond, + When there is no young heart that will respond + To it in love, the future is a lie. + If there is none to weep when he is sad, + And share his woe, a man were better dead!-- + And so I soon must die. + + Give me your pity! often I blaspheme + The sacred name of God. Does it not seem + That I was born in vain? + Why should I bless him? Or why thank Him, since + He might have made me handsome, rich, a prince-- + And I am poor and plain? + +ETIENNE LOUSTEAU. + September 1836, Chateau d'Anzy. + + +"And you have written those verses since yesterday?" cried Clagny in a +suspicious tone. + +"Dear me, yes, as I was following the game; it is only too evident! I +would gladly have done something better for madame." + +"The verses are exquisite!" cried Dinah, casting up her eyes to +heaven. + +"They are, alas! the expression of a too genuine feeling," replied +Lousteau, in a tone of deep dejection. + +The reader will, of course, have guessed that the journalist had +stored these lines in his memory for ten years at least, for he had +written them at the time of the Restoration in disgust at being unable +to get on. Madame de la Baudraye gazed at him with such pity as the +woes of genius inspire; and Monsieur de Clagny, who caught her +expression, turned in hatred against this sham /Jeune Malade/ (the +name of an Elegy written by Millevoye). He sat down to backgammon with +the cure of Sancerre. The Presiding Judge's son was so extremely +obliging as to place a lamp near the two players in such a way as that +the light fell full on Madame de la Baudraye, who took up her work; +she was embroidering in coarse wool a wicker-plait paper-basket. The +three conspirators sat close at hand. + +"For whom are you decorating that pretty basket, madame?" said +Lousteau. "For some charity lottery, perhaps?" + +"No," she said, "I think there is too much display in charity done to +the sound of a trumpet." + +"You are very indiscreet," said Monsieur Gravier. + +"Can there be any indiscretion," said Lousteau, "in inquiring who the +happy mortal may be in whose room that basket is to stand?" + +"There is no happy mortal in the case," said Dinah; "it is for +Monsieur de la Baudraye." + +The Public Prosecutor looked slily at Madame de la Baudraye and her +work, as if he had said to himself, "I have lost my paper-basket!" + +"Why, madame, may we not think him happy in having a lovely wife, +happy in her decorating his paper-baskets so charmingly? The colors +are red and black, like Robin Goodfellow. If ever I marry, I only hope +that twelve years after, my wife's embroidered baskets may still be +for me." + +"And why should they not be for you?" said the lady, fixing her fine +gray eyes, full of invitation, on Etienne's face. + +"Parisians believe in nothing," said the lawyer bitterly. "The virtue +of women is doubted above all things with terrible insolence. Yes, for +some time past the books you have written, you Paris authors, your +farces, your dramas, all your atrocious literature, turn on +adultery--" + +"Come, come, Monsieur the Public Prosecutor," retorted Etienne, +laughing, "I left you to play your game in peace, I did not attack +you, and here you are bringing an indictment against me. On my honor +as a journalist, I have launched above a hundred articles against the +writers you speak of; but I confess that in attacking them it was to +attempt something like criticism. Be just; if you condemn them, you +must condemn Homer, whose /Iliad/ turns on Helen of Troy; you must +condemn Milton's /Paradise Lost/. Eve and her serpent seem to me a +pretty little case of symbolical adultery; you must suppress the +Psalms of David, inspired by the highly adulterous love affairs of +that Louis XIV. of Judah; you must make a bonfire of /Mithridate, le +Tartuffe, l'Ecole des Femmes, Phedre, Andromaque, le Mariage de +Figaro/, Dante's /Inferno/, Petrarch's Sonnets, all the works of Jean- +Jacques Rousseau, the romances of the Middle Ages, the History of +France, and of Rome, etc., etc. Excepting Bossuet's /Histoire des +Variations/ and Pascal's /Provinciales/, I do not think there are many +books left to read if you insist on eliminating all those in which +illicit love is mentioned." + +"Much loss that would be!" said Monsieur de Clagny. + +Etienne, nettled by the superior air assumed by Monsieur de Clagny, +wanted to infuriate him by one of those cold-drawn jests which consist +in defending an opinion in which we have no belief, simply to rouse +the wrath of a poor man who argues in good faith; a regular +journalist's pleasantry. + +"If we take up the political attitude into which you would force +yourself," he went on, without heeding the lawyer's remark, "and +assume the part of Public Prosecutor of all the ages--for every +Government has its public ministry--well, the Catholic religion is +infected at its fountain-head by a startling instance of illegal +union. In the opinion of King Herod, and of Pilate as representing the +Roman Empire, Joseph's wife figured as an adulteress, since, by her +avowal, Joseph was not the father of Jesus. The heathen judge could no +more recognize the Immaculate Conception than you yourself would admit +the possibility of such a miracle if a new religion should nowadays be +preached as based on a similar mystery. Do you suppose that a judge +and jury in a police court would give credence to the operation of the +Holy Ghost! And yet who can venture to assert that God will never +again redeem mankind? Is it any better now than it was under +Tiberius?" + +"Your argument is blasphemy," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"I grant it," said the journalist, "but not with malicious intent. You +cannot suppress historical fact. In my opinion, Pilate, when he +sentenced Jesus, and Anytus--who spoke for the aristocratic party at +Athens--when he insisted on the death of Socrates, both represented +established social interests which held themselves legitimate, +invested with co-operative powers, and obliged to defend themselves. +Pilate and Anytus in their time were not less logical than the public +prosecutors who demanded the heads of the sergeants of La Rochelle; +who, at this day, are guillotining the republicans who take up arms +against the throne as established by the revolution of July, and the +innovators who aim at upsetting society for their own advantage under +pretence of organizing it on a better footing. In the eyes of the +great families of Greece and Rome, Socrates and Jesus were criminals; +to those ancient aristocracies their opinions were akin to those of +the Mountain; and if their followers had been victorious, they would +have produced a little 'ninety-three' in the Roman Empire or in +Attica." + +"What are you trying to come to, monsieur?" asked the lawyer. + +"To adultery!--For thus, monsieur, a Buddhist as he smokes his pipe +may very well assert that the Christian religion is founded in +adultery; as we believe that Mahomet is an impostor; that his Koran is +an epitome of the Old Testament and the Gospels; and that God never +had the least intention of constituting that camel-driver His +Prophet." + +"If there were many men like you in France--and there are more than +enough, unfortunately--all government would be impossible." + +"And there would be no religion at all," said Madame Piedefer, who had +been making strangely wry faces all through this discussion. + +"You are paining them very much," said Bianchon to Lousteau in an +undertone. "Do not talk of religion; you are saying things that are +enough to upset them." + +"If I were a writer or a romancer," said Monsieur Gravier, "I should +take the side of the luckless husbands. I, who have seen many things, +and strange things too, know that among the ranks of deceived husbands +there are some whose attitude is not devoid of energy, men who, at a +crisis, can be very dramatic, to use one of your words, monsieur," he +said, addressing Etienne. + +"You are very right, my dear Monsieur Gravier," said Lousteau. "I +never thought that deceived husbands were ridiculous; on the contrary, +I think highly of them--" + +"Do you not think a husband's confidence a sublime thing?" said +Bianchon. "He believes in his wife, he does not suspect her, he trusts +her implicitly. But if he is so weak as to trust her, you make game of +him; if he is jealous and suspicious, you hate him; what, then, I ask +you, is the happy medium for a man of spirit?" + +"If Monsieur de Clagny had not just expressed such vehement +disapproval of the immorality of stories in which the matrimonial +compact is violated, I could tell you of a husband's revenge," said +Lousteau. + +Monsieur de Clagny threw the dice with a convulsive jerk, and dared +not look up at the journalist. + +"A story, from you!" cried Madame de la Baudraye. "I should hardly +have dared to hope for such a treat--" + +"It is not my story, madame; I am not clever enough to invent such a +tragedy. It was told me--and how delightfully!--by one of our greatest +writers, the finest literary musician of our day, Charles Nodier." + +"Well, tell it," said Dinah. "I never met Monsieur Nodier, so you have +no comparison to fear." + +"Not long after the 18th Brumaire," Etienne began, "there was, as you +know, a call to arms in Brittany and la Vendee. The First Consul, +anxious before all things for peace in France, opened negotiations +with the rebel chiefs, and took energetic military measures; but, +while combining his plans of campaign with the insinuating charm of +Italian diplomacy, he also set the Machiavelian springs of the police +in movement, Fouche then being at its head. And none of these means +were superfluous to stifle the fire of war then blaring in the West. + +"At this time a young man of the Maille family was despatched by the +Chouans from Brittany to Saumur, to open communications between +certain magnates of that town and its environs and the leaders of the +Royalist party. The envoy was, in fact, arrested on the very day he +landed--for he traveled by boat, disguised as a master mariner. +However, as a man of practical intelligence, he had calculated all the +risks of the undertaking; his passport and papers were all in order, +and the men told off to take him were afraid of blundering. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir--I now remember his name--had studied his +part well; he appealed to the family whose name he had borrowed, +persisted in his false address, and stood his examination so boldly +that he would have been set at large but for the blind belief that the +spies had in their instructions, which were unfortunately only too +minute. In this dilemma the authorities were more ready to risk an +arbitrary act than to let a man escape to whose capture the Minister +attached great importance. In those days of liberty the agents of the +powers in authority cared little enough for what we now regard as +/legal/. The Chevalier was therefore imprisoned provisionally, until +the superior officials should come to some decision as to his +identity. He had not long to wait for it; orders were given to guard +the prisoner closely in spite of his denials. + +"The Chevalier de Beauvoir was next transferred, in obedience to +further orders, to the Castle of l'Escarpe, a name which sufficiently +indicates its situation. This fortress, perched on very high rocks, +has precipices for its trenches; it is reached on all sides by steep +and dangerous paths; and, like every ancient castle, its principal +gate has a drawbridge over a wide moat. The commandant of this prison, +delighted to have charge of a man of family whose manners were most +agreeable, who expressed himself well, and seemed highly educated, +received the Chevalier as a godsend; he offered him the freedom of the +place on parole, that they might together the better defy its dulness. +The prisoner was more than content. + +"Beauvoir was a loyal gentleman, but, unfortunately, he was also a +very handsome youth. He had attractive features, a dashing air, a +pleasing address, and extraordinary strength. Well made, active, full +of enterprise, and loving danger, he would have made an admirable +leader of guerillas, and was the very man for the part. The commandant +gave his prisoner the most comfortable room, entertained him at his +table, and at first had nothing but praise for the Vendean. This +officer was a Corsican and married; his wife was pretty and charming, +and he thought her, perhaps, not to be trusted--at any rate, he was as +jealous as a Corsican and a rather ill-looking soldier may be. The +lady took a fancy to Beauvoir, and he found her very much to his +taste; perhaps they loved! Love in a prison is quick work. Did they +commit some imprudence? Was the sentiment they entertained something +warmer than the superficial gallantry which is almost a duty of men +towards women? + +"Beauvoir never fully explained this rather obscure episode of the +story; it is at least certain that the commandant thought himself +justified in treating his prisoner with excessive severity. Beauvoir +was placed in the dungeon, fed on black bread and cold water, and +fettered in accordance with the time-honored traditions of the +treatment lavished on captives. His cell, under the fortress-yard, was +vaulted with hard stone, the walls were of desperate thickness; the +tower overlooked the precipice. + +"When the luckless man had convinced himself of the impossibility of +escape, he fell into those day-dreams which are at once the comfort +and the crowning despair of prisoners. He gave himself up to the +trifles which in such cases seem so important; he counted the hours +and the days; he studied the melancholy trade of being prisoner; he +became absorbed in himself, and learned the value of air and sunshine; +then, at the end of a fortnight, he was attacked by that terrible +malady, that fever for liberty, which drives prisoners to those heroic +efforts of which the prodigious achievements seem to us impossible, +though true, and which my friend the doctor" (and he turned to +Bianchon) "would perhaps ascribe to some unknown forces too recondite +for his physiological analysis to detect, some mysteries of the human +will of which the obscurity baffles science." + +Bianchon shook his head in negation. + +"Beauvoir was eating his heart out, for death alone could set him +free. One morning the turnkey, whose duty it was to bring him his +food, instead of leaving him when he had given him his meagre +pittance, stood with his arms folded, looking at him with strange +meaning. Conversation between them was brief, and the warder never +began it. The Chevalier was therefore greatly surprised when the man +said to him: 'Of course, monsieur, you know your own business when you +insist on being always called Monsieur Lebrun, or citizen Lebrun. It +is no concern of mine; ascertaining your name is no part of my duty. +It is all the same to me whether you call yourself Peter or Paul. If +every man minds his own business, the cows will not stray. At the same +time, /I/ know,' said he, with a wink, 'that you are Monsieur Charles- +Felix-Theodore, Chevalier de Beauvoir, and cousin to Madame la +Duchesse de Maille.--Heh?' he added after a short silence, during +which he looked at his prisoner. + +"Beauvoir, seeing that he was safe under lock and key, did not imagine +that his position could be any the worse if his real name were known. + +" 'Well, and supposing I were the Chevalier de Beauvoir, what should I +gain by that?' said he. + +" 'Oh, there is everything to be gained by it,' replied the jailer in +an undertone. 'I have been paid to help you to get away; but wait a +minute! If I were suspected in the smallest degree, I should be shot +out of hand. So I have said that I will do no more in the matter than +will just earn the money.--Look here,' said he, taking a small file +out of his pocket, 'this is your key; with this you can cut through +one of your bars. By the Mass, but it will not be any easy job,' he +went on, glancing at the narrow loophole that let daylight into the +dungeon. + +"It was in a splayed recess under the deep cornice that ran round the +top of the tower, between the brackets that supported the embrasures. + +" 'Monsieur,' said the man, 'you must take care to saw through the +iron low enough to get your body through.' + +" 'I will get through, never fear,' said the prisoner. + +" 'But high enough to leave a stanchion to fasten a cord to,' the +warder went on. + +" 'And where is the cord?' asked Beauvoir. + +" 'Here,' said the man, throwing down a knotted rope. 'It is made of +raveled linen, that you may be supposed to have contrived it yourself, +and it is long enough. When you have got to the bottom knot, let +yourself drop gently, and the rest you must manage for yourself. You +will probably find a carriage somewhere in the neighborhood, and +friends looking out for you. But I know nothing about that.--I need +not remind you that there is a man-at-arms to the right of the tower. +You will take care, of course, to choose a dark night, and wait till +the sentinel is asleep. You must take your chance of being shot; +but--' + +" 'All right! All right! At least I shall not rot here,' cried the +young man. + +" 'Well, that may happen nevertheless,' replied the jailer, with a +stupid expression. + +"Beauvoir thought this was merely one of the aimless remarks that such +folks indulge in. The hope of freedom filled him with such joy that he +could not be troubled to consider the words of a man who was no more +than a better sort of peasant. He set to work at once, and had filed +the bars through in the course of the day. Fearing a visit from the +Governor, he stopped up the breaches with bread crumb rubbed in rust +to make it look like iron; he hid his rope, and waited for a favorable +night with the intensity of anticipation, the deep anguish of soul +that makes a prisoner's life dramatic. + +"At last, one murky night, an autumn night, he finished cutting +through the bars, tied the cord firmly to the stump, and perched +himself on the sill outside, holding on by one hand to the piece of +iron remaining. Then he waited for the darkest hour of the night, when +the sentinels would probably be asleep; this would be not long before +dawn. He knew the hours of their rounds, the length of each watch, +every detail with which prisoners, almost involuntarily, become +familiar. He waited till the moment when one of the men-at-arms had +spent two-thirds of his watch and gone into his box for shelter from +the fog. Then, feeling sure that the chances were at the best for his +escape, he let himself down knot by knot, hanging between earth and +sky, and clinging to his rope with the strength of a giant. All was +well. At the last knot but one, just as he was about to let himself +drop, a prudent impulse led him to feel for the ground with his feet, +and he found no footing. The predicament was awkward for a man bathed +in sweat, tired, and perplexed, and in a position where his life was +at stake on even chances. He was about to risk it, when a trivial +incident stopped him; his hat fell off; happily, he listened for the +noise it must make in striking the ground, and he heard not a sound. + +"The prisoner felt vaguely suspicious as to this state of affairs. He +began to wonder whether the Commandant had not laid a trap for him-- +but if so, why? Torn by doubts, he almost resolved to postpone the +attempt till another night. At any rate, he would wait for the first +gleam of day, when it would still not be impossible to escape. His +great strength enabled him to climb up again to his window; still, he +was almost exhausted by the time he gained the sill, where he crouched +on the lookout, exactly like a cat on the parapet of a gutter. Before +long, by the pale light of dawn, he perceived as he waved the rope +that there was a little interval of a hundred feet between the lowest +knot and the pointed rocks below. + +" 'Thank you, my friend, the Governor!' said he, with characteristic +coolness. Then, after a brief meditation on this skilfully-planned +revenge, he thought it wise to return to his cell. + +"He laid his outer clothes conspicuously on the bed, left the rope +outside to make it seem that he had fallen, and hid himself behind the +door to await the arrival of the treacherous turnkey, arming himself +with one of the iron bars he had filed out. The jailer, who returned +rather earlier than usual to secure the dead man's leavings, opened +the door, whistling as he came in; but when he was at arm's length, +Beauvoir hit him such a tremendous blow on the head that the wretch +fell in a heap without a cry; the bar had cracked his skull. + +"The Chevalier hastily stripped him and put on his clothes, mimicked +his walk, and, thanks to the early hour and the undoubting confidence +of the warders of the great gate, he walked out and away." + +It did not seem to strike either the lawyer or Madame de la Baudraye +that there was in this narrative the least allusion that should apply +to them. Those in the little plot looked inquiringly at each other, +evidently surprised at the perfect coolness of the two supposed +lovers. + +"Oh! I can tell you a better story than that," said Bianchon. + +"Let us hear," said the audience, at a sign from Lousteau, conveying +that Bianchon had a reputation as a story-teller. + +Among the stock of narratives he had in store, for every clever man +has a fund of anecdotes as Madame de la Baudraye had a collection of +phrases, the doctor chose that which is known as /La Grande Breteche/, +and is so famous indeed, that it was put on the stage at the /Gymnase- +Dramatique/ under the title of /Valentine/. So it is not necessary to +repeat it here, though it was then new to the inhabitants of the +Chateau d'Anzy. And it was told with the same finish of gesture and +tone which had won such praise for Bianchon when at Mademoiselle des +Touches' supper-party he had told it for the first time. The final +picture of the Spanish grandee, starved to death where he stood in the +cupboard walled up by Madame de Merret's husband, and that husband's +last word as he replied to his wife's entreaty, "You swore on that +crucifix that there was no one in that closet!" produced their full +effect. There was a silent minute, highly flattering to Bianchon. + +"Do you know, gentlemen," said Madame de la Baudraye, "love must be a +mighty thing that it can tempt a woman to put herself in such a +position?" + +"I, who have certainly seen some strange things in the course of my +life," said Gravier, "was cognizant in Spain of an adventure of the +same kind." + +"You come forward after two great performers," said Madame de la +Baudraye, with coquettish flattery, as she glanced at the two +Parisians. "But never mind--proceed." + +"Some little time after his entry into Madrid," said the Receiver- +General, "the Grand Duke of Berg invited the magnates of the capital +to an entertainment given to the newly conquered city by the French +army. In spite of the splendor of the affair, the Spaniards were not +very cheerful; their ladies hardly danced at all, and most of the +company sat down to cards. The gardens of the Duke's palace were so +brilliantly illuminated, that the ladies could walk about in as +perfect safety as in broad daylight. The fete was of imperial +magnificence. Nothing was grudged to give the Spaniards a high idea of +the Emperor, if they were to measure him by the standard of his +officers. + +"In an arbor near the house, between one and two in the morning, a +party of French officers were discussing the chances of war, and the +not too hopeful outlook prognosticated by the conduct of the Spaniards +present at that grand ball. + +" 'I can only tell you,' said the surgeon-major of the company of +which I was paymaster, 'I applied formally to Prince Murat only +yesterday to be recalled. Without being afraid exactly of leaving my +bones in the Peninsula, I would rather dress the wounds made by our +worthy neighbors the Germans. Their weapons do not run quite so deep +into the body as these Castilian daggers. Besides, a certain dread of +Spain is, with me, a sort of superstition. From my earliest youth I +have read Spanish books, and a heap of gloomy romances and tales of +adventures in this country have given me a serious prejudice against +its manners and customs. + +" 'Well, now, since my arrival in Madrid, I have already been, not +indeed the hero, but the accomplice of a dangerous intrigue, as dark +and mysterious as any romance by Lady (Mrs.) Radcliffe. I am apt to +attend to my presentiments, and I am off to-morrow. Murat will not +refuse me leave, for, thanks to our varied services, we always have +influential friends.' + +" 'Since you mean to cut your stick, tell us what's up,' said an old +Republican colonel, who cared not a rap for Imperial gentility and +choice language. + +"The surgeon-major looked about him cautiously, as if to make sure who +were his audience, and being satisfied that no Spaniard was within +hearing, he said: + +" 'We are none but Frenchmen--then, with pleasure, Colonel Hulot. +About six days since, I was quietly going home, at about eleven at +night, after leaving General Montcornet, whose hotel is but a few +yards from mine. We had come away together from the Quartermaster- +General's, where we had played rather high at /bouillotte/. Suddenly, +at the corner of a narrow high-street, two strangers, or rather, two +demons, rushed upon me and flung a large cloak round my head and arms. +I yelled out, as you may suppose, like a dog that is thrashed, but the +cloth smothered my voice, and I was lifted into a chaise with +dexterous rapidity. When my two companions released me from the cloak, +I heard these dreadful words spoken by a woman, in bad French: + +" ' "If you cry out, or if you attempt to escape, if you make the very +least suspicious demonstration, the gentleman opposite to you will +stab you without hesitation. So you had better keep quiet.--Now, I +will tell you why you have been carried off. If you will take the +trouble to put your hand out in this direction, you will find your +case of instruments lying between us; we sent a messenger for them to +your rooms, in your name. You will need them. We are taking you to a +house that you may save the honor of a lady who is about to give birth +to a child that she wishes to place in this gentleman's keeping +without her husband's knowledge. Though monsieur rarely leaves his +wife, with whom he is still passionately in love, watching over her +with all the vigilance of Spanish jealousy, she had succeeded in +concealing her condition; he believes her to be ill. You must bring +the child into the world. The dangers of this enterprise do not +concern us: only, you must obey us, otherwise the lover, who is +sitting opposite to you in this carriage, and who does not understand +a word of French, will kill you on the least rash movement." + +" ' "And who are you?" I asked, feeling for the speaker's hand, for +her arm was inside the sleeve of a soldier's uniform. + +" ' "I am my lady's waiting-woman," said she, "and ready to reward you +with my own person if you show yourself gallant and helpful in our +necessities." + +" ' "Gladly," said I, seeing that I was inevitably started on a +perilous adventure. + +" 'Under favor of the darkness, I felt whether the person and figure +of the girl were in keeping with the idea I had formed of her from her +tone of voice. The good soul had, no doubt, made up her mind from the +first to accept all the chances of this strange act of kidnapping, for +she kept silence very obligingly, and the coach had not been more than +ten minutes on the way when she accepted and returned a very +satisfactory kiss. The lover, who sat opposite to me, took no offence +at an occasional quite involuntary kick; as he did not understand +French, I conclude he paid no heed to them. + +" ' "I can be your mistress on one condition only," said the woman, in +reply to the nonsense I poured into her ear, carried away by the +fervor of an improvised passion, to which everything was unpropitious. + +" ' "And what is it?" + +" ' "That you will never attempt to find out whose servant I am. If I +am to go to you, it must be at night, and you must receive me in the +dark." + +" ' "Very good," said I. + +" 'We had got as far as this, when the carriage drew up under a garden +wall. + +" ' "You must allow me to bandage your eyes," said the maid. "You can +lean on my arm, and I will lead you." + +" 'She tied a handkerchief over my eyes, fastening it in a tight knot +at the back of my head. I heard the sound of a key being cautiously +fitted to the lock of a little side door by the speechless lover who +had sat opposite to me. In a moment the waiting-woman, whose shape was +slender, and who walked with an elegant jauntiness'--/meneho/, as they +call it," Monsieur Gravier explained in a superior tone, "a word which +describes the swing which women contrive to give a certain part of +their dress that shall be nameless.--'The waiting-woman'--it is the +surgeon-major who is speaking," the narrator went on--" 'led me along +the gravel walks of a large garden, till at a certain spot she +stopped. From the louder sound of our footsteps, I concluded that we +were close to the house. "Now silence!" said she in a whisper, "and +mind what you are about. Do not overlook any of my signals; I cannot +speak without terrible danger for both of us, and at this moment your +life is of the first importance." Then she added: "My mistress is in a +room on the ground floor. To get into it we must pass through her +husband's room and close to his bed. Do not cough, walk softly, and +follow me closely, so as not to knock against the furniture or tread +anywhere but on the carpets I laid down." + +" 'Here the lover gave an impatient growl, as a man annoyed by so much +delay. + +" 'The woman said no more, I heard a door open, I felt the warm air of +the house, and we stole in like thieves. Presently the girl's light +hand removed the bandage. I found myself in a lofty and spacious room, +badly lighted by a smoky lamp. The window was open, but the jealous +husband had fitted it with iron bars. I was in the bottom of a sack, +as it were. + +" 'On the ground a woman was lying on a mat; her head was covered with +a muslin veil, but I could see her eyes through it full of tears and +flashing with the brightness of stars; she held a handkerchief in her +mouth, biting it so hard that her teeth were set in it: I never saw +finer limbs, but her body was writhing with pain like a harp-string +thrown on the fire. The poor creature had made a sort of struts of her +legs by setting her feet against a chest of drawers, and with both +hands she held on to the bar of a chair, her arms outstretched, with +every vein painfully swelled. She might have been a criminal +undergoing torture. But she did not utter a cry; there was not a +sound, all three speechless and motionless. The husband snored with +reassuring regularity. I wanted to study the waiting-woman's face, but +she had put on a mask, which she had removed, no doubt, during our +drive, and I could see nothing but a pair of black eyes and a +pleasingly rounded figure. + +" 'The lover threw some towels over his mistress' legs and folded the +muslin veil double over her face. As soon as I had examined the lady +with care, I perceived from certain symptoms which I had noted once +before on a very sad occasion in my life, that the infant was dead. I +turned to the maid in order to tell her this. Instantly the suspicious +stranger drew his dagger; but I had time to explain the matter to the +woman, who explained in a word or two to him in a low voice. On +hearing my opinion, a quick, slight shudder ran through him from head +to foot like a lightning flash; I fancied I could see him turn pale +under his black velvet mask. + +" 'The waiting-woman took advantage of a moment when he was bending in +despair over the dying woman, who had turned blue, to point to some +glasses of lemonade standing on a table, at the same time shaking her +head negatively. I understood that I was not to drink anything in +spite of the dreadful thirst that parched my throat. The lover was +thirsty too; he took an empty glass, poured out some fresh lemonade, +and drank it off. + +" 'At this moment the lady had a violent attack of pain, which showed +me that now was the time to operate. I summoned all my courage, and in +about an hour had succeeded in delivering her of the child, cutting it +up to extract it. The Spaniard no longer thought of poisoning me, +understanding that I had saved the mother's life. Large tears fell on +his cloak. The woman uttered no sound, but she trembled like a hunted +animal, and was bathed in sweat. + +" 'At one horribly critical moment she pointed in the direction of her +husband's room; he had turned in his sleep, and she alone had heard +the rustle of the sheets, the creaking of the bed or of the curtain. +We all paused, and the lover and the waiting-woman, through the +eyeholes of their masks, gave each other a look that said, "If he +wakes, shall we kill him?" + +" 'At that instant I put out my hand to take the glass of lemonade the +Spaniard had drunk of. He, thinking that I was about to take one of +the full glasses, sprang forward like a cat, and laid his long dagger +over the two poisoned goblets, leaving me his own, and signing to me +to drink what was left. So much was conveyed by this quick action, and +it was so full of good feeling, that I forgave him his atrocious +schemes for killing me, and thus burying every trace of this event. + +" 'After two hours of care and alarms, the maid and I put her mistress +to bed. The lover, forced into so perilous an adventure, had, to +provide means in case of having to fly, a packet of diamonds stuck to +paper; these he put into my pocket without my knowing it; and I may +add parenthetically, that as I was ignorant of the Spaniard's +magnificent gift, my servant stole the jewels the day after, and went +off with a perfect fortune. + +" 'I whispered my instructions to the waiting-woman as to the further +care of her patient, and wanted to be gone. The maid remained with her +mistress, which was not very reassuring, but I was on my guard. The +lover made a bundle of the dead infant and the blood-stained clothes, +tying it up tightly, and hiding it under his cloak; he passed his hand +over my eyes as if to bid me to see nothing, and signed to me to take +hold of the skirt of his coat. He went first out of the room, and I +followed, not without a parting glance at my lady of an hour. She, +seeing the Spaniard had gone out, snatched off her mask and showed me +an exquisite face. + +" 'When I found myself in the garden, in the open air, I confess that +I breathed as if a heavy load had been lifted from my breast. I +followed my guide at a respectful distance, watching his least +movement with keen attention. Having reached the little door, he took +my hand and pressed a seal to my lips, set in a ring which I had seen +him wearing on a finger of his left hand, and I gave him to understand +that this significant sign would be obeyed. In the street two horses +were waiting; we each mounted one. My Spaniard took my bridle, held +his own between his teeth, for his right hand held the bloodstained +bundle, and we went off at lightning speed. + +" 'I could not see the smallest object by which to retrace the road we +came by. At dawn I found myself close by my own door, and the Spaniard +fled towards the Atocha gate.' + +" 'And you saw nothing which could lead you to suspect who the woman +was whom you had attended?' the Colonel asked of the surgeon. + +" 'One thing only,' he replied. 'When I turned the unknown lady over, +I happened to remark a mole on her arm, about half-way down, as big as +a lentil, and surrounded with brown hairs.'--At this instant the rash +speaker turned pale. All our eyes, that had been fixed on his, +followed his glance, and we saw a Spaniard, whose glittering eyes +shone through a clump of orange-trees. On finding himself the object +of our attention, the man vanished with the swiftness of a sylph. A +young captain rushed in pursuit. + +" 'By Heaven!' cried the surgeon, 'that basilisk stare has chilled me +through, my friends. I can hear bells ringing in my ears! I may take +leave of you; you will bury me here!' + +" 'What a fool you are!' exclaimed Colonel Hulot. 'Falcon is on the +track of the Spaniard who was listening, and he will call him to +account.' + +" 'Well,' cried one and another, seeing the captain return quite out +of breath. + +" 'The devil's in it,' said Falcon; 'the man went through a wall, I +believe! As I do not suppose that he is a wizard, I fancy he must +belong to the house! He knows every corner and turning, and easily +escaped.' + +" 'I am done for,' said the surgeon, in a gloomy voice. + +" 'Come, come, keep calm, Bega,' said I (his name was Bega), 'we will +sit on watch with you till you leave. We will not leave you this +evening.' + +"In point of fact, three young officers who had been losing at play +went home with the surgeon to his lodgings, and one of us offered to +stay with him. + +"Within two days Bega had obtained his recall to France; he made +arrangements to travel with a lady to whom Murat had given a strong +escort, and had just finished dinner with a party of friends, when his +servant came to say that a young lady wished to speak to him. The +surgeon and the three officers went down suspecting mischief. The +stranger could only say, 'Be on your guard--' when she dropped down +dead. It was the waiting-woman, who, finding she had been poisoned, +had hoped to arrive in time to warn her lover. + +" 'Devil take it!' cried Captain Falcon, 'that is what I call love! No +woman on earth but a Spaniard can run about with a dose of poison in +her inside!' + +"Bega remained strangely pensive. To drown the dark presentiments that +haunted him, he sat down to table again, and with his companions drank +immoderately. The whole party went early to bed, half drunk. + +"In the middle of the night the hapless Bega was aroused by the sharp +rattle of the curtain rings pulled violently along the rods. He sat up +in bed, in the mechanical trepidation which we all feel on waking with +such a start. He saw standing before him a Spaniard wrapped in a +cloak, who fixed on him the same burning gaze that he had seen through +the bushes. + +"Bega shouted out, 'Help, help, come at once, friends!' But the +Spaniard answered his cry of distress with a bitter laugh.--'Opium +grows for all!' said he. + +"Having thus pronounced sentence as it were, the stranger pointed to +the three other men sleeping soundly, took from under his cloak the +arm of a woman, freshly amputated, and held it out to Bega, pointing +to a mole like that he had so rashly described. 'Is it the same?' he +asked. By the light of the lantern the man had set on the bed, Bega +recognized the arm, and his speechless amazement was answer enough. + +"Without waiting for further information, the lady's husband stabbed +him to the heart." + +"You must tell that to the marines!" said Lousteau. "It needs their +robust faith to swallow it! Can you tell me which told the tale, the +dead man or the Spaniard?" + +"Monsieur," replied the Receiver-General, "I nursed poor Bega, who +died five days after in dreadful suffering.--That is not the end. + +"At the time of the expedition sent out to restore Ferdinand VII. I +was appointed to a place in Spain; but, happily for me, I got no +further than Tours when I was promised the post of Receiver here at +Sancerre. On the eve of setting out I was at a ball at Madame de +Listomere's, where we were to meet several Spaniards of high rank. On +rising from the card-table, I saw a Spanish grandee, an /afrancesado/ +in exile, who had been about a fortnight in Touraine. He had arrived +very late at this ball--his first appearance in society--accompanied +by his wife, whose right arm was perfectly motionless. Everybody made +way in silence for this couple, whom we all watched with some +excitement. Imagine a picture by Murillo come to life. Under black and +hollow brows the man's eyes were like a fixed blaze; his face looked +dried up, his bald skull was red, and his frame was a terror to +behold, he was so emaciated. His wife--no, you cannot imagine her. Her +figure had the supple swing for which the Spaniards created the word +/meneho/; though pale, she was still beautiful; her complexion was +dazzlingly fair--a rare thing in a Spaniard; and her gaze, full of the +Spanish sun, fell on you like a stream of melted lead. + +" 'Madame,' said I to her, towards the end of the evening, 'what +occurrence led to the loss of your arm?' + +" 'I lost it in the war of independence,' said she." + +"Spain is a strange country," said Madame de la Baudraye. "It still +shows traces of Arab manners." + +"Oh!" said the journalist, laughing, "the mania for cutting off arms +is an old one there. It turns up every now and then like some of our +newspaper hoaxes, for the subject has given plots for plays on the +Spanish stage so early as 1570--" + +"Then do you think me capable of inventing such a story?" said +Monsieur Gravier, nettled by Lousteau's impertinent tone. + +"Quite incapable of such a thing," said the journalist with grave +irony. + +"Pooh!" said Bianchon, "the inventions of romances and play-writers +are quite as often transferred from their books and pieces into real +life, as the events of real life are made use of on the stage or +adapted to a tale. I have seen the comedy of /Tartufe/ played out-- +with the exception of the close; Orgon's eyes could not be opened to +the truth." + +"And the tragi-comedy of /Adolphe/ by Benjamin Constant is constantly +enacted," cried Lousteau. + +"And do you suppose," asked Madame de la Baudraye, "that such +adventures as Monsieur Gravier has related could ever occur now, and +in France?" + +"Dear me!" cried Clagny, "of the ten or twelve startling crimes that +are annually committed in France, quite half are mixed up with +circumstances at least as extraordinary as these, and often outdoing +them in romantic details. Indeed, is not this proved by the reports in +the /Gazette des Tribunaux/--the Police news--in my opinion, one of +the worst abuses of the Press? This newspaper, which was started only +in 1826 or '27, was not in existence when I began my professional +career, and the facts of the crime I am about to speak of were not +known beyond the limits of the department where it was committed. + +"In the quarter of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps at Tours a woman whose +husband had disappeared at the time when the army of the Loire was +disbanded, and who had mourned him deeply, was conspicuous for her +excess of devotion. When the mission priests went through all the +provinces to restore the crosses that had been destroyed and to efface +the traces of revolutionary impiety, this widow was one of their most +zealous proselytes, she carried a cross and nailed to it a silver +heart pierced by an arrow; and, for a long time after, she went every +evening to pray at the foot of the cross which was erected behind the +Cathedral apse. + +"At last, overwhelmed by remorse, she confessed to a horrible crime. +She had killed her husband, as Fualdes was murdered, by bleeding him; +she had salted the body and packed it in pieces into old casks, +exactly as if it have been pork; and for a long time she had taken a +piece every morning and thrown it into the Loire. Her confessor +consulted his superiors, and told her that it would be his duty to +inform the public prosecutor. The woman awaited the action of the Law. +The public prosecutor and the examining judge, on examining the +cellar, found the husband's head still in pickle in one of the casks. +--'Wretched woman,' said the judge to the accused, 'since you were so +barbarous as to throw your husband's body into the river, why did you +not get rid of the head? Then there would have been no proof.' + +" 'I often tried, monsieur,' said she, 'but it was too heavy.' " + +"Well, and what became of the woman?" asked the two Parisians. + +"She was sentenced and executed at Tours," replied the lawyer; "but +her repentance and piety had attracted interest in spite of her +monstrous crime." + +"And do you suppose, said Bianchon, "that we know all the tragedies +that are played out behind the curtain of private life that the public +never lifts?--It seems to me that human justice is ill adapted to +judge of crimes as between husband and wife. It has every right to +intervene as the police; but in equity it knows nothing of the heart +of the matter." + +"The victim has in many cases been for so long the tormentor," said +Madame de la Baudraye guilelessly, "that the crime would sometimes +seem almost excusable if the accused could tell all." + +This reply, led up to by Bianchon and by the story which Clagny had +told, left the two Parisians excessively puzzled as to Dinah's +position. + +At bedtime council was held, one of those discussions which take place +in the passages of old country-houses where the bachelors linger, +candle in hand, for mysterious conversations. + +Monsieur Gravier was now informed of the object in view during this +entertaining evening which had brought Madame de la Baudraye's +innocence to light. + +"But, after all," said Lousteau, "our hostess' serenity may indicate +deep depravity instead of the most child-like innocence. The Public +Prosecutor looks to me quite capable of suggesting that little La +Baudraye should be put in pickle----" + +"He is not to return till to-morrow; who knows what may happen in the +course of the night?" said Gatien. + +"We will know!" cried Monsieur Gravier. + +In the life of a country house a number of practical jokes are +considered admissible, some of them odiously treacherous. Monsieur +Gravier, who had seen so much of the world, proposed setting seals on +the door of Madame de la Baudraye and of the Public Prosecutor. The +ducks that denounced the poet Ibycus are as nothing in comparison with +the single hair that these country spies fasten across the opening of +a door by means of two little flattened pills of wax, fixed so high +up, or so low down, that the trick is never suspected. If the gallant +comes out of his own door and opens the other, the broken hair tells +the tale. + +When everybody was supposed to be asleep, the doctor, the journalist, +the receiver of taxes, and Gatien came barefoot, like robbers, and +silently fastened up the two doors, agreeing to come again at five in +the morning to examine the state of the fastenings. Imagine their +astonishment and Gatien's delight when all four, candle in hand, and +with hardly any clothes on, came to look at the hairs, and found them +in perfect preservation on both doors. + +"Is it the same wax?" asked Monsieur Gravier. + +"Are they the same hairs?" asked Lousteau. + +"Yes," replied Gatien. + +"This quite alters the matter!" cried Lousteau. "You have been beating +the bush for a will-o'-the-wisp." + +Monsieur Gravier and Gatien exchanged questioning glances which were +meant to convey, "Is there not something offensive to us in that +speech? Ought we to laugh or to be angry?" + +"If Dinah is virtuous," said the journalist in a whisper to Bianchon, +"she is worth an effort on my part to pluck the fruit of her first +love." + +The idea of carrying by storm a fortress that had for nine years stood +out against the besiegers of Sancerre smiled on Lousteau. + +With this notion in his head, he was the first to go down and into the +garden, hoping to meet his hostess. And this chance fell out all the +more easily because Madame de la Baudraye on her part wished to +converse with her critic. Half such chances are planned. + +"You were out shooting yesterday, monsieur," said Madame de la +Baudraye. "This morning I am rather puzzled as to how to find you any +new amusement; unless you would like to come to La Baudraye, where you +may study more of our provincial life than you can see here, for you +have made but one mouthful of my absurdities. However, the saying +about the handsomest girl in the world is not less true of the poor +provincial woman!" + +"That little simpleton Gatien has, I suppose, related to you a speech +I made simply to make him confess that he adored you," said Etienne. +"Your silence, during dinner the day before yesterday and throughout +the evening, was enough to betray one of those indiscretions which we +never commit in Paris.--What can I say? I do not flatter myself that +you will understand me. In fact, I laid a plot for the telling of all +those stories yesterday solely to see whether I could rouse you and +Monsieur de Clagny to a pang of remorse.--Oh! be quite easy; your +innocence is fully proved. + +"If you had the slightest fancy for that estimable magistrate, you +would have lost all your value in my eyes.--I love perfection. + +"You do not, you cannot love that cold, dried-up, taciturn little +usurer on wine casks and land, who would leave any man in the lurch +for twenty-five centimes on a renewal. Oh, I have fully recognized +Monsieur de la Baudraye's similarity to a Parisian bill-discounter; +their nature is identical.--At eight-and-twenty, handsome, well +conducted, and childless--I assure you, madame, I never saw the +problem of virtue more admirably expressed.--The author of /Paquita la +Sevillane/ must have dreamed many dreams! + +"I can speak of such things without the hypocritical gloss lent them +by young men, for I am old before my time. I have no illusions left. +Can a man have any illusions in the trade I follow?" + +By opening the game in this tone, Lousteau cut out all excursions in +the /Pays de Tendre/, where genuine passion beats the bush so long; he +went straight to the point and placed himself in a position to force +the offer of what women often make a man pray for, for years; witness +the hapless Public Prosecutor, to whom the greatest favor had +consisted in clasping Dinah's hand to his heart more tenderly than +usual as they walked, happy man! + +And Madame de la Baudraye, to be true to her reputation as a Superior +Woman, tried to console the Manfred of the Press by prophesying such a +future of love as he had not had in his mind. + +"You have sought pleasure," said she, "but you have never loved. +Believe me, true love often comes late in life. Remember Monsieur de +Gentz, who fell in love in his old age with Fanny Ellsler, and left +the Revolution of July to take its course while he attended the +dancer's rehearsals." + +"It seems to me unlikely," replied Lousteau. "I can still believe in +love, but I have ceased to believe in woman. There are in me, I +suppose, certain defects which hinder me from being loved, for I have +often been thrown over. Perhaps I have too strong a feeling for the +ideal--like all men who have looked too closely into reality----" + +Madame de la Baudraye at last heard the mind of a man who, flung into +the wittiest Parisian circles, represented to her its most daring +axioms, its almost artless depravity, its advanced convictions; who, +if he were not really superior, acted superiority extremely well. +Etienne, performing before Dinah, had all the success of a first +night. /Paquita/ of Sancerre scented the storms, the atmosphere of +Paris. She spent one of the most delightful days of her life with +Lousteau and Bianchon, who told her strange tales about the great men +of the day, the anecdotes which will some day form the /Ana/ of our +century; sayings and doings that were the common talk of Paris, but +quite new to her. + +Of course, Lousteau spoke very ill of the great female celebrity of Le +Berry, with the obvious intention of flattering Madame de la Baudraye +and leading her into literary confidences, by suggesting that she +could rival so great a writer. This praise intoxicated Madame de la +Baudraye; and Monsieur de Clagny, Monsieur Gravier, and Gatien, all +thought her warmer in her manner to Etienne than she had been on the +previous day. Dinah's three /attaches/ greatly regretted having all +gone to Sancerre to blow the trumpet in honor of the evening at Anzy; +nothing, to hear them, had ever been so brilliant. The Hours had fled +on feet so light that none had marked their pace. The two Parisians +they spoke of as perfect prodigies. + +These exaggerated reports loudly proclaimed on the Mall brought +sixteen persons to Anzy that evening, some in family coaches, some in +wagonettes, and a few bachelors on hired saddle horses. By about seven +o'clock this provincial company had made a more or less graceful entry +into the huge Anzy drawing-room, which Dinah, warned of the invasion, +had lighted up, giving it all the lustre it was capable of by taking +the holland covers off the handsome furniture, for she regarded this +assembly as one of her great triumphs. Lousteau, Bianchon, and Dinah +exchanged meaning looks as they studied the attitudes and listened to +the speeches of these visitors, attracted by curiosity. + +What invalided ribbons, what ancestral laces, what ancient flowers, +more imaginative than imitative, were boldly displayed on some +perennial caps! The Presidente Boirouge, Bianchon's cousin, exchanged +a few words with the doctor, from whom she extracted some "advice +gratis" by expatiating on certain pains in the chest, which she +declared were nervous, but which he ascribed to chronic indigestion. + +"Simply drink a cup of tea every day an hour after dinner, as the +English do, and you will get over it, for what you suffer from is an +English malady," Bianchon replied very gravely. + +"He is certainly a great physician," said the Presidente, coming back +to Madame de Clagny, Madame Popinot-Chandier, and Madame Gorju, the +Mayor's wife. + +"They say," replied Madame de Clagny behind her fan, "that Dinah sent +for him, not so much with a view to the elections as to ascertain why +she has no children." + +In the first excitement of this success, Lousteau introduced the great +doctor as the only possible candidate at the ensuing elections. But +Bianchon, to the great satisfaction of the new Sous-prefet, remarked +that it seemed to him almost impossible to give up science in favor of +politics. + +"Only a physician without a practice," said he, "could care to be +returned as a deputy. Nominate statesmen, thinkers, men whose +knowledge is universal, and who are capable of placing themselves on +the high level which a legislator should occupy. That is what is +lacking in our Chambers, and what our country needs." + +Two or three young ladies, some of the younger men, and the elder +women stared at Lousteau as if he were a mountebank. + +"Monsieur Gatien Boirouge declares that Monsieur Lousteau makes twenty +thousand francs a year by his writings," observed the Mayor's wife to +Madame de Clagny. "Can you believe it?" + +"Is it possible? Why, a Public Prosecutor gets but a thousand crowns!" + +"Monsieur Gatien," said Madame Chandier, "get Monsieur Lousteau to +talk a little louder. I have not heard him yet." + +"What pretty boots he wears," said Mademoiselle Chandier to her +brother, "and how they shine!" + +"Yes--patent leather." + +"Why haven't you the same?" + +Lousteau began to feel that he was too much on show, and saw in the +manners of the good townsfolk indications of the desires that had +brought them there. + +"What trick can I play them?" thought he. + +At this moment the footman, so called--a farm-servant put into livery +--brought in the letters and papers, and among them a packet of proof, +which the journalist left for Bianchon; for Madame de la Baudraye, on +seeing the parcel, of which the form and string were obviously from +the printers, exclaimed: + +"What, does literature pursue you even here?" + +"Not literature," replied he, "but a review in which I am now +finishing a story to come out ten days hence. I have reached the stage +of '/To be concluded in our next/,' so I was obliged to give my +address to the printer. Oh, we eat very hard-earned bread at the hands +of these speculators in black and white! I will give you a description +of these editors of magazines." + +"When will the conversation begin?" Madame de Clagny asked of Dinah, +as one might ask, "When do the fireworks go off?" + +"I fancied we should hear some amusing stories," said Madame Popinot +to her cousin, the Presidente Boirouge. + +At this moment, when the good folks of Sancerre were beginning to +murmur like an impatient pit, Lousteau observed that Bianchon was lost +in meditation inspired by the wrapper round the proofs. + +"What is it?" asked Etienne. + +"Why, here is the most fascinating romance possible on some spoiled +proof used to wrap yours in. Here, read it. /Olympia, or Roman +Revenge/." + +"Let us see," said Lousteau, taking the sheet the doctor held out to +him, and he read aloud as follows:-- + + 240 OLYMPIA + + cavern. Rinaldo, indignant at his + companions' cowardice, for they had + no courage but in the open field, and + dared not venture into Rome, looked + at them with scorn. + + "Then I go alone?" said he. He + seemed to reflect, and then he went + on: "You are poor wretches. I shall + proceed alone, and have the rich + booty to myself.--You hear me! + Farewell." + + "My Captain," said Lamberti, "if + you should be captured without + having succeeded?" + + "God protects me!" said Rinaldo, + pointing to the sky. + + With these words he went out, + and on his way he met the steward + +"That is the end of the page," said Lousteau, to whom every one had +listened devoutly. + +"He is reading his work to us," said Gatien to Madame Popinot- +Chandier's son. + +"From the first word, ladies," said the journalist, jumping at an +opportunity of mystifying the natives, "it is evident that the +brigands are in a cave. But how careless romancers of that date were +as to details which are nowadays so closely, so elaborately studied +under the name of 'local color.' If the robbers were in a cavern, +instead of pointing to the sky he ought to have pointed to the vault +above him.--In spite of this inaccuracy, Rinaldo strikes me as a man +of spirit, and his appeal to God is quite Italian. There must have +been a touch of local color in this romance. Why, what with brigands, +and a cavern, and one Lamberti who could foresee future possibilities +--there is a whole melodrama in that page. Add to these elements a +little intrigue, a peasant maiden with her hair dressed high, short +skirts, and a hundred or so of bad couplets.--Oh! the public will +crowd to see it! And then Rinaldo--how well the name suits Lafont! By +giving him black whiskers, tightly-fitting trousers, a cloak, a +moustache, a pistol, and a peaked hat--if the manager of the +Vaudeville Theatre were but bold enough to pay for a few newspaper +articles, that would secure fifty performances, and six thousand +francs for the author's rights, if only I were to cry it up in my +columns. + +"To proceed:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + The Duchess of Bracciano found + her glove. Adolphe, who had brought + her back to the orange grove, might + certainly have supposed that there + was some purpose in her forgetful- + ness, for at this moment the arbor + was deserted. The sound of the fes- + tivities was audible in the distance. + The puppet show that had been + promised had attracted all the + guests to the ballroom. Never had + Olympia looked more beautiful. + Her lover's eyes met hers with an + answering glow, and they under- + stood each other. There was a mo- + ment of silence, delicious to their + souls, and impossible to describe. + They sat down on the same bench + where they had sat in the presence + of the Cavaliere Paluzzi and the + +"Devil take it! Our Rinaldo has vanished!" cried Lousteau. "But a +literary man once started by this page would make rapid progress in +the comprehension of the plot. The Duchesse Olympia is a lady who +could intentionally forget her gloves in a deserted arbor." + +"Unless she may be classed between the oyster and head-clerk of an +office, the two creatures nearest to marble in the zoological kingdom, +it is impossible to discern in Olympia--" Bianchon began. + +"A woman of thirty," Madame de la Baudraye hastily interposed, fearing +some all too medical term. + +"Then Adolphe must be two-and-twenty," the doctor went on, "for an +Italian woman at thirty is equivalent to a Parisian of forty." + +"From these two facts, the romance may easily be reconstructed," said +Lousteau. "And this Cavaliere Paluzzi--what a man!--The style is weak +in these two passages; the author was perhaps a clerk in the Excise +Office, and wrote the novel to pay his tailor!" + +"In his time," said Bianchon, "the censor flourished; you must show as +much indulgence to a man who underwent the ordeal by scissors in 1805 +as to those who went to the scaffold in 1793." + +"Do you understand in the least?" asked Madame Gorju timidly of Madame +de Clagny. + +The Public Prosecutor's wife, who, to use a phrase of Monsieur +Gravier's, might have put a Cossack to flight in 1814, straightened +herself in her chair like a horseman in his stirrups, and made a face +at her neighbor, conveying, "They are looking at us; we must smile as +if we understood." + +"Charming!" said the Mayoress to Gatien. "Pray go on, Monsieur +Lousteau." + +Lousteau looked at the two women, two Indian idols, and contrived to +keep his countenance. He thought it desirable to say, "Attention!" +before going on as follows:-- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 209 + + dress rustled in the silence. Sud- + denly Cardinal Borborigano stood + before the Duchess. + + "His face was gloomy, his brow + was dark with clouds, and a bitter + smile lurked in his wrinkles. + + "Madame," said he, "you are under + suspicion. If you are guilty, fly. If + you are not, still fly; because, + whether criminal or innocent, you + will find it easier to defend yourself + from a distance." + + "I thank your Eminence for your + solicitude," said she. "The Duke of + Bracciano will reappear when I find + it needful to prove that he is alive." + +"Cardinal Borborigano!" exclaimed Bianchon. "By the Pope's keys! If +you do not agree with me that there is a magnificent creation in the +very name, if at those words /dress rustled in the silence/ you do not +feel all the poetry thrown into the part of Schedoni by Mrs. Radcliffe +in /The Black Penitent/, you do not deserve to read a romance." + +"For my part," said Dinah, who had some pity on the eighteen faces +gazing up at Lousteau, "I see how the story is progressing. I know it +all. I am in Rome; I can see the body of a murdered husband whose +wife, as bold as she is wicked, has made her bed on the crater of a +volcano. Every night, at every kiss, she says to herself, 'All will be +discovered!' " + +"Can you see her," said Lousteau, "clasping Monsieur Adolphe in her +arms, to her heart, throwing her whole life into a kiss?--Adolphe I +see as a well-made young man, but not clever--the sort of man an +Italian woman likes. Rinaldo hovers behind the scenes of a plot we do +not know, but which must be as full of incident as a melodrama by +Pixerecourt. Or we can imagine Rinaldo crossing the stage in the +background like a figure in one of Victor Hugo's plays." + +"He, perhaps, is the husband," exclaimed Madame de la Baudraye. + +"Do you understand anything of it all?" Madame Piedefer asked of the +Presidente. + +"Why, it is charming!" said Dinah to her mother. + +All the good folks of Sancerre sat with eyes as large as five-franc +pieces. + +"Go on, I beg," said the hostess. + +Lousteau went on:-- + + 210 OLYMPIA + + "Your key----" + + "Have you lost it?" + + "It is in the arbor." + + "Let us hasten." + + "Can the Cardinal have taken it?" + + "No, here it is." + + "What danger we have escaped!" + + Olympia looked at the key, and + fancied she recognized it as her own. + But Rinaldo had changed it; his + cunning had triumphed; he had the + right key. Like a modern Cartouche, + he was no less skilful than bold, + and suspecting that nothing but a + vast treasure could require a duchess + to carry it constantly at her belt. + +"Guess!" cried Lousteau. "The corresponding page is not here. We must +look to page 212 to relieve our anxiety." + + 212 OLYMPIA + + "If the key had been lost?" + + "He would now be a dead man." + + "Dead? But ought you not to + grant the last request he made, and + to give him his liberty on the con- + ditions----" + + "You do not know him." + + "But--" + + "Silence! I took you for my + lover, not for my confessor." + + Adolphe was silent. + +"And then comes an exquisite galloping goat, a tail-piece drawn by +Normand, and cut by Duplat.--the names are signed," said Lousteau. + +"Well, and then?" said such of the audience as understood. + +"That is the end of the chapter," said Lousteau. "The fact of this +tailpiece changes my views as to the authorship. To have his book got +up, under the Empire, with vignettes engraved on wood, the writer must +have been a Councillor of State, or Madame Barthelemy-Hadot, or the +late lamented Desforges, or Sewrin." + +" 'Adolphe was silent.'--Ah!" cried Bianchon, "the Duchess must have +been under thirty." + +"If there is no more, invent a conclusion," said Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"You see," said Lousteau, "the waste sheet has been printed fair on +one side only. In printer's lingo, it is a back sheet, or, to make it +clearer, the other side which would have to be printed is covered all +over with pages printed one above another, all experiments in making +up. It would take too long to explain to you all the complications of +a making-up sheet; but you may understand that it will show no more +trace of the first twelve pages that were printed on it than you would +in the least remember the first stroke of the bastinado if a Pasha +condemned you to have fifty on the soles of your feet." + +"I am quite bewildered," said Madame Popinot-Chandier to Monsieur +Gravier. "I am vainly trying to connect the Councillor of State, the +Cardinal, the key, and the making-up----" + +"You have not the key to the jest," said Monsieur Gravier. "Well! no +more have I, fair lady, if that can comfort you." + +"But here is another sheet," said Bianchon, hunting on the table where +the proofs had been laid. + +"Capital!" said Lousteau, "and it is complete and uninjured. It is +signed IV.; J, Second Edition. Ladies, the figure IV. means that this +is part of the fourth volume. The letter J, the tenth letter of the +alphabet, shows that this is the tenth sheet. And it is perfectly +clear to me, that in spite of any publisher's tricks, this romance in +four duodecimo volumes, had a great success, since it came to a second +edition.--We will read on and find a clue to the mystery. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 21 + + corridor; but finding that he was + pursued by the Duchess' people + +"Oh, get along!" + +"But," said Madame de la Baudraye, "some important events have taken +place between your waste sheet and this page." + +"This complete sheet, madame, this precious made-up sheet. But does +the waste sheet in which the Duchess forgets her gloves in the arbor +belong to the fourth volume? Well, deuce take it--to proceed. + + Rinaldo saw no safer refuge than to + make forthwith for the cellar where + the treasures of the Bracciano fam- + ily no doubt lay hid. As light of + foot as Camilla sung by the Latin + poet, he flew to the entrance to the + Baths of Vespasian. The torchlight + already flickered on the walls when + Rinaldo, with the readiness be- + stowed on him by nature, discovered + the door concealed in the stone- + work, and suddenly vanished. A + hideous thought then flashed on + Rinaldo's brain like lightning rend- + ing a cloud: He was imprisoned! + He felt the wall with uneasy haste + +"Yes, this made-up sheet follows the waste sheet. The last page of the +damaged sheet was 212, and this is 217. In fact, since Rinaldo, who in +the earlier fragment stole the key of the Duchess' treasure by +exchanging it for another very much like it, is now--on the made-up +sheet--in the palace of the Dukes of Bracciano, the story seems to me +to be advancing to a conclusion of some kind. I hope it is as clear to +you as it is to me.--I understand that the festivities are over, the +lovers have returned to the Bracciano Palace; it is night--one o'clock +in the morning. Rinaldo will have a good time." + +"And Adolphe too!" said President Boirouge, who was considered rather +free in his speech. + +"And the style!" said Bianchon.--"Rinaldo, who saw /no better refuge +than to make for the cellar/." + +"It is quite clear that neither Maradan, nor Treuttel and Wurtz, nor +Doguereau, were the printers," said Lousteau, "for they employed +correctors who revised the proofs, a luxury in which our publishers +might very well indulge, and the writers of the present day, would +benefit greatly. Some scrubby pamphlet printer on the Quay--" + +"What quay?" a lady asked of her neighbor. "They spoke of baths--" + +"Pray go on," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"At any rate, it is not by a councillor," said Bianchon. + +"It may be by Madame Hadot," replied Lousteau. + +"What has Madame Hadot of La Charite to do with it?" the Presidente +asked of her son. + +"This Madame Hadot, my dear friend," the hostess answered, "was an +authoress, who lived at the time of the Consulate." + +"What, did women write in the Emperor's time?" asked Madame Popinot- +Chandier. + +"What of Madame de Genlis and Madame de Stael?" cried the Public +Prosecutor, piqued on Dinah's account by this remark. + +"To be sure!" + +"I beg you to go on," said Madame de la Baudraye to Lousteau. + +Lousteau went on saying: "Page 218. + + 218 OLYMPIA + + and gave a shriek of despair when + he had vainly sought any trace of a + secret spring. It was impossible to + ignore the horrible truth. The door, + cleverly constructed to serve the + vengeful purposes of the Duchess, + could not be opened from within. + Rinaldo laid his cheek against the + wall in various spots; nowhere + could he feel the warmer air from + the passage. He had hoped he + might find a crack that would show + him where there was an opening in + the wall, but nothing, nothing! The + whole seemed to be of one block of + marble. + + Then he gave a hollow roar like + that of a hyaena---- + +"Well, we fancied that the cry of the hyaena was a recent invention of +our own!" said Lousteau, "and here it was already known to the +literature of the Empire. It is even introduced with a certain skill +in natural history, as we see in the word /hollow/." + +"Make no more comments, monsieur," said Madame de la Baudraye. + +"There, you see!" cried Bianchon. "Interest, the romantic demon, has +you by the collar, as he had me a while ago." + +"Read on," cried de Clagny, "I understand." + +"What a coxcomb!" said the Presiding Judge in a whisper to his +neighbor the Sous-prefet. + +"He wants to please Madame de la Baudraye," replied the new Sous- +prefet. + +"Well, then I will read straight on," said Lousteau solemnly. + +Everybody listened in dead silence. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 219 + + A deep groan answered Rinaldo's + cry, but in his alarm he took it for + an echo, so weak and hollow was + the sound. It could not proceed + from any human breast. + + "Santa Maria!" said the voice. + + "If I stir from this spot I shall + never find it again," thought Ri- + naldo, when he had recovered his + usual presence of mind. "If I knock, + I shall be discovered. What am I + to do?" + + "Who is here?" asked the voice. + + "Hallo!" cried the brigand; "do + the toads here talk?" + + "I am the Duke of Bracciano. + Whoever you may be, if you are not + a follower of the Duchess', in the + name of all the saints, come towards + me." + + 220 OLYMPIA + + "I should have to know where to + find you, Monsieur le Duc," said Ri- + naldo, with the insolence of a man + who knows himself to be necessary. + + "I can see you, my friend, for my + eyes are accustomed to the darkness. + Listen: walk straight forward-- + good; now turn to the left--come + on--this way. There, we are close + to each other." + + Rinaldo putting out his hands as + a precaution, touched some iron + bars. + + "I am being deceived," cried the + bandit. + + "No, you are touching my cage. + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 221 + + Sit down on a broken shaft of por- + phyry that is there." + + "How can the Duke of Bracciano + be in a cage?" asked the brigand. + + "My friend, I have been here for + thirty months, standing up, unable + to sit down----But you, who are + you?" + + "I am Rinaldo, prince of the Cam- + pagna, the chief of four-and-twenty + brave men whom the law describes + as miscreants, whom all the ladies + admire, and whom judges hang in + obedience to an old habit." + + "God be praised! I am saved. + An honest man would have been + afraid, whereas I am sure of coming + to an understanding with you," + cried the Duke. "Oh, my worthy + + 222 OLYMPIA + + deliverer, you must be armed to the + teeth." + + "/E verissimo/" (most true). + + "Do you happen to have--" + + "Yes, files, pincers--/Corpo di + Bacco/! I came to borrow the treas- + ures of the Bracciani on a long + loan." + + "You will earn a handsome share + of them very legitimately, my good + Rinaldo, and we may possibly go + man hunting together--" + + "You surprise me, Eccellenza!" + + "Listen to me, Rinaldo. I will + say nothing of the craving for + vengeance that gnaws at my heart. + I have been here for thirty months + --you too are Italian--you will un- + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 223 + + derstand me! Alas, my friend, my + fatigue and my horrible incarcera- + tion are nothing in comparison + with the rage that devours my soul. + The Duchess of Bracciano is still + one of the most beautiful women in + Rome. I loved her well enough to + be jealous--" + + "You, her husband!" + + "Yes, I was wrong, no doubt." + + "It is not the correct thing, to be + sure," said Rinaldo. + + "My jealousy was roused by the + Duchess' conduct," the Duke went + on. "The event proved me right. A + young Frenchman fell in love with + Olympia, and she loved him. I had + proofs of their reciprocal affection + +"Pray excuse me, ladies," said Lousteau, "but I find it impossible to +go on without remarking to you how direct this Empire literature is, +going to the point without any details, a characteristic, as it seems +to me, of a primitive time. The literature of that period holds a +place between the summaries of chapters in /Telemaque/ and the +categorical reports of a public office. It had ideas, but refrained +from expressing them, it was so scornful! It was observant, but would +not communicate its observations to any one, it was so miserly! Nobody +but Fouche ever mentioned what he had observed. 'At that time,' to +quote the words of one of the most imbecile critics in the /Revue des +Deux Mondes/, 'literature was content with a clear sketch and the +simple outline of all antique statues. It did not dance over its +periods.'--I should think not! It had no periods to dance over. It had +no words to play with. You were plainly told that Lubin loved +Toinette; that Toinette did not love Lubin; that Lubin killed Toinette +and the police caught Lubin, who was put in prison, tried at the +assizes, and guillotined.--A strong sketch, a clear outline! What a +noble drama! Well, in these days the barbarians make words sparkle." + +"Like a hair in a frost," said Monsieur de Clagny. + +"So those are the airs you affect?"[*] retorted Lousteau. + +[*] The rendering given above is only intended to link the various + speeches into coherence; it has no resemblance with the French. In + the original, "Font chatoyer les /mots/." + + "Et quelquefois les /morts/," dit Monsieur de Clagny. + + "Ah! Lousteau! vous vous donnez de ces R-la (airs-la)." + + Literally: "And sometimes the dead."--"Ah, are those the airs you + assume?"--the play on the insertion of the letter R (/mots, + morts/) has no meaning in English. + +"What can he mean?" asked Madame de Clagny, puzzled by this vile pun. + +"I seem to be walking in the dark," replied the Mayoress. + +"The jest would be lost in an explanation," remarked Gatien. + +"Nowadays," Lousteau went on, "a novelist draws characters, and +instead of a 'simple outline,' he unveils the human heart and gives +you some interest either in Lubin or in Toinette." + +"For my part, I am alarmed at the progress of public knowledge in the +matter of literature," said Bianchon. "Like the Russians, beaten by +Charles XII., who at least learned the art of war, the reader has +learned the art of writing. Formerly all that was expected of a +romance was that it should be interesting. As to style, no one cared +for that, not even the author; as to ideas--zero; as to local color-- +/non est/. By degrees the reader has demanded style, interest, pathos, +and complete information; he insists on the five literary senses-- +Invention, Style, Thought, Learning, and Feeling. Then some criticism +commenting on everything. The critic, incapable of inventing anything +but calumny, pronounces every work that proceeds from a not perfect +brain to be deformed. Some magicians, as Walter Scott, for instance, +having appeared in the world, who combined all the five literary +senses, such writers as had but one--wit or learning, style or feeling +--these cripples, these acephalous, maimed or purblind creatures--in a +literary sense--have taken to shrieking that all is lost, and have +preached a crusade against men who were spoiling the business, or have +denounced their works." + +"The history of your last literary quarrel!" Dinah observed. + +"For pity's sake, come back to the Duke of Bracciano," cried Monsieur +de Clagny. + +To the despair of all the company, Lousteau went on with the made-up +sheet. + + 224 OLYMPIA + + I then wished to make sure of my + misfortune that I might be avenged + under the protection of Providence + and the Law. The Duchess guessed + my intentions. We were at war in + our purposes before we fought with + poison in our hands. We tried to + tempt each other to such confidence + as we could not feel, I to induce her + to drink a potion, she to get posses- + sion of me. She was a woman, and + she won the day; for women have a + snare more than we men. I fell into + it--I was happy; but I awoke next + day in this iron cage. All through + the day I bellowed with rage in the + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 225 + + darkness of this cellar, over which + is the Duchess' bedroom. At night + an ingenious counterpoise acting as + a lift raised me through the floor, + and I saw the Duchess in her lover's + arms. She threw me a piece of + bread, my daily pittance. + + "Thus have I lived for thirty + months! From this marble prison + my cries can reach no ear. There is + no chance for me. I will hope no + more. Indeed, the Duchess' room is + at the furthest end of the palace, + and when I am carried up there + none can hear my voice. Each time + I see my wife she shows me the + + 226 OLYMPIA + + poison I had prepared for her and + her lover. I crave it for myself, but + she will not let me die; she gives + me bread, and I eat it. + + "I have done well to eat and live; + I had not reckoned on robbers!" + + "Yes, Eccellenza, when those fools + the honest men are asleep, we are + wide awake." + + "Oh, Rinaldo, all I possess shall + be yours; we will share my treasure + like brothers; I would give you + everything--even to my Duchy----" + + "Eccellenza, procure from the + Pope an absolution /in articulo mor- + tis/. It would be of more use to me + in my walk of life." + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 227 + + "What you will. Only file + through the bars of my cage and + lend me your dagger. We have but + little time, quick, quick! Oh, if my + teeth were but files!--I have tried + to eat through this iron." + + "Eccellenza," said Rinaldo, "I + have already filed through one bar." + + "You are a god!" + + "Your wife was at the fete given + by the Princess Villaviciosa. She + brought home her little Frenchman; + she is drunk with love.--You have + plenty of time." + + "Have you done?" + + "Yes." + + 228 OLYMPIA + + "Your dagger?" said the Duke + eagerly to the brigand. + + "Here it is." + + "Good. I hear the clatter of the + spring." + + "Do not forget me!" cried the + robber, who knew what gratitude + was. + + "No more than my father," cried + the Duke. + + "Good-bye!" said Rinaldo. "Lord! + How he flies up!" he added to him- + self as the Duke disappeared.--"No + more than his father! If that is + all he means to do for me.--And I + + OR ROMAN REVENGE 229 + + had sworn a vow never to injure a + woman!" + + But let us leave the robber for a + moment to his meditations and go + up, like the Duke, to the rooms in + the palace. + +"Another tailpiece, a Cupid on a snail! And page 230 is blank," said +the journalist. "Then there are two more blank pages before we come to +the word it is such a joy to write when one is unhappily so happy as +to be a novelist--/Conclusion/! + + CONCLUSION + + Never had the Duchess been more + lovely; she came from her bath + clothed like a goddess, and on seeing + + 234 OLYMPIA + + Adolphe voluptuously reclining on + piles of cushions-- + + "You are beautiful," said she. + + "And so are you, Olympia!" + + "And you still love me?" + + "More and more," said he. + + "Ah, none but a Frenchman + knows how to love!" cried the + Duchess. "Do you love me well to- + night?" + + "Yes." + + "Then come!" + + And with an impulse of love and + hate--whether it was that Cardinal + Borborigano had reminded her of + her husband, or that she felt un- + wonted passion to display, she + pressed the springs and held out her + arms. + +"That is all," said Lousteau, "for the foreman has torn off the rest +in wrapping up my proofs. But it is enough to show that the author was +full of promise." + +"I cannot make head or tail of it," said Gatien Boirouge, who was the +first to break the silence of the party from Sancerre. + +"Nor I," replied Monsieur Gravier. + +"And yet it is a novel of the time of the Empire," said Lousteau. + +"By the way in which the brigand is made to speak," said Monsieur +Gravier, "it is evident that the author knew nothing of Italy. +Banditti do not allow themselves such graceful conceits." + +Madame Gorju came up to Bianchon, seeing him pensive, and with a +glance towards her daughter Mademoiselle Euphemie Gorju, the owner of +a fairly good fortune--"What a rhodomontade!" said she. "The +prescriptions you write are worth more than all that rubbish." + +The Mayoress had elaborately worked up this speech, which, in her +opinion, showed strong judgment. + +"Well, madame, we must be lenient, we have but twenty pages out of a +thousand," said Bianchon, looking at Mademoiselle Gorju, whose figure +threatened terrible things after the birth of her first child. + +"Well, Monsieur de Clagny," said Lousteau, "we were talking yesterday +of the forms of revenge invented by husbands. What do you say to those +invented by wives?" + +"I say," replied the Public Prosecutor, "that the romance is not by a +Councillor of State, but by a woman. For extravagant inventions the +imagination of women far outdoes that of men; witness /Frankenstein/ +by Mrs. Shelley, /Leone Leoni/ by George Sand, the works of Anne +Radcliffe, and the /Nouveau Promethee/ (New Prometheus) of Camille de +Maupin." + +Dinah looked steadily at Monsieur de Clagny, making him feel, by an +expression that gave him a chill, that in spite of the illustrious +examples he had quoted, she regarded this as a reflection on /Paquita +la Sevillane/. + +"Pooh!" said little Baudraye, "the Duke of Bracciano, whom his wife +puts into a cage, and to whom she shows herself every night in the +arms of her lover, will kill her--and do you call that revenge?--Our +laws and our society are far more cruel." + +"Why, little La Baudraye is talking!" said Monsieur Boirouge to his +wife. + +"Why, the woman is left to live on a small allowance, the world turns +its back on her, she has no more finery, and no respect paid her--the +two things which, in my opinion, are the sum-total of woman," said the +little old man. + +"But she has happiness!" said Madame de la Baudraye sententiously. + +"No," said the master of the house, lighting his candle to go to bed, +"for she has a lover." + +"For a man who thinks of nothing but his vine-stocks and poles, he has +some spunk," said Lousteau. + +"Well, he must have something!" replied Bianchon. + +Madame de la Baudraye, the only person who could hear Bianchon's +remark, laughed so knowingly, and at the same time so bitterly, that +the physician could guess the mystery of this woman's life; her +premature wrinkles had been puzzling him all day. + +But Dinah did not guess, on her part, the ominous prophecy contained +for her in her husband's little speech, which her kind old Abbe Duret, +if he had been alive, would not have failed to elucidate. Little La +Baudraye had detected in Dinah's eyes, when she glanced at the +journalist returning the ball of his jests, that swift and luminous +flash of tenderness which gilds the gleam of a woman's eye when +prudence is cast to the winds, and she is fairly carried away. Dinah +paid no more heed to her husband's hint to her to observe the +proprieties than Lousteau had done to Dinah's significant warnings on +the day of his arrival. + +Any other man than Bianchon would have been surprised at Lousteau's +immediate success; but he was so much the doctor, that he was not even +nettled at Dinah's marked preference for the newspaper-rather than the +prescription-writer! In fact, Dinah, herself famous, was naturally +more alive to wit than to fame. Love generally prefers contrast to +similitude. Everything was against the physician--his frankness, his +simplicity, and his profession. And this is why: Women who want to +love--and Dinah wanted to love as much as to be loved--have an +instinctive aversion for men who are devoted to an absorbing +occupation; in spite of superiority, they are all women in the matter +of encroachment. Lousteau, a poet and journalist, and a libertine with +a veneer of misanthropy, had that tinsel of the intellect, and led the +half-idle life that attracts women. The blunt good sense and keen +insight of the really great man weighed upon Dinah, who would not +confess her own smallness even to herself. She said in her mind--"The +doctor is perhaps the better man, but I do not like him." + +Then, again, she reflected on his professional duties, wondering +whether a woman could ever be anything but a /subject/ to a medical +man, who saw so many subjects in the course of a day's work. The first +sentence of the aphorism written by Bianchon in her album was a +medical observation striking so directly at woman, that Dinah could +not fail to be hit by it. And then Bianchon was leaving on the morrow; +his practice required his return. What woman, short of having Cupid's +mythological dart in her heart, could decide in so short a time? + +These little things, which lead to such great catastrophes--having +been seen in a mass by Bianchon, he pronounced the verdict he had come +to as to Madame de la Baudraye in a few words to Lousteau, to the +journalist's great amazement. + +While the two friends stood talking together, a storm was gathering in +the Sancerre circle, who could not in the least understand Lousteau's +paraphrases and commentaries, and who vented it on their hostess. Far +from finding in his talk the romance which the Public Prosecutor, the +Sous-prefet, the Presiding Judge, and his deputy, Lebas, had +discovered there--to say nothing of Monsieur de la Baudraye and Dinah +--the ladies now gathered round the tea-table, took the matter as a +practical joke, and accused the Muse of Sancerre of having a finger in +it. They had all looked forward to a delightful evening, and had all +strained in vain every faculty of their mind. Nothing makes provincial +folks so angry as the notion of having been a laughing-stock for Paris +folks. + +Madame Piedefer left the table to say to her daughter, "Do go and talk +to the ladies; they are quite annoyed by your behavior." + +Lousteau could not fail to see Dinah's great superiority over the best +women of Sancerre; she was better dressed, her movements were +graceful, her complexion was exquisitely white by candlelight--in +short, she stood out against this background of old faces, shy and +ill-dressed girls, like a queen in the midst of her court. Visions of +Paris faded from his brain; Lousteau was accepting the provincial +surroundings; and while he had too much imagination to remain +unimpressed by the royal splendor of this chateau, the beautiful +carvings, and the antique beauty of the rooms, he had also too much +experience to overlook the value of the personality which completed +this gem of the Renaissance. So by the time the visitors from Sancerre +had taken their leave one by one--for they had an hour's drive before +them--when no one remained in the drawing-room but Monsieur de Clagny, +Monsieur Lebas, Gatien, and Monsieur Gravier, who were all to sleep at +Anzy--the journalist had already changed his mind about Dinah. His +opinion had gone through the evolution that Madame de la Baudraye had +so audaciously prophesied at their first meeting. + +"Ah, what things they will say about us on the drive home!" cried the +mistress of the house, as she returned to the drawing-room after +seeing the President and the Presidente to their carriage with Madame +and Mademoiselle Popinot-Chandier. + +The rest of the evening had its pleasant side. In the intimacy of a +small party each one brought to the conversation his contribution of +epigrams on the figure the visitors from Sancerre had cut during +Lousteau's comments on the paper wrapped round the proofs. + +"My dear fellow," said Bianchon to Lousteau as they went to bed--they +had an enormous room with two beds in it--"you will be the happy man +of this woman's choice--/nee/ Piedefer!" + +"Do you think so?" + +"It is quite natural. You are supposed here to have had many +mistresses in Paris; and to a woman there is something indescribably +inviting in a man whom other women favor--something attractive and +fascinating; is it that she prides herself on being longer remembered +than all the rest? that she appeals to his experience, as a sick man +will pay more to a famous physician? or that she is flattered by the +revival of a world-worn heart?" + +"Vanity and the senses count for so much in love affairs," said +Lousteau, "that there may be some truth in all those hypotheses. +However, if I remain, it will be in consequence of the certificate of +innocence, without ignorance, that you have given Dinah. She is +handsome, is she not?" + +"Love will make her beautiful," said the doctor. "And, after all, she +will be a rich widow some day or other! And a child would secure her +the life-interest in the Master of La Baudraye's fortune--" + +"Why, it is quite an act of virtue to make love to her," said +Lousteau, rolling himself up in the bed-clothes, "and to-morrow, with +your help--yes, to-morrow, I--well, good-night." + +On the following day, Madame de la Baudraye, to whom her husband had +six months since given a pair of horses, which he also used in the +fields, and an old carriage that rattled on the road, decided that she +would take Bianchon so far on his way as Cosne, where he would get +into the Lyons diligence as it passed through. She also took her +mother and Lousteau, but she intended to drop her mother at La +Baudraye, to go on to Cosne with the two Parisians, and return alone +with Etienne. She was elegantly dressed, as the journalist at once +perceived--bronze kid boots, gray silk stockings, a muslin dress, a +green silk scarf with shaded fringe at the ends, and a pretty black +lace bonnet with flowers in it. As to Lousteau, the wretch had assumed +his war-paint--patent leather boots, trousers of English kerseymere +with pleats in front, a very open waistcoat showing a particularly +fine shirt and the black brocade waterfall of his handsome cravat, and +a very thin, very short black riding-coat. + +Monsieur de Clagny and Monsieur Gravier looked at each other, feeling +rather silly as they beheld the two Parisians in the carriage, while +they, like two simpletons, were left standing at the foot of the +steps. Monsieur de la Baudraye, who stood at the top waving his little +hand in a little farewell to the doctor, could not forbear from +smiling as he heard Monsieur de Clagny say to Monsieur Gravier: + +"You should have escorted them on horseback." + +At this juncture, Gatien, riding Monsieur de la Baudraye's quiet +little mare, came out of the side road from the stables and joined the +party in the chaise. + +"Ah, good," said the Receiver-General, "the boy has mounted guard." + +"What a bore!" cried Dinah as she saw Gatien. "In thirteen years--for +I have been married nearly thirteen years--I have never had three +hours' liberty. + +"Married, madame?" said the journalist with a smile. "You remind me of +a saying of Michaud's--he was so witty! He was setting out for the +Holy Land, and his friends were remonstrating with him, urging his +age, and the perils of such an expedition. 'And then,' said one, 'you +are married.'--'Married!' said he, 'so little married.' " + +Even the rigid Madame Piedefer could not repress a smile. + +"I should not be surprised to see Monsieur de Clagny mounted on my +pony to complete the escort," said Dinah. + +"Well, if the Public Prosecutor does not pursue us, you can get rid of +this little fellow at Sancerre. Bianchon must, of course, have left +something behind on his table--the notes for the first lecture of his +course--and you can ask Gatien to go back to Anzy to fetch it." + +This simple little plot put Madame de la Baudraye into high spirits. +From the road between Anzy to Sancerre, a glorious landscape +frequently comes into view, of the noble stretches of the Loire, +looking like a lake, and it was got over very pleasantly, for Dinah +was happy in finding herself well understood. Love was discussed in +theory, a subject allowing lovers /in petto/ to take the measure, as +it were, of each other's heart. The journalist took a tone of refined +corruption to prove that love obeys no law, that the character of the +lovers gives infinite variety to its incidents, that the circumstances +of social life add to the multiplicity of its manifestations, that in +love all is possible and true, and that any given woman, after +resisting every temptation and the seductions of the most passionate +lover, may be carried off her feet in the course of a few hours by a +fancy, an internal whirlwind of which God alone would ever know the +secret! + +"Why," said he, "is not that the key to all the adventures we have +talked over these three days past?" + +For these three days, indeed, Dinah's lively imagination had been full +of the most insidious romances, and the conversation of the two +Parisians had affected the woman as the most mischievous reading might +have done. Lousteau watched the effects of this clever manoeuvre, to +seize the moment when his prey, whose readiness to be caught was +hidden under the abstraction caused by irresolution, should be quite +dizzy. + +Dinah wished to show La Baudraye to her two visitors, and the farce +was duly played out of remembering the papers left by Bianchon in his +room at Anzy. Gatien flew off at a gallop to obey his sovereign; +Madame Piedefer went to do some shopping in Sancerre; and Dinah went +on to Cosne alone with the two friends. Lousteau took his seat by the +lady, Bianchon riding backwards. The two friends talked affectionately +and with deep compassion for the fate of this choice nature so ill +understood and in the midst of such vulgar surroundings. Bianchon +served Lousteau well by making fun of the Public Prosecutor, of +Monsieur Gravier, and of Gatien; there was a tone of such genuine +contempt in his remarks, that Madame de la Baudraye dared not take the +part of her adorers. + +"I perfectly understand the position you have maintained," said the +doctor as they crossed the Loire. "You were inaccessible excepting to +that brain-love which often leads to heart-love; and not one of those +men, it is very certain, is capable of disguising what, at an early +stage of life, is disgusting to the senses in the eyes of a refined +woman. To you, now, love is indispensable." + +"Indispensable!" cried Dinah, looking curiously at the doctor. "Do you +mean that you prescribe love to me?" + +"If you go on living as you live now, in three years you will be +hideous," replied Bianchon in a dictatorial tone. + +"Monsieur!" said Madame de la Baudraye, almost frightened. + +"Forgive my friend," said Lousteau, half jestingly. "He is always the +medical man, and to him love is merely a question of hygiene. But he +is quite disinterested--it is for your sake only that he speaks--as is +evident, since he is starting in an hour--" + +At Cosne a little crowd gathered round the old repainted chaise, with +the arms on the panels granted by Louis XIV. to the new La Baudraye. +Gules, a pair of scales or; on a chief azure (color on color) three +cross-crosslets argent. For supporters two greyhounds argent, collared +azure, chained or. The ironical motto, /Deo sic patet fides et +hominibus/, had been inflicted on the converted Calvinist by Hozier +the satirical. + +"Let us get out; they will come and find us," said the Baroness, +desiring her coachman to keep watch. + +Dinah took Bianchon's arm, and the doctor set off by the banks of the +Loire at so rapid a pace that the journalist had to linger behind. The +physician had explained by a single wink that he meant to do Lousteau +a good turn. + +"You have been attracted by Etienne," said Bianchon to Dinah; "he has +appealed strongly to your imagination; last night we were talking +about you.--He loves you. But he is frivolous, and difficult to hold; +his poverty compels him to live in Paris, while everything condemns +you to live at Sancerre.--Take a lofty view of life. Make Lousteau +your friend; do not ask too much of him; he will come three times a +year to spend a few days with you, and you will owe to him your +beauty, happiness, and fortune. Monsieur de la Baudraye may live to be +a hundred; but he might die in a few days if he should leave off the +flannel winding-sheet in which he swathes himself. So run no risks, be +prudent both of you.--Say not a work--I have read your heart." + +Madame de la Baudraye was defenceless under this serried attack, and +in the presence of a man who spoke at once as a doctor, a confessor, +and confidential friend. + +"Indeed!" said she. "Can you suppose that any woman would care to +compete with a journalist's mistresses?--Monsieur Lousteau strikes me +as agreeable and witty; but he is /blase/, etc., etc.----" + +Dinah had turned back, and was obliged to check the flow of words by +which she tried to disguise her intentions; for Etienne, who seemed to +be studying progress in Cosne, was coming to meet them. + +"Believe me," said Bianchon, "what he wants is to be truly loved; and +if he alters his course of life, it will be to the benefit of his +talent." + +Dinah's coachman hurried up breathlessly to say that the diligence had +come in, and they walked on quickly, Madame de la Baudraye between the +two men. + +"Good-bye, my children!" said Bianchon, before they got into the town, +"you have my blessing!" + +He released Madame de la Baudraye's hand from his arm, and allowed +Lousteau to draw it into his, with a tender look, as he pressed it to +his heart. What a difference to Dinah! Etienne's arm thrilled her +deeply. Bianchon's had not stirred her in the least. She and the +journalist exchanged one of those glowing looks that are more than an +avowal. + +"Only provincial women wear muslin gowns in these days," thought +Lousteau to himself, "the only stuff which shows every crease. This +woman, who has chosen me for her lover, will make a fuss over her +frock! If she had but put on a foulard skirt, I should be happy.--What +is the meaning of these difficulties----" + +While Lousteau was wondering whether Dinah had put on a muslin gown on +purpose to protect herself by an insuperable obstacle, Bianchon, with +the help of the coachman, was seeing his luggage piled on the +diligence. Finally, he came to take leave of Dinah, who was +excessively friendly with him. + +"Go home, Madame la Baronne, leave me here--Gatien will be coming," he +added in an undertone. "It is getting late," said he aloud. "Good- +bye!" + +"Good-bye--great man!" cried Lousteau, shaking hands with Bianchon. + +When the journalist and Madame de la Baudraye, side by side in the +rickety old chaise, had recrossed the Loire, they both were unready to +speak. In these circumstances, the first words that break the silence +are full of terrible meaning. + +"Do you know how much I love you?" said the journalist point blank. + +Victory might gratify Lousteau, but defeat could cause him no grief. +This indifference was the secret of his audacity. He took Madame de la +Baudraye's hand as he spoke these decisive words, and pressed it in +both his; but Dinah gently released it. + +"Yes, I am as good as an actress or a /grisette/," she said in a voice +that trembled, though she spoke lightly. "But can you suppose that a +woman who, in spite of her absurdities, has some intelligence, will +have reserved the best treasures of her heart for a man who will +regard her merely as a transient pleasure?--I am not surprised to hear +from your lips the words which so many men have said to me--but----" + +The coachman turned round. + +"Here comes Monsieur Gatien," said he. + +"I love you, I will have you, you shall be mine, for I have never felt +for any woman the passion I have for you!" said Lousteau in her ear. + +"In spite of my will, perhaps?" said she, with a smile. + +"At least you must seem to have been assaulted to save my honor," said +the Parisian, to whom the fatal immaculateness of clean muslin +suggested a ridiculous notion. + +Before Gatien had reached the end of the bridge, the outrageous +journalist had crumpled up Madame de la Baudraye's muslin dress to +such an effect that she was absolutely not presentable. + +"Oh, monsieur!" she exclaimed in dignified reproof. + +"You defied me," said the Parisian. + +But Gatien now rode up with the vehemence of a duped lover. To regain +a little of Madame de la Baudraye's esteem, Lousteau did his best to +hide the tumbled dress from Gatien's eyes by leaning out of the chaise +to speak to him from Dinah's side. + +"Go back to our inn," said he, "there is still time; the diligence +does not start for half an hour. The papers are on the table of the +room Bianchon was in; he wants them particularly, for he will be lost +without his notes for the lecture." + +"Pray go, Gatien," said Dinah to her young adorer, with an imperious +glance. And the boy thus commanded turned his horse and was off with a +loose rein. + +"Go quickly to La Baudraye," cried Lousteau to the coachman. "Madame +is not well--Your mother only will know the secret of my trick," added +he, taking his seat by Dinah. + +"You call such infamous conduct a trick?" cried Madame de la Baudraye, +swallowing down a few tears that dried up with the fire of outraged +pride. + +She leaned back in the corner of the chaise, crossed her arms, and +gazed out at the Loire and the landscape, at anything rather than at +Lousteau. The journalist put on his most ingratiating tone, and talked +till they reached La Baudraye, where Dinah fled indoors, trying not to +be seen by any one. In her agitation she threw herself on a sofa and +burst into tears. + +"If I am an object of horror to you, of aversion or scorn, I will go," +said Lousteau, who had followed her. And he threw himself at her feet. + +It was at this crisis that Madame Piedefer came in, saying to her +daughter: + +"What is the matter? What has happened?" + +"Give your daughter another dress at once," said the audacious +Parisian in the prim old lady's ear. + +Hearing the mad gallop of Gatien's horse, Madame de la Baudraye fled +to her bedroom, followed by her mother. + +"There are no papers at the inn," said Gatien to Lousteau, who went +out to meet him. + +"And you found none at the Chateau d'Anzy either?" replied Lousteau. + +"You have been making a fool of me," said Gatien, in a cold, set +voice. + +"Quite so," replied Lousteau. "Madame de la Baudraye was greatly +annoyed by your choosing to follow her without being invited. Believe +me, to bore a woman is a bad way of courting her. Dinah has played you +a trick, and you have given her a laugh; it is more than any of you +has done in these thirteen years past. You owe that success to +Bianchon, for your cousin was the author of the Farce of the +'Manuscript.'--Will the horse get over it?" asked Lousteau with a +laugh, while Gatien was wondering whether to be angry or not. + +"The horse!" said Gatien. + +At this moment Madame de la Baudraye came in, dressed in a velvet +gown, and accompanied by her mother, who shot angry flashes at +Lousteau. It would have been too rash for Dinah to seem cold or severe +to Lousteau in Gatien's presence; and Etienne, taking advantage of +this, offered his arm to the supposed Lucretia; however, she declined +it. + +"Do you mean to cast off a man who has vowed to live for you?" said +he, walking close beside her. "I shall stop at Sancerre and go home +to-morrow." + +"Are you coming, mamma?" said Madame de la Baudraye to Madame +Piedefer, thus avoiding a reply to the direct challenge by which +Lousteau was forcing her to a decision. + +Lousteau handed the mother into the chaise, he helped Madame de la +Baudraye by gently taking her arm, and he and Gatien took the front +seat, leaving the saddle horse at La Baudraye. + +"You have changed your gown," said Gatien, blunderingly, to Dinah. + +"Madame la Baronne was chilled by the cool air off the river," replied +Lousteau. "Bianchon advised her to put on a warm dress." + +Dinah turned as red as a poppy, and Madame Piedefer assumed a stern +expression. + +"Poor Bianchon! he is on the road to Paris. A noble soul!" said +Lousteau. + +"Oh, yes!" cried Madame de la Baudraye, "he is high-minded, full of +delicate feeling----" + +"We were in such good spirits when we set out," said Lousteau; "now +you are overdone, and you speak to me so bitterly--why? Are you not +accustomed to being told how handsome and how clever you are? For my +part, I say boldly, before Gatien, I give up Paris; I mean to stay at +Sancerre and swell the number of your /cavalieri serventi/. I feel so +young again in my native district; I have quite forgotten Paris and +all its wickedness, and its bores, and its wearisome pleasures.--Yes, +my life seems in a way purified." + +Dinah allowed Lousteau to talk without even looking at him; but at +last there was a moment when this serpent's rhodomontade was really so +inspired by the effort he made to affect passion in phrases and ideas +of which the meaning, though hidden from Gatien, found a loud response +in Dinah's heart, that she raised her eyes to his. This look seemed to +crown Lousteau's joy; his wit flowed more freely, and at last he made +Madame de la Baudraye laugh. When, under circumstances which so +seriously compromise her pride, a woman has been made to laugh, she is +finally committed. + +As they drove in by the spacious graveled forecourt, with its lawn in +the middle, and the large vases filled with flowers which so well set +off the facade of Anzy, the journalist was saying: + +"When women love, they forgive everything, even our crimes; when they +do not love, they cannot forgive anything--not even our virtues.--Do +you forgive me," he added in Madame de la Baudraye's ear, and pressing +her arm to his heart with tender emphasis. And Dinah could not help +smiling. + +All through dinner, and for the rest of the evening, Etienne was in +the most delightful spirits, inexhaustibly cheerful; but while thus +giving vent to his intoxication, he now and then fell into the dreamy +abstraction of a man who seems rapt in his own happiness. + +After coffee had been served, Madame de la Baudraye and her mother +left the men to wander about the gardens. Monsieur Gravier then +remarked to Monsieur de Clagny: + +"Did you observe that Madame de la Baudraye, after going out in a +muslin gown came home in a velvet?" + +"As she got into the carriage at Cosne, the muslin dress caught on a +brass nail and was torn all the way down," replied Lousteau. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Gatien, stricken to the heart by hearing two such +different explanations. + +The journalist, who understood, took Gatien by the arm and pressed it +as a hint to him to be silent. A few minutes later Etienne left +Dinah's three adorers and took possession of little La Baudraye. Then +Gatien was cross-questioned as to the events of the day. Monsieur +Gravier and Monsieur de Clagny were dismayed to hear that on the +return from Cosne Lousteau had been alone with Dinah, and even more so +on hearing the two versions explaining the lady's change of dress. And +the three discomfited gentlemen were in a very awkward position for +the rest of the evening. + +Next day each, on various business, was obliged to leave Anzy; Dinah +remained with her mother, Lousteau, and her husband. The annoyance +vented by the three victims gave rise to an organized rebellion in +Sancerre. The surrender of the Muse of Le Berry, of the Nivernais, and +of Morvan was the cause of a perfect hue and cry of slander, evil +report, and various guesses in which the story of the muslin gown held +a prominent place. No dress Dinah had ever worn had been so much +commented on, or was half as interesting to the girls, who could not +conceive what the connection might be, that made the married women +laugh, between love and a muslin gown. + +The Presidente Boirouge, furious at her son's discomfiture, forgot the +praise she had lavished on the poem of /Paquita/, and fulminated +terrific condemnation on the woman who could publish such a +disgraceful work. + +"The wretched woman commits every crime she writes about," said she. +"Perhaps she will come to the same end as her heroine!" + +Dinah's fate among the good folks of Sancerre was like that of +Marechal Soult in the opposition newspapers; as long as he is minister +he lost the battle of Toulouse; whenever he is out of the Government +he won it! While she was virtuous, Dinah was a match for Camille de +Maupin, a rival of the most famous women; but as soon as she was +happy, she was an /unhappy creature/. + +Monsieur de Clagny was her valiant champion; he went several times to +the Chateau d'Anzy to acquire the right to contradict the rumors +current as to the woman he still faithfully adored, even in her fall; +and he maintained that she and Lousteau were engaged together on some +great work. But the lawyer was laughed to scorn. + +The month of October was lovely; autumn is the finest season in the +valley of the Loire; but in 1836 it was unusually glorious. Nature +seemed to aid and abet Dinah, who, as Bianchon had predicted, +gradually developed a heart-felt passion. In one month she was an +altered woman. She was surprised to find in herself so many inert and +dormant qualities, hitherto in abeyance. To her Lousteau seemed an +angel; for heart-love, the crowning need of a great nature, had made a +new woman of her. Dinah was alive! She had found an outlet for her +powers, she saw undreamed-of vistas in the future--in short, she was +happy, happy without alarms or hindrances. The vast castle, the +gardens, the park, the forest, favored love. + +Lousteau found in Madame de la Baudraye an artlessness, nay, if you +will, an innocence of mind which made her very original; there was +much more of the unexpected and winning in her than in a girl. +Lousteau was quite alive to a form of flattery which in most women is +assumed, but which in Dinah was genuine; she really learned from him +the ways of love; he really was the first to reign in her heart. And, +indeed, he took the trouble to be exceedingly amiable. + +Men, like women, have a stock in hand of recitatives, of /cantabile/, +of /nocturnes/, airs and refrains--shall we say of recipes, although +we speak of love--which each one believes to be exclusively his own. +Men who have reached Lousteau's age try to distribute the "movements" +of this repertoire through the whole opera of a passion. Lousteau, +regarding this adventure with Dinah as a mere temporary connection, +was eager to stamp himself on her memory in indelible lines; and +during that beautiful October he was prodigal of his most entrancing +melodies and most elaborate /barcarolles/. In fact, he exhausted every +resource of the stage management of love, to use an expression +borrowed from the theatrical dictionary, and admirably descriptive of +his manoeuvres. + +"If that woman ever forgets me!" he would sometimes say to himself as +they returned together from a long walk in the woods, "I will owe her +no grudge--she will have found something better." + +When two beings have sung together all the duets of that enchanting +score, and still love each other, it may be said that they love truly. + +Lousteau, however, had not time to repeat himself, for he was to leave +Anzy in the early days of November. His paper required his presence in +Paris. Before breakfast, on the day before he was to leave, the +journalist and Dinah saw the master of the house come in with an +artist from Nevers, who restored carvings of all kinds. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Lousteau. "What is to be done to the +chateau?" + +"This is what I am going to do," said the little man, leading +Lousteau, the local artist, and Dinah out on the terrace. + +He pointed out, on the front of the building, a shield supported by +two sirens, not unlike that which may be seen on the arcade, now +closed, through which there used to be a passage from the Quai des +Tuileries to the courtyard of the old Louvre, and over which the words +may still be seen, "/Bibliotheque du Cabinet du Roi/." This shield +bore the arms of the noble House of Uxelles, namely, Or and gules +party per fess, with two lions or, dexter and sinister as supporters. +Above, a knight's helm, mantled of the tincture of the shield, and +surmounted by a ducal coronet. Motto, /Cy paroist!/ A proud and +sonorous device. + +"I want to put my own coat of arms in the place of that of the +Uxelles; and as they are repeated six times on the two fronts and the +two wings, it is not a trifling affair." + +"Your arms, so new, and since 1830!" exclaimed Dinah. + +"Have I not created an entail?" + +"I could understand it if you had children," said the journalist. + +"Oh!" said the old man, "Madame de la Baudraye is still young; there +is no time lost." + +This allusion made Lousteau smile; he did not understand Monsieur de +la Baudraye. + +"There, Didine!" said he in Dinah's ear, "what a waste of remorse!" + +Dinah begged him to give her one day more, and the lovers parted after +the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a +piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn +pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her! + +Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau, +in the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and +little La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in +her drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and +Gravier, she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn: + +"I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been +loved for my own sake." + +And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his +feelings, on the end of his base passions, and so forth. Of Dinah's +three worshipers, Monsieur de Clagny only said to her: "I love you, +come what may"--and Dinah accepted him as her confidant, lavished on +him all the marks of friendship which women can devise for the Gurths +who are ready thus to wear the collar of gilded slavery. + + + +In Paris once more, Lousteau had, in a few weeks, lost the impression +of the happy time he had spent at the Chateau d'Anzy. This is why: +Lousteau lived by his pen. + +In this century, especially since the triumph of the /bourgeoisie/-- +the commonplace, money-saving citizen--who takes good care not to +imitate Francis I. or Louis XIV.--to live by the pen is a form of +penal servitude to which a galley-slave would prefer death. To live by +the pen means to create--to create to-day, and to-morrow, and +incessantly--or to seem to create; and the imitation costs as dear as +the reality. So, besides his daily contribution to a newspaper, which +was like the stone of Sisyphus, and which came every Monday, crashing +down on to the feather of his pen, Etienne worked for three or four +literary magazines. Still, do not be alarmed; he put no artistic +conscientiousness into his work. This man of Sancerre had a facility, +a carelessness, if you call it so, which ranked him with those writers +who are mere scriveners, literary hacks. In Paris, in our day, hack- +work cuts a man off from every pretension to a literary position. When +he can do no more, or no longer cares for advancement, the man who can +write becomes a journalist and a hack. + +The life he leads is not unpleasing. Blue-stockings, beginners in +every walk of life, actresses at the outset or the close of a career, +publishers and authors, all make much of these writers of the ready +pen. Lousteau, a thorough man about town, lived at scarcely any +expense beyond paying his rent. He had boxes at all the theatres; the +sale of the books he reviewed or left unreviewed paid for his gloves; +and he would say to those authors who published at their own expense, +"I have your book always in my hands!" He took toll from vanity in the +form of drawings or pictures. Every day had its engagements to dinner, +every night its theatre, every morning was filled up with callers, +visits, and lounging. His serial in the paper, two novels a year for +weekly magazines, and his miscellaneous articles were the tax he paid +for this easy-going life. And yet, to reach this position, Etienne had +struggled for ten years. + +At the present time, known to the literary world, liked for the good +or the mischief he did with equally facile good humor, he let himself +float with the stream, never caring for the future. He ruled a little +set of newcomers, he had friendships--or rather, habits of fifteen +years' standing, and men with whom he supped, and dined, and indulged +his wit. He earned from seven to eight hundred francs a month, a sum +which he found quite insufficient for the prodigality peculiar to the +impecunious. Indeed, Lousteau found himself now just as hard up as +when, on first appearing in Paris, he had said to himself, "If I had +but five hundred francs a month, I should be rich!" + +The cause of this phenomenon was as follows: Lousteau lived in the Rue +des Martyrs in pretty ground-floor rooms with a garden, and splendidly +furnished. When he settled there in 1833 he had come to an agreement +with an upholsterer that kept his pocket money low for a long time. +These rooms were let for twelve hundred francs. The months of January, +April, July, and October were, as he phrased it, his indigent months. +The rent and the porter's account cleaned him out. Lousteau took no +fewer hackney cabs, spend a hundred francs in breakfasts all the same, +smoked thirty francs' worth of cigars, and could never refuse the +mistress of a day a dinner or a new dress. He thus dipped so deeply +into the fluctuating earnings of the following months, that he could +no more find a hundred francs on his chimney-piece now, when he was +making seven or eight hundred francs a month, than he could in 1822, +when he was hardly getting two hundred. + +Tired, sometimes, by the incessant vicissitudes of a literary life, +and as much bored by amusement as a courtesan, Lousteau would get out +of the tideway and sit on the bank, and say to one and another of his +intimate allies--Nathan or Bixiou, as they sat smoking in his scrap of +garden, looking out on an evergreen lawn as big as a dinner-table: + +"What will be the end of us? White hairs are giving us respectful +hints!" + +"Lord! we shall marry when we choose to give as much thought to the +matter as we give to a drama or a novel," said Nathan. + +"And Florine?" retorted Bixiou. + +"Oh, we all have a Florine," said Etienne, flinging away the end of +his cigar and thinking of Madame Schontz. + +Madame Schontz was a pretty enough woman to put a very high price on +the interest on her beauty, while reserving absolute ownership for +Lousteau, the man of her heart. Like all those women who get the name +in Paris of /Lorettes/, from the Church of Notre Dame de Lorette, +round about which they dwell, she lived in the Rue Flechier, a stone's +throw from Lousteau. This lady took a pride and delight in teasing her +friends by boasting of having a Wit for her lover. + +These details of Lousteau's life and fortune are indispensable, for +this penury and this bohemian existence of a man to whom Parisian +luxury had become a necessity, were fated to have a cruel influence on +Dinah's life. Those to whom the bohemia of Paris is familiar will now +understand how it was that, by the end of a fortnight, the journalist, +up to his ears in the literary environment, could laugh about his +Baroness with his friends and even with Madame Schontz. To such +readers as regard such things as utterly mean, it is almost useless to +make excuses which they will not accept. + +"What did you do at Sancerre?" asked Bixiou the first time he met +Lousteau. + +"I did good service to three worthy provincials--a Receiver-General of +Taxes, a little cousin of his, and a Public Prosecutor, who for ten +years had been dancing round and round one of the hundred 'Tenth +Muses' who adorn the Departments," said he. "But they had no more +dared to touch her than we touch a decorated cream at dessert till +some strong-minded person has made a hole in it." + +"Poor boy!" said Bixiou. "I said you had gone to Sancerre to turn +Pegasus out to grass." + +"Your joke is as stupid as my Muse is handsome," retorted Lousteau. +"Ask Bianchon, my dear fellow." + +"A Muse and a Poet! A homoeopathic cure then!" said Bixiou. + +On the tenth day Lousteau received a letter with the Sancerre post- +mark. + +"Good! very good!" said Lousteau. + +" 'Beloved friend, idol of my heart and soul----' twenty pages of it! +all at one sitting, and dated midnight! She writes when she finds +herself alone. Poor woman! Ah, ha! And a postscript-- + +" 'I dare not ask you to write to me as I write, every day; still, I +hope to have a few lines from my dear one every week, to relieve my +mind.'--What a pity to burn it all! it is really well written," said +Lousteau to himself, as he threw the ten sheets of paper into the fire +after having read them. "That woman was born to reel off copy!" + +Lousteau was not much afraid of Madame Schontz, who really loved him +for himself, but he had supplanted a friend in the heart of a +Marquise. This Marquise, a lady nowise coy, sometimes dropped in +unexpectedly at his rooms in the evening, arriving veiled in a hackney +coach; and she, as a literary woman, allowed herself to hunt through +all his drawers. + +A week later, Lousteau, who hardly remembered Dinah, was startled by +another budget from Sancerre--eight leaves, sixteen pages! He heard a +woman's step; he thought it announced a search from the Marquise, and +tossed these rapturous and entrancing proofs of affections into the +fire--unread! + +"A woman's letter!" exclaimed Madame Schontz, as she came in. "The +paper, the wax, are scented--" + +"Here you are, sir," said a porter from the coach office, setting down +two huge hampers in the ante-room. "Carriage paid. Please to sign my +book." + +"Carriage paid!" cried Madame Schontz. "It must have come from +Sancerre." + +"Yes, madame," said the porter. + +"Your Tenth Muse is a remarkably intelligent woman," said the +courtesan, opening one of the hampers, while Lousteau was writing his +name. "I like a Muse who understands housekeeping, and who can make +game pies as well as blots. And, oh! what beautiful flowers!" she went +on, opening the second hamper. "Why, you could get none finer in +Paris!--And here, and here! A hare, partridges, half a roebuck!--We +will ask your friends and have a famous dinner, for Athalie has a +special talent for dressing venison." + +Lousteau wrote to Dinah; but instead of writing from the heart, he was +clever. The letter was all the more insidious; it was like one of +Mirabeau's letters to Sophie. The style of a true lover is +transparent. It is a clear stream which allows the bottom of the heart +to be seen between two banks, bright with the trifles of existence, +and covered with the flowers of the soul that blossom afresh every +day, full of intoxicating beauty--but only for two beings. As soon as +a love letter has any charm for a third reader, it is beyond doubt the +product of the head, not of the heart. But a woman will always be +beguiled; she always believes herself to be the determining cause of +this flow of wit. + +By the end of December Lousteau had ceased to read Dinah's letters; +they lay in a heap in a drawer of his chest that was never locked, +under his shirts, which they scented. + +Then one of those chances came to Lousteau which such bohemians ought +to clutch by every hair. In the middle of December, Madame Schontz, +who took a real interest in Etienne, sent to beg him to call on her +one morning on business. + +"My dear fellow, you have a chance of marrying." + +"I can marry very often, happily, my dear." + +"When I say marrying, I mean marrying well. You have no prejudices: I +need not mince matters. This is the position: A young lady has got +into trouble; her mother knows nothing of even a kiss. Her father is +an honest notary, a man of honor; he has been wise enough to keep it +dark. He wants to get his daughter married within a fortnight, and he +will give her a fortune of a hundred and fifty thousand francs--for he +has three other children; but--and it is not a bad idea--he will add a +hundred thousand francs, under the rose, hand to hand, to cover the +damages. They are an old family of Paris citizens, Rue des +Lombards----" + +"Well, then, why does not the lover marry her?" + +"Dead." + +"What a romance! Such things are nowhere to be heard of but in the Rue +des Lombards." + +"But do not take it into your head that a jealous brother murdered the +seducer. The young man died in the most commonplace way of a pleurisy +caught as he came out of the theatre. A head-clerk and penniless, the +man entrapped the daughter in order to marry into the business--A +judgment from heaven, I call it!" + +"Where did you hear the story?" + +"From Malaga; the notary is her /milord/." + +"What, Cardot, the son of that little old man in hair-powder, +Florentine's first friend?" + +"Just so. Malaga, whose 'fancy' is a little tomtit of a fiddler of +eighteen, cannot in conscience make such a boy marry the girl. +Besides, she has no cause to do him an ill turn.--Indeed, Monsieur +Cardot wants a man of thirty at least. Our notary, I feel sure, will +be proud to have a famous man for his son-in-law. So just feel +yourself all over.--You will pay your debts, you will have twelve +thousand francs a year, and be a father without any trouble on your +part; what do you say to that to the good? And, after all, you only +marry a very consolable widow. There is an income of fifty thousand +francs in the house, and the value of the connection, so in due time +you may look forward to not less than fifteen thousand francs a year +more for your share, and you will enter a family holding a fine +political position; Cardot is the brother-in-law of old Camusot, the +depute who lived so long with Fanny Beaupre." + +"Yes," said Lousteau, "old Camusot married little Daddy Cardot's +eldest daughter, and they had high times together!" + +"Well!" Madame Schontz went on, "and Madame Cardot, the notary's wife, +was a Chiffreville--manufacturers of chemical products, the +aristocracy of these days! Potash, I tell you! Still, this is the +unpleasant side of the matter. You will have a terrible mother-in-law, +a woman capable of killing her daughter if she knew--! This Cardot +woman is a bigot; she has lips like two faded narrow pink ribbons. + +"A man of the town like you would never pass muster with that woman, +who, in her well-meaning way, will spy out your bachelor life and know +every fact of the past. However, Cardot says he means to exert his +paternal authority. The poor man will be obliged to do the civil to +his wife for some days; a woman made of wood, my dear fellow; Malaga, +who has seen her, calls her a penitential scrubber. Cardot is a man of +forty; he will be mayor of his district, and perhaps be elected +deputy. He is prepared to give in lieu of the hundred thousand francs +a nice little house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, with a forecourt and a +garden, which cost him no more than sixty thousand at the time of the +July overthrow; he would sell, and that would be an opportunity for +you to go and come at the house, to see the daughter, and be civil to +the mother.--And it would give you a look of property in Madame +Cardot's eyes. You would be housed like a prince in that little +mansion. Then, by Camusot's interest, you may get an appointment as +librarian to some public office where there is no library.--Well, and +then if you invest your money in backing up a newspaper, you will get +ten thousand francs a year on it, you can earn six, your librarianship +will bring you in four.--Can you do better for yourself? + +"If you were to marry a lamb without spot, it might be a light woman +by the end of two years. What is the damage?--an anticipated dividend! +It is quite the fashion. + +"Take my word for it, you can do no better than come to dine with +Malaga to-morrow. You will meet your father-in-law; he will know the +secret has been let out--by Malaga, with whom he cannot be angry--and +then you are master of the situation. As to your wife!--Why her +misconduct leaves you as free as a bachelor----" + +"Your language is as blunt as a cannon ball." + +"I love you for your own sake, that is all--and I can reason. Well! +why do you stand there like a wax image of Abd-el-Kader? There is +nothing to meditate over. Marriage is heads or tails--well, you have +tossed heads up." + +"You shall have my reply to-morrow," said Lousteau. + +"I would sooner have it at once; Malaga will write you up to-night." + +"Well, then, yes." + +Lousteau spent the evening in writing a long letter to the Marquise, +giving her the reasons which compelled him to marry; his constant +poverty, the torpor of his imagination, his white hairs, his moral and +physical exhaustion--in short, four pages of arguments.--"As to Dinah, +I will send her a circular announcing the marriage," said he to +himself. "As Bixiou says, I have not my match for knowing how to dock +the tail of a passion." + +Lousteau, who at first had been on some ceremony with himself, by next +day had come to the point of dreading lest the marriage should not +come off. He was pressingly civil to the notary. + +"I knew monsieur your father," said he, "at Florentine's, so I may +well know you here, at Mademoiselle Turquet's. Like father, like son. +A very good fellow and a philosopher, was little Daddy Cardot--excuse +me, we always called him so. At that time, Florine, Florentine, +Tullia, Coralie, and Mariette were the five fingers of your hand, so +to speak--it is fifteen years ago. My follies, as you may suppose, are +a thing of the past.--In those days it was pleasure that ran away with +me; now I am ambitious; but, in our day, to get on at all a man must +be free from debt, have a good income, a wife, and a family. If I pay +taxes enough to qualify me, I may be a deputy yet, like any other +man." + +Maitre Cardot appreciated this profession of faith. Lousteau had laid +himself out to please and the notary liked him, feeling himself more +at his ease, as may be easily imagined, with a man who had known his +father's secrets than he would have been with another. On the +following day Lousteau was introduced to the Cardot family as the +purchaser of the house in the Rue Saint-Lazare, and three days later +he dined there. + +Cardot lived in an old house near the Place du Chatelet. In this house +everything was "good." Economy covered every scrap of gilding with +green gauze; all the furniture wore holland covers. Though it was +impossible to feel a shade of uneasiness as to the wealth of the +inhabitants, at the end of half an hour no one could suppress a yawn. +Boredom perched in every nook; the curtains hung dolefully; the +dining-room was like Harpagon's. Even if Lousteau had not known all +about Malaga, he could have guessed that the notary's real life was +spent elsewhere. + +The journalist saw a tall, fair girl with blue eyes, at once shy and +languishing. The elder brother took a fancy to him; he was the fourth +clerk in the office, but strongly attracted by the snares of literary +fame, though destined to succeed his father. The younger sister was +twelve years old. Lousteau, assuming a little Jesuitical air, played +the Monarchist and Churchman for the benefit of the mother, was quite +smooth, deliberate, and complimentary. + +Within three weeks of their introduction, at his fourth dinner there, +Felicie Cardot, who had been watching Lousteau out of the corner of +her eye, carried him a cup of coffee where he stood in the window +recess, and said in a low voice, with tears in her eyes: + +"I will devote my whole life, monsieur, to thanking you for your +sacrifice in favor of a poor girl----" + +Lousteau was touched; there was so much expression in her look, her +accent, her attitude. "She would make a good man happy," thought he, +pressing her hand in reply. + +Madame Cardot looked upon her son-in-law as a man with a future before +him; but, above all the fine qualities she ascribed to him, she was +most delighted by his high tone of morals. Etienne, prompted by the +wily notary, had pledged his word that he had no natural children, no +tie that could endanger the happiness of her dear Felicie. + +"You may perhaps think I go rather too far," said the bigot to the +journalist; "but in giving such a jewel as my Felicie to any man, one +must think of the future. I am not one of those mothers who want to be +rid of their daughters. Monsieur Cardot hurries matters on, urges +forward his daughter's marriage; he wishes it over. This is the only +point on which we differ.--Though with a man like you, monsieur, a +literary man whose youth has been preserved by hard work from the +moral shipwreck now so prevalent, we may feel quite safe; still, you +would be the first to laugh at me if I looked for a husband for my +daughter with my eyes shut. I know you are not an innocent, and I +should be very sorry for my Felicie if you were" (this was said in a +whisper); "but if you had any /liaison/--For instance, monsieur, you +have heard of Madame Roguin, the wife of a notary who, unhappily for +our faculty, was sadly notorious. Madame Roguin has, ever since 1820, +been kept by a banker--" + +"Yes, du Tillet," replied Etienne; but he bit his tongue as he +recollected how rash it was to confess to an acquaintance with du +Tillet. + +"Yes.--Well, monsieur, if you were a mother, would you not quake at +the thought that Madame du Tillet's fate might be your child's? At her +age, and /nee/ de Granville! To have as a rival a woman of fifty and +more. Sooner would I see my daughter dead than give her to a man who +had such a connection with a married woman. A grisette, an actress, +you take her and leave her.--There is no danger, in my opinion, from +women of that stamp; love is their trade, they care for no one, one +down and another to come on!--But a woman who has sinned against duty +must hug her sin, her only excuse is constancy, if such a crime can +ever have an excuse. At least, that is the view I hold of a +respectable woman's fall, and that is what makes it so terrible----" + +Instead of looking for the meaning of these speeches, Etienne made a +jest of them at Malaga's, whither he went with his father-in-law +elect; for the notary and the journalist were the best of friends. + +Lousteau had already given himself the airs of a person of importance; +his life at last was to have a purpose; he was in luck's way, and in a +few days would be the owner of a delightful little house in the Rue +Saint-Lazare; he was going to be married to a charming woman, he would +have about twenty thousand francs a year, and could give the reins to +his ambition; the young lady loved him, and he would be connected with +several respectable families. In short, he was in full sail on the +blue waters of hope. + + + +Madame Cardot had expressed a wish to see the prints for /Gil Blas/, +one of the illustrated volumes which the French publishers were at +that time bringing out, and Lousteau had taken the first numbers for +the lady's inspection. The lawyer's wife had a scheme of her own, she +had borrowed the book merely to return it; she wanted an excuse for +walking in on her future son-in-law quite unexpectedly. The sight of +those bachelor rooms, which her husband had described as charming, +would tell her more, she thought, as to Lousteau's habits of life than +any information she could pick up. Her sister-in-law, Madame Camusot, +who knew nothing of the fateful secret, was terrified at such a +marriage for her niece. Monsieur Camusot, a Councillor of the Supreme +Court, old Camusot's son by his first marriage, had given his step- +mother, who was Cardot's sister, a far from flattering account of the +journalist. + +Lousteau, clever as he was, did not think it strange that the wife of +a rich notary should wish to inspect a volume costing fifteen francs +before deciding on the purchase. Your clever man never condescends to +study the middle-class, who escape his ken by this want of attention; +and while he is making game of them, they are at leisure to throttle +him. + +So one day early in January 1837, Madame Cardot and her daughter took +a hackney coach and went to the Rue des Martyrs to return the parts of +/Gil Blas/ to Felicie's betrothed, both delighted at the thought of +seeing Lousteau's rooms. These domiciliary visitations are not unusual +in the old citizen class. The porter at the front gate was not in; but +his daughter, on being informed by the worthy lady that she was in the +presence of Monsieur Lousteau's future mother-in-law and bride, handed +over the key of the apartment--all the more readily because Madame +Cardot placed a gold piece in her hand. + +It was by this time about noon, the hour at which the journalist would +return from breakfasting at the Cafe Anglais. As he crossed the open +space between the Church of Notre-Dame de Lorette and the Rue des +Martyrs, Lousteau happened to look at a hired coach that was toiling +up the Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, and he fancied it was a dream when +he saw the face of Dinah! He stood frozen to the spot when, on +reaching his house, he beheld his Didine at the coach door. + +"What has brought you here?" he inquired.--He adopted the familiar +/tu/. The formality of /vous/ was out of the question to a woman he +must get rid of. + +"Why, my love," cried she, "have you not read my letters?" + +"Certainly I have," said Lousteau. + +"Well, then?" + +"Well, then?" + +"You are a father," replied the country lady. + +"Faugh!" cried he, disregarding the barbarity of such an exclamation. +"Well," thought he to himself, "she must be prepared for the blow." + +He signed to the coachman to wait, gave his hand to Madame de la +Baudraye, and left the man with the chaise full of trunks, vowing that +he would send away /illico/, as he said to himself, the woman and her +luggage, back to the place she had come from. + +"Monsieur, monsieur," called out little Pamela. + +The child had some sense, and felt that three women must not be +allowed to meet in a bachelor's rooms. + +"Well, well!" said Lousteau, dragging Dinah along. + +Pamela concluded that the lady must be some relation; however, she +added: + +"The key is in the door; your mother-in-law is there." + +In his agitation, while Madame de la Baudraye was pouring out a flood +of words, Etienne understood the child to say, "Mother is there," the +only circumstance that suggested itself as possible, and he went in. + +Felicie and her mother, who were by this time in the bed-room, crept +into a corner on seeing Etienne enter with a woman. + +"At last, Etienne, my dearest, I am yours for life!" cried Dinah, +throwing her arms round his neck, and clasping him closely, while he +took the key from the outside of the door. "Life is a perpetual +anguish to me in that house at Anzy. I could bear it no longer; and +when the time came for me to proclaim my happiness--well, I had not +the courage.--Here I am, your wife with your child! And you have not +written to me; you have left me two months without a line." + +"But, Dinah, you place me in the greatest difficulty--" + +"Do you love me?" + +"How can I do otherwise than love you?--But would you not have been +wiser to remain at Sancerre?--I am in the most abject poverty, and I +fear to drag you into it--" + +"Your misery will be paradise to me. I only ask to live here, never to +go out--" + +"Good God! that is all very fine in words, but--" Dinah sat down and +melted into tears as she heard this speech, roughly spoken. + +Lousteau could not resist this distress. He clasped the Baroness in +his arms and kissed her. + +"Do not cry, Didine!" said he; and, as he uttered the words, he saw in +the mirror the figure of Madame Cardot, looking at him from the +further end of the rooms. "Come, Didine, go with Pamela and get your +trunks unloaded," said he in her ear. "Go; do not cry; we will be +happy!" + +He led her to the door, and then came back to divert the storm. + +"Monsieur," said Madame Cardot, "I congratulate myself on having +resolved to see for myself the home of the man who was to have been my +son-in-law. If my daughter were to die of it, she should never be the +wife of such a man as you. You must devote yourself to making your +Didine happy, monsieur." + +And the virtuous lady walked out, followed by Felicie, who was crying +too, for she had become accustomed to Etienne. The dreadful Madame +Cardot got into her hackney-coach again, staring insolently at the +hapless Dinah, in whose heart the sting still rankled of "that is all +very fine in words"; but who, nevertheless, like every woman in love, +believed in the murmured, "Do not cry, Didine!" + +Lousteau, who was not lacking in the sort of decision which grows out +of the vicissitudes of a storm-tossed life, reflected thus: + +"Didine is high-minded; when once she knows of my proposed marriage, +she will sacrifice herself for my future prospects, and I know how I +can manage to let her know." Delighted at having hit on a trick of +which the success seemed certain, he danced round to a familiar tune: + +"/Larifla, fla, fla!/--And Didine once out of the way," he went on, +talking to himself, "I will treat Maman Cardot to a call and a +novelette: I have seduced her Felicie at Saint-Eustache--Felicie, +guilty through passion, bears in her bosom the pledge of our affection +--and /larifla, fla, fla!/ the father /Ergo/, the notary, his wife, +and his daughter are caught, nabbed----" + +And, to her great amazement, Dinah discovered Etienne performing a +prohibited dance. + +"Your arrival and our happiness have turned my head with joy," said +he, to explain this crazy mood. + +"And I had fancied you had ceased to love me!" exclaimed the poor +woman, dropping the handbag she was carrying, and weeping with joy as +she sank into a chair. + +"Make yourself at home, my darling," said Etienne, laughing in his +sleeve; "I must write two lines to excuse myself from a bachelor +party, for I mean to devote myself to you. Give your orders; you are +at home." + +Etienne wrote to Bixiou: + + "MY DEAR BOY,--My Baroness has dropped into my arms, and will be + fatal to my marriage unless we perform one of the most familiar + stratagems of the thousand and one comedies at the Gymnase. I rely + on you to come here, like one of Moliere's old men, to scold your + nephew Leandre for his folly, while the Tenth Muse lies hidden in + my bedroom; you must work on her feelings; strike hard, be brutal, + offensive. I, you understand, shall express my blind devotion, and + shall seem to be deaf, so that you may have to shout at me. + + "Come, if you can, at seven o'clock. + +"Yours, +"E. LOUSTEAU." + + +Having sent this letter by a commissionaire to the man who, in all +Paris, most delighted in such practical jokes--in the slang of +artists, a /"charge"/--Lousteau made a great show of settling the Muse +of Sancerre in his apartment. He busied himself in arranging the +luggage she had brought, and informed her as to the persons and ways +of the house with such perfect good faith, and a glee which overflowed +in kind words and caresses, that Dinah believed herself the best- +beloved woman in the world. These rooms, where everything bore the +stamp of fashion, pleased her far better than her old chateau. + +Pamela Migeon, the intelligent damsel of fourteen, was questioned by +the journalist as to whether she would like to be waiting-maid to the +imposing Baroness. Pamela, perfectly enchanted, entered on her duties +at once, by going off to order dinner from a restaurant on the +boulevard. Dinah was able to judge of the extreme poverty that lay +hidden under the purely superficial elegance of this bachelor home +when she found none of the necessaries of life. As she took possession +of the closets and drawers, she indulged in the fondest dreams; she +would alter Etienne's habits, she would make him home-keeping, she +would fill his cup of domestic happiness. + +The novelty of the position hid its disastrous side; Dinah regarded +reciprocated love as the absolution of her sin; she did not yet look +beyond the walls of these rooms. Pamela, whose wits were as sharp as +those of a /lorette/, went straight to Madame Schontz to beg the loan +of some plate, telling her what had happened to Lousteau. After making +the child welcome to all she had, Madame Schontz went off to her +friend Malaga, that Cardot might be warned of the catastrophe that had +befallen his future son-in-law. + +The journalist, not in the least uneasy about the crisis as affecting +his marriage, was more and more charming to the lady from the +provinces. The dinner was the occasion of the delightful child's-play +of lovers set at liberty, and happy to be free. When they had had +their coffee, and Lousteau was sitting in front of the fire, Dinah on +his knee, Pamela ran in with a scared face. + +"Here is Monsieur Bixiou!" said she. + +"Go into the bedroom," said the journalist to his mistress; "I will +soon get rid of him. He is one of my most intimate friends, and I +shall have to explain to him my new start in life." + +"Oh, ho! dinner for two, and a blue velvet bonnet!" cried Bixiou. "I +am off.--Ah! that is what comes of marrying--one must go through some +partings. How rich one feels when one begins to move one's sticks, +heh?" + +"Who talks of marrying?" said Lousteau. + +"What! are you not going to be married, then?" cried Bixiou. + +"No!" + +"No? My word, what next? Are you making a fool of yourself, if you +please?--What!--You, who, by the mercy of Heaven, have come across +twenty thousand francs a year, and a house, and a wife connected with +all the first families of the better middle class--a wife, in short, +out of the Rue des Lombards--" + +"That will do, Bixiou, enough; it is at an end. Be off!" + +"Be off? I have a friend's privileges, and I shall take every +advantage of them.--What has come over you?" + +"What has 'come over' me is my lady from Sancerre. She is a mother, +and we are going to live together happily to the end of our days.--You +would have heard it to-morrow, so you may as well be told it now." + +"Many chimney-pots are falling on my head, as Arnal says. But if this +woman really loves you, my dear fellow, she will go back to the place +she came from. Did any provincial woman ever yet find her sea-legs in +Paris? She will wound all your vanities. Have you forgotten what a +provincial is? She will bore you as much when she is happy as when she +is sad; she will have as great a talent for escaping grace as a +Parisian has in inventing it. + +"Lousteau, listen to me. That a passion should lead you to forget to +some extent the times in which we live, is conceivable; but I, my dear +fellow, have not the mythological bandage over my eyes.--Well, then +consider your position. For fifteen years you have been tossing in the +literary world; you are no longer young, you have padded the hoof till +your soles are worn through!--Yes, my boy, you turn your socks under +like a street urchin to hide the holes, so that the legs cover the +heels! In short, the joke is too stale. Your excuses are more familiar +than a patent medicine--" + +"I may say to you, like the Regent to Cardinal Dubois, 'That is +kicking enough!' " said Lousteau, laughing. + +"Oh, venerable young man," replied Bixiou, "the iron has touched the +sore to the quick. You are worn out, aren't you? Well, then; in the +heyday of youth, under the pressure of penury, what have you done? You +are not in the front rank, and you have not a thousand francs of your +own. That is the sum-total of the situation. Can you, in the decline +of your powers, support a family by your pen, when your wife, if she +is an honest woman, will not have at her command the resources of the +woman of the streets, who can extract her thousand-franc note from the +depths where milord keeps it safe? You are rushing into the lowest +depths of the social theatre. + +"And this is only the financial side. Now, consider the political +position. We are struggling in an essentially /bourgeois/ age, in +which honor, virtue, high-mindedness, talent, learning--genius, in +short, is summed up in paying your way, owing nobody anything, and +conducting your affairs with judgment. Be steady, be respectable, have +a wife, and children, pay your rent and taxes, serve in the National +Guard, and be on the same pattern as all the men of your company--then +you may indulge in the loftiest pretensions, rise to the Ministry!-- +and you have the best chances possible, since you are no Montmorency. +You were preparing to fulfil all the conditions insisted on for +turning out a political personage, you are capable of every mean trick +that is necessary in office, even of pretending to be commonplace--you +would have acted it to the life. And just for a woman, who will leave +you in the lurch--the end of every eternal passion--in three, five, or +seven years--after exhausting your last physical and intellectual +powers, you turn your back on the sacred Hearth, on the Rue des +Lombards, on a political career, on thirty thousand francs per annum, +on respectability and respect!--Ought that to be the end of a man who +has done with illusions? + +"If you had kept a pot boiling for some actress who gave you your fun +for it--well; that is what you may call a cabinet matter. But to live +with another man's wife? It is a draft at sight on disaster; it is +bolting the bitter pills of vice with none of the gilding." + +"That will do. One word answers it all; I love Madame de la Baudraye, +and prefer her to every fortune, to every position the world can +offer.--I may have been carried away by a gust of ambition, but +everything must give way to the joy of being a father." + +"Ah, ha! you have a fancy for paternity? But, wretched man, we are the +fathers only of our legitimate children. What is a brat that does not +bear your name? The last chapter of the romance.--Your child will be +taken from you! We have seen that story in twenty plays these ten +years past. + +"Society, my dear boy, will drop upon you sooner or later. Read +/Adolphe/ once more.--Dear me! I fancy I can see you when you and she +are used to each other;--I see you dejected, hang-dog, bereft of +position and fortune, and fighting like the shareholders of a bogus +company when they are tricked by a director!--Your director is +happiness." + +"Say no more, Bixiou." + +"But I have only just begun," said Bixiou. "Listen, my dear boy. +Marriage has been out of favor for some time past; but, apart from the +advantages it offers in being the only recognized way of certifying +heredity, as it affords a good-looking young man, though penniless, +the opportunity of making his fortune in two months, it survives in +spite of disadvantages. And there is not the man living who would not +repent, sooner or later, of having, by his own fault, lost the chance +of marrying thirty thousand francs a year." + +"You won't understand me," cried Lousteau, in a voice of exasperation. +"Go away--she is there----" + +"I beg your pardon; why did you not tell me sooner?--You are of age, +and so is she," he added in a lower voice, but loud enough to be heard +by Dinah. "She will make you repent bitterly of your happiness!----" + +"If it is a folly, I intend to commit it.--Good-bye." + +"A man gone overboard!" cried Bixiou. + +"Devil take those friends who think they have a right to preach to +you," said Lousteau, opening the door of the bedroom, where he found +Madame de la Baudraye sunk in an armchair and dabbing her eyes with an +embroidered handkerchief. + +"Oh, why did I come here?" sobbed she. "Good Heavens, why indeed?-- +Etienne, I am not so provincial as you think me.--You are making a +fool of me." + +"Darling angel," replied Lousteau, taking Dinah in his arms, lifting +her from her chair, and dragging her half dead into the drawing-room, +"we have both pledged our future, it is sacrifice for sacrifice. While +I was loving you at Sancerre, they were engaging me to be married +here, but I refused.--Oh! I was extremely distressed----" + +"I am going," cried Dinah, starting wildly to her feet and turning to +the door. + +"You will stay here, my Didine. All is at an end. And is this fortune +so lightly earned after all? Must I not marry a gawky, tow-haired +creature, with a red nose, the daughter of a notary, and saddle myself +with a stepmother who could give Madame de Piedefer points on the +score of bigotry--" + +Pamela flew in, and whispered in Lousteau's ear: + +"Madame Schontz!" + +Lousteau rose, leaving Dinah on the sofa, and went out. + +"It is all over with you, my dear," said the woman. "Cardot does not +mean to quarrel with his wife for the sake of a son-in-law. The lady +made a scene--something like a scene, I can tell you! So, to conclude, +the head-clerk, who was the late head-clerk's deputy for two years, +agrees to take the girl with the business." + +"Mean wretch!" exclaimed Lousteau. "What! in two hours he has made up +his mind?" + +"Bless me, that is simple enough. The rascal, who knew all the dead +man's little secrets, guessed what a fix his master was in from +overhearing a few words of the squabble with Madame Cardot. The notary +relies on your honor and good feeling, for the affair is settled. The +clerk, whose conduct has been admirable, went so far as to attend +mass! A finished hypocrite, I say--just suits the mamma. You and +Cardot will still be friends. He is to be a director in an immense +financial concern, and he may be of use to you.--So you have been +waked from a sweet dream." + +"I have lost a fortune, a wife, and--" + +"And a mistress," said Madame Schontz, smiling. "Here you are, more +than married; you will be insufferable, you will be always wanting to +get home, there will be nothing loose about you, neither your clothes +nor your habits. And, after all, my Arthur does things in style. I +will be faithful to him and cut Malaga's acquaintance. + +"Let me peep at her through the door--your Sancerre Muse," she went +on. "Is there no finer bird than that to be found in the desert?" she +exclaimed. "You are cheated! She is dignified, lean, lachrymose; she +only needs Lady Dudley's turban!" + +"What is it now?" asked Madame de la Baudraye, who had heard the +rustle of a silk dress and the murmur of a woman's voice. + +"It is, my darling, that we are now indissolubly united.--I have just +had an answer to the letter you saw me write, which was to break off +my marriage----" + +"So that was the party which you gave up?" + +"Yes." + +"Oh, I will be more than your wife--I am your slave, I give you my +life," said the poor deluded creature. "I did not believe I could love +you more than I did!--Now I shall not be a mere incident, but your +whole life?" + +"Yes, my beautiful, my generous Didine." + +"Swear to me," said she, "that only death shall divide us." + +Lousteau was ready to sweeten his vows with the most fascinating +prettinesses. And this was why. Between the door of the apartment +where he had taken the lorette's farewell kiss, and that of the +drawing-room, where the Muse was reclining, bewildered by such a +succession of shocks, Lousteau had remembered little De la Baudraye's +precarious health, his fine fortune, and Bianchon's remark about +Dinah, "She will be a rich widow!" and he said to himself, "I would a +hundred times rather have Madame de la Baudraye for a wife than +Felicie!" + +His plan of action was quickly decided on; he determined to play the +farce of passion once more, and to perfection. His mean self- +interestedness and his false vehemence of passion had disastrous +results. Madame de la Baudraye, when she set out from Sancerre for +Paris, had intended to live in rooms of her own quite near to +Lousteau; but the proofs of devotion her lover had given her by giving +up such brilliant prospects, and yet more the perfect happiness of the +first days of their illicit union, kept her from mentioning such a +parting. The second day was to be--and indeed was--a high festival, in +which such a suggestion proposed to "her angel" would have been a +discordant note. + +Lousteau, on his part, anxious to make Dinah feel herself dependent on +him, kept her in a state of constant intoxication by incessant +amusement. These circumstances hindered two persons so clever as these +were from avoiding the slough into which they fell--that of a life in +common, a piece of folly of which, unfortunately, many instances may +be seen in Paris in literary circles. + +And thus was the whole programme played out of a provincial amour, so +satirically described by Lousteau to Madame de la Baudraye--a fact +which neither he nor she remembered. Passion is born a deaf-mute. + + + +This winter in Paris was to Madame de la Baudraye all that the month +of October had been at Sancerre. Etienne, to initiate "his wife" into +Paris life, varied this honeymoon by evenings at the play, where Dinah +would only go to the stage box. At first Madame de la Baudraye +preserved some remnants of her countrified modesty; she was afraid of +being seen; she hid her happiness. She would say: + +"Monsieur de Clagny or Monsieur Gravier may have followed me to +Paris." She was afraid on Sancerre even in Paris. + +Lousteau, who was excessively vain, educated Dinah, took her to the +best dressmakers, and pointed out to her the most fashionable women, +advising her to take them as models for imitation. And Madame de la +Baudraye's provincial appearance was soon a thing of the past. +Lousteau, when his friends met him, was congratulated on his conquest. + +All through that season Etienne wrote little and got very much into +debt, though Dinah, who was proud, bought all her clothes out of her +savings, and fancied she had not been the smallest expense to her +beloved. By the end of three months Dinah was acclimatized; she had +reveled in the music at the Italian opera; she knew the pieces "on" at +all theatres, and the actors and jests of the day; she had become +inured to this life of perpetual excitement, this rapid torrent in +which everything is forgotten. She no longer craned her neck or stood +with her nose in the air, like an image of Amazement, at the constant +surprises that Paris has for a stranger. She had learned to breathe +that witty, vitalizing, teeming atmosphere where clever people feel +themselves in their element, and which they can no longer bear to +quit. + +One morning, as she read the papers, for Lousteau had them all, two +lines carried her back to Sancerre and the past, two lines that seemed +not unfamiliar--as follows: + +"Monsieur le Baron de Clagny, Public Prosecutor to the Criminal Court +at Sancerre, has been appointed Deputy Public Prosecutor to the +Supreme Court in Paris." + +"How well that worthy lawyer loves you!" said the journalist, smiling. + +"Poor man! said she. "What did I tell you? He is following me." + +Etienne and Dinah were just then at the most dazzling and fervid stage +of a passion when each is perfectly accustomed to the other, and yet +love has not lost its freshness and relish. The lovers know each other +well, but all is not yet understood; they have not been a second time +to the same secret haunts of the soul; they have not studied each +other till they know, as they must later, the very thought, word, and +gesture that responds to every event, the greatest and the smallest. +Enchantment reigns; there are no collisions, no differences of +opinion, no cold looks. Their two souls are always on the same side. +And Dinah would speak the magical words, emphasized by the yet more +magical expression and looks which every woman can use under such +circumstances. + +"When you cease to love me, kill me.--If you should cease to love me, +I believe I could kill you first and myself after." + +To this sweet exaggeration, Lousteau would reply: + +"All I ask of God is to see you as constant as I shall be. It is you +who will desert me!" + +"My love is supreme." + +"Supreme," echoed Lousteau. "Come, now? Suppose I am dragged away to a +bachelor party, and find there one of my former mistresses, and she +makes fun of me; I, out of vanity, behave as if I were free, and do +not come in here till next morning--would you still love me?" + +"A woman is only sure of being loved when she is preferred; and if you +came back to me, if--Oh! you make me understand what the happiness +would be of forgiving the man I adore." + +"Well, then, I am truly loved for the first time in my life!" cried +Lousteau. + +"At last you understand that!" said she. + +Lousteau proposed that they should each write a letter setting forth +the reasons which would compel them to end by suicide. Once in +possession of such a document, each might kill the other without +danger in case of infidelity. But in spite of mutual promises, neither +wrote the letter. + +The journalist, happy for the moment, promised himself that he would +deceive Dinah when he should be tired of her, and would sacrifice +everything to the requirements of that deception. To him Madame de la +Baudraye was a fortune in herself. At the same time, he felt the yoke. + +Dinah, by consenting to this union, showed a generous mind and the +power derived from self-respect. In this absolute intimacy, in which +both lovers put off their masks, the young woman never abdicated her +modesty, her masculine rectitude, and the strength peculiar to +ambitious souls, which formed the basis of her character. Lousteau +involuntarily held her in high esteem. As a Parisian, Dinah was +superior to the most fascinating courtesan; she could be as amusing +and as witty as Malaga; but her extensive information, her habits of +mind, her vast reading enabled her to generalize her wit, while the +Florines and the Schontzes exerted theirs over a very narrow circle. + +"There is in Dinah," said Etienne to Bixiou, "the stuff to make both a +Ninon and a De Stael." + +"A woman who combines an encyclopaedia and a seraglio is very +dangerous," replied the mocking spirit. + +When the expected infant became a visible fact, Madame de la Baudraye +would be seen no more; but before shutting herself up, never to go out +unless into the country, she was bent on being present at the first +performance of a play by Nathan. This literary solemnity occupied the +minds of the two thousand persons who regard themselves as +constituting "all Paris." Dinah, who had never been at a first night's +performance, was very full of natural curiosity. She had by this time +arrived at such a pitch of affection for Lousteau that she gloried in +her misconduct; she exerted a sort of savage strength to defy the +world; she was determined to look it in the face without turning her +head aside. + +She dressed herself to perfection, in a style suited to her delicate +looks and the sickly whiteness of her face. Her pallid complexion gave +her an expression of refinement, and her black hair in smooth bands +enhanced her pallor. Her brilliant gray eyes looked finer than ever, +set in dark rings. But a terribly distressing incident awaited her. By +a very simple chance, the box given to the journalist, on the first +tier, was next to that which Anna Grossetete had taken. The two +intimate friends did not even bow; neither chose to acknowledge the +other. At the end of the first act Lousteau left his seat, abandoning +Dinah to the fire of eyes, the glare of opera-glasses; while the +Baronne de Fontaine and the Comtesse Marie de Vandenesse, who +accompanied her, received some of the most distinguished men of +fashion. + +Dinah's solitude was all the more distressing because she had not the +art of putting a good face to the matter by examining the company +through her opera-glass. In vain did she try to assume a dignified and +thoughtful attitude, and fix her eyes on vacancy; she was +overpoweringly conscious of being the object of general attention; she +could not disguise her discomfort, and lapsed a little into +provincialism, displaying her handkerchief and making involuntary +movements of which she had almost cured herself. At last, between the +second and third acts, a man had himself admitted to Dinah's box! It +was Monsieur de Clagny. + +"I am happy to see you, to tell you how much I am pleased by your +promotion," said she. + +"Oh! Madame, for whom should I come to Paris----?" + +"What!" said she. "Have I anything to do with your appointment?" + +"Everything," said he. "Since you left Sancerre, it had become +intolerable to me; I was dying--" + +"Your sincere friendship does me good," replied she, holding out her +hand. "I am in a position to make much of my true friends; I now know +their value.--I feared I must have lost your esteem, but the proof you +have given me by this visit touches me more deeply than your ten +years' attachment." + +"You are an object of curiosity to the whole house," said the lawyer. +"Oh! my dear, is this a part for you to be playing? Could you not be +happy and yet remain honored?--I have just heard that you are Monsieur +Etienne Lousteau's mistress, that you live together as man and wife!-- +You have broken for ever with society; even if you should some day +marry your lover, the time will come when you will feel the want of +the respectability you now despise. Ought you not to be in a home of +your own with your mother, who loves you well enough to protect you +with her aegis?--Appearances at least would be saved." + +"I am in the wrong to have come here," replied she, "that is all.--I +have bid farewell to all the advantages which the world confers on +women who know how to reconcile happiness and the proprieties. My +abnegation is so complete that I only wish I could clear a vast space +about me to make a desert of my love, full of God, of /him/, and of +myself.--We have made too many sacrifices on both sides not to be +united--united by disgrace if you will, but indissolubly one. I am +happy; so happy that I can love freely, my friend, and confide in you +more than of old--for I need a friend." + +The lawyer was magnanimous, nay, truly great. To this declaration, in +which Dinah's soul thrilled, he replied in heartrending tones: + +"I wanted to go to see you, to be sure that you were loved: I shall +now be easy and no longer alarmed as to your future.--But will your +lover appreciate the magnitude of your sacrifice; is there any +gratitude in his affection?" + +"Come to the Rue des Martyrs and you will see!" + +"Yes, I will call," he replied. "I have already passed your door +without daring to inquire for you.--You do not yet know the literary +world. There are glorious exceptions, no doubt; but these men of +letters drag terrible evils in their train; among these I account +publicity as one of the greatest, for it blights everything. A woman +may commit herself with--" + +"With a Public Prosecutor?" the Baronne put in with a smile. + +"Well!--and then after a rupture there is still something to fall back +on; the world has known nothing. But with a more or less famous man +the public is thoroughly informed. Why look there! What an example you +have close at hand! You are sitting back to back with the Comtesse +Marie Vandenesse, who was within an ace of committing the utmost folly +for a more celebrated man than Lousteau--for Nathan--and now they do +not even recognize each other. After going to the very edge of the +precipice, the Countess was saved, no one knows how; she neither left +her husband nor her house; but as a famous man was scorned, she was +the talk of the town for a whole winter. But her husband's great +fortune, great name, and high position, but for the admirable +management of that true statesman--whose conduct to his wife, they +say, was perfect--she would have been ruined; in her position no other +woman would have remained respected as she is." + +"And how was Sancerre when you came away?" asked Madame de la +Baudraye, to change the subject. + +"Monsieur de la Baudraye announced that your expected confinement +after so many years made it necessary that it should take place in +Paris, and that he had insisted on your going to be attended by the +first physicians," replied Monsieur de Clagny, guessing what it was +that Dinah most wanted to know. "And so, in spite of the commotion to +which your departure gave rise, you still have your legal status." + +"Why!" she exclaimed, "can Monsieur de la Baudraye still hope----" + +"Your husband, madame, did what he always does--made a little +calculation." + +The lawyer left the box when the journalist returned, bowing with +dignity. + +"You are a greater hit than the piece," said Etienne to Dinah. + +This brief triumph brought greater happiness to the poor woman than +she had ever known in the whole of her provincial existence; still, as +they left the theatre she was very grave. + +"What ails you, my Didine?" asked Lousteau. + +"I am wondering how a woman succeeds in conquering the world?" + +"There are two ways. One is by being Madame de Stael, the other is by +having two hundred thousand francs a year." + +"Society," said she, "asserts its hold on us by appealing to our +vanity, our love of appearances.--Pooh! We will be philosophers!" + + + +That evening was the last gleam of the delusive well-being in which +Madame de la Baudraye had lived since coming to Paris. Three days +later she observed a cloud on Lousteau's brow as he walked round the +little garden-plot smoking a cigar. This woman, who had acquired from +her husband the habit and the pleasure of never owing anybody a sou, +was informed that the household was penniless, with two quarters' rent +owing, and on the eve, in fact, of an execution. + +This reality of Paris life pierced Dinah's heart like a thorn; she +repented of having tempted Etienne into the extravagances of love. It +is so difficult to pass from pleasure to work, that happiness has +wrecked more poems than sorrows ever helped to flow in sparkling jets. +Dinah, happy in seeing Etienne taking his ease, smoking a cigar after +breakfast, his face beaming as he basked like a lizard in the +sunshine, could not summon up courage enough to make herself the bum- +bailiff of a magazine. + +It struck her that through the worthy Migeon, Pamela's father, she +might pawn the few jewels she possessed, on which her "uncle," for she +was learning to talk the slang of the town, advanced her nine hundred +francs. She kept three hundred for her baby-clothes and the expenses +of her illness, and joyfully presented the sum due to Lousteau, who +was ploughing, furrow by furrow, or, if you will, line by line, +through a novel for a periodical. + +"Dearest heart," said she, "finish your novel without making any +sacrifice to necessity; polish the style, work up the subject.--I have +played the fine lady too long; I am going to be the housewife and +attend to business." + +For the last four months Etienne had been taking Dinah to the Cafe +Riche to dine every day, a corner being always kept for them. The +countrywoman was in dismay at being told that five hundred francs were +owing for the last fortnight. + +"What! we have been drinking wine at six francs a bottle! A sole +/Normande/ costs five francs!--and twenty centimes for a roll?" she +exclaimed, as she looked through the bill Lousteau showed her. + +"Well, it makes very little difference to us whether we are robbed at +a restaurant or by a cook," said Lousteau. + +"Henceforth, for the cost of your dinner, you shall live like a +prince." + +Having induced the landlord to let her have a kitchen and two +servants' rooms, Madame de la Baudraye wrote a few lines to her +mother, begging her to send her some linen and a loan of a thousand +francs. She received two trunks full of linen, some plate, and two +thousand francs, sent by the hand of an honest and pious cook +recommended her by her mother. + +Ten days after the evening at the theatre when they had met, Monsieur +de Clagny came to call at four o'clock, after coming out of court, and +found Madame de la Baudraye making a little cap. The sight of this +proud and ambitious woman, whose mind was so accomplished, and who had +queened it so well at the Chateau d'Anzy, now condescending to +household cares and sewing for the coming infant, moved the poor +lawyer, who had just left the bench. And as he saw the pricks on one +of the taper fingers he had so often kissed, he understood that Madame +de la Baudraye was not merely playing at this maternal task. + +In the course of this first interview the magistrate saw to the depths +of Dinah's soul. This perspicacity in a man so much in love was a +superhuman effort. He saw that Didine meant to be the journalist's +guardian spirit and lead him into a nobler road; she had seen that the +difficulties of his practical life were due to some moral defects. +Between two beings united by love--in one so genuine, and in the other +so well feigned--more than one confidence had been exchanged in the +course of four months. Notwithstanding the care with which Etienne +wrapped up his true self, a word now and then had not failed to +enlighten Dinah as to the previous life of a man whose talents were so +hampered by poverty, so perverted by bad examples, so thwarted by +obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. "He will be a greater man if +life is easy to him," said she to herself. And she strove to make him +happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by dint of such +economy and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus Dinah +became a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of her +soul towards the heights. + +"His happiness will be my absolution." + +These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the +lawyer, accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of +his triumph, flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first +performance, had very plainly shown the lawyer what Lousteau's purpose +was. To Etienne, Madame de la Baudraye was, to use his own phrase, "a +fine feather in his cap." Far from preferring the joys of a shy and +mysterious passion, of hiding such exquisite happiness from the eyes +of the world, he found a vulgar satisfaction in displaying the first +woman of respectability who had ever honored him with her affection. + +The Judge, however, was for some time deceived by the attentions which +any man would lavish on any woman in Madame de la Baudraye's +situation, and Lousteau made them doubly charming by the ingratiating +ways characteristic of men whose manners are naturally attractive. +There are, in fact, men who have something of the monkey in them by +nature, and to whom the assumption of the most engaging forms of +sentiment is so easy that the actor is not detected; and Lousteau's +natural gifts had been fully developed on the stage on which he had +hitherto figured. + +Between the months of April and July, when Dinah expected her +confinement, she discovered why it was that Lousteau had not triumphed +over poverty; he was idle and had no power of will. The brain, to be +sure, must obey its own laws; it recognizes neither the exigencies of +life nor the voice of honor; a man cannot write a great book because a +woman is dying, or to pay a discreditable debt, or to bring up a +family; at the same time, there is no great talent without a strong +will. These twin forces are requisite for the erection of the vast +edifice of personal glory. A distinguished genius keeps his brain in a +productive condition, just as the knights of old kept their weapons +always ready for battle. They conquer indolence, they deny themselves +enervating pleasures, or indulge only to a fixed limit proportioned to +their powers. This explains the life of such men as Walter Scott, +Cuvier, Voltaire, Newton, Buffon, Bayle, Bossuet, Leibnitz, Lopez de +Vega, Calderon, Boccacio, Aretino, Aristotle--in short, every man who +delighted, governed, or led his contemporaries. + +A man may and ought to pride himself more on his will than on his +talent. Though Talent has its germ in a cultivated gift, Will means +the incessant conquest of his instincts, of proclivities subdued and +mortified, and difficulties of every kind heroically defeated. The +abuse of smoking encouraged Lousteau's indolence. Tobacco, which can +lull grief, inevitably numbs a man's energy. + +Then, while the cigar deteriorated him physically, criticism as a +profession morally stultified a man so easily tempted by pleasure. +Criticism is as fatal to the critic as seeing two sides to a question +is to a pleader. In these professions the judgment is undermined, the +mind loses its lucid rectitude. The writer lives by taking sides. +Thus, we may distinguish two kinds of criticism, as in painting we may +distinguish art from practical dexterity. Criticism, after the pattern +of most contemporary leader-writers, is the expression of judgments +formed at random in a more or less witty way, just as an advocate +pleads in court on the most contradictory briefs. The newspaper critic +always finds a subject to work up in the book he is discussing. Done +after this fashion, the business is well adapted to indolent brains, +to men devoid of the sublime faculty of imagination, or, possessed of +it indeed, but lacking courage to cultivate it. Every play, every book +comes to their pen as a subject, making no demand on their +imagination, and of which they simply write a report, seriously or in +irony, according to the mood of the moment. As to an opinion, whatever +it may be, French wit can always justify it, being admirably ready to +defend either side of any case. And conscience counts for so little, +these /bravi/ have so little value for their own words, that they will +loudly praise in the greenroom the work they tear to tatters in print. + +Nay, men have been known to transfer their services from one paper to +another without being at the pains to consider that the opinions of +the new sheet must be diametrically antagonistic to those of the old. +Madame de la Baudraye could smile to see Lousteau with one article on +the Legitimist side and one on the side of the new dynasty, both on +the same occasion. She admired the maxim he preached: + +"We are the attorneys of public opinion." + +The other kind of criticism is a science. It necessitates a thorough +comprehension of each work, a lucid insight into the tendencies of the +age, the adoption of a system, and faith in fixed principles--that is +to say, a scheme of jurisprudence, a summing-up, and a verdict. The +critic is then a magistrate of ideas, the censor of his time; he +fulfils a sacred function; while in the former case he is but an +acrobat who turns somersaults for a living so long as he had a leg to +stand on. Between Claude Vignon and Lousteau lay the gulf that divides +mere dexterity from art. + +Dinah, whose mind was soon freed from rust, and whose intellect was by +no means narrow, had ere long taken literary measure of her idol. She +saw Lousteau working up to the last minute under the most +discreditable compulsion, and scamping his work, as painters say of a +picture from which sound technique is absent; but she would excuse him +by saying, "He is a poet!" so anxious was she to justify him in her +own eyes. When she thus guessed the secret of many a writer's +existence, she also guessed that Lousteau's pen could never be trusted +to as a resource. + +Then her love for him led her to take a step she would never had +thought of for her own sake. Through her mother she tried to negotiate +with her husband for an allowance, but without Etienne's knowledge; +for, as she thought, it would be an offence to his delicate feelings, +which must be considered. A few days before the end of July, Dinah +crumbled up in her wrath the letter from her mother containing +Monsieur de la Baudraye's ultimatum: + +"Madame de la Baudraye cannot need an allowance in Paris when she can +live in perfect luxury at her Chateau of Anzy: she may return." + +Lousteau picked up this letter and read it. + +"I will avenge you!" said he to Dinah in the ominous tone that +delights a woman when her antipathies are flattered. + +Five days after this Bianchon and Duriau, the famous ladies' doctor, +were engaged at Lousteau's; for he, ever since little La Baudraye's +reply, had been making a great display of his joy and importance over +the advent of the infant. Monsieur de Clagny and Madame Piedefer--sent +for in all haste were to be the godparents, for the cautious +magistrate feared lest Lousteau should commit some compromising +blunder. Madame de la Baudraye gave birth to a boy that might have +filled a queen with envy who hoped for an heir-presumptive. + +Bianchon and Monsieur de Clagny went off to register the child at the +Mayor's office as the son of Monsieur and Madame de la Baudraye, +unknown to Etienne, who, on his part, rushed off to a printer's to +have this circular set up: + + /"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son. + + "Monsieur Etienne Lousteau has the pleasure of informing you of + the fact. + + "The mother and child are doing well."/ + +Lousteau had already sent out sixty of these announcements when +Monsieur de Clagny, on coming to make inquiries, happened to see the +list of persons at Sancerre to whom Lousteau proposed to send this +amazing notice, written below the names of the persons in Paris to +whom it was already gone. The lawyer confiscated the list and the +remainder of the circulars, showed them to Madame Piedefer, begging +her on no account to allow Lousteau to carry on this atrocious jest, +and jumped into a cab. The devoted friend then ordered from the same +printer another announcement in the following words: + + /"Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a son. + + "Monsieur le Baron de la Baudraye has the honor of informing you + of the fact. + + "Mother and child are doing well."/ + +After seeing the proofs destroyed, the form of type, everything that +could bear witness to the existence of the former document, Monsieur +de Clagny set to work to intercept those that had been sent; in many +cases he changed them at the porter's lodge, he got back thirty into +his own hands, and at last, after three days of hard work, only one of +the original notes existed, that, namely sent to Nathan. + +Five times had the lawyer called on the great man without finding him. +By the time Monsieur de Clagny was admitted, after requesting an +interview, the story of the announcement was known to all Paris. Some +persons regarded it as one of those waggish calumnies, a sort of stab +to which every reputation, even the most ephemeral, is exposed; others +said they had read the paper and returned it to some friend of the La +Baudraye family; a great many declaimed against the immorality of +journalists; in short, this last remaining specimen was regarded as a +curiosity. Florine, with whom Nathan was living, had shown it about, +stamped in the post as paid, and addressed in Etienne's hand. So, as +soon as the judge spoke of the announcement, Nathan began to smile. + +"Give up that monument of recklessness and folly?" cried he. "That +autograph is one of those weapons which an athlete in the circus +cannot afford to lay down. That note proves that Lousteau has no +heart, no taste, no dignity; that he knows nothing of the world nor of +public morality; that he insults himself when he can find no one else +to insult.--None but the son of a provincial citizen imported from +Sancerre to become a poet, but who is only the /bravo/ of some +contemptible magazine, could ever have sent out such a circular +letter, as you must allow, monsieur. This is a document indispensable +to the archives of the age.--To-day Lousteau flatters me, to-morrow he +may ask for my head.--Excuse me, I forgot you were a judge. + +"I have gone through a passion for a lady, a great lady, as far +superior to Madame de la Baudraye as your fine feeling, monsieur, is +superior to Lousteau's vulgar retaliation; but I would have died +rather than utter her name. A few months of her airs and graces cost +me a hundred thousand francs and my prospects for life; but I do not +think the price too high!--And I have never murmured!--If a woman +betrays the secret of her passion, it is the supreme offering of her +love, but a man!--He must be a Lousteau! + +"No, I would not give up that paper for a thousand crowns." + +"Monsieur," said the lawyer at last, after an eloquent battle lasting +half an hour, "I have called on fifteen or sixteen men of letters +about this affair, and can it be that you are the only one immovable +by an appeal of honor? It is not for Etienne Lousteau that I plead, +but for a woman and child, both equally ignorant of the damage done to +their fortune, their prospects, and their honor.--Who knows, monsieur, +whether you might not some day be compelled to plead for some favor of +justice for a friend, for some person whose honor was dearer to you +than your own.--It might be remembered against you that you had been +ruthless.--Can such a man as you are hesitate?" added Monsieur de +Clagny. + +"I only wished you to understand the extent of the sacrifice," replied +Nathan, giving up the letter, as he reflected on the judge's influence +and accepted this implied bargain. + +When the journalist's stupid jest had been counteracted, Monsieur de +Clagny went to give him a rating in the presence of Madame Piedefer; +but he found Lousteau fuming with irritation. + +"What I did monsieur, I did with a purpose!" replied Etienne. +"Monsieur de la Baudraye has sixty thousand francs a year and refuses +to make his wife an allowance; I wished to make him feel that the +child is in my power." + +"Yes, monsieur, I quite suspected it," replied the lawyer. "For that +reason I readily agreed to be little Polydore's godfather, and he is +registered as the son of the Baron and Baronne de la Baudraye; if you +have the feelings of a father, you ought to rejoice in knowing that +the child is heir to one of the finest entailed estates in France." + +"And pray, sir, is the mother to die of hunger?" + +"Be quite easy," said the lawyer bitterly, having dragged from +Lousteau the expression of feeling he had so long been expecting. "I +will undertake to transact the matter with Monsieur de la Baudraye." + +Monsieur de Clagny left the house with a chill at his heart. + +Dinah, his idol, was loved for her money. Would she not, when too +late, have her eyes opened? + +"Poor woman!" said the lawyer, as he walked away. And this justice we +will do him--for to whom should justice be done unless to a Judge?--he +loved Dinah too sincerely to regard her degradation as a means of +triumph one day; he was all pity and devotion; he really loved her. + + + +The care and nursing of the infant, its cries, the quiet needed for +the mother during the first few days, and the ubiquity of Madame +Piedefer, were so entirely adverse to literary labors, that Lousteau +moved up to the three rooms taken on the first floor for the old +bigot. The journalist, obliged to go to the first performances without +Dinah, and living apart from her, found an indescribable charm in the +use of his liberty. More than once he submitted to be taken by the arm +and dragged off to some jollification; more than once he found himself +at the house of a friend's mistress in the heart of bohemia. He again +saw women brilliantly young and splendidly dressed, in whom economy +seemed treason to their youth and power. Dinah, in spite of her +striking beauty, after nursing her baby for three months, could not +stand comparison with these perishable blossoms, so soon faded, but so +showy as long as they live rooted in opulence. + +Home life had, nevertheless, a strong attraction for Etienne. In three +months the mother and daughter, with the help of the cook from +Sancerre and of little Pamela, had given the apartment a quite changed +appearance. The journalist found his breakfast and his dinner served +with a sort of luxury. Dinah, handsome and nicely dressed, was careful +to anticipate her dear Etienne's wishes, and he felt himself the king +of his home, where everything, even the baby, was subject to his +selfishness. Dinah's affection was to be seen in every trifle, +Lousteau could not possibly cease the entrancing deceptions of his +unreal passion. + +Dinah, meanwhile, was aware of a source of ruin, both to her love and +to the household, in the kind of life into which Lousteau had allowed +himself to drift. At the end of ten months she weaned her baby, +installed her mother in the upstairs rooms, and restored the family +intimacy which indissolubly links a man and woman when the woman is +loving and clever. One of the most striking circumstances in Benjamin +Constant's novel, one of the explanations of Ellenore's desertion, is +the want of daily--or, if you will, of nightly--intercourse between +her and Adolphe. Each of the lovers has a separate home; they have +both submitted to the world and saved appearances. Ellenore, +repeatedly left to herself, is compelled to vast labors of affection +to expel the thoughts of release which captivate Adolphe when absent. +The constant exchange of glances and thoughts in domestic life gives a +woman such power that a man needs stronger reasons for desertion than +she will ever give him so long as she loves him. + +This was an entirely new phase both to Etienne and to Dinah. Dinah +intended to be indispensable; she wanted to infuse fresh energy into +this man, whose weakness smiled upon her, for she thought it a +security. She found him subjects, sketched the treatment, and at a +pinch, would write whole chapters. She revived the vitality of this +dying talent by transfusing fresh blood into his veins; she supplied +him with ideas and opinions. In short, she produced two books which +were a success. More than once she saved Lousteau's self-esteem by +dictating, correcting, or finishing his articles when he was in +despair at his own lack of ideas. The secret of this collaboration was +strictly preserved; Madame Piedefer knew nothing of it. + +This mental galvanism was rewarded by improved pay, enabling them to +live comfortably till the end of 1838. Lousteau became used to seeing +Dinah do his work, and he paid her--as the French people say in their +vigorous lingo--in "monkey money," nothing for her pains. This +expenditure in self-sacrifice becomes a treasure which generous souls +prize, and the more she gave the more she loved Lousteau; the time +soon came when Dinah felt that it would be too bitter a grief ever to +give him up. + +But then another child was coming, and this year was a terrible trial. +In spite of the precautions of the two women, Etienne contracted +debts; he worked himself to death to pay them off while Dinah was laid +up; and, knowing him as she did, she thought him heroic. But after +this effort, appalled at having two women, two children, and two maids +on his hands, he was incapable of the struggle to maintain a family by +his pen when he had failed to maintain even himself. So he let things +take their chance. Then the ruthless speculator exaggerated the farce +of love-making at home to secure greater liberty abroad. + +Dinah proudly endured the burden of life without support. The one +idea, "He loves me!" gave her superhuman strength. She worked as hard +as the most energetic spirits of our time. At the risk of her beauty +and health, Didine was to Lousteau what Mademoiselle Delachaux was to +Gardane in Diderot's noble and true tale. But while sacrificing +herself, she committed the magnanimous blunder of sacrificing dress. +She had her gowns dyed, and wore nothing but black. She stank of +black, as Malaga said, making fun mercilessly of Lousteau. + +By the end of 1839, Etienne, following the example of Louis XV., had, +by dint of gradual capitulations of conscience, come to the point of +establishing a distinction between his own money and the housekeeping +money, just as Louis XV. drew the line between his privy purse and the +public moneys. He deceived Dinah as to his earnings. On discovering +this baseness, Madame de la Baudraye went through fearful tortures of +jealousy. She wanted to live two lives--the life of the world and the +life of a literary woman; she accompanied Lousteau to every first- +night performance, and could detect in him many impulses of wounded +vanity, for her black attire rubbed off, as it were, on him, clouding +his brow, and sometimes leading him to be quite brutal. He was really +the woman of the two; and he had all a woman's exacting perversity; he +would reproach Dinah for the dowdiness of her appearance, even while +benefiting by the sacrifice, which to a mistress is so cruel--exactly +like a woman who, after sending a man through a gutter to save her +honor, tells him she "cannot bear dirt!" when he comes out. + +Dinah then found herself obliged to gather up the rather loose reins +of power by which a clever woman drives a man devoid of will. But in +so doing she could not fail to lose much of her moral lustre. Such +suspicions as she betrayed drag a woman into quarrels which lead to +disrespect, because she herself comes down from the high level on +which she had at first placed herself. Next she made some concession; +Lousteau was allowed to entertain several of his friends--Nathan, +Bixiou, Blondet, Finot, whose manners, language, and intercourse were +depraving. They tried to convince Madame de la Baudraye that her +principles and aversions were a survival of provincial prudishness; +and they preached the creed of woman's superiority. + +Before long, her jealousy put weapons into Lousteau's hands. During +the carnival of 1840, she disguised herself to go to the balls at the +Opera-house, and to suppers where she met courtesans, in order to keep +an eye on all Etienne's amusements. + +On the day of Mid-Lent--or rather, at eight on the morning after-- +Dinah came home from the ball in her fancy dress to go to bed. She had +gone to spy on Lousteau, who, believing her to be ill, had engaged +himself for that evening to Fanny Beaupre. The journalist, warned by a +friend, had behaved so as to deceive the poor woman, only too ready to +be deceived. + +As she stepped out of the hired cab, Dinah met Monsieur de la +Baudraye, to whom the porter pointed her out. The little old man took +his wife by the arm, saying, in an icy tone: + +"So this is you, madame!" + +This sudden advent of conjugal authority, before which she felt +herself so small, and, above all, these words, almost froze the heart +of the unhappy woman caught in the costume of a /debardeur/. To escape +Etienne's eye the more effectually, she had chosen a dress he was not +likely to detect her in. She took advantage of the mask she still had +on to escape without replying, changed her dress, and went up to her +mother's rooms, where she found her husband waiting for her. In spite +of her assumed dignity, she blushed in the old man's presence. + +"What do you want of me, monsieur?" she asked. "Are we not separated +forever?" + +"Actually, yes," said Monsieur de la Baudraye. "Legally, no." + +Madame Piedefer was telegraphing signals to her daughter, which Dinah +presently observed and understood. + +"Nothing could have brought you here but your own interests," she +said, in a bitter tone. + +"/Our/ interests," said the little man coldly, "for we have two +children.--Your Uncle Silas Piedefer is dead, at New York, where, +after having made and lost several fortunes in various parts of the +world, he has finally left some seven or eight hundred thousand francs +--they say twelve--but there is stock-in-trade to be sold. I am the +chief in our common interests, and act for you." + +"Oh!" cried Dinah, "in everything that relates to business, I trust no +one but Monsieur de Clagny. He knows the law, come to terms with him; +what he does, will be done right." + +"I have no occasion for Monsieur de Clagny," answered Monsieur de la +Baudraye, "to take my children from you--" + +"Your children!" exclaimed Dinah. "Your children, to whom you have not +sent a sou! /Your/ children!" She burst into a loud shout of laughter; +but Monsieur de la Baudraye's unmoved coolness threw ice on the +explosion. + +"Your mother has just brought them to show me," he went on. "They are +charming boys. I do not intend to part from them. I shall take them to +our house at Anzy, if it were only to save them from seeing their +mother disguised like a--" + +"Silence!" said Madame de la Baudraye imperatively. "What do you want +of me that brought you here?" + +"A power of attorney to receive our Uncle Silas' property." + +Dinah took a pen, wrote two lines to Monsieur de Clagny, and desired +her husband to call again in the afternoon. + +At five o'clock, Monsieur de Clagny--who had been promoted to the post +of Attorney-General--enlightened Madame de la Baudraye as to her +position; still, he undertook to arrange everything by a bargain with +the old fellow, whose visit had been prompted by avarice alone. +Monsieur de la Baudraye, to whom his wife's power of attorney was +indispensable to enable him to deal with the business as he wished, +purchased it by certain concessions. In the first place, he undertook +to allow her ten thousand francs a year so long as she found it +convenient--so the document was worded--to reside in Paris; the +children, each on attaining the age of six, were to be placed in +Monsieur de la Baudraye's keeping. Finally, the lawyer extracted the +payment of the allowance in advance. + +Little La Baudraye, who came jauntily enough to say good-bye to his +wife and /his/ children, appeared in a white india-rubber overcoat. He +was so firm on his feet, and so exactly like the La Baudraye of 1836, +that Dinah despaired of ever burying the dreadful little dwarf. From +the garden, where he was smoking a cigar, the journalist could watch +Monsieur de la Baudraye for so long as it took the little reptile to +cross the forecourt, but that was enough for Lousteau; it was plain to +him that the little man had intended to wreck every hope of his dying +that his wife might have conceived. + +This short scene made a considerable change in the writer's secret +scheming. As he smoked a second cigar, he seriously reviewed the +position. + +His life with Madame de la Baudraye had hitherto cost him quite as +much as it had cost her. To use the language of business, the two +sides of the account balanced, and they could, if necessary, cry +quits. Considering how small his income was, and how hardly he earned +it, Lousteau regarded himself, morally speaking, as the creditor. It +was, no doubt, a favorable moment for throwing the woman over. Tired +at the end of three years of playing a comedy which never can become a +habit, he was perpetually concealing his weariness; and this fellow, +who was accustomed to disguise none of his feelings, compelled himself +to wear a smile at home like that of a debtor in the presence of his +creditor. This compulsion was every day more intolerable. + +Hitherto the immense advantages he foresaw in the future had given him +strength; but when he saw Monsieur de la Baudraye embark for the +United States, as briskly as if it were to go down to Rouen in a +steamboat, he ceased to believe in the future. + +He went in from the garden to the pretty drawing-room, where Dinah had +just taken leave of her husband. + +"Etienne," said Madame de la Baudraye, "do you know what my lord and +master has proposed to me? In the event of my wishing to return to +live at Anzy during his absence, he has left his orders, and he hopes +that my mother's good advice will weigh with me, and that I shall go +back there with my children." + +"It is very good advice," replied Lousteau drily, knowing the +passionate disclaimer that Dinah expected, and indeed begged for with +her eyes. + +The tone, the words, the cold look, all hit the hapless woman so hard, +who lived only in her love, that two large tears trickled slowly down +her cheeks, while she did not speak a word, and Lousteau only saw them +when she took out her handkerchief to wipe away these two beads of +anguish. + +"What is it, Didine?" he asked, touched to the heart by this excessive +sensibility. + +"Just as I was priding myself on having won our freedom," said she-- +"at the cost of my fortune--by selling--what is most precious to a +mother's heart--selling my children!--for he is to have them from the +age of six--and I cannot see them without going to Sancerre!--and that +is torture!--Ah, dear God! What have I done----?" + +Lousteau knelt down by her and kissed her hands with a lavish display +of coaxing and petting. + +"You do not understand me," said he. "I blame myself, for I am not +worth such sacrifices, dear angel. I am, in a literary sense, a quite +second-rate man. If the day comes when I can no longer cut a figure at +the bottom of the newspaper, the editors will let me lie, like an old +shoe flung into the rubbish heap. Remember, we tight-rope dancers have +no retiring pension! The State would have too many clever men on its +hands if it started on such a career of beneficence. I am forty-two, +and I am as idle as a marmot. I feel it--I know it"--and he took her +by the hand--"my love can only be fatal to you. + +"As you know, at two-and-twenty I lived on Florine; but what is +excusable in a youth, what then seems smart and charming, is a +disgrace to a man of forty. Hitherto we have shared the burden of +existence, and it has not been lovely for this year and half. Out of +devotion to me you wear nothing but black, and that does me no +credit."--Dinah gave one of those magnanimous shrugs which are worth +all the words ever spoken.--"Yes," Etienne went on, "I know you +sacrifice everything to my whims, even your beauty. And I, with a +heart worn out in past struggles, a soul full of dark presentiments as +to the future, I cannot repay your exquisite love with an equal +affection. We were very happy--without a cloud--for a long time.-- +Well, then, I cannot bear to see so sweet a poem end badly. Am I +wrong?" + +Madame de la Baudraye loved Etienne so truly, that this prudence, +worthy of de Clagny, gratified her and stanched her tears. + +"He loves me for myself alone!" thought she, looking at him with +smiling eyes. + +After four years of intimacy, this woman's love now combined every +shade of affection which our powers of analysis can discern, and which +modern society has created; one of the most remarkable men of our age, +whose death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle +(Stendhal), was the first to delineate them to perfection. + +Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be +compared to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body, +and overcomes every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from +him, or his hand laid on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A +kind word or a smile wreathed the poor woman's soul with flowers; a +fond look elated, a cold look depressed her. When she walked, taking +his arm and keeping step with him in the street or on the boulevard, +she was so entirely absorbed in him that she lost all sense of +herself. Fascinated by this fellow's wit, magnetized by his airs, his +vices were but trivial defects in her eyes. She loved the puffs of +cigar smoke that the wind brought into her room from the garden; she +went to inhale them, and made no wry faces, hiding herself to enjoy +them. She hated the publisher or the newspaper editor who refused +Lousteau money on the ground of the enormous advances he had had +already. She deluded herself so far as to believe that her bohemian +was writing a novel, for which the payment was to come, instead of +working off a debt long since incurred. + +This, no doubt, is true love, and includes every mode of loving; the +love of the heart and of the head--passion, caprice, and taste--to +accept Beyle's definitions. Didine loved him so wholly, that in +certain moments when her critical judgment, just by nature, and +constantly exercised since she had lived in Paris, compelled her to +read to the bottom of Lousteau's soul, sense was still too much for +reason, and suggested excuses. + +"And what am I?" she replied. "A woman who has put herself outside the +pale. Since I have sacrificed all a woman's honor, why should you not +sacrifice to me some of a man's honor? Do we not live outside the +limits of social conventionality? Why not accept from me what Nathan +can accept from Florine? We will square accounts when we part, and +only death can part us--you know. My happiness is your honor, Etienne, +as my constancy and your happiness are mine. If I fail to make you +happy, all is at an end. If I cause you a pang, condemn me. + +"Our debts are paid; we have ten thousand francs a year, and between +us we can certainly make eight thousand francs a year--I will write +theatrical articles.--With fifteen hundred francs a month we shall be +as rich as Rothschild.--Be quite easy. I will have some lovely +dresses, and give you every day some gratified vanity, as on the first +night of Nathan's play--" + +"And what about your mother, who goes to Mass every day, and wants to +bring a priest to the house and make you give up this way of life?" + +"Every one has a pet vice. You smoke, she preaches at me, poor woman! +But she takes great care of the children, she takes them out, she is +absolutely devoted, and idolizes me. Would you hinder her from +crying?" + +"What will be thought of me?" + +"But we do not live for the world!" cried she, raising Etienne and +making him sit by her. "Besides, we shall be married some day--we have +the risks of a sea voyage----" + +"I never thought of that," said Lousteau simply; and he added to +himself, "Time enough to part when little La Baudraye is safe back +again." + + + +From that day forth Etienne lived in luxury; and Dinah, on first +nights, could hold her own with the best dressed women in Paris. +Lousteau was so fatuous as to affect, among his friends, the attitude +of a man overborne, bored to extinction, ruined by Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"Oh, what would I not give to the friend who would deliver me from +Dinah! But no one ever can!" said he. "She loves me enough to throw +herself out of the window if I told her." + +The journalist was duly pitied; he would take precautions against +Dinah's jealousy when he accepted an invitation. And then he was +shamelessly unfaithful. Monsieur de Clagny, really in despair at +seeing Dinah in such disgraceful circumstances when she might have +been so rich, and in so wretched a position at the time when her +original ambitions would have been fulfilled, came to warn her, to +tell her--"You are betrayed," and she only replied, "I know it." + +The lawyer was silenced; still he found his tongue to say one thing. + +Madame de la Baudraye interrupted him when he had scarcely spoken a +word. + +"Do you still love me?" she asked. + +"I would lose my soul for you!" he exclaimed, starting to his feet. + +The hapless man's eyes flashed like torches, he trembled like a leaf, +his throat was rigid, his hair thrilled to the roots; he believed he +was so blessed as to be accepted as his idol's avenger, and this poor +joy filled him with rapture. + +"Why are you so startled?" said she, making him sit down again. "That +is how I love him." + +The lawyer understood this argument /ad hominem/. And there were tears +in the eyes of the Judge, who had just condemned a man to death! + +Lousteau's satiety, that odious conclusion of such illicit relations, +had betrayed itself in a thousand little things, which are like grains +of sand thrown against the panes of the little magical hut where those +who love dwell and dream. These grains of sand, which grow to be +pebbles, had never been discerned by Dinah till they were as big as +rocks. Madame de la Baudraye had at last thoroughly understood +Lousteau's character. + +"He is," she said to her mother, "a poet, defenceless against +disaster, mean out of laziness, not for want of heart, and rather too +prone to pleasure; in short, a great cat, whom it is impossible to +hate. What would become of him without me? I hindered his marriage; he +has no prospects. His talent would perish in privations." + +"Oh, my Dinah!" Madame Piedefer had exclaimed, "what a hell you live +in! What is the feeling that gives you strength enough to persist?" + +"I will be a mother to him!" she had replied. + +There are certain horrible situations in which we come to no decision +till the moment when our friends discern our dishonor. We accept +compromises with ourself so long as we escape a censor who comes to +play prosecutor. Monsieur de Clagny, as clumsy as a tortured man, had +been torturing Dinah. + +"To preserve my love I will be all that Madame de Pompadour was to +preserve her power," said she to herself when Monsieur de Clagny had +left her. And this phrase sufficiently proves that her love was +becoming a burden to her, and would presently be a toil rather than a +pleasure. + +The part now assumed by Dinah was horribly painful, and Lousteau made +it no easier to play. When he wanted to go out after dinner he would +perform the tenderest little farces of affection, and address Dinah in +words full of devotion; he would take her by the chain, and when he +had bruised her with it, even while he hurt her, the lordly ingrate +would say, "Did I wound you?" + +These false caresses and deceptions had degrading consequences for +Dinah, who believed in a revival of his love. The mother, alas, gave +way to the mistress with shameful readiness. She felt herself a mere +plaything in the man's hands, and at last she confessed to herself: + +"Well, then, I will be his plaything!" finding joy in it--the rapture +of damnation. + +When this woman, of a really manly spirit, pictured herself as living +in solitude, she felt her courage fail. She preferred the anticipated +and inevitable miseries of this fierce intimacy to the absence of the +joys, which were all the more exquisite because they arose from the +midst of remorse, of terrible struggles with herself, of a /No/ +persuaded to be /Yes/. At every moment she seemed to come across the +pool of bitter water found in a desert, and drunk with greater relish +than the traveler would find in sipping the finest wines at a prince's +table. + +When Dinah wondered to herself at midnight: + +"Will he come home, or will he not?" she was not alive again till she +heard the familiar sound of Lousteau's boots, and his well-known ring +at the bell. + +She would often try to restrain him by giving him pleasure; she would +hope to be a match for her rivals, and leave them no hold on that +agitated heart. How many times a day would she rehearse the tragedy of +/Le Dernier Jour d'un condamne/, saying to herself, "To-morrow we +part." And how often would a word, a look, a kiss full of apparently +artless feeling, bring her back to the depths of her love! + +It was terrible. More than once had she meditated suicide as she paced +the little town garden where a few pale flowers bloomed. In fact, she +had not yet exhausted the vast treasure of devotion and love which a +loving woman bears in her heart. + +The romance of /Adolphe/ was her Bible, her study, for above all else +she would not be an Ellenore. She allowed herself no tears, she +avoided all the bitterness so cleverly described by the critic to whom +we owe an analysis of this striking work; whose comments indeed seemed +to Dinah almost superior to the book. And she read again and again +this fine essay by the only real critic who has written in the /Revue +des Deux Mondes/, an article now printed at the beginning of the new +edition of /Adolphe/. + +"No," she would say to herself, as she repeated the author's fateful +words, "no, I will not 'give my requests the form of an order,' I will +not 'fly to tears as a means of revenge,' I will not 'condemn the +things I once approved without reservation,' I will not 'dog his +footsteps with a prying eye'; if he plays truant, he shall not on his +return 'see a scornful lip, whose kiss is an unanswerable command.' +No, 'my silence shall not be a reproach nor my first word a quarrel.' +--I will not be like every other woman!" she went on, laying on her +table the little yellow paper volume which had already attracted +Lousteau's remark, "What! are you studying /Adolphe/?"--"If for one +day only he should recognize my merits and say, 'That victim never +uttered a cry!'--it will be all I ask. And besides, the others only +have him for an hour; I have him for life!" + +Thinking himself justified by his private tribunal in punishing his +wife, Monsieur de la Baudraye robbed her to achieve his cherished +enterprise of reclaiming three thousand acres of moorland, to which he +had devoted himself ever since 1836, living like a mouse. He +manipulated the property left by Monsieur Silas Piedefer so +ingeniously, that he contrived to reduce the proved value to eight +hundred thousand francs, while pocketing twelve hundred thousand. He +did not announce his return; but while his wife was enduring +unspeakable woes, he was building farms, digging trenches, and +ploughing rough ground with a courage that ranked him among the most +remarkable agriculturists of the province. + +The four hundred thousand francs he had filched from his wife were +spent in three years on this undertaking, and the estate of Anzy was +expected to return seventy-two thousand francs a year of net profits +after the taxes were paid. The eight hundred thousand he invested at +four and a half per cent in the funds, buying at eighty francs, at the +time of the financial crisis brought about by the Ministry of the +First of March, as it was called. By thus securing to his wife an +income of forty-eight thousand francs he considered himself no longer +in her debt. Could he not restore the odd twelve hundred thousand as +soon as the four and a half per cents had risen above a hundred? He +was now the greatest man in Sancerre, with the exception of one--the +richest proprietor in France--whose rival he considered himself. He +saw himself with an income of a hundred and forty thousand francs, of +which ninety thousand formed the revenue from the lands he had +entailed. Having calculated that besides this net income he paid ten +thousand francs in taxes, three thousand in working expenses, ten +thousand to his wife, and twelve hundred to his mother-in-law, he +would say in the literary circles of Sancerre: + +"I am reputed miserly, and said to spend nothing; but my outlay +amounts to twenty-six thousand five hundred francs a year. And I have +still to pay for the education of my two children! I daresay it is not +a pleasing fact to the Milauds of Nevers, but the second house of La +Baudraye may yet have as noble a center as the first.--I shall most +likely go to Paris and petition the King of the French to grant me the +title of Count--Monsieur Roy is a Count--and my wife would be pleased +to be Madame la Comtesse." + +And this was said with such splendid coolness that no one would have +dared to laugh at the little man. Only Monsieur Boirouge, the +Presiding Judge, remarked: + +"In your place, I should not be happy unless I had a daughter." + +"Well, I shall go to Paris before long----" said the Baron. + +In the early part of 1842 Madame de la Baudraye, feeling that she was +to Lousteau no more than a reserve in the background, had again +sacrificed herself absolutely to secure his comfort; she had resumed +her black raiment, but now it was in sign of mourning, for her +pleasure was turning to remorse. She was too often put to shame not to +feel the weight of the chain, and her mother found her sunk in those +moods of meditation into which visions of the future cast unhappy +souls in a sort of torpor. + +Madame Piedefer, by the advice of her spiritual director, was on the +watch for the moment of exhaustion, which the priest told her would +inevitably supervene, and then she pleaded in behalf of the children. +She restricted herself to urging that Dinah and Lousteau should live +apart, not asking her to give him up. In real life these violent +situations are not closed as they are in books, by death or cleverly +contrived catastrophes; they end far less poetically--in disgust, in +the blighting of every flower of the soul, in the commonplace of +habit, and very often too in another passion, which robs a wife of the +interest which is traditionally ascribed to women. So, when common +sense, the law of social proprieties, family interest--all the mixed +elements which, since the Restoration, have been dignified by the mane +of Public Morals, out of sheer aversion to the name of the Catholic +religion--where this is seconded by a sense of insults a little too +offensive; when the fatigue of constant self-sacrifice has almost +reached the point of exhaustion; and when, under these circumstances, +a too cruel blow--one of those mean acts which a man never lets a +woman know of unless he believes himself to be her assured master-- +puts the crowning touch to her revulsion and disenchantment, the +moment has come for the intervention of the friend who undertakes the +cure. Madame Piedefer had no great difficulty now in removing the film +from her daughter's eyes. + +She sent for Monsieur de Clagny, who completed the work by assuring +Madame de la Baudraye that if she would give up Etienne, her husband +would allow her to keep the children and to live in Paris, and would +restore her to the command of her own fortune. + +"And what a life you are leading!" said he. "With care and judgment, +and the support of some pious and charitable persons, you may have a +salon and conquer a position. Paris is not Sancerre." + +Dinah left it to Monsieur de Clagny to negotiate a reconciliation with +the old man. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye had sold his wine well, he had sold his wool, +he had felled his timber, and, without telling his wife, he had come +to Paris to invest two hundred thousand francs in the purchase of a +delightful residence in the Rue de l'Arcade, that was being sold in +liquidation of an aristocratic House that was in difficulties. He had +been a member of the Council for the Department since 1826, and now, +paying ten thousand francs in taxes, he was doubly qualified for a +peerage under the conditions of the new legislation. + +Some time before the elections of 1842 he had put himself forward as +candidate unless he were meanwhile called to the Upper House as Peer +of France. At the same time, he asked for the title of Count, and for +promotion to the higher grade of the Legion of Honor. In the matter of +the elections, the dynastic nominations; now, in the event of Monsieur +de la Baudraye being won over to the Government, Sancerre would be +more than ever a rotten borough of royalism. Monsieur de Clagny, whose +talents and modesty were more and more highly appreciated by the +authorities, gave Monsieur de la Baudraye his support; he pointed out +that by raising this enterprising agriculturist to the peerage, a +guarantee would be offered to such important undertakings. + +Monsieur de la Baudraye, then, a Count, a Peer of France, and +Commander of the Legion of Honor, was vain enough to wish to cut a +figure with a wife and handsomely appointed house.--"He wanted to +enjoy life," he said. + +He therefore addressed a letter to his wife, dictated by Monsieur de +Clagny, begging her to live under his roof and to furnish the house, +giving play to the taste of which the evidences, he said, had charmed +him at the Chateau d'Anzy. The newly made Count pointed out to his +wife that while the interests of their property forbade his leaving +Sancerre, the education of their boys required her presence in Paris. +The accommodating husband desired Monsieur de Clagny to place sixty +thousand francs at the disposal of Madame la Comtesse for the interior +decoration of their mansion, requesting that she would have a marble +tablet inserted over the gateway with the inscription: /Hotel de la +Baudraye/. + +He then accounted to his wife for the money derived from the estate of +Silas Piedefer, told her of the investment at four and a half per cent +of the eight hundred thousand francs he had brought from New York, and +allowed her that income for her expenses, including the education of +the children. As he would be compelled to stay in Paris during some +part of the session of the House of Peers, he requested his wife to +reserve for him a little suite of rooms in an /entresol/ over the +kitchens. + +"Bless me! why, he is growing young again--a gentleman!--a magnifico! +--What will he become next? It is quite alarming," said Madame de la +Baudraye. + +"He now fulfils all your wishes at the age of twenty," replied the +lawyer. + +The comparison of her future prospects with her present position was +unendurable to Dinah. Only the day before, Anna de Fontaine had turned +her head away in order to avoid seeing her bosom friend at the +Chamarolles' school. + +"I am a countess," said Dinah to herself. "I shall have the peer's +blue hammer-cloth on my carriage, and the leaders of the literary +world in my drawing-room--and I will look at her!"--And it was this +little triumph that told with all its weight at the moment of her +rehabilitation, as the world's contempt had of old weighed on her +happiness. + + + +One fine day, in May 1842, Madame de la Baudraye paid all her little +household debts and left a thousand crowns on top of the packet of +receipted bills. After sending her mother and the children away to the +Hotel de la Baudraye, she awaited Lousteau, dressed ready to leave the +house. When the deposed king of her heart came into dinner, she said: + +"I have upset the pot, my dear. Madame de la Baudraye requests the +pleasure of your company at the /Rocher de Cancale/." + +She carried off Lousteau, quite bewildered by the light and easy +manners assumed by the woman who till that morning has been the slave +of his least whim, for she too had been acting a farce for two months +past. + +"Madame de la Baudraye is figged out as if for a first night," said he +--/une premiere/, the slang abbreviation for a first performance. + +"Do not forget the respect you owe to Madame de la Baudraye," said +Dinah gravely. "I do not mean to understand such a word as /figged +out/." + +"Didine a rebel!" said he, putting his arm round her waist. + +"There is no such person as Didine; you have killed her, my dear," she +replied, releasing herself. "I am taking you to the first performance +of /Madame la Comtesse de la Baudraye/." + +"It is true, then, that our insect is a peer of France?" + +"The nomination is to be gazetted in this evening's /Moniteur/, as I +am told by Monsieur de Clagny, who is promoted to the Court of +Appeal." + +"Well, it is quite right," said the journalist. "The entomology of +society ought to be represented in the Upper House." + +"My friend, we are parting for ever," said Madame de la Baudraye, +trying to control the trembling of her voice. "I have dismissed the +two servants. When you go in, you will find the house in order, and no +debts. I shall always feel a mother's affection for you, but in +secret. Let us part calmly, without a fuss, like decent people. + +"Have you had a fault to find with my conduct during the past six +years?" + +"None, but that you have spoiled my life, and wrecked my prospects," +said he in a hard tone. "You have read Benjamin Constant's book very +diligently; you have even studied the last critique on it; but you +have read with a woman's eyes. Though you have one of those superior +intellects which would make a fortune of a poet, you have never dared +to take the man's point of view. + +"That book, my dear, is of both sexes.--We agreed that books were male +or female, dark or fair. In /Adolphe/ women see nothing but Ellenore; +young men see only Adolphe; men of experience see Ellenore and +Adolphe; political men see the whole of social existence. You did not +think it necessary to read the soul of Adolphe--any more than your +critic indeed, who saw only Ellenore. What kills that poor fellow, my +dear, is that he has sacrificed his future for a woman; that he never +can be what he might have been--an ambassador, a minister, a +chamberlain, a poet--and rich. He gives up six years of his energy at +that stage of his life when a man is ready to submit to the hardships +of any apprenticeship--to a petticoat, which he outstrips in the +career of ingratitude, for the woman who has thrown over her first +lover is certain sooner or later to desert the second. Adolphe is, in +fact, a tow-haired German, who has not spirit enough to be false to +Ellenore. There are Adolphes who spare their Ellenores all ignominious +quarreling and reproaches, who say to themselves, 'I will not talk of +what I have sacrificed; I will not for ever be showing the stump of my +wrist to let that incarnate selfishness I have made my queen,' as +Ramorny does in /The Fair Maid of Perth/. But men like that, my dear, +get cast aside. + +"Adolphe is a man of birth, an aristocratic nature, who wants to get +back into the highroad to honors and recover his social birthright, +his blighted position.--You, at this moment, are playing both parts. +You are suffering from the pangs of having lost your position, and +think yourself justified in throwing over a hapless lover whose +misfortune it has been that he fancied you so far superior as to +understand that, though a man's heart ought to be true, his sex may be +allowed to indulge its caprices." + +"And do you suppose that I shall not make it my business to restore to +you all you have lost by me? Be quite easy," said Madame de la +Baudraye, astounded by this attack. "Your Ellenore is not dying; and +if God gives her life, if you amend your ways, if you give up +courtesans and actresses, we will find you a better match than a +Felicie Cardot." + +The two lovers were sullen. Lousteau affected dejection, he aimed at +appearing hard and cold; while Dinah, really distressed, listened to +the reproaches of her heart. + +"Why," said Lousteau presently, "why not end as we ought to have begun +--hide our love from all eyes, and see each other in secret?" + +"Never!" cried the new-made Countess, with an icy look. "Do you not +comprehend that we are, after all, but finite creatures? Our feelings +seem infinite by reason of our anticipation of heaven, but here on +earth they are limited by the strength of our physical being. There +are some feeble, mean natures which may receive an endless number of +wounds and live on; but there are some more highly-tempered souls +which snap at last under repeated blows. You have--" + +"Oh! enough!" cried he. "No more copy! Your dissertation is +unnecessary, since you can justify yourself by merely saying--'I have +ceased to love!' " + +"What!" she exclaimed in bewilderment. "Is it I who have ceased to +love?" + +"Certainly. You have calculated that I gave you more trouble, more +vexation than pleasure, and you desert your partner--" + +"I desert!----" cried she, clasping her hands. + +"Have not you yourself just said 'Never'?" + +"Well, then, yes! /Never/," she repeated vehemently. + +This final /Never/, spoken in the fear of falling once more under +Lousteau's influence, was interpreted by him as the death-warrant of +his power, since Dinah remained insensible to his sarcastic scorn. + +The journalist could not suppress a tear. He was losing a sincere and +unbounded affection. He had found in Dinah the gentlest La Valliere, +the most delightful Pompadour that any egoist short of a king could +hope for; and, like a boy who has discovered that by dint of +tormenting a cockchafer he has killed it, Lousteau shed a tear. + +Madame de la Baudraye rushed out of the private room where they had +been dining, paid the bill, and fled home to the Rue de l'Arcade, +scolding herself and thinking herself a brute. + + + +Dinah, who had made her house a model of comfort, now metamorphosed +herself. This double metamorphosis cost thirty thousand francs more +than her husband had anticipated. + +The fatal accident which in 1842 deprived the House of Orleans of the +heir-presumptive having necessitated a meeting of the Chambers in +August of that year, little La Baudraye came to present his titles to +the Upper House sooner than he had expected, and then saw what his +wife had done. He was so much delighted, that he paid the thirty +thousand francs without a word, just as he had formerly paid eight +thousand for decorating La Baudraye. + +On his return from the Luxembourg, where he had been presented +according to custom by two of his peers--the Baron de Nucingen and the +Marquis de Montriveau--the new Count met the old Duc de Chaulieu, a +former creditor, walking along, umbrella in hand, while he himself sat +perched in a low chaise on which his coat-of-arms was resplendent, +with the motto, /Deo sic patet fides et hominibus/. This contrast +filled his heart with a large draught of the balm on which the middle +class has been getting drunk ever since 1840. + +Madame de la Baudraye was shocked to see her husband improved and +looking better than on the day of his marriage. The little dwarf, full +of rapturous delight, at sixty-four triumphed in the life which had so +long been denied him; in the family, which his handsome cousin Milaud +of Nevers had declared he would never have; and in his wife--who had +asked Monsieur and Madame de Clagny to dinner to meet the cure of the +parish and his two sponsors to the Chamber of Peers. He petted the +children with fatuous delight. + +The handsome display on the table met with his approval. + +"These are the fleeces of the Berry sheep," said he, showing Monsieur +de Nucingen the dish-covers surmounted by his newly-won coronet. "They +are of silver, you see!" + +Though consumed by melancholy, which she concealed with the +determination of a really superior woman, Dinah was charming, witty, +and above all, young again in her court mourning. + +"You might declare," cried La Baudraye to Monsieur de Nucingen with a +wave of his hand to his wife, "that the Countess was not yet thirty." + +"Ah, ha! Matame is a voman of dirty!" replied the baron, who was prone +to time-honored remarks, which he took to be the small change of +conversation. + +"In every sense of the words," replied the Countess. "I am, in fact, +five-and-thirty, and mean to set up a little passion--" + +"Oh, yes, my wife ruins me in curiosities and china images--" + +"She started that mania at an early age," said the Marquis de +Montriveau with a smile. + +"Yes," said La Baudraye, with a cold stare at the Marquis, whom he had +known at Bourges, "you know that in '25, '26, and '27, she picked a +million francs' worth of treasures. Anzy is a perfect museum." + +"What a cool hand!" thought Monsieur de Clagny, as he saw this little +country miser quite on the level of his new position. + +But misers have savings of all kinds ready for use. + +On the day after the vote on the Regency had passed the Chambers, the +little Count went back to Sancerre for the vintage and resumed his old +habits. + +In the course of that winter, the Comtesse de la Baudraye, with the +support of the Attorney-General to the Court of Appeals, tried to form +a little circle. Of course, she had an "at home" day, she made a +selection among men of mark, receiving none but those of serious +purpose and ripe years. She tried to amuse herself by going to the +Opera, French and Italian. Twice a week she appeared there with her +mother and Madame de Clagny, who was made by her husband to visit +Dinah. Still, in spite of her cleverness, her charming manners, her +fashionable stylishness, she was never really happy but with her +children, on whom she lavished all her disappointed affection. + +Worthy Monsieur de Clagny tried to recruit women for the Countess' +circle, and he succeeded; but he was more successful among the +advocates of piety than the women of fashion. + +"And they bore her!" said he to himself with horror, as he saw his +idol matured by grief, pale from remorse, and then, in all the +splendor of recovered beauty, restored by a life of luxury and care +for her boys. This devoted friend, encouraged in his efforts by her +mother and by the cure was full of expedient. Every Wednesday he +introduced some celebrity from Germany, England, Italy, or Prussia to +his dear Countess; he spoke of her as a quite exceptional woman to +people to whom she hardly addressed two words; but she listened to +them with such deep attention that they went away fully convinced of +her superiority. In Paris, Dinah conquered by silence, as at Sancerre +she had conquered by loquacity. Now and then, some smart saying about +affairs, or sarcasm on an absurdity, betrayed a woman accustomed to +deal with ideas--the woman who, four years since, had given new life +to Lousteau's articles. + +This phase was to the poor lawyer's hapless passion like the late +season known as the Indian summer after a sunless year. He affected to +be older than he was, to have the right to befriend Dinah without +doing her an injury, and kept himself at a distance as though he were +young, handsome, and compromising, like a man who has happiness to +conceal. He tried to keep his little attentions a profound secret, and +the trifling gifts which Dinah showed to every one; he endeavored to +suggest a dangerous meaning for his little services. + +"He plays at passion," said the Countess, laughing. She made fun of +Monsieur de Clagny to his face, and the lawyer said, "She notices me." + +"I impress that poor man so deeply," said she to her mother, laughing, +"that if I would say Yes, I believe he would say No." + +One evening Monsieur de Clagny and his wife were taking his dear +Countess home from the theatre, and she was deeply pensive. They had +been to the first performance of Leon Gozlan's first play, /La Main +Droite et la Main Gauche/ (The Right Hand and the Left). + +"What are you thinking about?" asked the lawyer, alarmed at his idol's +dejection. + +This deep and persistent melancholy, though disguised by the Countess, +was a perilous malady for which Monsieur de Clagny knew no remedy; for +true love is often clumsy, especially when it is not reciprocated. +True love takes its expression from the character. Now, this good man +loved after the fashion of Alceste, when Madame de la Baudraye wanted +to be loved after the manner of Philinte. The meaner side of love can +never get on with the Misanthrope's loyalty. Thus, Dinah had taken +care never to open her heart to this man. How could she confess to him +that she sometimes regretted the slough she had left? + +She felt a void in this fashionable life; she had no one for whom to +dress, or whom to tell of her successes and triumphs. Sometimes the +memory of her wretchedness came to her, mingled with memories of +consuming joys. She would hate Lousteau for not taking any pains to +follow her; she would have liked to get tender or furious letters from +him. + +Dinah made no reply, so Monsieur de Clagny repeated the question, +taking the Countess' hand and pressing it between his own with devout +respect. + +"Will you have the right hand or the left?" said she, smiling. + +"The left," said he, "for I suppose you mean the truth or a fib." + +"Well, then, I saw him," she said, speaking into the lawyer's ear. +"And as I saw him looking so sad, so out of heart, I said to myself, +Has he a cigar? Has he any money?" + +"If you wish for the truth, I can tell it you," said the lawyer. "He +is living as a husband with Fanny Beaupre. You have forced me to tell +you this secret; I should never have told you, for you might have +suspected me perhaps of an ungenerous motive." + +Madame de la Baudraye grasped his hand. + +"Your husband," said she to her chaperon, "is one of the rarest souls! +--Ah! Why----" + +She shrank into her corner, looking out of the window, but she did not +finish her sentence, of which the lawyer could guess the end: "Why had +not Lousteau a little of your husband's generosity of heart?" + +This information served, however, to cure Dinah of her melancholy; she +threw herself into the whirl of fashion. She wished for success, and +she achieved it; still, she did not make much way with women, and +found it difficult to get introductions. + +In the month of March, Madame Piedefer's friends the priests and +Monsieur de Clagny made a fine stroke by getting Madame de la Baudraye +appointed receiver of subscriptions for the great charitable work +founded by Madame de Carcado. Then she was commissioned to collect +from the Royal Family their donations for the benefit of the sufferers +from the earthquake at Guadeloupe. The Marquise d'Espard, to whom +Monsieur de Canalis read the list of ladies thus appointed, one +evening at the Opera, said, on hearing that of the Countess: + +"I have lived a long time in the world, and I can remember nothing +finer than the manoeuvres undertaken for the rehabilitation of Madame +de la Baudraye." + + + +In the early spring, which, by some whim of our planets, smiled on +Paris in the first week of March in 1843, making the Champs-Elysees +green and leafy before Longchamp, Fanny Beaupre's attache had seen +Madame de la Baudraye several times without being seen by her. More +than once he was stung to the heart by one of those promptings of +jealousy and envy familiar to those who are born and bred provincials, +when he beheld his former mistress comfortably ensconced in a handsome +carriage, well dressed, with dreamy eyes, and his two little boys, one +at each window. He accused himself with all the more virulence because +he was waging war with the sharpest poverty of all--poverty +unconfessed. Like all essentially light and frivolous natures, he +cherished the singular point of honor which consists in never +derogating in the eyes of one's own little public, which makes men on +the Bourse commit crimes to escape expulsion from the temple of the +goddess Per-cent, and has given some criminals courage enough to +perform acts of virtue. + +Lousteau dined and breakfasted and smoked as if he were a rich man. +Not for an inheritance would he have bought any but the dearest +cigars, for himself as well as for the playwright or author with whom +he went into the shop. The journalist took his walks abroad in patent +leather boots; but he was constantly afraid of an execution on goods +which, to use the bailiff's slang, had already received the last +sacrament. Fanny Beaupre had nothing left to pawn, and her salary was +pledged to pay her debts. After exhausting every possible advance of +pay from newspapers, magazines, and publishers, Etienne knew not of +what ink he could churn gold. Gambling-houses, so ruthlessly +suppressed, could no longer, as of old, cash I O U's drawn over the +green table by beggary in despair. In short, the journalist was +reduced to such extremity that he had just borrowed a hundred francs +of the poorest of his friends, Bixiou, from whom he had never yet +asked for a franc. What distressed Lousteau was not the fact of owing +five thousand francs, but seeing himself bereft of his elegance, and +of the furniture purchased at the cost of so many privations, and +added to by Madame de la Baudraye. + +On April the 3rd, a yellow poster, torn down by the porter after being +displayed on the wall, announced the sale of a handsome suite of +furniture on the following Saturday, the day fixed for sales under +legal authority. Lousteau was taking a walk, smoking cigars, and +seeking ideas--for, in Paris, ideas are in the air, they smile on you +from a street corner, they splash up with a spurt of mud from under +the wheels of a cab! Thus loafing, he had been seeking ideas for +articles, and subjects for novels for a month past, and had found +nothing but friends who carried him off to dinner or to the play, and +who intoxicated his woes, telling him that champagne would inspire +him. + +"Beware," said the virulent Bixiou one night, the man who would at the +same moment give a comrade a hundred francs and stab him to the heart +with a sarcasm; "if you go to sleep drunk every night, one day you +will wake up mad." + +On the day before, the Friday, the unhappy wretch, although he was +accustomed to poverty, felt like a man condemned to death. Of old he +would have said: + +"Well, the furniture is very old! I will buy new." + +But he was incapable now of literary legerdemain. Publishers, +undermined by piracy, paid badly; the newspapers made close bargains +with hard-driven writers, as the Opera managers did with tenors that +sang flat. + +He walked on, his eye on the crowd, though seeing nothing, a cigar in +his mouth, and his hands in his pockets, every feature of his face +twitching, and an affected smile on his lips. Then he saw Madame de la +Baudraye go by in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the +Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin to drive in the Bois. + +"There is nothing else left!" said he to himself, and he went home to +smarten himself up. + +That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de la +Baudraye's door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the +Countess--a few lines, as follows: + +"Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving +him for a moment, and at once?" + +This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used. +Madame de la Baudraye had had the word /Parce que/ engraved on a +genuine Oriental carnelian--a potent word--a woman's word--the word +that accounts for everything, even for the Creation. + +The Countess had just finished dressing to go to the Opera; Friday was +her night in turn for her box. At the sight of this seal she turned +pale. + +"I will come," she said, tucking the note into her dress. + +She was firm enough to conceal her agitation, and begged her mother to +see the children put to bed. She then sent for Lousteau, and received +him in a boudoir, next to the great drawing-room, with open doors. She +was going to a ball after the Opera, and was wearing a beautiful dress +of brocade in stripes alternately plain and flowered with pale blue. +Her gloves, trimmed with tassels, showed off her beautiful white arms. +She was shimmering with lace and all the dainty trifles required by +fashion. Her hair, dressed /a la Sevigne/, gave her a look of +elegance; a necklace of pearls lay on her bosom like bubbles on snow. + +"What is the matter, monsieur?" said the Countess, putting out her +foot from below her skirt to rest it on a velvet cushion. "I thought, +I hoped, I was quite forgotten." + +"If I should reply /Never/, you would refuse to believe me," said +Lousteau, who remained standing, or walked about the room, chewing the +flowers he plucked from the flower-stands full of plants that scented +the room. + +For a moment silence reigned. Madame de la Baudraye, studying +Lousteau, saw that he was dressed as the most fastidious dandy might +have been. + +"You are the only person in the world who can help me, or hold out a +plank to me--for I am drowning, and have already swallowed more than +one mouthful----" said he, standing still in front of Dinah, and +seeming to yield to an overpowering impulse. "Since you see me here, +it is because my affairs are going to the devil." + +"That is enough," said she; "I understand." + +There was another pause, during which Lousteau turned away, took out +his handkerchief, and seemed to wipe away a tear. + +"How much do you want, Etienne," she went on in motherly tones. "We +are at this moment old comrades; speak to me as you would to--to +Bixiou." + +"To save my furniture from vanishing into thin air to-morrow morning +at the auction mart, eighteen hundred francs! To repay my friends, as +much again! Three quarters' rent to the landlord-- whom you know.--My +'uncle' wants five hundred francs--" + +"And you!--to live on?" + +"Oh! I have my pen----" + +"It is heavier to lift than any one could believe who reads your +articles," said she, with a subtle smile.--"I have not such a sum as +you need, but come to-morrow at eight; the bailiff will surely wait +till nine, especially if you bring him away to pay him." + +She must, she felt, dismiss Lousteau, who affected to be unable to +look at her; she herself felt such pity as might cut every social +Gordian knot. + +"Thank you," she added, rising and offering her hand to Lousteau. +"Your confidence has done me good! It is long indeed since my heart +has known such joy----" + +Lousteau took her hand and pressed it tenderly to his heart. + +"A drop of water in the desert--and sent by the hand of an angel! God +always does things handsomely!" + +He spoke half in jest and half pathetically; but, believe me, as a +piece of acting it was as fine as Talma's in his famous part of +/Leicester/, which was played throughout with touches of this kind. +Dinah felt his heart beating through his coat; it was throbbing with +satisfaction, for the journalist had had a narrow escape from the +hulks of justice; but it also beat with a very natural fire at seeing +Dinah rejuvenescent and restored by wealth. + +Madame de la Baudraye, stealing an examining glance at Etienne, saw +that his expression was in harmony with the flowers of love, which, as +she thought, had blossomed again in that throbbing heart; she tried to +look once into the eyes of the man she had loved so well, but the +seething blood rushed through her veins and mounted to her brain. +Their eyes met with the same fiery glow as had encouraged Lousteau on +the Quay by the Loire to crumple Dinah's muslin gown. The Bohemian put +his arm round her waist, she yielded, and their cheeks were touching. + +"Here comes my mother, hide!" cried Dinah in alarm. And she hurried +forward to intercept Madame Piedefer. + +"Mamma," said she--this word was to the stern old lady a coaxing +expression which never failed of its effect--"will you do me a great +favor? Take the carriage and go yourself to my banker, Monsieur +Mongenod, with a note I will give you, and bring back six thousand +francs. Come, come--it is an act of charity; come into my room." + +And she dragged away her mother, who seemed very anxious to see who it +was that her daughter had been talking with in the boudoir. + +Two days afterwards, Madame Piedefer held a conference with the cure +of the parish. After listening to the lamentations of the old mother, +who was in despair, the priest said very gravely: + +"Any moral regeneration which is not based on a strong religious +sentiment, and carried out in the bosom of the Church, is built on +sand.--The many means of grace enjoined by the Catholic religion, +small as they are, and not understood, are so many dams necessary to +restrain the violence of evil promptings. Persuade your daughter to +perform all her religious duties, and we shall save her yet." + +Within ten days of this meeting the Hotel de la Baudraye was shut up. +The Countess, the children, and her mother, in short, the whole +household, including a tutor, had gone away to Sancerre, where Dinah +intended to spend the summer. She was everything that was nice to the +Count, people said. + +And so the Muse of Sancerre had simply come back to family and married +life; but certain evil tongues declared that she had been compelled to +come back, for that the little peer's wishes would no doubt be +fulfilled--he hoped for a little girl. + +Gatien and Monsieur Gravier lavished every care, every servile +attention on the handsome Countess. Gatien, who during Madame de la +Baudraye's long absence had been to Paris to learn the art of +/lionnerie/ or dandyism, was supposed to have a good chance of finding +favor in the eyes of the disenchanted "Superior Woman." Others bet on +the tutor; Madame Piedefer urged the claims of religion. + +In 1844, about the middle of June, as the Comte de la Baudraye was +taking a walk on the Mall at Sancerre with the two fine little boys, +he met Monsieur Milaud, the Public Prosecutor, who was at Sancerre on +business, and said to him: + +"These are my children, cousin." + +"Ah, ha! so these are our children!" replied the lawyer, with a +mischievous twinkle. + + + +PARIS, June 1843-August 1844. + + + + +ADDENDUM + +The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. + +Beaupre, Fanny + A Start in Life + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + +Berthier, Madame (Felicie Cardot) + Cousin Pons + +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 + A Prince of Bohemia + Letters of Two Brides + 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 + +Bixiou, Jean-Jacques + The Purse + A Bachelor's Establishment + The Government Clerks + Modeste Mignon + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Firm of Nucingen + Cousin Betty + The Member for Arcis + Beatrix + A Man of Business + Gaudissart II. + The Unconscious Humorists + Cousin Pons + +Camusot + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Cousin Pons + Cesar Birotteau + At the Sign of the Cat and Racket + +Cardot (Parisian notary) + A Man of Business + Jealousies of a Country Town + Pierre Grassou + The Middle Classes + Cousin Pons + +Chargeboeuf, Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de + The Member for Arcis + +Falcon, Jean + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + +Grosstete (younger brother of F. Grosstete) + The Country Parson + +Hulot (Marshal) + The Chouans + Cousin Betty + +La Baudraye, Madame Polydore Milaud de + A Prince of Bohemia + Cousin Betty + +Lebas + Cousin Betty + +Listomere, Baronne de + The Vicar of Tours + Cesar Birotteau + +Lousteau, Etienne + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + A Daughter of Eve + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Middle Classes + The Unconscious Humorists + +Lupeaulx, Clement Chardin des + Eugenie Grandet + A Bachelor's Establishment + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + The Government Clerks + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Ursule Mirouet + +Maufrigneuse, Duchesse de + The Secrets of a Princess + Modeste Mignon + Jealousies of a Country Town + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Letters of Two Brides + Another Study of Woman + The Gondreville Mystery + The Member for Arcis + +Milaud + Lost Illusions + +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 + A Prince of Bohemia + A Man of Business + The Unconscious Humorists + +Nathan, Madame Raoul + 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 Prince of Bohemia + A Daughter of Eve + The Unconscious Humorists + +Navarreins, Duc de + A Bachelor's Establishment + Colonel Chabert + The Thirteen + Jealousies of a Country Town + The Peasantry + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + The Country Parson + The Magic Skin + The Gondreville Mystery + The Secrets of a Princess + Cousin Betty + +Nucingen, Baron Frederic de + The Firm of Nucingen + Father Goriot + Pierrette + Cesar Birotteau + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + Scenes from a Courtesan's Life + Another Study of Woman + The Secrets of a Princess + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Ronceret, Madame Fabien du + Beatrix + Cousin Betty + The Unconscious Humorists + +Rouget, Jean-Jacques + A Bachelor's Establishment + +Touches, Mademoiselle Felicite des + Beatrix + Lost Illusions + A Distinguished Provincial at Paris + A Bachelor's Establishment + Another Study of Woman + A Daughter of Eve + Honorine + Beatrix + +Turquet, Marguerite + The Imaginary Mistress + A Man of Business + Cousin Betty + +Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de + A Second Home + A Daughter of Eve + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext The Muse of the Department by Balzac + diff --git a/old/msdpt10.zip b/old/msdpt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..feba7a7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/msdpt10.zip |