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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack, by Alphonse Daudet
+
+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: Jack
+       1877
+
+Author: Alphonse Daudet
+
+Translator: Mary Neal Sherwood
+
+Release Date: May 2, 2008 [EBook #25302]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+JACK
+
+By Alphonse Daudet
+
+Translated by Mary Neal Sherwood
+
+From The Fortieth Thousand, French Edition.
+
+Estes And Lauriat, 1877
+
+
+
+
+JACK
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.~~VAURIGARD.
+
+"With a _k_, sir; with a _k_. The name is written and pronounced as
+in English. The child's godfather was English. A major-general in the
+Indian army. Lord Pembroke. You know him, perhaps? A man of distinction
+and of the highest connections. But--you understand--M. l'Abbe! How
+deliciously he danced! He died a frightful death at Singapore some years
+since, in a tiger-chase organized in his honor by a rajah, one of his
+friends. These rajahs, it seems, are absolute monarchs in their own
+country,--and one especially is very celebrated. What is his name? Wait
+a moment. Ah! I have it. Rana-Ramah."
+
+"Pardon me, madame," interrupted the abbe, smiling, in spite of himself,
+at the rapid flow of words, and at the swift change of ideas. "After
+Jack, what name?"
+
+With his elbow on his desk, and his head slightly bent, the priest
+examined from out the corners of eyes bright with ecclesiastical
+shrewdness, the young woman who sat before him, with her Jack standing
+at her side.
+
+The lady was faultlessly dressed in the fashion of the day and the hour.
+It was December, 1858. The richness of her furs, the lustrous folds of
+her black costume, and the discreet originality of her hat, all told the
+story of a woman who owns her carriage, and who steps from her carpets
+to her coupe without the vulgar contact of the streets. Her head was
+small, which always lends height to a woman. Her pretty face had all the
+bloom of fresh fruit. Smiling and gay, additional vivacity was imparted
+by large, clear eyes and brilliant teeth, which were to be seen even
+when her face was in repose. The mobility of her countenance was
+extraordinary. Either this, or the lips half parted as if about to
+speak, or the narrow brow,--something there was, at all events, that
+indicated an absence of reflective powers, a lack of culture, and
+possibly explained the blanks in the conversation of this pretty woman;
+blanks that reminded one of those little Japanese baskets fitting one
+into another, the last of which is always empty.
+
+As to the child, picture to yourself an emaciated boy of seven or eight,
+who had evidently outgrown his strength. He was dressed as English boys
+are dressed, and as befitted his name spelled with a _k_. His legs
+were bare, and he wore a Scotch cap and a plaid. The costume was in
+accordance with his years, but not with his long neck and slim figure.
+
+He seemed embarrassed by it himself, for, awkward and timid, he
+would occasionally glance at his half-frozen legs with a despairing
+expression, as if he cursed within his soul Lord Pembroke and the whole
+Indian army.
+
+Physically, he resembled his mother, with a look of higher breeding,
+and with the transformation of a pretty woman's face to that of an
+intelligent man. There were the same eyes, but deeper in color and in
+meaning; the same brow, but wider; the same mouth, but the lips were
+firmly closed.
+
+Over the woman's face, ideas and impressions glided without leaving a
+furrow or a trace; in fact, so hastily, that her eyes always seemed to
+retain a certain astonishment at their flight. With the child, on the
+contrary, one felt that impressions remained, and his thoughtful air
+would have been almost painful, had it not been combined with a certain
+caressing indolence of attitude that indicated a petted child.
+
+Now leaning against his mother, with one hand in her muff, he listened
+to her words with adoring attention, and occasionally looked at the
+priest and at all the surroundings with timid curiosity. He had promised
+not to cry, but a stifled sob shook him at times from head to foot.
+Then his mother looked at him, and seemed to say, "You know what you
+promised." Then the child choked back his tears and sobs; but it
+was easy to see that he was a prey to that first agony of exile and
+abandonment which the first boarding-school inflicts on those children
+who have lived only in their homes.
+
+This examination of mother and child, made by the priest in two or
+three minutes, would have satisfied a superficial observer; but
+Father O------, who had been the director for twenty-five years of the
+aristocratic institution of the Jesuits at Vaurigard, was a man of the
+world, and knew too well the best Parisian society, all its shades of
+manner and dialect, not to understand that in the mother of his new
+pupil he beheld a representative of an especial class.
+
+The self-possession with which she entered his office,--self-possession
+too apparent not to be forced,--her way of seating herself, her uneasy
+laugh, and above all, the overwhelming flood of words with which she
+sought to conceal a certain embarrassment, all created in the mind of
+the priest a vague distrust. Unhappily, in Paris the circles are so
+mixed, the community of pleasures and similarity of toilets have so
+narrowed the line of demarcation between fashionable women of good and
+bad society, that the most experienced may at times be deceived, and
+this is the reason that the priest regarded this woman with so much
+attention. The principal difficulty in arriving at a decision arose from
+the unconnected style of her conversation; but the embarrassed air of
+the mother when he asked for the other name of the child, settled the
+question in his mind.
+
+She colored, hesitated. "True," she said; "excuse me; I have not yet
+presented myself. What could I have been thinking of?" and drawing a
+small, highly-perfumed case from her pocket, she took from it a card, on
+which, in long letters, was to be read the insignificant name--
+
+     _Ida de Barnacy_
+
+Over the face of the priest flashed a singular smile.
+
+"Is this the child's name?" he asked.
+
+The question was almost an impertinence. The lady understood him, and
+concealed her embarrassment under an assumption of great dignity.
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly."
+
+"Ah!" said the priest, gravely.
+
+It was he now who found it difficult to express what he wished to say.
+He rolled the card between his fingers with a little movement of the
+lips natural to a man who measures the weight and effect of the words he
+is about to speak.
+
+Suddenly he arose from his chair, and approaching one of the large
+windows that looked on a garden planted with fine trees, and reddened
+by the wintry sun, tapped lightly on the glass. A black silhouette was
+drawn on the window, and a young priest appeared immediately within the
+room.
+
+"Duffieux," said the Superior, "take this child out to walk with you.
+Show him our church and our hot-houses; he is tired of us, poor little
+man!"
+
+Jack supposed that he was sent out to walk so that he might be spared
+the pain of saying good-bye to his mother, and his terrified, despairing
+expression so touched the kind priest that he hastily added,--
+
+"Don't be frightened, Jack. Your mother is not going away; you will find
+her here."
+
+The child still hesitated.
+
+"Go, my dear," said Madame de Barancy, with a queenly gesture.
+
+Then he went without another word, as if he were already conquered by
+life, and prepared for all its evils.
+
+When the door closed behind him, there was a moment of silence. The
+steps of the child and his companion were heard on the frozen gravel,
+and dying away, left no sound save the crackling of the fire, the chirps
+of the sparrows on the eaves, the distant pianos, and an indistinct
+murmur of voices--the hum of a great boarding-school.
+
+"This child seems to love you, madame," said the Superior, touched by
+Jack's submission.
+
+"Why should he not love me?" answered Madame de Barancy, somewhat
+melodramatically; "the poor dear has but his mother in the world."
+
+"Ah! you are a widow?"
+
+"Alas! yes, sir. My husband died ten years ago, the very year of our
+marriage, and under the most painful circumstances. Ah! Monsieur l'Abbe,
+romance-writers, who are at a loss to invent adventures for their
+heroines, do not know that many an apparently quiet life contains enough
+for ten novels. My own story is the best proof of that. The Comte
+de Barancy belonged, as his name will tell you, to one of the oldest
+families in Touraine."
+
+She made a fatal mistake here, for Father O------ was born at Amboise,
+and knew the nobility of the entire province. So he at once consigned
+the Comte de Barancy to the society of Major-General Pembroke and the
+Rajah of Singapore. He did not let this appear, however, and contented
+himself with replying gently to the _soi-disant_ comtesse,--
+
+"Do you not think with me, madame, that there would be some cruelty in
+sending away a child that seems so warmly attached to you? He is still
+very young; and do you think his physical health good enough to support
+the grief of such a separation?"
+
+"But you are mistaken, sir," she answered, promptly. "Jack is a very
+robust child; he has never been ill. He is a little pale, perhaps,
+but that is owing to the air of Paris, to which he has never been
+accustomed."
+
+Annoyed to find that she was not disposed to comprehend him, the priest
+continued,--
+
+"Besides, just now our dormitories are full; the scholastic year is very
+far advanced; we have even been obliged to decline receiving new pupils
+until the next term. You would be compelled to wait until then, madame;
+and even then--"
+
+She understood him at last.
+
+"So," she said, turning pale, "you refuse to receive my son. Do you
+refuse also to tell me why?"
+
+"Madame," answered the priest, "I would have given much if this
+explanation could have been avoided. But since you force it upon me, I
+must inform you that this institution, whose head I am, exacts from
+the families who confide their children to us the most unexceptionable
+conduct and the strictest morality. In Paris there are many laical
+institutions where your little Jack will receive every care, but with
+us it would be impossible. I beg of you," he added, with a gesture of
+indignant protestation, "do not make me explain further. I have no right
+to question you, no right to reproach you. I regret the pain I am now
+giving, and believe me when I say that my words are as painful to myself
+as to you."
+
+While the priest spoke, over the countenance of Madame de Barancy
+flitted shadows of anger, grief, and confusion. At first she tried to
+brave it out, throwing her head back disdainfully; but the kind words of
+the priest falling on her childish soul made her burst suddenly into a
+passion of sobs and tears.
+
+"She was so unhappy," she cried, "no one could ever know all she had
+done for that child! Yes, the poor little fellow had no name, no father,
+but was that any reason why a crime should be made of his misfortune,
+and that he should be made responsible for the faults of his parents?
+Ah! M. l'Abbe, I beg of you--"
+
+As she spoke she took the priest's hand. The good father sought to
+disengage it with some little embarrassment.
+
+"Be calm, dear madame," he cried, terrified by these tears and outcries,
+for she wept, like the child that she was, with vehement sobs, and
+with the abandonment in fact of a somewhat coarse nature. The poor man
+thought, "What could I do with her if this lady should be taken ill?"
+
+But the words he used to calm her only excited her more.
+
+She wished to justify herself, to explain things, to narrate the story
+of her life, and, willing or not, the Superior found himself compelled
+to follow her through an obscure recital, whose connecting thread she
+broke at every step, without looking to see how she should ever get back
+again to the light.
+
+The name of Barancy was not hers, but if she should tell him her name,
+he would be astonished. The honor of one of the oldest families in
+France was concerned, and she would rather die than speak.
+
+The Superior hastened to assure her that he had no intention of
+questioning her, but she would not listen to him. She was started, and a
+wind-mill under full sail would have been more easily arrested than
+her torrent of words, of which probably not one was true, for she
+contradicted herself perpetually throughout her incoherent discourse,
+yet withal there was something sincere, something touching even in this
+love between mother and child. They had always been together. He had
+been taught at home by masters, and she wished now to separate from him
+only because of his intelligence and his eyes that saw things that were
+not intended for his vision.
+
+"The best thing to do, it seems to me," said the priest, gravely, "would
+be to live such a life that you need fear neither the scrutiny of your
+child nor of any one else."
+
+"That was my wish, sir," she answered. "As Jack grew older, I wished to
+make his home all that which it ought to be. Besides, before long, my
+position will be assured. For some time I have been thinking of
+marrying, but to do this it was necessary to send my boy away for a time
+that he might obtain the education worthy of the name he ought to bear.
+I thought that nowhere could he do as well as here, but at one blow you
+repulse him and discourage his mother's good resolutions."
+
+Here the Superior arrested her with an exclamation of astonishment. He
+hesitated a moment; then looking her straight in her eyes, said,--
+
+"So be it, madame. I yield to your wishes. Little Jack pleases me very
+much; I consent to receive him among our pupils."
+
+"My dear sir!"
+
+"But on two conditions."
+
+"I am ready to accept all."
+
+"The first is, that until the day that your position is assured, the
+child shall spend his vacations under this roof, and shall not return to
+yours."
+
+"But he will die, my poor Jack, if he does not see his mother!"
+
+"Oh, you can come here whenever you please; only--and this is my second
+condition--you will not see him in the parlor, but always here in my
+private room, where I shall take care that you are not interfered with
+and that no one sees you."
+
+She rose in indignation.
+
+The idea that she could never enter the parlor, or be present on the
+reception-days, when she could astonish the other guests with the beauty
+of her child, with the richness of her toilette, that she could never
+say to her friends, "I met at the school, yesterday, Madame de C------,
+or Madame de V------," that she must meet Jack in secret, all this
+revolted her.
+
+The astute priest had struck well.
+
+"You are cruel with me, sir. You oblige me to refuse the favor for which
+I have so earnestly entreated, but I must protect my dignity as woman
+and mother. Your conditions are impossible. And what would my child
+think--"
+
+She stopped, for outside the glass she saw the fair, curly head of the
+child, with eyes brightened by the fresh air and by his anxiety. Upon a
+sign from his mother, he entered quickly.
+
+"Ah, mamma, how good you are! I was afraid you were gone!"
+
+She took his hand hastily.
+
+"You will go with me," she answered; "we are not wanted here."
+
+And she sailed out erect and haughty, leading the boy, who was stupefied
+by this departure which so strongly resembled a flight. She hardly
+acknowledged the respectful salute of the good father, who had also
+risen hastily from his chair; but quickly as she moved, it was not too
+quick for Jack to hear a gentle voice murmur, "Poor child! poor child!"
+in a tone of compassion that went to his heart. He was pitied--and why?
+For a long time he pondered over this.
+
+The Superior was not mistaken. Madame la Comtesse Ida de Barancy was not
+a comtesse at all. Her name was not Barancy, and possibly not even
+Ida. Whence came she? Who was she? No one could say. These complicated
+existences have fortunes so diverse, a past so long and so varied, that
+one never knows the last shape they assume. One might liken them to
+those revolving lighthouses that have long intervals of shadow between
+their gleams of fire. Of one thing only was there any certainty: she
+was not a Parisian, but came from some provincial town whose accent she
+still retained. It was said that at the Gymnase, one evening, two Lyons
+merchants thought they recognized in her a certain Melanie Favrot, who
+formerly kept an establishment of "gloves and perfumery;" but these
+merchants were mistaken.
+
+Again, an officer in the Hussars insisted that he had seen her eight
+years before at Orleans. He also was mistaken. And we all know that
+resemblances are often impertinences.
+
+Madame de Barancy had however travelled much, and made no concealment of
+the fact, but an absolute sorcerer would have been needed to evolve any
+facts from the contradictory accounts she gave of her origin and her
+life. One day Ida was born in the colonies, spoke of her mother, a
+charming creole, of her plantation and her negroes. Another time she had
+passed her childhood in a great chateau on the Loire. She seemed utterly
+indifferent as to the manner in which her hearers would piece together
+these dislocated bits of her existence.
+
+As may be imagined, in these fantastic recitals, vanity reigned
+triumphant, the vanity of a chattering paroquet. Bank and money, titles
+and riches, were the texts of her discourse. Rich she certainly was.
+She had a small hotel on the Boulevard Haussmann; she had horses and
+carriages, gorgeous furniture in most questionable taste, three or four
+servants, and led a most indolent existence, trifling away her life
+among women like herself, less confident in her bearing, perhaps,
+than they, from her provincial birth and breeding. This, and a certain
+freshness, the result of a childhood passed in the open air, all kept
+her somewhat out of the current of Parisian life, where, too, being so
+newly arrived, she had not yet found her place.
+
+Once each week, a man of middle age, and of distinguished appearance,
+came to see her. In speaking of him, Ida always said "Monsieur" with an
+air of such respect that one would have supposed him to be at the court
+of France in the days when the brother of the king was so denominated.
+The child spoke of him simply as "our friend." The servants announced
+him as "M. le Comte," but among themselves they called him "the old
+gentleman."
+
+The old gentleman was very rich, for madame spared nothing, and there
+was an enormous expenditure going on constantly in the house. This was
+managed by Mademoiselle Constant, Ida's waiting-maid. It was this woman
+who gave her mistress the addresses of the tradespeople, who guided her
+inexperience through the mazes of life in Paris; for Ida's pet dream and
+hope was to be taken for a woman of irreproachable character, and of the
+highest fashion.
+
+Thus it will be seen into what state of mind the reception of Father
+O------ had thrown her, and in what a rage she left his presence. An
+elegant coupe awaited her at the door of the Institution. She threw
+herself into it with her child, retaining only sufficient self-command
+to say "home," in so loud a voice that she was heard by a group of
+priests who were talking together, and who quickly dispersed before this
+whirlwind of furs and curled hair. In fact, as soon as the carriage-door
+was closed, the unhappy woman sank into a corner, not in her usual
+coquettish position, but overwhelmed and in tears, stifling her sobs in
+the quilted cushions.
+
+What a blow! The priest had refused to take her child, and at the first
+glance had discovered the humiliating truth that she believed to have
+thoroughly disguised under the luxurious surroundings of a woman of the
+world and of an irreproachable mother.
+
+Her wounded pride recalled with renewed flushes of shame the keen eyes
+of the good father. She recalled all her falsehood, all her folly, and
+remembered his incredulous smile at almost her first words.
+
+Silent and motionless in the other corner of the carriage sat Jack,
+looking sadly at his mother, unable to comprehend her despair. He
+vaguely conceived himself to be in fault, the dear little fellow, and
+yet was secretly glad that he had not been left at the school.
+
+For a fortnight he had heard of it night and day; his mother had
+extorted a promise from him not to weep; his trunk was packed, and all
+was ready, and the child's heart was full of trouble; and now at the
+last moment he was reprieved.
+
+If his mother had not been in so much trouble now, he would have thanked
+her; how happy would he have been curled up at her side, under her
+furs, in the little coupe in which they had had so many happy hours
+together--hours which were now to be repeated. And Jack thought of
+the afternoons in the Bois, of the long drives through the gay city
+of Paris--a city so new to both of them, and full of excitement and
+interest. A monument, perhaps, or even a mere street incident, delighted
+them.
+
+"Look, Jack--"
+
+"Look, mamma--"
+
+They were two children together, and together they peered from the
+window,--the child's head with its golden curls close to the mother's
+face tightly veiled in black lace.
+
+A despairing cry from Madame de Barancy aroused the boy from all these
+sweet recollections. "_Mon dieu!_" she cried, wringing her hands, "what
+have I done to be so wretched?"
+
+This exclamation naturally elicited no response, and little Jack, not
+knowing what to say, or how to console her, timidly caressed her hand,
+even at last kissing it with the fervor of a lover.
+
+She started and looked wildly at him.
+
+"Ah! cruel, cruel child, what harm you have done me in this world!"
+
+Jack turned pale. "I? What have I done?"
+
+He loved but one person on the face of the earth, his mother. He thought
+her absolutely perfect; and without knowing it, he had injured her in
+some mysterious way. The poor child was now overwhelmed with despair
+also, but remained utterly silent, as if the noisy demonstrations of his
+mother had shocked him, and made him ashamed of any manifestations on
+his own part. He was seized with a sort of nervous spasm. His mother
+took him in her arms. "No, no, dear child, I was only in jest; be
+sensible, dear. What! must I rock my long-legged boy as if he were a
+baby? No, little Jack, you never did me any harm. It is I who did wrong.
+Come, do not weep any more. See, I am not crying."
+
+And the strange creature, forgetful of her recent grief, laughed
+gayly, that Jack too might laugh. It was one of the privileges of this
+inconsequent nature never to retain impressions for any length of time.
+Singularly enough, too, the tears she had just shed only seemed to add
+new freshness and brilliancy to her youthful beauty, as a sudden shower
+upon a dove's plumage seems to bring out new lustre without penetrating
+below the surface.
+
+"Where are we now?" said she, suddenly dropping the window that was
+covered with mist. "At the Madeleine. How quickly we have come! We must
+stop somewhere; at the pastry-cook's, I think. Dry your eyes, little
+one, we will buy some meringues."
+
+They alighted at the fashionable confectioner's, where there was a great
+crowd. Rich furs and rustling silks crushed each other; and women's
+faces with veils half lifted were reflected in the surrounding mirrors
+which were set in gilt frames and cream-colored panels; glittering
+glass, and a variety of cakes and dainties delighted the spectators.
+Madame de Barancy and her child were much looked at. This charmed her,
+and this small success following upon the mortification of the previous
+hour, gave her an appetite. She called for a quantity of meringues and
+nougat, and finished by a glass of wine. Jack followed her example, but
+with more moderation, his great grief having filled his eyes with unshed
+tears and his heart with suppressed sighs.
+
+When they left the shop the weather was so fine, although cold, and the
+flower-market of the Madeleine so fragrant with the sweet perfume of
+violets, that Ida determined to dismiss the carriage and return on foot.
+Briskly, and yet with a certain slowness of step, that indicated a woman
+accustomed to admiration, she started on her walk, leading Jack by
+the hand. The fresh air, the gay streets and attractive shops, quite
+restored Ida's good-humor. Then suddenly, by what connection of ideas
+I know not, she remembered a masqued ball to which she was going that
+night, preceded by a restaurant dinner.
+
+"Mercy! I had forgotten. Hurry! little Jack--quick!" She wanted flowers,
+a bouquet, a dozen forgotten trifles: and the child, whose life had
+always been made up of just such trifles, and who felt as much as his
+mother the subtile charm of these elegances, followed her in high glee,
+delighted by the idea of the fete that he was not to see. The toilette
+of his mother always interested him, and he fully appreciated the
+admiration her beauty excited as they went through the streets and into
+the various shops.
+
+"Exquisite! exquisite! Yes, you may send it to me--Boulevard Haussmann."
+
+Madame de Barancy tossed down her card, and went out, talking gayly to
+Jack of the beauty of her purchases. Suddenly she assumed a graver air.
+"Remember, Jack, what I say. Do not tell our good friend that I went to
+this ball; it is a great secret, It is five o'clock. How Constant will
+scold!"
+
+She was not mistaken.
+
+Her maid, a tall, stout person of forty years, ugly and masculine,
+rushed toward Ida as she entered the house.
+
+"The costume is here. There is no sense in being so late. Madame will
+not be ready in season. No one could make her toilette in such a little
+while."
+
+"Don't scold, Constant. If you only knew what had happened. Look!" and
+she pointed to Jack.
+
+The factotum seemed utterly out of patience. "What! Master Jack back
+again! That is very naughty, sir, after all you promised. The police
+will have to come and take you to school; your mother is too good."
+
+"No, no, it was not he. The priest would not have him. Do you
+understand? They insulted me!" Whereupon she began to cry again, and to
+ask of heaven why she was so unhappy. What with the meringues and the
+nougat, the wine and the heat of the room, she soon felt very ill.
+She was carried to her bed; salts and ether were hastily sought.
+Mademoiselle Constant acquitted herself with the propriety of a woman
+who is no stranger to such scenes, went in and out of the room, opened
+and shut wardrobes, with a certain self-possession that seemed to
+say, "This will soon pass off." But she did not perform her duties in
+silence.
+
+"What folly it was to take this child to the Fathers! As if it was a
+place for him in his position! It would not have been done certainly,
+had I been consulted. I would engage to find a place for this boy at
+very short notice."
+
+Jack, terrified at seeing his mother so ill, had seated himself on the
+edge of the bed; where, looking at her anxiously, he in silence asked
+her pardon for the sorrow he had caused her.
+
+"There! get away, Master Jack. Your mother is all right. I must help her
+dress now."
+
+"What! You do not mean, Constant, that I must go to this ball. I have no
+heart to amuse myself."
+
+"Pshaw! I know you, madame. You have but five minutes. Just look at this
+pretty costume, these rose-colored stockings, and your little cap."
+
+She shook out the skirts, displayed the trimming, and jingled the little
+bells which adorned it, and Ida ceased to resist.
+
+While his mother was dressing, Jack went into the boudoir, and remained
+alone in the dark. The little room, perfumed and coquettish, was, it
+is true, partially illuminated by the gas lamps on the boulevard. Sadly
+enough the child leaned against the windows and thought of the day that
+was just over. By degrees, without knowing how, he felt himself to be
+"the poor child" of whom the priest had spoken in such compassionate
+tones.
+
+It is so singular to hear one's self pitied when one believes one's self
+to be happy. There are sorrows, in fact, so well concealed, that those
+who have caused them, and even sometimes their victims, do not divine
+them.
+
+The door opened--his mother was ready.
+
+"Come in, Master Jack, and see if this is not lovely."
+
+Ah! what a charming Folly! Silver and pink, lustrous satin and delicate
+lace. What a lovely rustling of spangles when she moved!
+
+The child looked on in admiration, while the mother, light and airy,
+waving her Momus staff, smiled at Jack, and smiled at herself in the
+Psyche, without at that time asking heaven why she was so unhappy. Then
+Constant threw over her shoulders a warm cloak, and accompanied her to
+the carriage, while Jack, leaning over the railing, watched from stair
+to stair, moving almost as if she were dancing the little pink slippers
+embroidered with silver, that bore his mother to balls where children
+could not go. As the last sound of the silver bells died away, he turned
+towards the salon, disturbed and anxious for the first time by the
+solitude in which he ordinarily passed his evenings.
+
+When Madame de Barancy dined out, Master Jack was confided to the tender
+mercies of Constant. "She will dine with you," said Ida.
+
+Two places were laid in the dining-room that seemed so huge on such
+days. But very often Constant, finding her dinner anything but cheerful,
+took the child and joined her companions below, where they feasted
+gayly. The table-cloth was soiled, and the conversation was not of the
+purest; and very often the conduct of the mistress of the house was
+commented upon, in words to be sure that were slightly veiled, so as not
+to frighten the child. This evening there was a grand discussion as to
+the refusal of the Fathers to receive the boy. The coachman declared
+that it was all for the best,--that the priests would have made of the
+child "a hypocrite and a Jesuit."
+
+Constant protested against these words. She was not a professor of
+religion, she said, but she would not hear it spoken ill of. Then the
+discussion changed to the great disappointment of Jack, who listened
+with all his little ears, hoping to hear why this priest, who appeared
+so good, was not willing to receive him.
+
+But for the moment Jack was of little consequence; each was absorbed in
+narrating his or her religious convictions.
+
+The coachman, who had been drinking, said that his God was the sun; in
+fact, he, like the elephants, adored the sun! Suddenly some one asked
+how he knew that elephants adored the sun.
+
+"I saw it once in a photograph," said he, sternly. Upon which
+Mademoiselle Constant vehemently accused him of impiety and atheism;
+while the cook, a stout Picardian with true peasant shrewdness, told
+them to be quiet.
+
+"Hush!" she said; "you should never quarrel over your religions."
+
+And Jack--what was he doing all this time?
+
+At the end of the table, stupefied by the heat and the interminable
+discussions of these brutes, he slept, with his head on his arms, and
+his fair curls spread over his velvet sleeves. In his unrestful slumber
+he heard the hum of the servants' voices, and at last he fancied that
+they were talking of him; but the voices seemed to reach from afar
+off--through a fog, as it were.
+
+"Who is he, then?" asked the cook.
+
+"I don't know," answered Constant; "but one thing is certain, he can't
+remain here, and she wishes me to find a school for him."
+
+Between a yawn and a hiccough, the coachman spoke,--
+
+"I know a capital school, and one that will, just answer your purpose.
+It is called the Moronval College--no, not college--but the Moronval
+Academy. But what of that? it is a college all the same. I put my child
+there once, when I was ordered off with the Egyptian army. The grocer
+gave me the prospectus, and I think I have it still."
+
+He looked in his portfolio, and from among the tumbled and soiled papers
+he extracted one, dirtier even than the others.
+
+"Here it is!" he cried, with an air of triumph.
+
+He unfolded the prospectus and began to read, or rather to spell with
+difficulty:
+
+"Gymnase Moronval--in the--in the--"
+
+"Give it to me," said Mademoiselle Constant; and taking it from him, she
+read it at one glance.
+
+"Moronval Academy--situated in the finest quarter of Paris--a
+family school--large garden--the number of pupils limited--course of
+instruction--particular attention paid to the correction of the accent
+of foreigners--"
+
+Mademoiselle Constant interrupted herself here to breathe, and to
+exclaim, "This seems all right enough!"
+
+"I think so," said the cook.
+
+The reading of the prospectus was resumed, but Jack was soundly asleep,
+and heard no more.
+
+He was dreaming. Yes, while his future was thus under discussion
+around this kitchen-table, while his mother was dancing as Folly in
+her rose-colored skirts and silver bells, he was dreaming of the kind
+priest, and of the tender voice that had murmured--"Poor child!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.~~THE SCHOOL IN THE AVENUE MONTAIGNE.
+
+"23 Avenue Montaigne, in the best quarter of Paris," said the
+prospectus. And no one can deny that the Avenue Montaigne is well
+situated in the Champs Elysees, but it has an incongruous unfinished
+aspect, as of a road merely sketched and not completed.
+
+By the side of the fine hotels with their plate-glass windows hung with
+silken draperies, stand the houses of workmen, whence issue the noise of
+hammers and grating of saws. One part of the Faubourg seems also to be
+relinquished to gardens after the style of Mabille.
+
+At the time of which I speak, and possibly now? from the avenue ran two
+or three narrow lanes whose sordid aspect offered a strange contrast to
+the superb buildings near them. One of these lanes opened at the number
+23, and announced on a gilded sign swinging in the passage, that the
+Moronval Academy was there situated. This sign, however, once passed, it
+seemed to you that you were taken back forty years, and to the other
+end of Paris. The black mud, the stream in the centre of the lane, the
+reverberations from the high walls, the drinking-shops built from old
+planks, all seemed to belong to the past. From every nook and cranny,
+from stairs and balconies, whence fluttered linen hung to dry, streamed
+forth a crowd of children escorted by an army of lean and hungry cats.
+It was amazing to see that so small a spot could accommodate such a
+number of persons. English grooms in shabby liveries, worn-out jockeys,
+and dilapidated body-servants, seemed there to congregate. To these must
+be added the horde of workpeople who returned at sunset; those who let
+chairs, or tiny carriages drawn by goats; dog-fanciers, beggars of all
+sorts, dwarfs from the hippodrome and their microscopic ponies. Picture
+all these to yourself, and you will have some idea of this singular
+spot--so near to the Champs Elysees that the tops of the green trees
+were to be seen, and the roar of carriages was but faintly subdued.
+
+It was in this place that the Moronval Academy was situated. Two or
+three times during the day a tall, thin mulatto made his appearance in
+the street. He wore on his head a broad-brimmed Quaker hat placed so far
+back that it resembled a halo; long hair swept over his shoulders, and
+he crossed the street with a timid, terrified air, followed by a troop
+of boys of every shade of complexion varying from a coffee tint to
+bright copper, and thence to profound black. These lads wore the coarse
+uniform of the school, and had an unfed and uncared-for aspect.
+
+The principal of the Moronval Academy himself took his pupils--his
+children of the sun, as he called them--out for their daily walks; and
+the comings and goings of this singular party gave the finishing touch
+of oddity to the appearance of the _Passage des Douze Maisons_.
+
+Most assuredly, had Madame de Barancy herself brought her child to the
+Academy, the sight of the place would have terrified her, and she would
+never have consented to leave her darling there. But her visit to the
+Jesuits had been so unfortunate, her reception so different from that
+which she had anticipated, that the poor creature, timid at heart and
+easily disconcerted, feared some new humiliation, and delegated to
+Madame Constant, her maid, the task of placing Jack at the school chosen
+for him by her servants.
+
+It was one cold, gray morning that Ida's carriage drew up in front of
+the gilt sign of the Moronval Academy. The lane was deserted, but the
+walls and the signs all had a damp and greenish look, as if a recent
+inundation had there left its traces. Constant stepped forward bravely,
+leading the child by one hand, and carrying an umbrella in the other. At
+the twelfth house she halted. It was at the end of the lane just where
+it closes, save for a narrow passage into La Rue Marbouf, between
+two high walls on which grated the dry branches of old shrubbery and
+ancient trees. A certain cleanliness indicated the vicinity of the
+aristocratic institution; and the oyster-shells, old sardine-boxes, and
+empty bottles were carefully swept away from the green door, that was as
+solid and distrustful in aspect as if it led to a prison or a convent.
+
+The profound silence that reigned was suddenly broken by a vigorous
+assault of the bell by Madame Constant. Jack felt chilled to the heart
+by the sound of this bell, and the sparrows on the one tree in the
+garden fluttered away in sudden fright.
+
+No one opened the door, but a panel was pushed away, and behind
+the heavy grating appeared a black face, with protuberant lips and
+astonished eyes.
+
+"Is this the Moronval Academy?" said Madame de Barancy's imposing maid.
+
+The woolly head now gave place to one of a different type,--a Tartar,
+possibly,--with eyes like slits, high cheekbones, and narrow, pointed
+head. Then a Creole, with a pale yellow skin, was also inspired by
+curiosity and peered out. But the door still remained closed, and
+Madame Constant was losing her temper, when a sharp voice cried from a
+distance,--
+
+"Well do you never mean to open that door, idiots?"
+
+Then they all began to whisper; keys were turned, bolts were pushed
+back, oaths were muttered, kicks were administered, and after many
+ineffectual struggles the door was finally opened; but Jack saw only the
+retreating forms of the schoolboys, who ran off in as much fright as did
+the sparrows just before.
+
+In the doorway stood a tall, colored man, whose large white cravat made
+his face look still more black. M. Moronval begged Madame Constant to
+walk in, offered her his arm, and conducted her through a garden, large
+enough, but dismal with the dried leaves and debris of winter storms.
+
+Several scattered buildings occupied the place of former flower-beds.
+The academy, it seemed, consisted of several old buildings altered by
+Moronval to suit his own needs.
+
+In one of the alleys they met a small negro with a broom and a pail. He
+respectfully stood aside as they passed, and when M. Moronval said, in a
+low voice, "A fire in the drawing-room," the boy looked as much startled
+as if he had been told that the drawing-room itself was burning.
+
+The order was by no means an unnecessary one. Nothing could have been
+colder than this great room, whose waxed floor looked like a frozen,
+slippery lake. The furniture itself had the same polar aspect, enveloped
+in coverings not made for it. But Madame Constant cared little for the
+naked walls and the discomforts of the apartment; she was occupied with
+the impression she was making, and the part she was playing, that of
+a lady of importance. She was quite condescending, and felt sure
+that children must be well off in this place, the rooms were so
+spacious,--just as well, in fact, as if in the country.
+
+"Precisely," said Moronval, hesitatingly.
+
+The black boy kindled the fire, and M. Moronval looked for a chair for
+his distinguished visitor. Then Madame Moronval, who had been summoned,
+made her appearance. She was a small woman, very small, with a long,
+pale face all forehead and chin. She carried herself with great
+erectness, as if reluctant to lose an inch of her height, and perhaps to
+disguise a trifling deformity of the shoulders; but she had a kind and
+womanly expression, and drawing the child towards her, admired his long
+curls and his eyes.
+
+"Yes, his eyes are like his mother's," said Moronval, coolly, examining
+Madame Constant as he spoke.
+
+She made no attempt to disclaim the honor; but Jack cried out in
+indignation, "She is not my mamma! She is my nurse!"
+
+Upon which Madame Moronval repented of her urbanity, and became more
+reserved. Fortunately her husband saw matters in a different light, and
+concluded that a servant trusted to the extent of placing her master's
+children at school, must be a person of some importance in the house.
+
+Madame Constant soon convinced him of the correctness of this
+conclusion. She spoke loudly and decidedly--stated that the choice of a
+school had been left entirely to her own discretion, and each time that
+she pronounced the name of her mistress, it was with a patronizing air
+that drove poor Jack to the verge of despair.
+
+The terms of the school were spoken of: three thousand francs per annum
+was named as the amount asked; and then Moronval launched forth on the
+superior advantages of his institution; it combined everything needed
+for the development of both soul and body. The pupils accompanied their
+masters to the theatre and into the world. Instead of making of the boys
+intrusted to his charge mere machines of Greek and Latin, he sought to
+develop in them every good quality, to prepare them for their duties
+in every position in life, and to surround them with those family
+influences of which they had too many of them been totally deprived. But
+their mental instruction was by no means neglected; quite the contrary.
+The most eminent men, savans and artists, did not shrink from the
+philanthropic duty of instructing the young in this remarkable
+institution, and were employed as professors of sciences, history,
+music, and literature. The French language was made a matter of especial
+importance, and the pronunciation was taught by a new and infallible
+method of which Madame Moronval was the author. Besides all this, every
+week there was a public lecture, to which friends and relatives of the
+pupils were invited, and where they could thoroughly convince themselves
+of the excellence of the system pursued at the Moronval Academy.
+
+This long tirade of the principal, who needed, possibly, more than any
+one else the advantages of lessons in pronunciation from his wife,
+was achieved more quickly for the reason that, in Creole fashion, he
+swallowed half his words, and left out many of his consonants.
+
+It mattered not, however, for Madame Constant was positively dazzled.
+
+The question of terms, of course, was nothing to her, she said; but it
+was necessary that the child should receive an aristocratic and finished
+education.
+
+"Unquestionably," said Madame Moronval, growing still more erect.
+
+Here her husband added that he only received into his establishment
+strangers of great distinction, scions of great families, nobles,
+princes, and the like. At that very time he had under his roof a child
+of royal birth,--a son of the king of Dahomey. At this the enthusiasm of
+Madame Constant burst all boundaries.
+
+"A king's son! You hear, Master Jack--you will be educated with the son
+of a king!"
+
+"Yes," resumed the instructor, gravely; "I have been intrusted by his
+Dahomian Majesty with the education of his royal Highness, and I believe
+that I shall be able to make of him a most remarkable man."
+
+What was the matter with the black boy, who was still at work at the
+fire, that he shook so convulsively, and made such a hideous noise with
+the shovel and tongs?
+
+M. Moronval continued. "I hope, and Madame Moronval hopes, that the
+young king, when on the throne of his ancestors, will remember the good
+advice and the noble examples afforded him by his teachers in Paris,
+the happy years spent with them, their indefatigable cares and assiduous
+efforts on his behalf."
+
+Here Jack was surprised to see the black boy kneeling before the
+chimney, turn toward him, and shake his woolly head violently, while his
+mouth opened wide in silent but furious denial.
+
+Did he wish to say that his royal Highness would never remember the
+good lessons received at the academy, or did he mean that he would never
+forget them? But what could this poor black boy know about it?
+
+Madame Constant announced, in pompous terms, that she was willing to pay
+a quarter in advance. Moronval waved his hand condescendingly, as if to
+say, "There is no need of that."
+
+But the old house told a far different tale,--the shabby furniture, the
+dismantled walls, the worn carpets, as well as the threadbare coat of
+Moronval himself, and the shiny scant robe of the little woman with the
+long chin.
+
+But that which proved the fact more than anything else was the eagerness
+with which the pair went to find in another room the superb register in
+which they inscribed the ages of the pupils, their names, and the date
+of their entrance into the academy.
+
+While these important facts were being written, the black boy remained
+crouched in front of the fire, which seemed quite useless while he
+absorbed all its heat. The chimney, which at first had refused to
+consume the least bit of wood, as stomachs after too long fasting reject
+food, had now revived, and a beautiful red flame was to be seen. The
+negro, with his head on his hands, his eyes fixed as in a trance, looked
+like a little black silhouette against a scarlet background. His mouth
+opened in intense delight, and his eyes were perfectly round. He seemed
+to be drinking in the heat and the light with the greatest avidity,
+while outside the snow had begun to fall silently and slowly.
+
+Jack was very sad, for he fancied that Moronval had a wicked look,
+notwithstanding his honeyed words. And, then, in this strange house
+the poor child felt himself utterly lost and desolate, discarded by his
+mother, and rendered still more miserable by the vague idea that these
+colored pupils, from every corner of the globe, had brought with them an
+atmosphere of unhappiness and of restlessness. He remembered, too, the
+Jesuits' college, so fresh and sweet; the fine trees, the green-houses,
+the whole appearance of refinement, and the kind hand of the Superior
+laid for a moment upon his head.
+
+Ah! why had he not remained there? And as this occurred to him, he said
+to himself, that perhaps they would not have him here either. He looked
+toward the table. There by the big register the husband and wife were
+busy whispering with Madame Constant. They looked at him, and he caught
+a word now and then. The little woman sighed, and twice Jack heard her
+say, as did the priest,--"Poor child!"
+
+She also pitied him. And why? What was he, then, that they pitied him?
+Jack asked himself.
+
+This compassion that others felt for him weighed sorely on his little
+heart. He could have wept with shame, for in his childish mind he
+attributed this disdainful compassion to some peculiarity of costume,
+his bare legs, or his long curls.
+
+But he thought of his mother's despair. Should he meet with another
+refusal? Suddenly he saw Constant draw her purse and hand to the
+principal some notes and gold pieces. Yes, they were going to keep
+him. He was delighted, poor child, for he little knew that the great
+misfortune of his life was now inaugurated there in that room.
+
+At this moment a tremendous bass voice came up from the garden below,
+singing the chorus of an old song. The windows of the room had not
+recovered from the shock, when a stout, short man, in a velvet coat,
+close-cut hair, and heavy beard, burst into the room.
+
+"Hallo!" he cried, in a tone of comic astonishment, "a fire in the
+parlor? What a luxury!" and he drew a long breath. In fact, the
+new-comer was in the habit of drawing long breaths at the end of each
+sentence, a habit he had acquired in singing; and these breaths were
+almost like the roaring of a wild beast. Catching sight of the strangers
+and the pile of money, he stopped short with the words on his lips.
+Delight and surprise succeeded each other on his countenance, whose
+muscles seemed habituated to all facial contortions.
+
+Moronval turned gravely toward the waiting woman. "M. Labassandre, of
+the Imperial Academy of Music, our Professor of Music." Labassandre
+bowed once, twice, three times, and then, by way of restoring his
+self-possession, and putting matters at once on a pleasant footing for
+all parties, administered a kick to the black boy, who did not seem at
+all astonished, but picked himself up and disappeared from the room.
+
+The door again opened, and two persons entered. One was very ugly--a
+mean face without a beard, huge spectacles with convex glasses, and
+wearing an overcoat buttoned to the chin, which bore all up and down the
+front too visible indications of-the awkwardness of a near-sighted man.
+This was Dr. Hirsch, Professor of Mathematics and of Natural Sciences.
+He exhaled a strong odor of alkalies, and, thanks to his chemical
+manipulations, his fingers were every color of the rainbow. The last
+comer was very different. Imagine a handsome man, dressed with the
+greatest care, scrupulously gloved and shod, his hair thrown back from a
+forehead already unnaturally high. He had a haughty, aggressive air;
+his heavy blonde moustache, much twisted at the ends, and a large, pale
+face, gave him the look of a sick soldier.
+
+Moronval presented him as "our great poet, Amaury d'Argenton, Professor
+of Literature."
+
+He, too, looked as astonished, when he caught sight of the gold pieces,
+as did Dr. Hirsch and the singer Labassandre. His cold eyes had a gleam
+of light, but it disappeared as he glanced from the child to his nurse.
+
+Then he approached the other professors standing in front of the fire,
+and, saluting them, listened in silence. Madame Constant thought
+this Argenton looked proud; but upon Jack the man made a very strong
+impression, and the child shrank from him with terror and repugnance.
+
+Jack felt that all these men might make him wretched, but this one more
+than all others. Instinctively, on seeing him enter, the child felt
+him to be his future enemy, and that cold, hard glance meeting his own,
+froze him to the core of his heart. How many times, in days to come, was
+he to encounter those pale, blue eyes, with half-shut, heavy lids, whose
+glances were cold as steel! The eyes have been called the windows of the
+soul, but D'Argenton's eyes were windows so closely barred and locked,
+that one had no reason to suppose that there was a soul behind them.
+
+The conversation finished between Moronval and Constant, the principal
+approached his new pupil, and giving him a little friendly tap on the
+cheek, he said, "Come, come, my young friend, you must look brighter
+than this."
+
+And in fact, Jack, as the moment drew near that he must say farewell to
+his mother's maid, felt his eyes swimming in tears. Not that he had any
+great affection for this woman, but she was a part of his home, she saw
+his mother daily, and the separation was final when she was gone.
+
+"Constant," he whispered, catching her dress, "you will tell mamma to
+come and see me."
+
+"Certainly. She will come, of course. But don't cry."
+
+The child was sorely tempted to burst into tears; but it seemed to him
+that all these strange eyes were fixed upon him, and that the Professor
+of Literature examined him with especial severity: and he controlled
+himself.
+
+The snow fell heavily. Moronval proposed to send for a carriage, but
+the maid said that Augustin and the coupe were waiting at the end of the
+lane.
+
+"A coupe!" said the principal to himself, in astonished admiration.
+
+"Speaking of Augustin," said she: "he charged me with a commission. Have
+you a pupil named Said?"
+
+"To be sure--certainly--a delightful person," said Moronval.
+
+"And a superb voice. You must hear him," interrupted Labassandre,
+opening the door and calling Said in a voice of thunder.
+
+A frightful howl was heard in reply, followed by the appearance of the
+delightful person.
+
+An awkward schoolboy appeared, whose tunic, like all tunics, and,
+indeed, like all the clothing of boys of a certain age, was too short
+and too tight for him; drawn in, in the fashion of a caftan, it told
+the story at once of an Egyptian in European clothing. His features
+were regular and delicate enough, but the yellow skin was stretched
+so tightly over the bones and muscles that the eyes seemed to close of
+themselves whenever the mouth opened, and _vice versa_.
+
+This miserable young man, whose skin was so scanty, inspired you with a
+strong desire to relieve his sufferings by cutting a slit somewhere. He
+at once remembered Augustin, who had been his parents' coachman, and who
+had given him all his cigar-stumps.
+
+"What shall I say to him from you?" asked Constant, in her most amiable
+tone.
+
+"Nothing," answered Said, promptly.
+
+"And your parents, how are they? Have you had any news from them
+lately?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Have they returned to Egypt, as they thought of doing?"
+
+"Don't know: they never write."
+
+It was evident that this pupil of the Moronval Academy had not been
+educated in the art of conversation, and Jack listened with many
+misgivings.
+
+The indifferent fashion with which this youth spoke of his parents,
+added to what M. Moronval had previously said of the family influences
+of which most of his pupils had been deprived since infancy, impressed
+him unfavorably.
+
+It seemed to the child that he was to live among orphans or cast-off
+children, and would be himself as much cast off as if he had come from
+Timbuctoo or Otaheite.
+
+Again he caught the dress of his mother's servant. "Tell her to come and
+see me," he whispered; "O, tell her to come."
+
+And when the door closed behind her, he understood that one chapter
+in his life was finished; that his existence as a spoiled child, as a
+petted baby, had vanished into the past, and those dear and happy days
+would never again return.
+
+While he stood silently weeping, with his face pressed against a
+window that led into the garden, a hand was extended over his shoulder
+containing something black.
+
+It was Said, who, as a consolation, offered him the stump of a cigar.
+
+"Take this: I have a trunk full," said the interesting young man,
+shutting his eyes so as to be able to speak.
+
+Jack, smiling through his tears, made a sign that he did not dare to
+accept this singular gift; and Said, whose eloquence was very limited,
+stood silently planted by his side until M. Moronval returned.
+
+He had escorted Madame Constant to her carriage, and came back inspired
+with respectful indulgence for the grief of his new pupil.
+
+The coachman, Augustin, had such fine furs, the coupe was so well
+appointed, that the little fellow, Jack, profited by the magnificence of
+the equipage.
+
+"That is well," he said, benevolently, to the Egyptian. "Play together;
+but go to the other room, where it is warmer than here, I shall permit
+the boys to have a holiday in honor of the new pupil."
+
+Poor little fellow! He was soon surrounded by a noisy crowd, who
+questioned him without mercy. With his blonde curls, his plaid suit,
+and bare legs, he sat motionless and timid, wondering at the frantic
+gestipulations of these little boys of foreign birth, and among them
+all, looked much like an elegant little Parisian shut up in the great
+monkey cage in the Jardin des Plantes.
+
+This was the idea that occurred to Moronval, but he was aroused from
+his silent hilarity by the noise of a discussion too animated to be
+altogether amiable. He heard the puffs and sighs of Labassandre and the
+solemn little voice of madame. Easily divining the bone of contention,
+he hastened to the assistance of his wife, whom he found heroically
+defending the money paid by Madame Constant against the demands of the
+professors, whose salaries were greatly in arrear.
+
+Evariste Moronval, lawyer, politician, and litterateur, had been sent
+from Pointe-a-Petre in 1848 as secretary to a deputy from Guadaloupe.
+At that time he was just twenty-five, energetic and ambitious, with
+considerable ability and cultivation. Being poor, however, he accepted
+a dependent position which insured his expenses paid to Paris, that
+marvellous city, the heat of whose lurid flames extends so far over the
+world that it attracts even the moths from the colonies.
+
+On landing, he left his deputy in the lurch, easily made a few
+acquaintances, and attempted a political career, in which path he had
+obtained a certain success in Guadaloupe; but he had not taken into
+account his horrible colonial accent, of which, notwithstanding every
+effort, he was never able to rid himself. The first time he spoke in
+public, the shouts of laughter that greeted him proved conclusively that
+he could never make a name, for himself in Paris as a public speaker. He
+then resolved to write, but he was clever enough to understand that
+it was far easier to win a reputation at Pointe-a-Petre than in Paris.
+Haughty and tenacious, and spoiled by small successes, he passed from
+journal to journal, without being retained for any length of time on the
+staff of any one. Then began those hard experiences of life which either
+crush a man to the earth or harden him to iron. He joined the army of
+the ten thousand men who live by their wits in Paris, who rise each
+morning dizzy with hunger and ambitious dreams, make their breakfast
+from off a penny-roll, black the seams of their coats with ink, whiten
+their shirt-collars with billiard-chalk, and warm themselves in the
+churches and libraries.
+
+He became familiar with all these degradations and miseries,--to credit
+refused at the low eating-house, to the non-admittance to his garret at
+eleven o'clock at night, and to the scanty bit of candle, and to shoes
+in holes.
+
+He was one of those professors of--it matters not what, who write
+articles for the encyclopaedias at a half centime a line, a history
+of the Middle Ages in two volumes, at twenty-five francs per volume,
+compile catalogues, and copy plays for the theatres.
+
+He was dismissed from one institution, where he taught English, for
+having struck one of the pupils in his passionate, Creole fashion.
+
+After three years of this miserable existence, when he had eaten an
+incalculable number of raw artichokes and radishes, when he had lost his
+illusions and ruined his stomach, chance sent him to give lessons in
+a young ladies' school kept by three sisters. The two eldest were over
+forty; the third was thirty,--small, sentimental, and pretentious. She
+saw little prospect of marriage, when Moronval offered himself and was
+accepted.
+
+Once married, they lived some time in the house with the elder sisters;
+both made themselves useful in giving lessons. But Moronval had retained
+many of his bachelor habits, which were far from agreeable in that
+peaceful and well-ordered boarding-school. Besides, the Creole treated
+his pupils too much as he might have done his slaves at work on the
+sugar-cane plantation.
+
+The elder sisters, who adored Madame Moronval, were nevertheless obliged
+to separate from her, and paid her as an indemnification a satisfactory
+sum. What should be done with this money? Moronval wished to start a
+journal, or a review; but to make money was his first wish. Finally, a
+brilliant idea came to him one day.
+
+He knew that children were sent from all parts of the world to finish
+their education in Paris. They came from Persia, from Japan, Hindostan,
+and Guinea, confided to the care of ship-captains, or to merchants. Such
+people being generally well provided with money, and having but little
+experience in getting rid of it, Moronval decided that there was an easy
+mine to work. Besides, the wonderful system of Madame Moronval could be
+applied in perfection to the correction of foreign accents, to defective
+pronunciation. The Professor immediately caused advertisements to be
+inserted in the colonial journals, where were soon to be seen the most
+amazing advertisements in several languages.
+
+During the first year, the nephew of the Iman of Zanzibar, and two
+superb blacks from the coast of Guinea, appeared upon the scene. It was
+not until they arrived that Moronval bestirred himself to find a local
+habitation and a name. Finally, in order to combine economy with the
+exigencies of his new position, he hired the buildings we have just
+visited in this hideous _Passage des Douze Maisons_, and displayed in
+the avenue the gorgeous sign we have mentioned.
+
+The owner of the property induced Moronval to believe that certain
+improvements would soon be made, in fact, that an appropriation was
+ordered for a new boulevard on one side of the building. This conviction
+induced Moronval to forget all the inconveniences, the dampness of
+the dormitory, the cold of certain rooms, the heat of others. This was
+nothing: the appropriation bill was ready for the signature, and things
+would be all right soon.
+
+But Moronval was forced to endure that long period of waiting, only too
+well known to Parisians in the last twenty years; and this wore heavily
+upon him, costing him more thought and more anxiety than did the
+improvement or welfare of his pupils. He soon discovered that he had
+been hugely duped, and this discovery had the worst effect on the
+passionate, weak nature of the Creole. His discouragement degenerated
+into absolute incapacity and indolence. The pupils had no supervision
+whatever. Provided they went to bed early, so that they used the least
+possible fire and light, he was satisfied. Their day was cut up into
+class hours, to be sure, but these were interfered with by every caprice
+of the principal, who sent the pupils hither and thither on his personal
+service.
+
+And Moronval called about him all his former acquaintances,--a physician
+without a diploma, a poet who never published, an opera singer without
+an engagement,--all of whom were in a state of constant indignation
+against the world which refused to recognize their rare merits.
+
+Have you noticed how such people by a system of mutual attraction seem
+to herd together, supporting each other as it were by their mutual
+complaints? Inspired, in fact, by a thorough contempt for each other,
+they pretend to an admiring sympathy.
+
+Imagine the lessons given, the instruction imparted by such teachers,
+the greater part of whose time was passed in discussions over their
+pipes, the smoke from which soon became so thick that they could neither
+see nor hear. They talked loudly, contradicted each other with vehemence
+in a vocabulary of their own, where art, science, and literature were
+picked into fragments as precious stuffs might be under the application
+of violent acids.
+
+And the "children of the sun," what became of them amid all this? Madame
+Moronval alone, who preserved the good traditions of her former home and
+school, made any attempts to perform the duties they had undertaken,
+but the kitchen, her needle, and the care of the great establishment
+absorbed a great part of her time.
+
+As it was necessary that they should go out, their uniforms were kept
+in order, for the pupils were proud of their braided tunics, and of the
+chevrons reaching to the elbow. In the Moronval Academy, as in
+certain armies of South America, all were sergeants. It was a trifling
+compensation for the miseries of exile and for the harsh treatment of
+surly masters. Moronval was quite pleasant the first days of each new
+quarter, when his exchequer was full; he had even then been known to
+smile; but the rest of the time he avenged himself on these black skins
+for the negro blood in his own veins.
+
+His violence accomplished that which his indolence had begun. Very soon
+he began to lose his pupils; of the fifteen that were there at one time
+there remained but eight.
+
+"Number of pupils limited," said the prospectus, and there was a certain
+amount of melancholy truth in the announcement. A dismal silence seemed
+to settle down on the great establishment, which was even threatened
+with a seizure of the furniture, when Jack appeared upon the scene. It
+of course was no very great sum, this quarter in advance, but Moronval
+understood certain prospective advantages, and even had a very clear
+perception of Ida's true nature, having cross-examined Constant with
+very good results. This day, therefore, witnessed a certain armed
+neutrality between masters and pupils. A good dinner in honor of the new
+arrival was served, all the professors were present, and "the children
+of the sun" even had a drop of wine, which startling event had not
+happened to them for a long time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.~~MADOU.
+
+If the Moronval Academy still exists, I desire to stigmatize it now and
+forever as the most unhealthy spot I ever knew. Its dampness makes it
+most objectionable for children.
+
+Imagine a long building all _rez-de-chaussee_, without windows, and
+lighted only from above. About the room hung an indescribable odor of
+collodion and ether, as if it had once been used by a photographer. The
+garden was shut in by high walls covered with ivy which dripped with
+moisture. The dormitory stood against a superb hotel; and on one side
+was a stable, always noisy with the oaths of grooms, the trampling of
+horses' feet, and the rattling of pumps. From one end of the year to
+the other the place was always damp, the only difference being that,
+according to the different seasons of the year, the dampness was either
+very cold or very warm. In summer it was filled with moisture like a
+bathroom. In addition, a crowd of winged creatures, who lived among the
+old ivy on the walls, attracted by the brightness of the glass in the
+low roof, introduced themselves into the dormitory through the smallest
+crevice, and struck their wings against the glass, humming loudly, and
+finally falling on the beds in clouds.
+
+The winter's humidity was worse still; the cold crept into the dormitory
+through the uneven floors and the thin walls, but after two hours of
+shivering the pupils might succeed in getting warm if they drew their
+knees up to their chins and kept the bedclothes well over their heads.
+The paternal eye of Moronval saw at once the propriety of utilizing this
+otherwise unemployed building.
+
+"This shall be the dormitory," he said.
+
+"May it not be somewhat damp?" Madame Moronval ventured to ask.
+
+"What of that?" he answered, sternly.
+
+In reality there was but room for ten beds; but twenty were placed
+there, with a lavatory at the end, a wretched bit of carpet near the
+door, and all was in readiness.
+
+Why not? After all, a dormitory is only a place to sleep in, and
+children should be able to sleep anywhere, in spite of heat or cold, of
+bad air and of creeping things, in spite of the noise of pumps and of
+horses. They catch rheumatism, ophthalmia, and bronchitis, to be sure,
+but they sleep all the same the calm sweet sleep of children worn out by
+out-door exercise and play, and undisturbed by anxieties for the morrow.
+This is the popular belief in regard to children, but too many of us
+know that the truth is quite different. For example, the first night
+little Jack could not close his eyes. He had never slept in a strange
+house, and the change was great from his own little room at home, dimly
+lighted by a night-lamp, and littered with his favorite playthings, to
+the strange and comfortless place where he now found himself.
+
+As soon as the pupils were in bed, a black servant took away the light,
+and Jack remained wide awake.
+
+A pale moon, reflected from the snow that covered a portion of the
+skylight, filled the room with a bluish light. He looked at the beds,
+standing close together foot to foot the length of the room, most of
+them unoccupied, their coverings rolled up in a bundle at one end. Seven
+or eight were animated by an occasional snore, by a hollow cough, or a
+stifled exclamation.
+
+The new-comer had the best place, a little sheltered from the wind of
+the door. Nevertheless, he was far from warm, and the cold kept him from
+sleep as much as the novelty of his surroundings. He went over and over
+again in his memory every trifling detail of the day's events. He
+saw Moronval's bulky white cravat, the enormous spectacles of Dr.
+Hirsch--his soiled and spotted overcoat; but above all he recalled the
+cold and haughty eyes of "his enemy," as he already in his innermost
+heart called D'Argenton.
+
+This thought struck such terror to his soul that involuntarily he looked
+to his mother for protection and defence.
+
+Where was she at that moment? A dozen different clocks at that instant
+struck eleven. She was probably at some ball or theatre. She would soon
+come in, all wrapped in furs and laces. When she came, it mattered not
+how late, she always opened Jack's door and bent over his bed to kiss
+him. Even in his sleep he was generally conscious of her presence, and
+smilingly opened his eyes to admire her toilette. And now he shuddered
+as he thought of the change; and yet it was not altogether painful,
+for the chevrons of his uniform delighted him, and he was happy in
+concealing his long legs in the skirt of his tunic. He had made two or
+three new acquaintances,--a thing very agreeable to most children; he
+had found his fellow-pupils odd enough, but their oddities interested
+him. They had snowballed each other in the garden, which, to a child who
+had been living in the warm boudoir of a pretty woman, was a very novel
+amusement.
+
+One thing puzzled Jack: he had not yet seen his royal Highness. Where
+was the little king of Dahomey, of whom M. Moronval had spoken so
+warmly? Was he in the Infirmary? Ah! if he could only see him, talk with
+him, and make him his friend. He repeated to himself the names of the
+"eight children of the sun," but there was no prince among them. Then he
+thought he would ask the boy Said.
+
+"Is not his royal Highness in the school at present?" he asked.
+
+The young man looked at him with wide-opened eyes, in astonished
+silence. Jack's question remained unanswered, and the child's thoughts
+ran on as he lay in his bed, listening to occasional gusts of music
+that rang through the house from the lungs of Labassandre, and to the
+perpetual sound of the pumps in the stable.
+
+Moronval's guests were gone, with a final bang of the large gate, and
+all was silent. Suddenly the dormitory door was thrown open, and the
+small black servant entered, with a lantern in his hand.
+
+He shook off the snow that lay thick on his black head, and crept
+between the two rows of beds, with his head drawn down between his
+shoulders, and his teeth chattering.
+
+Jack looked at the grotesque shadows on the wall, which exaggerated all
+the peculiarities of the black boy--the protruding mouth, the enormous
+ears, and retreating forehead.
+
+The boy hung his lantern at the end of the dormitory and stood there
+warming his hands, which were covered with chilblains. His face, though
+dirty, was so honest and kindly, that Jack's heart warmed toward him. As
+he stood there the negro looked out into the garden. "Ah! the snow I the
+snow!" he murmured sadly.
+
+His way of speaking, and the sweet voice, touched little Jack, who
+looked at the boy with lively pity and curiosity. The negro saw it, and
+said, half to himself, "Ah! the new pupil! Why don't you go to sleep,
+little boy?"
+
+"I cannot," said Jack, sighing.
+
+"It is good to sigh if you are sorry," said the negro, cententiously.
+"If the poor world could not sigh, the poor world would stifle!"
+
+As he spoke, he threw a blanket on the bed next to Jack.
+
+"Do you sleep there?" asked the child, astonished that a servant should
+occupy a bed in the dormitory of the pupils. "But there are no sheets!"
+
+"Sheets are not good for me, my skin is too black." The negro laughed
+gently as he said these words, and prepared to glide into bed, half
+clothed as he was, when suddenly he stopped, drew from his breast an
+ivory smelling-bottle, and kissed it devoutly.
+
+"What a funny medal!" cried Jack.
+
+"It is not a medal," answered the negro; "it is my _Gri-qri_."
+
+But Jack had no idea what a Gri-gri was, and the other explained that
+it was an amulet--something to bring him good luck. His Aunt Kerika had
+given it to him when he left his native land,--the aunt who had brought
+him up, and to whom he hoped to return at some future day.
+
+"As I shall to my mamma," said little Barancy; and both children were
+silent, each thinking of the one he loved most on earth.
+
+Jack returned to the charge in a few minutes. "And your country--is it a
+pretty place? Is it far off? and what is its name?"
+
+"Dahomey," answered the negro.
+
+Jack started up in bed.
+
+"What! Do you know him? Did you come to this country with him?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Why, his royal Highness,--you know him,--the little king of Dahomey."
+
+"I am he," said the negro, quietly.
+
+The other looked at him in amazement. A king! this servant, whom he had
+seen at work all day making fires, sweeping the corridors, waiting on
+the table, and rinsing glasses!
+
+The negro spoke the truth, nevertheless. The expression of his face grew
+very sad, and his eyes were fixed as if he were looking into the past,
+or toward some dear, lost land. Was it the magical word of king that led
+Jack to examine this black boy, seated on the edge of his bed, his white
+shirt open, while on his dark breast shone the ivory amulet, with new
+interest?
+
+"How did all this happen?" asked the child, timidly.
+
+The black boy turned quickly to extinguish the lantern. "M. Moronval not
+like it if Madou lets it burn." Then he pulled his couch close to that
+of Jack.
+
+"You are not sleepy," he said; "and I never wish to sleep if I can talk
+of Dahomey. Listen!"
+
+And in the darkness, where the whites only of his eyes could be seen,
+the little negro began his dismal tale.
+
+He was called Madou,--the name of his father, an illustrious warrior,
+one of the most powerful sovereigns in the land of gold and ivory: to
+whom France, Holland, and England sent presents and envoys. His father
+had cannon, and soldiers, troops of elephants with trappings for war,
+musicians and priests, four regiments of Amazons, and two hundred wives.
+His palace was immense, and ornamented by spears on which hung human
+heads after a battle or a sacrifice. Madou was born in this palace. His
+Aunt Kerika, general-in-chief of the Amazons, took him with her in all
+her expeditions. How beautiful she was, this Kerika! tall and large as a
+man,--in a blue tunic; her naked arms and legs loaded with bracelets
+and anklets; her bow slung over her shoulder, and the tail of a horse
+streaming below her waist. Upon her head, in her woolly locks, she
+wore two small antelope horns joining in a half-moon; as if these black
+warriors had preserved among themselves the tradition of Diana the white
+huntress! And what an eye she had, what deftness of hand! Why, she could
+cut off the head of an Ashantee at a single blow. But, however terrible
+Kerika might have been on the battlefield, to her nephew Madou she was
+always very gentle, bestowing on him gifts of all kinds: necklaces of
+coral and of amber, and all the shells he desired,--shells being the
+money in that part of the world. She even gave him a small but gorgeous
+musket, presented to herself by the Queen of England, and which Kerika
+found too light for her own use. Madou always carried it when he went to
+the forests to hunt with his aunt.
+
+There the trees were so close together, and the foliage so thick, that
+the sun never penetrated to these green temples. Then Madou described
+with enthusiasm the flowers and the fruits, the butterflies, and birds
+with wonderful plumage, and Jack listened in delight and astonishment.
+There were serpents, too, but they were harmless; and black monkeys
+leaped from tree to tree; and large mysterious lakes, that had never
+reflected the skies in their brown depths, lay here and there in the
+forests.
+
+At this, Jack uttered an exclamation, "O, how beautiful it must be!"
+
+"Yes, very beautiful," said the black boy, who undoubtedly exaggerated
+a little, and saw his dear native land through the prism of absence, of
+childish recollections, and with the enthusiasm of his southern nature;
+but encouraged by his comrade's sympathy, Madou continued his story.
+
+At night the forests were very different; hunting-parties bivouacked
+in the jungles, building huge fires to drive away wild beasts, who were
+heard in the distance roaring horribly. The birds were aroused; and the
+bats, silent and black as shadows, attracted by the fire-light, hovered
+over and about it until daybreak, when they assembled on some gigantic
+tree, motionless, and pressed against each other, looking like some
+singular leaves, dry and dead.
+
+In this open-air life the little prince grew strong and manly,--could
+wield a sabre and carry a gun at an age when children are usually tied
+to their mother's apron-string. The king was proud of his son, the heir
+to his throne. But, alas! it seemed that it was not enough, even for a
+negro prince, to know how to shoot an elephant through the eye; he must
+also learn to read books and writing, for, said the wise king to his
+son, "White man always has paper in his pocket to cheat black man with."
+Of course some European might have been found in Dahomey who could
+instruct the prince,--for French and English flags floated over the
+ships in the harbors. But the king had himself been sent by his father
+to a town called Marseilles, very far at the end of the world; and he
+wished his son to receive a similar education.
+
+How unhappy the little prince was in leaving Kerika; he looked at his
+sabre, hung his gun against the wall, and set sail with M. Bonfils, a
+clerk in a mercantile house, who sent him home every year with the gold
+dust stolen from the poor negroes.
+
+Madou, however, was resigned; he wished to be a great king some day, to
+command the troop of Amazons, to be the proprietor of these fields of
+corn and wheat, and of the palace filled with jars of palm-oil and with
+treasures of gold and ivory. To own these riches he must deserve them,
+and be capable of defending them when necessary,--and Madou early
+learned that it is hard to be a king; for when one has more pleasures
+than the rest of the world, one has also greater responsibilities.
+
+His departure was the occasion of great public fetes, of sacrifices to
+the fetish and to the divinities of the sea. All the temples were thrown
+open for these solemnities, the prayers of the nation were offered
+there, and at the last moment, when the ship set sail, fifteen prisoners
+of war were executed on the shore, and the executioner threw their heads
+into a great copper basin.
+
+"Good gracious!" gasped Jack, pulling the bedclothes over his head.
+
+It is certainly not very agreeable to hear such stories told by the
+actors in them; and Jack was very glad that he was in the Moronval
+Academy rather than in that terrible land of Dahomey.
+
+Madou seeing the effect he had produced, dwelt no longer on the
+ceremonies preceding his departure, but proceeded to describe his
+arrival and life at Marseilles.
+
+He told of the college there, of the high walls and the benches in the
+court-yard, where the pupils cut their names; of the solemn professor,
+who sternly said, if a whisper was heard, "Not so much noise, if
+you please!" The close air of the recitation-rooms, the monotonous
+scratching of pens, the lessons repeated over and over again, were all
+new and very trying to Madou. His one idea was to get into the sun; but
+the walls were so high, the court-yard so narrow, that he could never
+find enough to bask in. Nothing amused or interested him. He was never
+allowed to go out as were the other pupils, and for a very good reason.
+At first he had induced M. Bonfils to take him to the wharves, where
+he often saw merchandise from his own country, and sometimes went into
+ecstasies at some well-known mark.
+
+The steamers puffing and blowing, and the great ships setting their
+sails, all spoke to him of departure and deliverance.
+
+Madou dreamed of these ships all through school-hours,--one had brought
+him to that cold gray land, another would take him away. And possessed
+by this fixed idea, he paid no attention to his A B C's, for his eyes
+saw nothing save the blue of the sea and the blue of the sky above. The
+result of this was, that one fine day he escaped from the college and
+hid himself on one of the vessels of M. Bonfils; he was found in time,
+but escaped again, and the second time was not discovered until the ship
+was in the middle of the Gulf of Lyons. Any other child would have been
+kept on board; but when Madou's name was known, the captain took his
+royal Highness back to Marseilles, relying on a reward.
+
+After that, the boy became more and more unhappy, for he was kept a very
+close prisoner. Notwithstanding all this, he escaped once more; and this
+time, on being discovered, made no resistance, but obeyed so gently, and
+with such a sad smile, that no one had the heart to punish him. At
+last the principal of the institution declined the responsibility of so
+determined a pupil. Should he send the little prince back to Dahomey? M.
+Bonfils dared not permit this, fearing thereby to lose the good graces
+of the king. In the midst of these perplexities Moronvol's advertisement
+appeared, and the prince was at once dispatched to 23 Avenue
+Montaigne,--"the most beautiful situation in Paris,"--where he was
+received, as you may well believe, with open arms. This heir of a
+far-off kingdom was a godsend to the academy. He was constantly on
+exhibition; M. Moronval showed him at theatres and concerts, and along
+the boulevards, reminding one of those perambulating advertisements that
+are to be seen in all large cities.
+
+He appeared in society, such society at least as admitted M. Moronval,
+who entered a room with all the gravity of Fenelon conducting the Duke
+of Burgundy. The two were announced as "His Royal Highness the Prince of
+Dahomey, and M. Moronval, his tutor."
+
+For a month the newspapers were full of anecdotes of Madou; an attache
+of a London paper was sent to interview him, and they had a long and
+serious talk as to the course the young prince should pursue when called
+to the throne of his ancestors. The English journal published an account
+of the curious dialogue, and the vague replies certainly left much to be
+desired.
+
+At first all the expenses of the academy were discharged by this
+solitary pupil, Monsieur Bonfils paying the bill that was presented
+to him without a word of dispute. Madou's education, however, made
+but little progress. He still continued among the A B C's, and Madame
+Moronval's charming method made no impression upon him. His defective
+pronunciation was still retained, and his half-childish way of speaking
+was not changed. But he was gay and happy. All the other children were
+compelled to yield to him a certain deference. At first this was a
+difficult matter, as his intense blackness seemed to indicate to these
+other children of the sun that he was a slave.
+
+And how amiable the professors were to this bullet-headed boy, who, in
+spite of his natural amiability, so sturdily refused to profit by their
+instructions! Every one of the teachers had his own private idea of what
+could be done in the future under the patronage of this embryo king.
+It was the refrain of all their conversations. As soon as Madou was
+crowned, they would all go to Dahomey. Labassandre intended to develop
+the musical taste of Dahomey, and saw himself the director of a
+conservatory, and at the head of the Royal Chapel.
+
+Madame Moronval meant to apply her method to class upon class of crisp
+black heads. But Dr. Hirsch saw innumerable beds in a hospital, upon the
+inmates of which he could experiment without fear of any interference
+from the police. The first few weeks, therefore, of his sojourn at Paris
+seemed to Madou very sweet. If only the sun would shine out brightly, if
+the fine rain would cease to fall, or the thick fog clear away; if, in
+short, the boy could once have been thoroughly warm, he would have been
+content; and if Kerika, with her gun and her bow, her arms covered with
+clanking bracelets, could occasionally have appeared in the _Passage des
+Douze Maison_, he would have been very happy.
+
+But Destiny altered all this. M. Bonfils arrived suddenly one day,
+bringing most disastrous news of Dahomey. The king was dethroned, taken
+prisoner by the Ashantees, who meant to found a new dynasty. The royal
+troops and the regiment of Amazons had all been conquered and dispersed.
+Kerika alone was saved, and she dispatched M. Bonfils to Madou to tell
+him to remain in France, and to take good care of his Gri-gri, for it
+was written in the great book that if Madou did not lose that amulet, he
+would come into his kingdom. The poor little king was in great trouble.
+Moronval, who placed no faith in the _gri-gri_, presented his bill--and
+such a bill!--to M. Bonfils, who paid it, but informed the principal
+that in future, if he consented to keep Madou, he must not rely upon any
+present compensation, but upon the gratitude of the king as soon as the
+fortunes and chances of war should restore him to his throne. Would
+the principal oblige M. Bonfils by at once signifying his intentions?
+Moronval promptly and nobly said, "I will keep the child." Observe that
+it was no longer "his Royal Highness." And the boy at once became
+like all the other scholars, and was scolded and punished as they
+were,--more, in fact, for the professors were out of temper with him,
+feeling apparently, that they had been deluded by false pretences. The
+child could understand little of this, and tried in vain all the gentle
+ways that had seemed to win so much affection before. It was worse still
+the next quarter, when Moronval, receiving no money, realized that Madou
+was a burden to him. He dismissed the servant, and installed Madou in
+his place, not without a scene with the young prince. The first time
+a broom was placed in his hands and its use explained to him, Madou
+obstinately refused. But M. Moronval had an irresistible argument ready,
+and after a heavy caning the boy gave up. Besides, he preferred to sweep
+rather than to learn to read. The prince, therefore, scrubbed and swept
+with singular energy, and the salon of the Moronvals was scrupulously
+clean; but Moronval's heart was not softened. In vain did the little
+fellow work; in vain did he seek to obtain a kindly word from his
+master; in vain did he hover about him with all the touching humility of
+a submissive hound: he rarely obtained any other recompense than a blow.
+
+The boy was in despair. The skies grew grayer and grayer, the rain
+seemed to fall more persistently, and the snow was colder than ever.
+
+O Kerika! Aunt Kerika! so haughty and so tender, where are you? Come and
+see what they are doing with your little king! How he is treated, how
+scantily he is fed, how ragged are his clothes, and how cold he is! He
+has but one suit now, and that a livery--a red coat and striped vest!
+Now, when he goes out with his master, he does not walk at his side--he
+follows him.
+
+Madou's honesty and ingenuity had, however, so won the confidence of
+Madame Moronval, that she sent him to market. Behold, therefore, this
+last descendant of the powerful _Tocodonon_, the founder of the Dahomian
+dynasty, staggering daily from the market under the weight of a huge
+basket, half fed and half clothed, cold to the very heart; for nothing
+warms him now, neither violent exercise, nor blows, nor the shame of
+having become a servant; nor even his hatred of "the father with a
+stick," as he called Moronval.
+
+And yet that hatred was something prodigious; and Madou confided to Jack
+his projects of vengeance.
+
+"When Madou goes home to Dahomey, he will write a little letter to the
+father with the stick; he will tell him to come to Dahomey, and he will
+cut off his head into the copper basin, and afterwards will cover a big
+drum with his skin, and I will then march against the Ashantees,--Boum!
+boum! boum!"
+
+Jack could just see in the shadow the gleam of the negro's white eyes,
+and heard the raps upon the footboard of the bed, that imitated the
+drum, and was frightened. He fancied that he heard the whizzing of the
+sabres, and the heavy thud of the falling heads; he pulled the blanket
+over his head, and held his breath.
+
+Madou, who was excited by his own story, wished to talk on, but he
+thought his solitary auditor asleep. But when Jack drew a long breath,
+Madou said gently, "Shall we talk some more, sir?"
+
+"Yes," answered Jack; "only don't let us say any more about that drum,
+nor the copper basin." The negro laughed silently. "Very well, sir;
+Madou won't talk--you must talk now. What is your name?"
+
+"Jack, with a _k_. Mamma thinks a great deal about that--"
+
+"Is your mamma very rich?"
+
+"Rich! I guess she is," said Jack, by no means unwilling to dazzle Madou
+in his turn. "We have a carriage, a beautiful house on the boulevard,
+horses, servants, and all. And then you will see, when mamma comes here,
+how beautiful she is. Everybody in the street turns to look at her, she
+has such beautiful dresses and such jewels. We used to live at Tours;
+it was a pretty place. We walked in the Rue Royale, where we bought nice
+cakes, and where we met plenty of officers in uniform. The gentlemen
+were all good to me. I had Papa Leon, and Papa Charles,--not real papas,
+you know, because my own father died when I was a little fellow. When
+we first went to Paris I did not like it; I missed the trees and the
+country; but mamma petted me so much, and was so good to me, that I was
+soon happy again. I was dressed like the little English boys, and my
+hair was curled, and every day we went to the Bois. At last my mamma's
+old friend said that I ought to learn something; so mamma took me to the
+Jesuit College--"
+
+Here Jack stopped suddenly. To say that the Fathers would not receive
+him, wounded his self-love sorely. Notwithstanding the ignorance and
+innocence of his age, he felt that there was something humiliating to
+his mother in this avowal, as well as to himself; and then this recital,
+on which he had so heedlessly entered, carried him back to the only
+serious trouble of his life. Why had they not been willing to receive
+him? why did his mother weep? and why did the Superior pity him?
+
+"Say, then, little master," asked the negro suddenly, "what is a
+cocotte?"
+
+"A cocotte?" asked Jack in astonishment. "I don't know. Is it a
+chicken?"
+
+"I heard the father with a stick say to Madame Moronval that your mother
+was a cocotte."
+
+"What an ideal. You misunderstood," and at the thought of his mother
+being a hen, with feathers, wings, and claws, the boy began to laugh;
+and Madou, without knowing why, followed his example.
+
+This gayety soon obliterated the painful impressions of their previous
+conversation, and the two little, lonely fellows, after having confided
+to each other all their sorrows, fell asleep with smiles on their lips.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.~~THE REUNION.
+
+Children are like grown people,--the experiences of others are never of
+any use to them.
+
+Jack had been terrified by Madou's story, but he thought of it only as a
+frightful tale, or a bloody battle seen at the theatre. The first months
+were so happy at the academy, every one was so kind, that he forgot that
+Madou for a time had been equally happy.
+
+At table he occupied the next seat to Moronval, drank his wine, shared
+his dessert; while the other children, as soon as the cakes and fruit
+appeared, rose abruptly from the table. Opposite Jack sat Dr. Hirsch,
+whose finances, to judge from his appearance, were in a most deplorable
+condition. He enlivened the repast by all sorts of scientific jokes, by
+descriptions of surgical operations, by accounts of infectious diseases,
+and, in fact, kept his hearers _au courant_ with all the ailments of the
+day; and, if he heard of a case of leprosy, of elephantiasis, or of the
+plague, in any quarter of the globe, he would nod his head with delight,
+and say, "It will be here before long--before long!"
+
+As a neighbor at the table he was not altogether satisfactory: first,
+his near-sightedness made him very awkward; and, next, he had a way of
+dropping into your plate, or glass, a pinch of powder, or a few drops
+from a vial in his pocket The contents of this vial were never the same,
+for the doctor made new scientific discoveries each week, but in general
+bicarbonate, alkalies, and arsenic (in infinitesimal doses fortunately)
+made the base of these medicaments. Jack submitted to these preventives,
+and did not venture to say that he thought they tasted very badly.
+Occasionally the other professors were invited, and everybody drank the
+health of the little De Barancy, every one was enthusiastic over his
+sweetness and cleverness. The singing teacher, Labassandre, at the least
+joke made by the child, threw himself back in his chair with a loud
+laugh, pounded the table with his fist, and wiped his eyes with a corner
+of his napkin.
+
+Even D'Argenton, the handsome D'Argenton, relaxed, a pale smile crossed
+his big moustache, and his cold blue eyes were turned on the child with
+haughty approval. Jack was delighted. He did not understand, nor did he
+wish to understand, the signs made to him by Madou, as he waited upon
+the table, with a napkin in one hand and a plate in the other. Madou
+knew better than any one else the real value of these exaggerated
+praises and the vanity of human greatness.
+
+He too had occupied the seat of honor, had drunk of his master's wine,
+flavored by the powder from the doctor's bottle; and the tunic, with its
+silver chevrons, was it not too large for Jack only because it had been
+made for Madou? The story of the little negro should have been a warning
+to the small De Barancy against the sin of pride, for the installation
+of both boys in the Moronval Academy had been precisely of the same
+character.
+
+The holiday instituted in honor of Jack was insensibly prolonged into
+weeks. Lessons were few and far between, except from Madame Moronval,
+who snatched every opportunity of testing her method.
+
+As to Moronval himself, he professed a great weakness for his new pupil.
+He had made inquiries in regard to the little hotel on the Boulevard
+Hauss-mann, and had fully acquainted himself with the resources of the
+lady there. When, therefore, Madame de Barancy came to see Jack, which
+was very often, she met with a warm reception, and had an attentive
+audience for all the vain and foolish stories she saw fit to tell. At
+first Madame Moronval wished to preserve a certain dignified coolness
+toward such a person, but her husband soon changed that idea, and she
+saw herself obliged to lay aside her womanly scruples in favor of her
+interests.
+
+"Jack! Jack! here comes your mother," some one would cry as the door
+opened, and Ida would sail in beautifully dressed, with packages of
+cakes and bonbons in her hands and her muff. It was a festival for every
+one; they all shared the delicacies, and Madame de Barancy ungloved her
+hand, the one on which were the most rings, and condescended to take a
+portion. The poor creature was so generous, and money slipped so easily
+through her fingers, that she generally brought with her cakes all sorts
+of presents, playthings, &c., which she distributed as the fancy struck
+her. It is easy to imagine the enthusiastic praises lavished upon this
+inconsiderate, reckless generosity. Moronval alone had a smile of pity
+and of envy at seeing money so wasted, which should have gone to the
+assistance of some brave, generous soul like himself, for example.
+This was his fixed idea. And as he sat looking at Ida and gnawing his
+finger-nails, he had an absent, anxious air like that of a man who comes
+to ask a loan, and has his petition on the end of his lips. Moronval's
+dream for some time had been to establish a Review consecrated to
+colonial interests, in this way hoping to satisfy his political
+aspirations by recalling himself regularly to his compatriots; and,
+finally, who knows he might be elected deputy. But, as a commencement,
+the journal seemed indispensable, and he had a vague notion that the
+mother of his new pupil might be induced to defray the expenses of this
+Review, but he did not wish to move too rapidly lest he should frighten
+the lady away; he intended to prepare the way gently. Unfortunately,
+Madame de Barancy, on account of her very fickleness of nature, was
+difficult to reach. She would continually change the conversation just
+at the important point, because she found it very uninteresting.
+
+"If she could be inspired with an idea of writing!" said Moronval
+to himself, and immediately insinuated to her that between Madame de
+Sevigne and George Sand there was a vacant niche to fill; but he might
+as well have attempted to carry on a conversation with a bird that was
+fluttering about his head.
+
+"I am not strong-minded nor literary," said Ida, with a half yawn, one
+day when he had been speaking with feverish impatience for a long time.
+
+Moronval finally concluded that a creature so inconsequent must be
+dazzled, not led.
+
+One day, when Ida was holding audience in the parlor, telling wonderful
+tales of her various acquaintances to whose often plebeian names she
+added the _de_ as she pleased, Madame Moronval said, timidly,--
+
+"M. Moronval would like to ask you something, but he dares not."
+
+"O, tell me, tell me!" said the silly little woman, with a sincere wish
+to oblige.
+
+The principal was sorely tempted to ask her at once for funds for the
+Review, but being himself very distrustful, he thought it wiser to
+act with great prudence; so he contented himself with asking Madame de
+Barancy to be present at one of their literary reunions on the following
+Saturday. Formerly these little fetes took place every week, but since
+Madou's fall they had been very infrequent. It was in vain that Moronval
+had extinguished a candle with every guest that left, in vain had he
+dried the tea-leaves from the teapot in the sun on the window-sill, and
+served it again the following week, the expense still was too great. But
+now he determined to hazard another attempt in that direction. Madame de
+Barancy accepted the invitation with eagerness. The idea of making
+her appearance in the salon as a married woman of position was very
+attractive to her, for it was one round of the ladder conquered, on
+which she hoped to ascend from her irregular and unsatisfactory life.
+
+This was a most splendid fete at which she assisted. In the memory
+of all beholders no such entertainment had taken place. Two colored
+lanterns hung on the acacias at the entrance, the vestibule was lighted,
+and at least thirty candles were burning in the salon, the floor of
+which Madou had so waxed and rubbed for the occasion that it was as
+brilliant and as dangerous as ice. The negro boy had surpassed himself;
+and here let me say that Moronval was in a great state of perplexity as
+to the part that the prince should take at the soiree.
+
+Should he be withdrawn from his domestic duties and restored for one
+day only to his title and ancient splendor? This idea was very tempting;
+but, then, who would hand the plates and announce the guests? Who could
+replace him? No one of the other scholars, for each had some one in
+Paris who might not be pleased with this system of education; and
+finally it was decided that the soiree must be deprived of the presence
+and prestige of his royal Highness. At eight o'clock, "the children of
+the sun" took their seats on the benches, and among them the blonde head
+of little De Barancy glittered like a star on the dark background.
+
+Moronval had issued numerous invitations among the artistic and literary
+world--the one at least which he frequented--and the representatives of
+art, literature, and architecture appeared in large delegations.
+They arrived in squads, cold and shivering, coming from the depths of
+_Montparnasse_ on the tops of omnibuses, ill dressed and poor, unknown,
+but full of genius, drawn from their obscurity by the longing to be
+seen, to sing or to recite something, to prove to themselves that they
+were still alive. Then, after this breath of pure air, this glimpse of
+the heavens above, comforted by a semblance of glory and success, they
+returned to their squalid apartments, having gained a little strength
+to vegetate. There were philosophers wiser than Leibnitz; there were
+painters longing for fame, but whose pictures looked as if an earthquake
+had shaken everything from its perpendicular; musicians--inventors
+of new instruments; savans in the style of Dr. Hirsch, whose brains
+contained a little of everything, but where nothing could be found by
+reason of the disorder and the dust. It was sad to see them; and if
+their insatiate pretensions, as obtrusive as their bushy heads, their
+offensive pride and pompous manners, had not given one an inclination to
+laugh, their half-starved air and the feverish glitter of eyes that
+had wept over so many lost illusions and disappointed hopes, would have
+awakened profound compassion in the hearts of lookers-on.
+
+Besides these there were others, who, finding art too hard a
+taskmistress and too niggardly in her rewards, sought other employment..
+For example, a lyric poet kept an intelligence office, a sculptor was an
+agent for a wine merchant, and a violinist was in a gas-office.
+
+Others less worthy allowed themselves to be supported by their wives.
+These couples came together, and the poor women bore on their brave,
+worn faces the stamp of the penalty they paid for the companionship of
+men of genius. Proud of being allowed to accompany their husbands, they
+smiled upon them with an air of gratified maternal vanity. Then there
+were the habitues of the house, the three professors; Labassandre
+in gala costume, exercising his lungs at intervals by tremendous
+inspirations; and D'Argenton, the handsome D'Argenton, curled and
+pomaded, wearing light gloves, and his manners a charming mixture of
+authority, geniality, and condescension.
+
+Standing near the door of the salon, Moronval received every one,
+shaking hands with all, but growing very anxious as the hour grew later
+and the countess did not appear; for Ida de Barancy was called the
+countess under that roof. Every one was uncomfortable. Little Madame de
+Moronval went from group to group, saying, with an amiable air, "We will
+wait a few moments, the countess has not yet arrived!"
+
+The piano was open, the pupils were ranged against the wall; a small
+green table, on which stood a glass of _eau-sucre_ and a reading-lamp,
+was in readiness. M. Moronval, imposing in his white vest; Madame, red
+and oppressed by all the worry of the evening; and Madotu, shivering in
+the wind from the door,--all are waiting for the countess. Meanwhile,
+as she came not, D'Argenton consented to recite a poem that all his
+assistants knew, for they had heard it a dozen times before. Standing in
+front of the chimney, with his hair thrown back from his wide forehead,
+the poet declaimed, in a coarse, vulgar voice, what he called his poem.
+
+His friends were not sparing in their praises.
+
+"Magnificent!" said one. "Sublime!" exclaimed another; and the most
+amazing criticism came from yet another,--"Goethe with a heart?"
+
+Here Ida entered. The poet did not see her, for his eyes were lifted to
+the ceiling. But she saw him, poor woman; and from that moment her heart
+was gone. She had never seen him, save in the street wearing his hat:
+now she beheld him in the mellow light which softened still more his
+pale face, wearing a dress-coat and evening gloves, reciting a
+love poem, and, believing in love as he did in God, he produced an
+extraordinary effect upon her.
+
+He was the hero of her dreams, and corresponded with all the foolish
+sentimental ideas that lie hidden very often in the hearts of such
+women.
+
+From that very moment she was his, and he took exclusive possession of
+her heart. She paid no attention to her little Jack, who made frantic
+signs to her as he threw her kiss after kiss; nor had she eyes for
+Moronval, who bowed to the ground; nor for the curious glances that
+examined her from head to foot, as she stood before them in her black
+velvet dress and her little white opera hat, trimmed with black roses
+and ornamented with tulle strings which wrapped about her like a scarf.
+Years after she recalled the profound impression of that evening, and
+saw as in a dream her poet as she saw him first in that salon, which
+seemed to her, seen through the vista of years, immense and superb. The
+future might heap misery upon her; her past could humiliate and wound
+her, crush her life, and something more precious than life itself; but
+the recollection of that brief moment of ecstasy could never be effaced.
+
+"You see, madame," said Moronval, with his most insinuating smile, "that
+we made a beginning before your arrival. M. le Vicomte Amaury d'Argenton
+was reciting his magnificent poem."
+
+"Vicomte!" He was noble, then!
+
+She turned toward him, timid and blushing as a young girl.
+
+"Continue, sir, I beg of you," she said.
+
+But D'Argenton did not care to do so. The arrival of the countess had
+injured the effect of his poem--destroyed its point; and such things are
+not easily pardoned. He bowed, and answered with cold haughtiness that
+he had finished. Then he turned away without troubling himself more
+about her. The poor woman felt a strange pang at her heart. She had
+displeased him, and the very thought was unendurable. It needed all
+little Jack's tender caresses and outspoken joy--all his delight at the
+admiration expressed for her, the attentions of everybody, the idea that
+she was queen of the fete--to efface the sorrow she felt, and which she
+showed by a silence of at least five minutes, which silence for a nature
+like hers was something as extraordinary as restful. The disturbance of
+her entrance being at last over, every one seated himself to await the
+next recitation.
+
+Mademoiselle Constant, who had accompanied her mistress, took her seat
+majestically on the front bench next the pupils. Jack swung himself on
+the arm of his mother's chair, between her and M. Moronval, who smoothed
+the lad's hair in the most paternal way.
+
+The assemblage was really quite imposing, and Madame Moronval took
+dignified possession of the little table and the shaded lamp, and
+proceeded to read an ethnographic composition of her husband's on the
+Mongolian races. It was long and tedious--one of those lucubrations
+that are delivered before certain scientific societies, and succeed in
+lulling the members to sleep. Madame Moronval took this opportunity of
+demonstrating the peculiarities of her method, which had the merit--if
+merit it were--of holding the attention as in a vice, and the words and
+syllables seemed to reverberate through your own brain. To see Madame
+Moronval open her mouth to sound her o's, to hear the r's rattle in
+her throat, was more edifying than agreeable. The mouths of the eight
+children opposite mechanically followed each one of her gestures,
+producing a most extraordinary effect; one absolutely fascinating to
+Mademoiselle Constant.
+
+But the countess saw nothing of all this; she had eyes but for her poet
+leaning against the door of the drawing-room, with arms folded and eyes
+moodily cast down. In vain did Ida seek to attract his attention; he
+glanced occasionally about the salon, but her arm-chair might as well
+have been vacant; he did not appear to see her, and the poor woman was
+rendered so utterly miserable by this neglect and indifference, that she
+forgot to congratulate Moronval on the brilliant success of his essay,
+which concluded amid great applause and universal relief.
+
+Then followed another brief poem by Argenton, to which Ida listened
+breathlessly.
+
+"Ah, how beautiful!" she cried; "how beautiful!" and she turned to
+Moronval, who sat with a forced smile on his lips. "Present me to M.
+d'Argenton, if you please."
+
+She spoke to the poet in a low voice and with great courtesy. He,
+however, bowed very coldly, apparently careless of her implied
+admiration.
+
+"How happy you are," she said, "in the possession of such a talent!"
+
+Then she asked where she could obtain his poems.
+
+"They are not to be procured, madame," answered D'Argenton, gravely.
+
+Without knowing it, she had again wounded his sensitive pride, and he
+turned away without vouchsafing another syllable.
+
+But Moronval profited by this opening. "Think of it!" he said; "think
+that such verses as those cannot find a publisher! That such genius as
+that is buried in obscurity! If we only could publish a magazine!"
+
+"And why can you not?" asked Ida, quickly.
+
+"Because we have not the funds."
+
+"But they can easily be procured. Such talent should not be allowed to
+languish!"
+
+She spoke with great earnestness; and Moronval saw at once that he had
+played his cards well, and proceeded to take advantage of the lady's
+weakness by talking to her of D'Argenton, whom he painted in glowing
+colors.
+
+He spoke of him as Lara, or Manifred, a proud and independent nature,
+one which could not be conquered by the hardships of his lot.
+
+Here Ida interrupted him to ask if the poet was not of noble birth.
+
+"Most assuredly, madame. He is a viscount, and descended from one of the
+noblest families in Auvergne. His father was ruined by the dishonesty of
+an agent."
+
+This was his text, which he proceeded to enlarge upon, and illustrate by
+many romantic incidents. Ida drank in the whole story; and while these
+two were absorbed in earnest conversation, Jack grew jealous, and made
+various efforts to attract his mother's attention. "Jack, do be quiet!"
+and "Jack, you are insufferable!" finally sent him off, with tearful
+eyes and swollen lips, to sulk in the corner of the salon. Meanwhile
+the literary entertainments of the evening went on, and finally
+Labassandre, after numerous entreaties, was induced to sing. His voice
+was so powerful, and so pervaded the house, that Madou, who was in the
+kitchen preparing tea, replied by a frightful war-cry. The poor fellow
+worshipped noise of all kinds and at all times.
+
+Moronval and the comtesse continued their conversation; and D'Argenton,
+who by this time understood that he was the subject, stood in front of
+them, apparently absorbed in conversation with one of the professors. He
+appeared to be out of temper--and with whom? With the whole world; for
+he was one of that very large class who are at war against society, and
+against the manners and customs of their day.
+
+At this very moment he was declaiming violently, "You have all the vices
+of the last century, and none of its amenities. Honor is a mere name.
+Love is a farce. You have accomplished nothing intellectually."
+
+"Pardon me, sir," interrupted his hearer. But the other went on more
+vehemently and more aggressively. He wished, he said, that all France
+could hear what he thought. The nation was abased, crushed beyond all
+hope of recuperation. As for himself, he had determined to emigrate to
+America.
+
+All this time the poet was vaguely conscious of the admiring gaze that
+was bent upon him. He experienced something of the same sensation that
+one has in the fields in the early evening, when the moon suddenly rises
+behind you and compels you to turn toward its silent presence. The eyes
+of this woman magnetized him in the same way. The words she caught in
+regard to leaving France struck a chill to her heart. A funereal gloom
+settled over the room. Additional dismay overwhelmed her as D'Argenton
+wound up with a vigorous tirade against French women,--their lightness
+and coquetry, the insincerity of their smiles, and the venality of their
+love.
+
+The poet no longer conversed; he declaimed, leaning against the chimney,
+and careless who heard either his voice or his words.
+
+Poor Ida, intensely absorbed as she was in him, could not realize that
+he was indifferent, and fancied that his invectives were addressed to
+herself.
+
+"He knows who I am," she said, and bowed her head in shame.
+
+Moronval said aloud, "What a genius!" and in a lower voice to himself,
+"What a boaster!" But Ida needed nothing more; her heart was gone. Had
+Dr. Hirsch, who was always so interested in pathological singularities,
+been then at leisure, he might have made a curious study of this case of
+instantaneous combustion.
+
+An hour before, Madame Moronval had dispatched Jack to bed, with two
+or three of the younger children; the others were gaping in silent
+wretchedness, stupefied by all they saw and heard. The Chinese lanterns
+swung in the wind each side of the garden-gate; the lane was unlighted,
+and not even a policeman enlivened its muddy sidewalk; but the
+disputative little group that left the Moronval Academy cared little
+for the gloom, the cold, or the dampness.
+
+When they reached the avenue they found that the hour for the omnibus
+had passed. They accepted this as they did the other disagreeables of
+life--in the same brave spirit.
+
+Art is a great magician. It creates a sunshine from which its devotees,
+as well as the poor and the ugly, the sick and the sorry, can each
+borrow a little, and with it gain a grace to suffer, and a calm serenity
+that may well be envied.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.~~A DINNER WITH IDA.
+
+The next day the Moronvals received from Madame de Barancy an invitation
+for the following Monday; at the bottom of the note was a postscript,
+expressing the pleasure she should have in receiving also M. d'Argenton.
+
+"I shall not go," said the poet, dryly, when Moron-val handed him the
+coquettish perfumed note. Then the principal grew very angry, as he saw
+his plans frustrated. "Why would not D'Argenton accept the invitation?"
+
+"Because," was the answer, "I never visit such women."
+
+"You make a great mistake," said Moronval; "Madame de Barancy is not the
+kind of person you imagine. Besides, to serve a friend, you should
+lay aside your scruples. You see that I need the countess, that she is
+disposed to look favorably on my Colonial Review, and you should do all
+that lies in your power to favor my views. Come, now, think better of
+it."
+
+D'Argenton, after being properly entreated, finished by accepting the
+invitation.
+
+On the following Monday, therefore, Moronval and his wife left the
+academy under the supervision of Dr. Hirsch, and presented themselves in
+the Boulevard Haussmann, where the poet was to join them.
+
+Dinner was at seven; D'Argenton did not arrive until half an hour past
+the time. Ida was in a state of great anxiety. "Do you think he will
+come?" she asked; "perhaps he is ill. He looks very delicate."
+
+At last he appeared with the air of a conquering hero, making some
+indifferent excuse for his lack of punctuality. His manner, however, was
+less disdainful than usual, for the hotel had impressed him. Its luxury,
+the flowers, and thick carpets; the little boudoir with its bouquets of
+white lilacs; the commonplace salon, like a dentist's waiting-room, a
+blue ceiling and gilded mouldings, the ebony furniture, cushioned with
+gold color, and the balcony exposed to the dust of the boulevard,--all
+charmed the attache of the Moronval Academy, and gave him a favorable
+impression of wealth and high life.
+
+The table equipage, the imposing effect produced by Augustin, in short,
+all the luxurious details of the house, appealed to his senses, and
+D'Argenton, without flattering the countess as openly as did Moronval;
+yet succeeded in doing so in a more subtile manner, by thawing under her
+influence to a very marked extent.
+
+He was an interminable talker, and submitted with a very bad grace to
+any interruption. He was arbitrary and egotistical, and rang the changes
+on the _I_ and the _my_ for a whole evening, without allowing any one
+else to speak.
+
+Unhappily, to be a good listener is a quality far above natures
+like that of the countess; and the dinner was characterized by some
+unfortunate incidents. D'Argenton was particularly fond of repeating the
+replies he had made to the various editors and theatrical managers who
+had declined his articles, and refused to print his prose or his verse.
+His mots on these occasions had been clever and caustic; but with Madame
+de Barancy he was never able to reach that point, preceded as it must
+necessarily be with lengthy explanations. At the critical moment Ida
+would invariably interrupt him,--always, to be sure, with some thought
+for his comfort.
+
+"A little more of this ice, M. d'Argenton, I beg of you."
+
+"Not any, madame," the poet would answer with a frown, and continue,
+"Then I said to him--"
+
+"I am afraid you do not like it," urged the lady.
+
+"It is excellent, madame,--and I said these cruel words--"
+
+Another interruption from Ida; who, later, when she saw her poet in a
+fit of the sulks, wondered what she had done to displease him. Two or
+three times during dinner she was quite ready to weep, but did her best
+to hide her feelings by urging all the delicacies of her table upon M.
+and Madame Moronval. Dinner over, and the guests established in the well
+warmed and lighted salon, the principal fancied he saw his way clear,
+and said suddenly, in a half indifferent tone, to the countess,--
+
+"I have thought much of our little matter of business. It will cost less
+than I fancied."
+
+"Indeed!" she answered absently,
+
+"If, madame, you would accord to me a few moments of your attention--"
+
+But madame was occupied in looking at her poet, who was walking up and
+down the salon silent and preoccupied.
+
+"Of what can he be thinking?" she said to herself.
+
+Of his digestion only, dear reader. Suffering somewhat from dyspepsia,
+and always anxious in regard to his health, he never failed, on leaving
+the table, to walk for half an hour, no matter where he might chance to
+be.
+
+Ida watched him silently. For the first time in her life she loved,
+really and passionately, and felt her heart beat as it had never beat
+before. Foolish and ignorant, while at the same time credulous and
+romantic; very near that fatal age--thirty years--which is almost
+certain to create in woman a great transformation; she now, aided by the
+memory of every romance she had ever read, created for herself an ideal
+who resembled D'Argenton. The expression of her face so changed in
+looking at him, her laughing eyes assumed so tender an expression, that
+her passion soon ceased to be a mystery to any one.
+
+Moron val, who looked on, shrugged his shoulders, with a glance at his
+wife. "She is simply crazy," he said to himself.
+
+She certainly was crazed in a degree; and, after dinner, she tormented
+herself to find some way of returning to the good graces of D'Argenton,
+and, as he approached her in his walk, she said,--
+
+"If M. d'Argenton wished to be very amiable, he would recite to us that
+beautiful poem which created such a sensation the other evening. I
+have thought of it all the week. There is one verse that haunts me,
+especially the final line:
+
+     'And I believe in love,
+     As I believe in a good God above.'"
+
+"As I believe in God above," said the poet, making as horrible a grimace
+as if his finger had been caught in a vice.
+
+The countess, who had but a vague idea of prosody, understood simply
+that she had again incurred the displeasure of D'Argenton. The fact
+is that he had begun to affect her in a manner quite beyond her own
+control, and which, in its unreasoning terror, was somewhat like the
+timid worship offered by the Japanese to their hideous idols.
+
+Under the influence of his presence she was more foolish by far than
+nature had made her; her piquancy forsook her, and the versatility
+that rendered her so charmingly absurd was quite gone. But D'Argenton
+relented, and suspended his hygienic exercise for a moment.
+
+"I shall be most happy to recite anything, madame, at your command; but
+what?"
+
+Here Moronval interposed. "Recite the 'Credo,' my dear fellow," he said.
+
+"Very well, then; I am satisfied to obey you."
+
+The poem commenced gently enough with the words,--
+
+    "Madame, your toilette is charming."
+
+Then irony deepened to bitterness, bitterness to fury, and concluded in
+these terrific words:
+
+     "Good Lord, deliver me from this woman so terrible,
+     Who drains from my heart its life-blood."
+
+As if these extraordinary words had aroused in his memory most painful
+recollections, D'Argenton relapsed into silence, and said not another
+word the whole evening. Poor Ida was also thoughtful, haunted by vague
+fears of the noble ladies who had so warped the gentle spirit of her
+poet, so drained his heart that there was not a drop left for her.
+
+"You know, my dear fellow," said Moronval, as they strolled through
+the empty boulevards, arm-inarm, that night, little Madame Moronval
+pattering on in front of them,--"you know if I can succeed in the
+establishment of my Review, that I shall make you editor-in-chief!"
+
+Moronval threw the half of his cargo overboard in order to save his
+ship, for he saw that unless the poet was enlisted, the countess would
+take no interest in the scheme. D'Argenton made no reply, for he was
+absorbed in thoughts of Ida.
+
+No man can play the part of a lyric poet, a martyr to love, without
+being conscious of, and touched by, that silent adoration which appeals
+to his vanity, both as a man of letters and a man of the world. Since
+he had seen Ida in her luxurious home, about which there was the same
+suspicion of vulgarity that clung about herself, the rigidity of his
+principles had amazingly softened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.~~AMAURY D'ARGENTON.
+
+Amaury d'Argenton belonged to one of those ancient provincial families
+whose castles resembled great farms. Impoverished for the three last
+generations, they had finally sold their property, and come to Paris to
+seek their fortunes; with little change for the better, however; and for
+the last thirty years they had dropped the _De_, which Amaury ventured
+to resume on adopting his literary career. He meant to make it famous,
+and even was audacious enough to announce this intention aloud.
+
+The childhood of the poet had been one of gloom and privation;
+surrounded by anxieties and by tears, by sordid cares, and that constant
+lack of money which imbitters the lives of so many of us, he had never
+laughed nor played like other children. A scholarship that was obtained
+for him enabled him to complete his studies, and his only recreation was
+obtained through the kindness of an aunt who resided in the Marais, and
+who gave him gloves and other trifles, which the poet very early in life
+learned to regard as essentials.
+
+Such a childhood ripens early into bitter maturity. Infinite prosperity
+is needed to efface such early impressions, and we often see men who
+have attained to high honors, who are rich and powerful, and yet who
+have never conquered the timidity born of their early deprivations.
+D'Argenton's bitterness was not without reason: at twenty-five he had
+succeeded in nothing; he had published a volume at his own expense, and
+had lived on bread and water in consequence for at least six months.
+He was industrious as well as ambitious; but something more than these
+qualities are essential to a poet, whose imagination and genius must be
+endowed with wings. These D'Argenton had not; he felt merely that vague
+uneasiness which indicates a missing limb, but that was all, and he lost
+both time and trouble in ineffectual efforts; his aunt aided him by a
+small allowance, but his life bore not the shadow of a resemblance to
+the picture drawn by Ida. In fact, D'Argenton had never been entangled
+in any serious love affair; his nature was cold and prudent, and yet he
+had been beloved by more than one woman. To D'Argenton, however, their
+society had always seemed a waste of time. Ida de Barancy was the first
+who had made upon him any real impression. Of this fact Ida had no idea,
+and whenever she met the poet on her very frequent visits to Jack, it
+was always with the same deprecating air and timid voice. The poet,
+while adopting an air of utter indifference, cultivated the affection
+and society of little Jack, whom he induced to talk freely of his
+mother.
+
+Jack being extremely flattered, gladly gave every information in his
+power, and talked freely of the kind friend who was so good to mamma.
+The mention of this person cost the poet a strange pang. "He is so
+kind," babbled Jack, "he comes to see us every day; or, if he does not
+come, he sends us great baskets of fruit, and playthings for me."
+
+"And is your mother very fond of him, too?" continued D'Argenton, without
+looking up from his writing.
+
+"Yes, indeed, sir," answered the little fellow, innocently.
+
+But are we quite sure that he spoke so innocently. The minds of children
+are not always so transparent as we believe; and it is difficult to say
+when they understand matters that go on about them, and when they do
+not. That mysterious growth that is constantly going on within them,
+has unexpected seasons of bursting into flower, and they suddenly mass
+together the disconnected fragments of information they have acquired
+and intuitively attain the result.
+
+Had Jack, therefore, no perception of the hidden rage that filled the
+heart of his professor when he questioned him in regard to their kind
+friend? Jack did not like D'Argenton; in addition to his first dislike,
+he was now actuated by strong jealousy. His mother was too much occupied
+by this man. When he passed the day with her, she in her turn plied him
+with questions, and asked if his teacher never spoke to him of her.
+
+"Never," said Jack, calmly. And yet that very day D'Argenton had desired
+him to present his compliments to the countess, with a copy of his
+poems; but Jack at first forgot the volume, and finally lost it, as much
+from cunning as from heedlessness.
+
+Thus, while these two dissimilar natures were attracted toward each
+other, the child stood between them suspicious and defiant, as if he
+already foresaw what the future would bring about.
+
+Every two weeks Jack dined with his mother, sometimes alone with her,
+sometimes with their friend. They went to the theatre in the evening, or
+to a concert, and Jack was sent back to school with his pockets full of
+dainties, in which the other children shared.
+
+One evening, as he entered his mother's house, he saw the dining-table
+laid for three, and a gorgeous display of flowers and crystal. His
+mother met him, exquisitely dressed, wearing in her hair sprays of white
+lilacs, like those that filled the vases. The blazing fire alone lighted
+the salon, into which she gayly drew the boy, as she said, "Guess who is
+here!"
+
+"O, I know very well!" exclaimed Jack in delight; "it is our good
+friend."
+
+But it was D'Argenton, who sat in full evening dress on the sofa,
+near the fire. The enemy was in Jack's own seat, and the child was so
+overwhelmed by his disappointment that he with difficulty restrained his
+tears. There was a moment of restraint and discomfort felt by all three.
+Just then the door was thrown open, and dinner announced by Augustin.
+The dinner was long and tedious to little Jack. Have you ever felt so
+entirely out of place that you would have gladly disappeared from off
+the face of the globe, painfully conscious, withal, that had you
+so vanished, no one would have missed you? When Jack spoke, no one
+listened; his questions were unheard and his wants unheeded. The
+conversation between his mother and D'Argenton was incomprehensible to
+him, although he saw that his mother blushed more than once, and hastily
+raised her glass to her lips as if to conceal her rising color. Where
+were those gay little dinners when Jack sat close at his mother's side
+and reigned an absolute king at the table? This recollection came to
+the boy's mind just as Madame de Barancy offered a superb pear to
+D'Argenton.
+
+"That came from our friend at Tours," said Jack, maliciously.
+
+D'Argenton, who was about to peel the fruit, dropped it upon his plate
+with a shrug of the shoulders. What an angry glance Ida threw upon her
+child! She had never looked at him in that way before. Jack did
+not venture to speak again, and the evening to him was but a dreary
+continuation of the repast.
+
+Ida and the poet talked in low voices, and in that confidential tone
+that indicates great intimacy. He told her of his sad childhood and of
+his early home. He described the ruined towers and the long corridors
+where the wind raged and howled. He then depicted his early struggles
+in the great city, the constant obstacles thrown in the way of the
+development of his genius, of his jealous rivals and literary enemies,
+and of the terrible epigrams which he had hurled upon them.
+
+"Then I uttered these stinging words." This time she did not interrupt
+him, but listened with a smile, and her absorption was so great that
+when he ceased speaking she still listened, although nothing was to be
+heard in the salon save the ticking of the clock and the rustling of the
+leaves of the album that Jack, half asleep, was turning over. Suddenly
+she rose with a start.
+
+"Come, Jack, my love; call Constant to take you back to school. It is
+quite time."
+
+"O, mamma!" said the child, sadly; but he dared not say that he
+generally remained much later. He did not wish to be troublesome to his
+mother, nor to meet again such an expression in her ordinarily serene
+and laughing eyes, as had so startled him at the dinner-table.
+
+She rewarded him for his self-control by a most loving embrace.
+
+"Good night, my child!" said D'Argenton, and he drew the child toward
+him as if to embrace him, but suddenly, with a movement of repulsion,
+turned aside as he had done at dinner from the fruit.
+
+"I cannot! I cannot!" he murmured, throwing himself back in his
+arm-chair and passing his handkerchief over his forehead.
+
+Jack turned to his mother in amazement.
+
+"Go, dear Jack. Take him away, Constant." And while Madame de Barancy
+sought to conciliate her poet, the child returned with a heavy heart to
+his school; and in the cold dormitory, as he thought of the professor
+installed in his mother's chimney-corner, said to himself, "He is very
+comfortable there. I wonder how long he means to stay!"
+
+In D'Argenton's exclamation and in his repugnance to Jack, there was
+certainly some acting, but there was also real feeling. He was very
+jealous of the child, who represented to him Ida's past, not that the
+poet was profoundly in love with the countess. He, on the contrary,
+loved himself in her, and, Narcissus-like, worshipped his own image which
+he saw reflected in her clear eyes. But D'Argenton would have preferred
+to be the first to disturb those depths.
+
+But these regrets were useless, though Ida shared them. "Why did I not
+know him earlier?" she said to herself over and over again.
+
+"She ought to understand by this time," said D'Argenton, sulkily, "that
+I do not wish to see that boy."
+
+But even for her poet's sake Ida could not keep her child away from her
+entirely. She did not, however, go so often to the academy, nor summon
+Jack from school, as she had done, and this change was by no means the
+smallest of the sacrifices she was called upon to make.
+
+As to the hotel she occupied, her carriage, and the luxury in which she
+lived, she was ready to abandon them all at a word from D'Argenton.
+
+"You will see," she said, "how I can aid you. I can work, and, besides,
+I shall not be completely penniless."
+
+But D'Argenton hesitated. He was, notwithstanding his apparent
+enthusiasm and recklessness, extremely methodical and clear-headed.
+
+"No, we will wait a while. I shall be rich some day, and then--"
+
+He alluded to his old aunt, who now made him an allowance and whose heir
+he would unquestionably be. "The good old lady was very old," he added.
+And the two, Ida and D'Argenton, made a great many plans for the days
+that were to come. They would live in the country, but not so far away
+from Paris that they would be deprived of its advantages. They would
+have a little cottage, over the door of which should be inscribed this
+legend: _Parva domus, magna quies_. There he could work, write a
+book--a novel, and later, a volume of poems. The titles of both were in
+readiness, but that was all.
+
+Then the publishers would make him offers; he would be famous, perhaps
+a member of the Academy--though, to be sure, that institution was
+mildewed, moth-eaten, and ready to fall.
+
+"That is nothing!" said Ida; "you must be a member!" and she saw herself
+already in a corner on a reception-day, modestly and quietly dressed, as
+befitted the wife of a man of letters. While they waited, however,
+they regaled themselves on the pears sent by "the kind friend, who was
+certainly the best and least suspicious of men."
+
+D'Argenton found these pears, with their satiny skins, very delicious;
+but he ate them with so many expressions of discontent, and with so many
+little cutting remarks to Ida, that she spent much of her time in tears.
+
+Weeks and months passed on in this way without any other change in their
+lives than that which naturally grew out of an increasing estrangement
+between Moronval and his professor of literature. The principal, daily
+expecting a decision from Ida on the subject of the Review, suspected
+D'Argenton of influencing her against the project, and this belief he
+ended by expressing to the poet.
+
+One morning, Jack, who now went out but rarely, looked out of the
+windows with longing eyes. The spring sunshine was so bright, the sky so
+blue, that he longed for liberty and out-door life.
+
+The leaf-buds of the lilacs were swelling, and the flower-beds in the
+garden were gently upheaved, as if with the movements of invisible life.
+
+From the lane without came the sounds of children at play, and of
+singing-birds, all revelling in the sunshine. It was one of those days
+when every window is thrown open to let in the light and air, and to
+drive away all wintry shadows, all that blackness imparted by the length
+of the nights and the smoke of the fires.
+
+While Jack was longing for wings, the door-bell rang, and his mother
+entered in great haste and much agitated, although dressed with great
+care. She came for him to breakfast with her in the Bois, and would not
+bring him back until night. He must ask Moronval's permission first; but
+as Ida brought the quarterly payment, you may imagine that permission
+was easily granted.
+
+"How jolly!" cried Jack; "how jolly!" and while his mother casually
+informed Moronval that M. d'Argenton had told her the evening previous
+that he was summoned to Auvergne, to his aunt who was dying, the boy ran
+to change his dress. On his way he met Madou, who, sad and lonely, was
+busy with his pails and brooms, and had not had time to find out that
+the air was soft and the sunshipe warm. On seeing him, Jack had a bright
+idea.
+
+"O, mamma, if we could take Madou!"
+
+This permission was a little difficult to procure, so multifarious were
+the duties of the prince; but Jack was so persistent that kind Madame
+Moronval agreed for that day to assume the black boy's place.
+
+"Madou! Madou!" cried the child, rushing toward him. "Quick, dress
+yourself and come out in the carriage with us; we are going to
+breakfast in the Bois!"
+
+There was a moment of confusion. Madou stood still in amazement, while
+Madame Moronval borrowed a tunic that would be suitable for him in this
+emergency. Little Jack danced with joy, while Madame de Barancy, excited
+like a canary by the noise, chattered on to Moronval, giving him details
+in regard to the illness of D'Argenton's aunt.
+
+At last they started, Jack and his mother seated side by side in the
+victoria, and Madou on the box with Augustin. The progress would hardly
+be regarded as a royal one, but Madou was satisfied. The drive itself
+was charming, the Avenue de l'Imperatrice was filled with people
+driving, riding, and walking. Children of all ages enlivened the scene.
+Babies, in their long white skirts, gazing about with the sweet
+solemnity of infancy, and older children fancifully dressed, with their
+tutors or nurses, crowded the pavements. Jack, in an ecstasy of delight,
+kissed his mother, and pulled Madou by the sleeve.
+
+"Are you happy, Madou?"
+
+"Yes, sir, very happy," was the answer. They reached the Bois, in places
+quite green and fresh already. There were some spots where the tops of
+the trees were in leaf, but the foliage was so minute that it looked
+like smoke. The holly, whose crisp, stiff leaves had been covered with
+snow half the winter, jostled the timid and distrustful lilacs whose
+leaf-buds were only beginning to swell The carriage drew up at the
+restaurant, and while the breakfast ordered by Madame de Barancy was in
+course of preparation, she and the children took a walk to the lake. At
+this early hour there were few of those superb equipages to be seen that
+appeared later in the day. The lake was lovely, with white swans dotting
+it here and there, and now and then a gentle ripple shook its surface,
+and miniature waves dashed against the fringe of old willows on one
+side.
+
+What a walk! And what a breakfast served at the open windows! The
+children attacked it with the vigor of schoolboys. They laughed
+incessantly from the beginning to the end of the repast.
+
+When breakfast was over, Ida proposed that they should visit the _Jardin
+d'Acclimation_.
+
+"That is a splendid idea," said Jack, "for Madou has never been there,
+and won't he be amused!"
+
+They drove through _La Grande Allee_ in the almost deserted garden,
+which to the children was full of interest. They were fascinated by the
+animals, who, as they passed, looked at them with sleepy or inquisitive
+eyes, or smelled with pink nostrils at the fresh bread they had brought
+from the restaurant.
+
+Madou, who at first had made a pretence of interest only to gratify
+Jack, now became absorbed in what he saw. He did not need to examine the
+blue ticket over the little inclosures to recognize certain animals from
+his own land. With mingled pain and pleasure he looked at the kangaroos,
+and seemed to suffer in seeing them in the limited space which they
+covered in three leaps.
+
+He stood in silence before the light grating where the antelopes were
+inclosed. The birds, too, awakened his compassion. The ostriches and
+cassowaries looked mournful enough in the shade of their solitary
+exotic; but the parrots and smaller birds in a long cage, without even
+a green leaf or twig, were absolutely pitiful, and Madou thought of the
+Academy Moronval and of himself. The plumage of the birds was dull and
+torn; they told a tale of past battles, of dismal flutterings against
+the bars of their prison-house. Even the rose-colored flamingoes and the
+long-billed ibex, who seem associated with the Nile and the desert and
+the immovable sphinx, all assumed a thoroughly commonplace aspect among
+the white peacocks and the little Chinese ducks that paddled at ease in
+their miniature pond.
+
+By degrees the garden filled up with people, and there suddenly appeared
+at the end of the avenue so strange and fantastic a spectacle that Madou
+stood still in silent ecstasy. He saw the heads of two elephants, who
+were slowly approaching, waving their trunks slowly, and bearing on
+their broad backs a crowd of women with light umbrellas, of children
+with straw hats and colored ribbons. Following the elephant came a
+giraffe carrying his small and haughty head very high. This singular
+caravan wound through the circuitous road, with many nervous laughs and
+terrified cries.
+
+Under the glowing sunlight every tint of color was thrown out in relief
+upon the thick and rugged skin of the elephants, who extended their
+trunks either toward the tops of the trees or to the pockets of the
+spectators, shaking their long ears when gently touched by some child,
+or by the umbrella of some laughing girl on their backs.
+
+"What is the matter, Madou; you tremble. Are you ill?" asked Jack. Madou
+was absolutely faint with emotion, but when he learned that he too
+could mount the clumsy animals, his grave face became almost tragic in
+expression. Jack refused to accompany him, and remained with his mother,
+whom he considered too grave for this fete-day. He liked to walk close
+at her side, or linger behind her in the dust of her long silken skirts,
+which she disdained to lift. They seated themselves, and watched the
+little black boy climb on the back of the elephant. Once there, the
+child seemed in his native place. He was no longer an exile, nor the
+awkward schoolboy, nor the little servant, humiliated by his menial
+duties and by his master's tyranny. He seemed imbued with new life, and
+his eyes sparkled with energy and determination. Happy little king! Two
+or three times he went around the garden. "Again! again!" he cried,
+and over the little bridge, between the inclosures of the kangaroos
+and other animals, he went to and fro, excited almost to madness by the
+heavy long strides of the elephant. Kerika, Dahomey, war-like scenes,
+and the hunt, all returned to his memory. He spoke to the elephant in
+his native tongue, and as he heard the sweet African voice, the huge
+creature shut his eyes with delight and trumpeted his pleasure. The
+zebras neighed, and the antelopes started in terror, while from the
+great cage of tropical birds, where the sun shone most fully, came
+warblings and flutterings of wings, discordant screams, and an enraged
+chatter, all the tumult, in short, on a small scale, of a primeval
+forest in the tropics.
+
+But it was growing late. Madou must awaken from this beautiful dream.
+Besides, as soon as the sun dropped behind the horizon, the wind rose
+keen and cold, as so often happens in the early spring. This wintry
+chill affected the spirits of the children, and they grew strangely
+quiet and sad. Madame de Barancy for a wonder was also very silent. She
+had something she wished to say, and she probably found some difficulty
+in selecting her words, for she left them unsaid until the last moment.
+Then she took Jack's hand in hers. "Listen, child, I have some bad news
+to tell you!"
+
+He understood at once that some great misfortune was impending, and he
+turned his supplicating eyes toward his mother. She continued in a low,
+quick voice,--
+
+"I am going away, my son, on a long journey; I am obliged to leave you
+behind, but I will write to you. Do not cry, dear, for it hurts me; I
+shall not be gone long, and we shall soon see each other again. Yes,
+very soon, I promise you." And she threw out mysterious hints of a
+fortune to come, and money affairs, and other things that were not at
+all interesting to the child, who in reality paid little attention to
+her words, for he was weeping silently but chokingly. The gay streets
+seemed no longer the Paris of the morning, the sunshine was gone, the
+flowers on the corner-stands were faded, and all was very dreary, for
+he saw through eyes dim with tears, and the child was about to lose his
+mother.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.~~MADOU'S FLIGHT.
+
+Some time after this a letter arrived at the academy from D'Argenton.
+
+The poet wrote to announce that the death of a relative had so changed
+the position of his private affairs that he must offer his resignation
+as Professor of Literature. In a somewhat abrupt postscript he added
+that Madame de Barancy was obliged to leave Paris for an indefinite
+time, and that she confided her little Jack to M. Moronval's paternal
+care. In case of illness or accident to the child, a letter could be
+forwarded to the mother under cover to D'Argenton.
+
+"The paternal care of Moronval!" Had the poet laughed aloud as he penned
+these words? Did he not know perfectly well the child's fate at the
+academy as soon as it was understood that his mother had left Paris, and
+that nothing more was to be expected from her?
+
+The arrival of this letter threw Moronval into a terrible fit of rage,
+which rage shook the equilibrium of the academy as a violent tornado
+might have done in the tropics.
+
+The countess gone! and gone too, apparently, with that brainless fellow,
+who had neither wit nor imagination. Was it not shameful that a woman of
+her years--for she was by no means in her earliest youth--should be so
+heartless as to leave her child alone in Paris, among strangers.
+
+But even while he pitied Jack, Moronval said to himself, "Wait a while,
+young man, and I will show you how paternally I shall manage you."
+
+But if he was enraged when he thought of the Review, his cherished
+project, he was more indignant that D'Argenton and Ida should have made
+use of him and his house to advance their own plans. He hurried off to
+the Boulevard Haussmann to learn all he could; but the mystery was no
+nearer elucidation.
+
+Constant was expecting a letter from her mistress, and knew only that
+she had broken entirely with all past relations; that the house was to
+be given up, and the furniture sold.
+
+"Ah! sir," said Constant, mournfully, "it was an unfortunate day for us
+when we set foot in your old barracks!"
+
+The preceptor returned home convinced that at the termination of
+the next quarter Jack would be withdrawn from the school. Deciding,
+therefore, that the child was no longer a mine of wealth, he determined
+to put an end to all the indulgences with which he had been treated.
+Poor Jack after this day sat at the table no longer as an equal, but as
+the butt for all the teachers. No more dainties, no more wine for him.
+There were constant allusions made to D'Argenton: he was selfish and
+vain, a man totally without genius; as to his noble birth, it was more
+than doubtful; the chateau in the mountains, of which he discoursed so
+fluently, existed only in his imagination. These fierce attacks on the
+man whom he detested, amused the child; but something prevented him
+from joining in the servile applause of the other children, who eagerly
+laughed at each one of Moronval's witticisms. The fact was, that Jack
+dreaded the veiled allusions to his mother with which these remarks
+invariably terminated. He, to be sure, rarely caught their full meaning,
+but he saw by the contemptuous laughter that they were far from kindly.
+Madame Moronval would sometimes interrupt the conversation by a friendly
+word to Jack, or by sending him on some trifling errand. During his
+absence, she administered a reproof to her husband and his friends.
+
+"Pshaw!" said Labassandre, "he does not understand." Perhaps he did not
+fully, but he comprehended enough to make his heart very sore.
+
+He had known for a long time that he had a father whose name was not the
+same as his own, that his mother had no husband; and, one day, when one
+of the schoolboys made some taunting allusion, he flew at him in a rage.
+The boy was nearly choked; his cries summoned Moronval to the scene, and
+Jack for the first time was severely flogged.
+
+From that day the charm was broken, and Jack's daily life did not
+greatly differ from that of Madou, who was at this time very unhappy.
+The pleasant weather, and the day at the _Jardin d'Aclimation_, had
+given him a terrible fit of homesickness. His melancholy at first took
+the form of a sullen revolt against his exacting masters. Suddenly all
+this was changed, the boy's eyes grew bright, and he seemed to go about
+the house and the garden as if in a dream.
+
+One night the black boy was undressing, and Jack heard him singing to
+himself in a language that was strange.
+
+"What are you singing, Madou?"
+
+"I am not singing, sir; I'm talking negro talk!" and Madou confided to
+his friend his intention of running away from school. He had thought of
+it for some time, and was only waiting for pleasant weather; and now he
+meant to go to Dahomey, and find Kerika. If Jack would go with him,
+they would go to Marseilles on foot, and then go on board some vessel.
+Nothing could happen to them, for he had his amulet all safe. Jack made
+many objections. Dahomey had no charms for him. He thought of the copper
+basin, and the terrible heads, with an emotion of sick horror; and,
+besides, how could he go so far from his mother?
+
+"Good," said Madou; "you can remain here, and I will go alone."
+
+"And when?"
+
+"To-morrow," answered the negro, resolutely closing his eyes as if he
+knew that he would need all the strength that sleep could give him.
+
+The next morning, when Jack passed through the large recitation-room,
+he saw Madou busily scrubbing the floor, and concluded that he had
+relinquished his project.
+
+The classes were busy for an hour or two, when Moronval appeared. "Where
+is Madou?" he asked abruptly. "He has gone to market," answered madame.
+Jack, however, said to himself that Madou would not return.
+
+In a little while Moronval came back and asked the same question.
+His wife answered, uneasily, that she could not understand the boy's
+prolonged absence.
+
+Dinner-time came, but no Madou, no vegetables, and no meat.
+
+"Something must have happened," said Madame Moronval, more indulgent
+than her impatient husband, who paced up and down the corridor with his
+rod in his hand, while the hungry schoolboys were quite ready to devour
+each other. Finally, Madame Moronval sallied forth herself to buy some
+provisions; and on her return, burdened with packages, she was greeted
+by an enthusiastic shout from the children, who, when the fierceness
+of their hunger abated, ventured on surmises as to Madou's whereabouts.
+Moronval shrewdly suspected the truth. "How much money did he have?" he
+asked.
+
+"Fifteen francs," was his wife's timid answer.
+
+"Fifteen francs! Then it is certain he has run away!"
+
+"But where has he gone?" asked the doctor; "he could hardly reach
+Dahomey with that amount."
+
+Moronval scowled fiercely, and went to report to the police, for it was
+very essential to him that the child should be found, or, at all events,
+prevented from reaching Marseilles. Moronval was in wholesome fear of
+Monsieur Bonfils. "The world is so wicked, you know," he said to
+his wife; "the boy might make some complaints which would injure the
+school." Consequently, in making his report at the police office,
+he stated that Madou had carried away a large sum. "But," he added,
+assuming an air of indifference, "the money part of the matter is of
+very little importance, compared to the dangers that the poor child
+runs--this dethroned king without country or people;" and Moronval
+dashed away a tear.
+
+"We will find him, my good sir," said the official; "have no anxiety."
+
+But Moronval was anxious, nevertheless, and so agitated, that, instead
+of awaiting quietly at home the result of the investigations, as he had
+been advised to do, he started out himself, with all the children to
+join in the search.
+
+They went to each one of the gates, interrogated the custom-house
+officers, and gave them a description of Madou. Then the party repaired
+to the police court, for Moronval had the singular idea that in this
+way his pupils might learn something of Parisian life. The children,
+fortunately, were too young to understand all they saw, but they carried
+away with them a most sinister impression. Jack especially, who was
+the most intelligent of the boys, returned to the academy with a heavy
+heart, shocked at the glimpse he had caught of this under-current of
+life. Over and over again he said to himself, "Where can Madou be?"
+
+Then the child consoled himself with the thought that the negro was far
+on the road to Marseilles; which road little Jack pictured to himself as
+running straight as an arrow, with the sea at its termination, and the
+vessel lying ready to sail. Only one thing disturbed him in regard
+to Madou's journey: the weather, that had been so fine the day of
+his departure, had suddenly changed; and now the rain fell in
+torrents,--hail too, and even snow; and the wind blew around their frail
+dwelling, causing the poor little children of the sun to shiver in their
+sleep, and dream of a rocking ship and a heavy sea. Curled up under his
+blankets one night, listening to the howling of the fierce wind, Jack
+thought of his friend, imagined him half frozen lying under a tree, his
+thin clothing thoroughly wet. But the reality was worse than this.
+
+"He is found!" cried Moronval, rushing into the dining-room, one
+morning. "He is found; I have just been notified by the police. Give me
+my hat and my cane!"
+
+He was in a state of great excitement. As much from the desire to
+flatter the master, as from the love of noise that characterizes boys,
+the children hailed this news with a wild hurrah. Jack did not speak,
+but sighed as he said to himself, "Poor Madou!"
+
+Madou had been, in fact, at the station-house since the evening before.
+It was there, amid criminals of all grades, that the presumptive heir of
+the kingdom of Dahomey was found by his excellent tutor.
+
+"Ah, my unfortunate child! have I found you at last?"
+
+The worthy Moronval could say no more; and, on seeing him throw his long
+arms eagerly about the neck of the little black boy, the inspector of
+police could not help thinking: "At last I have seen one teacher who
+loves his pupils!" Madou, however, displayed the utmost indifference.
+His face was positively without expression; not a ray of shame or of
+apprehension was visible. His eyes were wide open, but he seemed to
+see nothing; his face was pale--and the pallor of a negro is something
+appalling. He was covered with mud from head to foot, and looked like
+some amphibious animal who, after swimming in the water, had rolled in
+the mud on the shore. No hat, and no shoes. What had happened to him? He
+alone could have told you, and he would not speak. The policeman said,
+that, making his rounds the evening before, he had found the boy hidden
+in a lime-kiln, that he was half-starved, and stupefied by the excessive
+heat. Why had he lingered in Paris?
+
+This question Moronval did not ask; nor, indeed, did he speak one word
+to Madou during their long drive to the academy. The boy was so worn out
+and crushed that he sank into a corner, while Moronval glanced at him
+occasionally with an expression of rage that at any other time would
+have terrified him.
+
+Moronval's glance was like a keen rapier, with a flash like lightning,
+crossing a poor little broken blade, shivered and rusty.
+
+When Jack saw the pitiful black face, the rags and the dirt, he could
+hardly recognize the little king. Madou, as he passed, said good morning
+in so mournful a tone that Jack's eyes filled with tears. The children
+saw nothing more of the black boy that day. Recitations went on in their
+usual routine, and at intervals the sound of a lash was heard, and heavy
+groans from Moronval's private study. Madame Moronval turned pale, and
+the book she held trembled. Even when all was again silent, Jack fancied
+that he still heard the groans.
+
+At dinner the principal was radiant, though seemingly exhausted by
+fatigue. "The little wretch!" he said to Dr. Hirsch and his wife. "The
+little wretch! Just, see the state he has put me into!"
+
+That night Jack found the bed next to his occupied. Poor Madou had put
+his master into such a state that he himself had not been able to go
+to bed without assistance. Madame Moronval and Dr. Hirsch were there
+watching the lad, whose sleep was broken by those heavy sighs and sobs
+common to children after a day of painful excitement.
+
+"Then, Dr. Hirsch, you don't think him ill?" asked Madame Moronval,
+anxiously.
+
+"Not in the least, madame; that race has a covering like a monitor!"
+
+When they were alone, Jack took Madou's hand and found it as burning
+hot as a brick from the furnace. "Dear Madou," he whispered. Madou half
+opened his eyes and looked at his friend with an expression of utter
+discouragement.
+
+"It's all over with Madou," he murmured; "Madou has lost his Gri-gri,
+and will never see Dahomey again."
+
+This was the reason, then, that he had not left Paris. Two hours after
+he had run away from the academy, the fifteen francs of market-money
+and his medal had been stolen from him. Then, relinquishing all idea of
+Marseilles, of the ship and of the sea, knowing that without his Gri-gri
+Dahomey was unattainable, Madou had spent eight days and nights in the
+lowest depths of Paris, looking for his amulet. Fearing that Moronval
+would discover his whereabouts, he hid during the day and ventured
+into the streets only after nightfall. He slept by the side of piles of
+bricks and mortar, which partly protected him from the wind; or crawled
+into an open doorway, or under the arches of a bridge.
+
+Favored by his size and by his color, Madou glided about almost unseen;
+he had associated with criminals of all classes, and had escaped without
+contamination, for he thought only of finding his amulet. He had shared
+a crust of bread with assassins, and drank with robbers; but the little
+king escaped from these dangers as he had from others in Dahomey, where,
+when hunting with Kerika, he had been awakened by the trumpeting of
+elephants and the roaring of wild beasts, and saw, under some gigantic
+tree, the dim shadow of some strange animal passing between himself
+and the bivouac fires; or caught a glimpse of some great snake slowly
+winding through the underbrush. But the monsters to be found in Paris
+are more terrible even than those in the African forests; or they would
+have been, had he understood the dangers he incurred. But he could
+not find his Gri-gri. Madou could not talk much, his exhaustion was so
+great; and Jack fell asleep with his curiosity but partially satisfied.
+
+In the middle of the night he was awakened suddenly by a shout from
+Madou, who was singing and talking in his own language with frightful
+volubility. Delirium had begun.
+
+In the morning, Dr. Hirsch announced that Madou was very ill. "A
+brain-fever!" he said, rubbing his hands in glee.
+
+This Dr. Hirsch was a terrible man. His head was stuffed full of
+all sorts of Utopian ideas, of impracticable theories, and notions
+absolutely without method. His studies had been too desultory to amount
+to anything. He had mastered a few Latin phrases, and covered his real
+ignorance by a smattering of the science of medicine as practised among
+the Indians and the Chinese. He even had a strong leaning toward the
+magic arts, and when a human life was intrusted to his care he took that
+opportunity to try some experiments. Madame Moronval was inclined to
+call in another physician, but the principal, less compassionate, and
+unwilling to incur the additional expense, determined to leave the case
+solely in the hands of Dr. Hirsch. Wishing to have no interference,
+this singular physician pretended that the disease was contagious, and
+ordered Madou's bed to be placed at the end of the garden in an old
+hot-house. For a week he tried on his little victim every drug he had
+ever heard of, the child making no more resistance than a sick dog would
+have done. When the doctor, armed with his bottles and his powders,
+entered the hot-house, the "children of the sun," to whose minds a
+physician was always more or less of a magician, gathered about the door
+and listened, saying to each other in awed tones, "What is he going
+to do now to Madou?" But the doctor locked the door, and peremptorily
+ordered the children from its vicinity, telling them that they would be
+ill too, that Madou's illness was contagious; and this last idea added
+additional mystery to that corner of the garden.
+
+Jack, nevertheless, desired to see his friend so much that he alone of
+all the boys would have gladly passed the threshold, had it not been too
+closely guarded. One day, however, he seized an occasion when the doctor
+had gone in search of some forgotten drug, and crept softly into the
+improvised infirmary.
+
+It was one of those half rustic buildings which are used as a shelter
+for rakes and hoes, or even to house some tender plants. Close by
+the side of Madou's iron bed, in the corner, was a pile of earthen
+flowerpots; a broken trellis, some panes of glass, and a bundle of dried
+roots, completed the dismal picture; and in the chimney, as if for the
+protection of some fragile tropical plant, flickered a tiny fire.
+
+Madou was not asleep. His poor little thin face had still the same
+expression of absolute indifference. His black hands, tightly clenched,
+lay on the outside of the bedclothes. There was a look of a sick animal
+in his whole attitude, and in the manner in which he turned his face
+toward the wall, as if an invisible road was open to his eyes through
+the white stones, and every chink in the wall had become a brilliant
+outlook toward a country known to him alone.
+
+Jack whispered, "It is I, Madou,--little Jack."
+
+The child looked at him vacantly; he no longer understood the French
+language. In his fever, all recollection of it had vanished. Instinct
+had effaced all that art had inculcated, and Madou understood and
+spoke nothing save his savage dialect. At this moment, another of "the
+children of the sun," Said, encouraged by Jack's example, followed him
+into the sick-room, but, startled and disturbed by the strange scene,
+retreated to the doorway, and stood with affrighted eyes.
+
+Madou drew one long, shivering sigh.
+
+"He is going to sleep, I think," whispered Said, shivering with terror;
+for, older than Jack, he intuitively felt the cold blast from the wings
+of Death, which already fanned the brow of the sick boy.
+
+"Let us go," said Jack, pale and troubled; and they hastily ran down the
+garden-walk, leaving their comrade alone in the twilight. Night came
+on. In that silent room, which the children had left, the fire crackled
+cheerfully, burning brightly, and illuminating every corner as if in
+search of something that was hidden. The light flickered on the ceiling
+and was reflected on every small window-pane, glanced over the little
+bed, and brought out the color of Madou's red sleeve, until tired
+apparently of its fruitless search, discouraged and exhausted, and
+convinced that its heat was useless, for no one was there to warm. The
+fire gave one last expiring flicker, and then, like the poor little
+half-frozen king, who had so loved it, sank into eternal rest.
+
+Poor Madou! The irony of destiny pursued him even after death, for
+Moronval hesitated whether the interment should be that of a royal
+prince or of a servant. On one side there were reasons of economy; on
+the other, vanity and policy had a word to say. After much indecision,
+Moronval decided to strike a great blow, thinking that, perhaps, as he
+had not profited much by the prince living, he might gain something
+from him dead. So a pompous funeral was arranged. All the daily papers
+published a biography of the little king of Dahomey. It was a short one,
+to be sure, but lengthened by a panegyric of the Moronval Institute, and
+of its principal. The discipline of the establishment was commended;
+its hygienic regulations, the peculiar skill of its medical
+adviser,--nothing had been forgotten, and the unanimity of the eulogiums
+was something quite touching.
+
+One day in May, therefore, Paris, which, notwithstanding its innumerable
+occupations and its feverish excitements, has always one eye open to
+all that goes on,--Paris saw on its principal boulevards a singular
+procession. Four black boys walked by the side of a bier. Behind, a
+taller lad, a tone lighter in complexion, wearing a fez,--our friend
+Said,--carried on a velvet cushion an order or two, some royal insignia
+fantastic in character. Then came Moronval, with Jack and the other
+schoolboys. The professors followed with the habitues of the house, the
+literary men whom we met at the soiree. How shabby were these last!
+How many worn-out coats and worn-out hearts were there! How many
+disappointed hopes and unattainable ambitions! All these slowly
+marched on, embarrassed by the full light of day to which they were
+unaccustomed; and this melancholy escort precisely suited the little
+deposed king. Were not all of these persons pretendents, too, to some
+imaginary kingdom to which they would never succeed? Where but in Paris
+could such a funeral be seen? A king of Dahomey escorted to the grave by
+a procession of Bohemians!
+
+To increase the dreariness of the scene, a fine cold rain began to fall,
+as if fate pursued the little prince, who so hated cold weather, even to
+the very grave. Yes, to the grave; for when the coffin had been lowered,
+Moronval pronounced a discourse so insincere and hard that it would
+not have warmed you, my poor Madou! Moronval spoke of the virtues and
+estimable qualities of the defunct, of the model sovereign he would one
+day have made had he lived. To those who had been familiar with that
+pitiful little face, who had seen the child abased by servitude,
+Moronval's discourse was at once heart-breaking and absurd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.~~JACK'S DEPARTURE.
+
+The only sincere grief for the negro boy was felt by little Jack. The
+death of his comrade had impressed him to an extraordinary degree, and
+the lonely deathbed he had witnessed haunted him for days. Jack knew too
+that now he must bear alone all Moronval's whims and caprices, for the
+other pupils all had some one who came occasionally to see them, and
+who would report any brutalities of which they were the victims. Jack's
+mother never wrote to him nowadays, and no one at the Institute knew
+even where she was. Ah! had he but been able to ascertain, how quickly
+would the child have gone to her, and told her all his sorrows. Jack
+thought of all this as they returned from the cemetery. Labassandre and
+Dr. Hirsch were in front of him, talking to each other.
+
+"She is in Paris," said Labassandre, "for I saw her yesterday."
+
+Jack listened eagerly.
+
+"And was he with her?"
+
+She--he. These designations were certainly somewhat vague, and yet Jack
+knew of whom they were speaking. Could his mother be in Paris and yet
+not have hastened to him? All the way back to the Institute he was
+meditating his escape.
+
+Moronval, surrounded by his professors and friends, walked at the head
+of the procession, and turned occasionally to look back upon them with a
+rallying gesture. This gesture was repeated by Said to the little boys,
+whose legs were very weary with the distance they had walked. They would
+increase their speed for a few rods, and then gradually drop off again.
+Jack contrived to linger more and more among the last.
+
+"Come!" cried Moronval.
+
+"Come, come!" repeated Said.
+
+At the entrance of the Champs Elysees Said turned for the last time,
+gesticulating violently to hasten the little group. Suddenly the
+Egyptian's arms fell at his side in amazement, for Jack was missing!
+
+At first the child did not run, he was sagacious enough to avoid any
+look of haste. He affected, on the contrary, a lounging air. But as he
+drew nearer the Boulevard Haussmann, a mad desire to run took possession
+of him, and his little feet, in spite of himself, went faster and
+faster. Would the house be closed? And if Labassandre were mistaken, and
+his mother not in Paris, what would become of him? The alternative of a
+return to the academy never occurred to him. Indeed, if he had thought
+of it, the remembrance of the heavy blows and heartfelt sobs that he had
+heard all one afternoon would have filled him with terror.
+
+"She is there," cried the child, in a transport of joy, as he saw all
+the windows of the house open, and the door also as it was always when
+his mother was about going out. He hastened on, lest the carriage should
+take her away before he could arrive. But as he entered the vestibule,
+he was struck by something extraordinary in its appearance. It was full
+of people all busily talking. Furniture was being carried away: sofas
+and chairs, covered for a boudoir in such faint and delicate hues that
+in the broad light of day they looked faded. A mirror, framed in
+silver, and ornamented with cupids, was leaning against one of the stone
+pillars; a jardiniere without flowers, and curtains that bad been taken
+down and thrown over a chair, were near by. Several women richly dressed
+were talking together of the merits of a crystal chandelier.
+
+Jack, in great astonishment, made his way through the crowd, and could
+hardly recognize the well-known rooms, such was their disorder. The
+visitors opened the drawers wide, tapped on the wood of the sideboard,
+felt of the curtains, and sometimes, as she passed the piano, a lady,
+without stopping or removing her gloves, would lightly strike a chord or
+two. The child thought himself dreaming. And his mother, where was she?
+He went toward her room, but the crowd surged at that moment in the same
+direction. The child was too little to see what attracted them, but he
+heard the hammer of the auctioneer, and a voice that said,--
+
+"A child's bed, carved and gilded, with curtains!"
+
+And Jack saw his own bed, where he had slept so long, handled by rough
+men. He wished to exclaim,
+
+"The bed is mine--my very own--I will not have it touched;" but a
+certain feeling of shame withheld him, and he went from room to room
+looking for his mother, when suddenly his arm was seized.
+
+"What! Master Jack, are you no longer at the school?"
+
+It was Constant, his mother's maid--Constant, in her Sunday dress,
+wearing pink ribbons, and with an air of great importance.
+
+"Where is mamma?" asked the child, in a low voice, a voice that was so
+pitiful and troubled that the woman's heart was touched.
+
+"Your mother is not here, my poor child," she said.
+
+"But where is she? And what are all these people doing?"
+
+"They have come for the auction. But come with me to the kitchen, Master
+Jack, we can talk better there."
+
+There was quite a party in the kitchen,--the old cook, Augustin, and
+several servants in the neighborhood. They were drinking champagne
+around the same table where Jack's future had been one evening decided.
+The child's arrival made quite a sensation. He was caressed by them all,
+for the servants were really attached to his kind-hearted mother. As
+he was afraid that they would take him back to the Institute, Jack
+took good care not to say that he had run away, and merely spoke of an
+imaginary permission he had received to enable him to visit his mother.
+
+"She is not here, Master Jack," said Constant, "and I really do not know
+whether I ought--" Then, interrupting herself, Constant exclaimed, "O! it
+is too bad. I cannot keep this child from his mother!"
+
+Then she informed little Jack that madame was at Etiolles.
+
+The child repeated the name over and over again to himself. "Is it far
+from here?" he asked.
+
+"Eight good leagues," answered Augustin.
+
+But the cook disputed this point; and then followed an animated
+discussion as to the route to be taken to reach _Etiolles_. Jack
+listened eagerly, for he had already decided to attempt the journey
+alone and on foot.
+
+"Madame lives in a pretty little cottage just at the edge of a wood,"
+said Constant.
+
+Jack understood by this time which side of Paris he should go out. This
+and the name of the village were the two distinct ideas he had. The
+distance did not frighten him. "I can walk all night," he said to
+himself, "even if my legs are little." Then he spoke aloud. "I must go
+now," he said, "I must go back to school." One question, however, burned
+on his lips. Was Argenton at Etiolles? Should he find this powerful
+barrier between his mother and himself? He dared not ask Constant,
+however. Without understanding the truth precisely, he yet felt very
+keenly that this. Was not the best side of his mother's life, and he
+avoided all mention of it.
+
+The servants said "good-bye," the coachman shook hands with him, and
+then the boy found himself in the vestibule among a bustling crowd. He
+did not linger in this chaos, for the house had no longer any interest
+for him, but hurried into the street, eager to start on the journey that
+would end by placing him with his mother.
+
+Bercy! Yes, Bercy was the name of the village the cook had mentioned
+as the first after leaving Paris. The way was not difficult to find,
+although it was a good distance off, but the fear of being caught by
+Moronval spurred him on. An inquisitive look from a policeman startled
+him, a shadow on the wall, or a hurried step behind, made his heart
+beat, and over and above the noise and confusion of the streets he
+seemed to hear the cry of "Stop him! Stop him!" At last he climbed over
+the bank and began to run on the narrow path by the water's edge. The
+day was coming to an end. The river was very high and yellow from recent
+rains, the water rolled heavily against the arches of the bridge, and
+the wind curled it in little waves, the tops of which were just touched
+by the level rays of the setting sun. Women passed him bearing baskets
+of wet linen, fishermen drew in their lines, and a whole river-side
+population, sailors and bargemen, with their rounded shoulders and
+woollen hoods, hurried past him. With these there was still another
+class, rough and ferocious of aspect, who were quite capable of pulling
+you out of the Seine for fifteen francs, and of throwing you in again
+for a hundred sous. Occasionally one of these men would turn to look at
+this slender schoolboy who seemed in such a hurry.
+
+The appearance of the shore was continually changing. In one place
+it was black, and long planks were laid to boats laden with charcoal.
+Farther on, similar boats were crowded with fruit, and a delicious odor
+of fresh orchards was wafted on the air. Suddenly there was a look of a
+great harbor; steamboats were loading at the wharves; a few rods more,
+and a group of old trees bathed their distorted roots in a limpid
+stream, and one could easily fancy one's self twenty leagues from Paris,
+and in an earlier century.
+
+But night was close at hand.
+
+The arches of the bridges vanished in darkness; the bank was deserted,
+and illuminated only by that vague light which comes from even the very
+darkest body of water.
+
+But still the child toiled on, and at last found himself on a long
+wharf, covered with warehouses and piled with merchandise. He had
+reached Bercy, but it was night, and he was filled with terror lest
+he should be stopped at the gate; but the little fugitive was hardly
+noticed. He passed the barrier without hindrance, and soon found himself
+in a long, narrow street, solitary and dimly lighted. While the child
+was in the life and motion of the city, he was terrified only by one
+thought, and that was that Moronval would find him. Now he was still
+afraid, but his fear was of another character--born of silence and
+solitude.
+
+Yet the place where he now found himself was not the country. The street
+was bordered with houses on both sides, but as the child slowly toiled
+on, these buildings became farther and farther apart, and considerably
+lower in height. Although barely eight o'clock, this road was almost
+deserted. Occasional pedestrians walked noiselessly over the damp
+ground, while the dismal howling of a dog added to the cheerlessness
+of the scene. Jack was troubled. Each step that he took led him further
+from Paris, its light and its noise. He reached the last wineshop.
+A broad circle of light barred the road, and seemed to the child the
+limits of the inhabited world.
+
+After he had passed that shop, he must go on in the dark. Should he go
+into the shop and ask his way? He looked in. The proprietor was seated
+at his desk; around a small table sat two men and a woman, drinking
+and talking. When Jack lifted the latch, they looked up; the three had
+hideous faces--such faces as he had seen at the police stations the day
+they were looking for Madou. The woman, above all, was frightful.
+
+"What does he want?" said one of the men.
+
+The other rose; but little Jack with one bound leaped the stream of
+light from the open door, hearing behind him a volley of abuse. The
+darkness now seemed to the child a refuge, and he ran on quickly until
+he found himself in the open country. Before him stretched field after
+field; a few small, scattered houses, white cubes, alone varied the
+monotony of the scene. Below was Paris, known by its long line of
+reddish vapor, like the reflection of a blacksmith's forge. The child
+stood still. It was the first time that he had ever been alone out of
+doors at night. He had neither eaten nor drank all day, and was now
+suffering from intense thirst. He was also beginning to understand what
+he had undertaken.
+
+Had he strength enough to reach his mother?
+
+He finally decided to lie down in a furrow in the bank on the side of
+the road, and sleep there until daybreak. But as he went toward the
+spot he had selected, he heard heavy breathing, and saw that a man was
+stretched out there, his rags making a confused mass of dark shadow
+against the white stones.
+
+Jack stood petrified, his heart in his mouth, unable to take a step
+forward or back. At this instant the sleeping figure began to move, and
+to talk, still without waking. The child thought of the woman in the
+wine-shop, and feared that this creature was she, or some other equally
+repulsive.
+
+The shadows all about were now to his fancy peopled with these frightful
+beings. They climbed over the bank, they barred his further progress. If
+he extended his hand to the right or the left, he felt certain that
+he should touch them. A light and a voice aroused the child from this
+stupor. An officer, accompanied by his orderly, bearing a lantern,
+suddenly appeared.
+
+"Good evening, gentlemen," said the child, gently, breathless with
+emotion.
+
+The soldier who carried the lantern raised it in the direction of the
+voice.
+
+"This is a bad hour to travel, my boy," remarked the officer; "are you
+going far?"
+
+"O, no, sir; not very far," answered Jack, who did not care to tell the
+truth.
+
+"Ah, well! we can go on together as far as Charenton."
+
+What a delight it was to the child to walk for an hour at the side of
+these two honest soldiers, to regulate his steps by theirs, and to see
+the cheerful light from the lantern! From the soldier, too, he casually
+learned that he was on the right road.
+
+"Now we are at home," said the officer, halting suddenly. "Good night.
+And take my advice, my lad, and don't travel alone again at night--it
+is not safe." And with these parting words, the men turned up a narrow
+lane, swinging the lantern, leaving Jack alone at the entrance of the
+principal street in Charenton. The child wandered on until he found
+himself on the quay; he crossed a bridge which seemed to him to be
+thrown over an abyss, so profound were the depths below. He lingered for
+a moment, but rough voices singing and laughing so startled him that he
+took to his heels and ran until he was out of breath, and was again in
+the open fields. He turned and looked back; the red light of the great
+city was still reflected on the horizon. Afar off he heard the grinding
+of wheels. "Good!" said the child; "something is coming." But nothing
+appeared. And the invisible wagon, whose wheels moved apparently with
+difficulty, turned down some unseen lane.
+
+Jack toiled on slowly. Who was that man that stood waiting for him at
+the turning of the road? One man! Nay, there were two or three. But they
+were trees,--tall, slender poplars,--or a clump of elms--those lovely
+old elms which grow to such majestic beauty in France; and Jack was
+environed by the mysteries of nature,--nature in the springtime of the
+year, when one can almost hear the grass grow, the buds expand, and the
+earth crackle as the tender herbage shoots forth. All these faint, vague
+noises bewildered little Jack, who began to sing a nursery rhyme with
+which his mother formerly rocked him to sleep.
+
+It was pitiful to hear the child, alone in the darkness, encouraging
+himself by these reminiscences of his happy, petted infancy. Suddenly
+the little trembling voice stopped.
+
+Something was coming--something blacker than the darkness itself,
+sweeping down on the child as if to swallow him up. Cries were heard;
+human voices, and heavy blows. Then came a drove of enormous cattle,
+which pressed against little Jack on all sides; he feels the damp breath
+from their nostrils; their tails switch violently, and the heat of their
+bodies, and the odor of the stable, is almost stifling. Two boys and
+two dogs are in charge of these animals; the dogs bark, and the uncouth
+peasants yell, until the noise is appalling.
+
+As they pass on, the child is absolutely stupefied by terror. These
+animals have gone, but will there not be others? It begins to rain, and
+Jack, in despair, fails on his knees, and wishes to die. The sound of a
+carriage, and the sight of two lamps like friendly eyes coming quickly
+toward him, revives him suddenly. He calls aloud.
+
+The carriage stops. A head, with a travelling cap drawn closely down
+over the ears, bends forward to ascertain the whereabouts of the shrill
+cry.
+
+"I am very tired," pleaded Jack; "would you be so kind as to let me come
+into your carriage?"
+
+The man hesitated, but a woman's voice came to the child's assistance.
+"Ah, what a little fellow I Let him come in here."
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the traveller.
+
+The child hesitated. Like all fugitives, he wished to hide his
+destination. "To Villeneuve St George," he answered, nervously.
+
+"Come on, then," said the man, with gruff kindness.
+
+The child was soon curled up under a comfortable travelling rug, between
+a stout lady and gentleman, who both examined him curiously by the light
+of the little lamp.
+
+Where was he going so late, and all alone, too? Jack would have liked
+to tell the truth, but he was in too great fear of being carried back to
+the Institute. Then he invented a story to suit the occasion. His mother
+was very ill in the country, where she was visiting. He had been told of
+this the night before, and he had at once started off on foot, because
+he had not patience to wait for the next day's train.
+
+"I understand," said the lady. And the gentleman looked as if he
+understood also, but made many wise observations as to the imprudence of
+running about the country alone, there were so many dangers. Then he was
+asked in what house in Villeneuve his mother's friends resided.
+
+"At the end of the town," answered Jack, promptly,--"the last house on
+the right."
+
+It was lucky that his rising color was hidden by the darkness. His
+cross-examination, however, was by no means over. The husband and wife
+were great talkers, and, like all great talkers, extremely curious, and
+could not be content until they had learned the private affairs of all
+those persons with whom they came in contact. They kept a little store,
+and each Saturday went into the country to get rid of the dust of the
+week; but they were making money, and some day would live altogether at
+Soisy-sous-Etiolles.
+
+"Is that place far from Etiolles?" asked Jack, with a start.
+
+"O, no, close by," answered the gentleman, giving a friendly cut with
+his whip to his beast.
+
+What a fatality for Jack! Had he not told the falsehood, he could have
+gone on in this comfortable carriage, have rested his poor little weary
+legs, and had a comfortable sleep, wrapped in the good woman's shawl,
+who asked him, every little while, if he was warm enough.
+
+If he could but summon courage enough to say, "I have told you a
+falsehood; I am going to the same place that you are;" but he was
+unwilling to incur the contempt and distrust of these good people; yet,
+when they told him that they had reached Villeneuve, the child could not
+restrain a sob.
+
+"Do not cry, my little friend," said the kind woman; "your mother,
+perhaps, is not so ill as you think, and the sight of you will make her
+well."
+
+At the last house the carriage stopped.
+
+"Yes, this is it," said Jack, sadly. The good people said a kind
+good-bye. "How lucky you are to have finished your journey," said the
+woman; "we have four good leagues before us."
+
+Little Jack had the same, but durst not say so. He went toward the
+garden-gate. "Good night," said his new friends, "good night."
+
+He answered in a voice choked by tears, and the carriage turned toward
+the right. Then the child, overwhelmed with vain regrets, ran after it
+with all his speed; but his limbs, weakened instead of strengthened
+by inadequate repose, refused all service. At the end of a few rods he
+could go no further, but sank on the roadside with a burst of passionate
+tears, while the hospitable proprietors of the carriage rolled
+comfortably on, without an idea of the despair they had left behind
+them.
+
+He was cold, the earth was wet. No matter for that; he was too weary to
+think or to feel. The wind blows violently, and soon the poor little boy
+sleeps quietly. A frightful noise awakens him. Jack starts up and sees
+something monstrous--a howling, snorting beast, with two fiery eyes that
+send forth a shower of sparks. The creature dashed past, leaving behind
+him a train like a comet's tail. A grove of trees, quite unsuspected by
+Jack, suddenly flashed out clearly; each leaf could have been counted.
+Not until this apparition was far away, and nothing of it was visible
+save a small green light, did Jack know that it was the express train.
+
+What time was it? How long had he slept? He knew not, but he felt ill
+and stiff in every limb. He had dreamed of Madou,--dreamed that they lay
+side by side in the cemetery; he saw Madou's face, and shivered at the
+thought of the little icy fingers touching his own. To get away from
+this idea Jack resumed his weary journey. The damp earth had stiffened
+in the cold night wind, and his own footfall sounded in his ears so
+unnaturally heavy, that he fancied Madou was at his side or behind him.
+
+The child passes through a slumbering village; a clock strikes two.
+Another village, another clock, and three was sounded. Still the boy
+plods on, with swimming head and burning feet. He dares not stop.
+Occasionally he meets a huge covered wagon, driver and horses sound
+asleep. He asks, in a timid, tired voice, "Is it far now to Etiolles?"
+No answer comes save a loud snore.
+
+Soon, however, another traveller joins the child--a traveller whose
+praises are sung by the cheery crowing of the cocks, and the gurgles of
+the frogs in the pond. It is the dawn. And the child shares the anxiety
+of expectant nature, and breathlessly awaits the coming of the new-born
+day.
+
+Suddenly, directly in front of him, in the direction in which lay the
+town where his mother was, the clouds divide--are torn apart suddenly,
+as it were; a pale line of light is first seen; this line gradually
+broadens, with a waving light like flames. Jack walks toward this light
+with a strength imparted by incipient delirium.
+
+Something tells him that his mother is waiting there for him, waiting to
+welcome him after this horrible night. The sky was now clear, and looked
+like a large blue eye, dewy with tears and full of sweetness. The road
+no longer dismayed the child. Besides, it was a smooth highway, without
+ditch or pavement, intended, it seemed, for the carriages of the
+wealthy. Superb residences, with grounds carefully kept, were on both
+sides of this road. Between the white houses and the vineyards were
+green lawns that led down to the river, whose surface reflected the
+tender blue and rosy tints of the sky above. O sun, hasten thy coming;
+warm and comfort the little child, who is so weary and so sad!
+
+"Am I far from Etiolles?" asked Jack of some laborers who were going to
+their work.
+
+"No, he was not far from Etiolles; he had but to follow the road
+straight on through the wood."
+
+The wood was all astir now, resounding with the chirping of birds and
+the rustling of squirrels. The refrain of the birds in the hedge of
+wild roses was repeated from the topmost branches of the century-old
+oak-trees; the branches shook and bent under the sudden rush of winged
+creatures; and while the last of the shadows faded away, and the
+night-birds with silent, heavy flight hurried to their mysterious
+shelters, a lark suddenly rises from the field with its wings
+wide-spread, and flies higher and higher until it is lost in the sky
+above. The child no longer walks, he crawls; an old woman meets him,
+leading a goat; mechanically he asks if it is far to Etiolles.
+
+The ragged creature looks at him ferociously, and then points out a
+little stony path. The sunshine warms the little fellow, who stumbles
+over the pebbles, for he has no strength to lift his feet. At last he
+sees a steeple and a cluster of houses; one more effort, and he will
+reach them. But he is dizzy and falls; through his half-shut eyes he
+sees close at hand a little house covered with vines and roses. Over the
+door, between the wavering shadows of a lilac-tree already in flower, he
+saw an inscription in gold letters:--
+
+     PARVA  DOMUS, MAGNA QUIES.
+
+How pretty the house was, bathed in the fresh morning light! All the
+blinds are still closed, although the dwellers in the cottages are
+awake, for he hears a woman's voice singing,--singing, too, his own
+cradle-song, in a fresh, gay voice. Was he dreaming? The blinds were
+thrown open, and a woman appeared in a white negligee, with her hair
+lightly twisted in a simple knot.
+
+"Mamma, mamma!" cried Jack, in a weak voice.
+
+The lady turned quickly, shaded her eyes from the sun, and saw the poor
+little worn and travel-stained lad.
+
+She screamed "Jack!" and in a moment more was beside him, warming him in
+her arms, caressing and soothing the little fellow, who sobbed out the
+anguish of that terrible night on her shoulder.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.~~PARVA DOMUS, MAGNA QUIES.
+
+"No, no, Jack; no, dear child; do not be alarmed, you shall never go
+back to that school. Did they dare to strike you? Cheer up, dear. I tell
+you that you shall never go there again, but shall always be with me. I
+will arrange a little room for you to-day, and you will see how nice it
+is to be in the country. We have cows and chickens, and that reminds me
+the poultry has not yet been fed. Lie down, dear, and rest a while. I
+will wake you at dinner-time, but first drink this soup. It is good, is
+it not? And to think that while I was calmly sleeping, you were alone
+in the cold and dark night. I must go. My chickens are calling me;" and
+with a loving kiss Ida went off on tiptoe, happy and bright, browned
+somewhat by the sun, and dressed with rather a theatrical idea of the
+proprieties. Her country costume had a great deal of black velvet about
+it, and she wore a wide-brimmed Leghorn hat, trimmed with poppies and
+wheat.
+
+Jack could not sleep, but his bath and the soup prepared by Mere
+Archambauld, his mother's cook, had restored his strength to a very
+great degree, and he lay on the couch, looking about him with calm,
+satisfied eyes.
+
+There was but little of the old luxury. The room he was in was large,
+furnished in the style of Louis XVI., all gray and white, without the
+least gilding. Outside, the rustling of the leaves, the cooing of the
+pigeons on the roof, and his mother's voice talking to her chickens,
+lulled him to repose.
+
+One thing troubled him: D'Argenton's portrait hung at the foot of the
+bed, in a pretentious attitude, his hand on an open book.
+
+The child said to himself, "Where is he? Why have I not seen
+him?" Finally, annoyed by the eyes of the picture, which seemed to pursue
+him either with a question or a reproach, he rose and went down to his
+mother.
+
+She was busy in the farm-yard; her gloves reached above her elbows, and
+her dress, looped on one side, showed her wide striped skirt and high
+heels.
+
+Mere Archambauld laughed at her awkwardness. This woman was the wife
+of an employe in the government forests, who attended to the culinary
+department at Aulnettes, as the house was called where Jack's mother
+lived.
+
+"Heavens! how pretty your boy is!" said the old woman, delighted by
+Jack's appearance.
+
+"Is he not, Mere Archambauld? What did I tell you?"
+
+"But he looks a good deal more like you, madame, than like his papa.
+Good day, my dear! May I give you a kiss?"
+
+At the word papa, Jack looked up quickly.
+
+"Ah, well! if you can't sleep, let us go and look at the house," said
+his mother, who quickly wearied of every occupation. She shook down
+her skirts, and took the child over this most original house, which was
+situated a stone's throw from the village, and realized better than
+most poets' dreams those of D'Argenton. The house had been originally a
+shooting-box belonging to a distant chateau. A new tower had been added,
+and a weathercock, which last gave an aspect of intense respectability
+to the place. They visited the stable and the orchard, and finished
+their examination by a visit to the tower.
+
+A winding staircase, lighted by a skylight of colored glass, led to a
+large, round room containing four windows, and furnished by a circular
+divan covered with some brilliant Eastern stuff. A couple of curious
+old oaken chests, a Venetian mirror, some antique hangings, and a high
+carved chair of the time of Henri II., drawn up in front of an enormous
+table covered with papers, composed the furniture of the apartment. A
+charming landscape was visible from the windows, a valley and a river, a
+fresh green wood, and some fair meadow-land.
+
+"It is here that HE works," said his mother, in an awed tone.
+
+Jack had no need to ask who this HE might be.
+
+In a low voice, as if in a sanctuary, she continued, without looking at
+her son,--
+
+"At present he is travelling. He will return in a few days, however. I
+shall write to him that you are here; he will be very glad, for he is
+very fond of you, and is the best of men, even if he does look a little
+severe sometimes. You must learn to love him, little Jack, or I shall be
+very unhappy."
+
+As she spoke she looked at D'Argenton's picture hung at the end of this
+room, a picture of which the one in her room was a copy; in fact,
+a portrait of the poet was in every room, and a bronze bust in the
+entrance-hall, and it was a most significant fact that there was no
+other portrait than his in the whole house. "You promise me, Jack, that
+you will love him?"
+
+Jack answered with much effort, "I promise, dear mamma."
+
+This was the only cloud on that memorable day. The two were so happy in
+that quaint old drawing-room. They heard Mere Archambauld rattling her
+dishes in the kitchen. Outside of the house there was not a sound. Jack
+sat and admired his mother. She thought him much grown and very large
+for his age, and they laughed and kissed each other every few minutes.
+In the evening they had some visitors. Pere Archambauld came for his
+wife, as he always did, for they lived in the depths of the forest. He
+took a seat in the dining-room.
+
+"You will drink a glass of wine, Father Archambauld. Drink to the health
+of my little boy. Is he not nice? Will you take him with you sometimes
+into the forest?"
+
+And as he drank his wine, this tawny giant, who was the terror of
+the poachers throughout the country, looked about the room with that
+restless glance acquired in his nightly watchings in the forest, and
+answered timidly,--
+
+"That I will, Madame d'Argenton."
+
+This name of D'Argenton, thus given to his mother, mystified our little
+friend. But as he had no very accurate idea of either the duties or
+dignities of life, he soon ceased to take any notice of his mother's
+new title, and became absorbed in a rough game of play with the two dogs
+under the table. The old couple had just gone, when a carriage was heard
+at the door.
+
+"Is it you, doctor?" cried Ida from within, in joyous greeting,
+
+"Yes, madame; I come to learn something about your sick son, of whose
+arrival I have heard."
+
+Jack looked inquisitively at the large, kindly face crowned by snowy
+locks. The doctor wore a coat down to his heels, and had a rolling walk,
+the result of twenty years of sea-life as a surgeon.
+
+"Your boy is all right, madame. I was afraid, from what I heard through
+my servant, that he and you might require my services."
+
+What good people these all were, and bow thankful little Jack felt that
+he had forever left that detestable school!
+
+When the doctor left, the house was bolted and barred, and the mother
+and child went tranquilly to their bedroom.
+
+There, while Jack slept, Ida wrote to D'Argenton a long letter, telling
+him of her son's arrival, and seeking to arouse his sympathy for the
+little lonely fellow, whose gentle, regular breathing she heard at her
+side. She was more at her ease when two days later came a reply from her
+poet.
+
+Although full of reproaches and of allusions to her maternal weakness,
+and to the undisciplined nature of her child, the letter was less
+terrible than she had anticipated. In fact, D'Argenton concluded that
+it was well to be relieved of the enormous expenses at the academy, and
+while disapproving of the escapade, he thought it no great misfortune,
+as the Institution was rapidly running down. "Had he not left it?" As to
+the child's fixture, it should be his care, and when he returned a week
+later, they would consult together as to what plan to adopt.
+
+Never did Jack, in his whole life, as child or man, pass such a week of
+utter happiness. His mother belonged to him alone. He had the dogs
+and the goat, the forest and the rabbits, and yet he did not leave his
+mother for many minutes at a time. He followed her wherever she went,
+laughed when she laughed without asking why, and was altogether content.
+
+Another letter. "He will come to-morrow!"
+
+Although D'Argenton had written kindly, Ida was still nervous, and
+wished to arrange the meeting in her own way. Consequently she refused
+to permit him to go with her to the station in the little carriage. She
+gave him several injunctions, painful to them both, as if they had
+each been guilty of some great fault, and to the boy inexpressibly
+mortifying.
+
+"You will remain at the end of the garden," she said, "and do not come
+until I call you."
+
+The child lingered an hour in expectation, and when he heard the
+grinding of the wheels, ran down the garden walk, and concealed himself
+behind the gooseberry bushes. He heard D'Argenton speak. His tone was
+harder, sterner than ever. He heard his mother's sweet voice answer
+gently, "Yes, my dear--no, my dear." Then a window in the tower opened.
+"Come, Jack, I want you, my child!"
+
+The boy's heart beat quickly as he mounted the stairs. D'Argenton was
+leaning back in the tall armchair, his light hair gleaming against the
+dark wood. Ida stood by his side, and did not even hold out her hand to
+the little fellow. The lecture he received was short and affectionate
+to a certain extent. "Jack," he said, in conclusion, "life is not a
+romance; you must work in earnest. I am willing to believe in your
+penitence; and if you behave well, I will certainly love you, and we
+three may live together happily. Now listen to what I propose. I am a
+very busy man.--I am, nevertheless, willing to devote two hours every
+day to your education. If you will study faithfully, I can make of you,
+frivolous as you are by nature, a man like myself."
+
+"You hear, Jack," said his mother, alarmed at his silence, "and you
+understand the sacrifice that your friend is ready to make for you--"
+
+"Yes, mamma," stammered Jack.
+
+"Wait, Charlotte," interrupted D'Argenton; "he must decide for himself:
+I wish to force no one."
+
+Jack, petrified at hearing his mother called Charlotte, and unable to
+find words to express his sense of such generosity, ended by saying
+nothing. Seeing the child's embarrassment, his mother gently pushed him
+into the poet's arms, who pressed a theatrical kiss on his brow.
+
+"Ah, dear, how good you are!" murmured the poor woman, while the child,
+dismissed by an imperative gesture, hastily ran down the stairs.
+
+In reality Jack's installation in the house was a relief to the poet.
+He loved Ida, whom he called Charlotte in memory of Goethe, and also
+because he wished to obliterate all her past, and to wipe out even the
+name of Ida de Barancy. He loved her in his own fashion, and made of her
+a complete slave. She had no will, no opinion of her own, and D'Argenton
+had grown tired of being perpetually agreed with. Now, at least, he
+would have some one to contradict, to argue with, to tutor, and to
+bully; and it was in this spirit that he undertook Jack's education,
+for which he made all arrangements with that methodical solemnity
+characteristic of the man's smallest actions.
+
+The next morning, Jack saw, when he awoke, a large card fastened to
+the wall, and on it, inscribed in the beautiful writing of the poet, a
+carefully prepared arrangement for the routine of the day.
+
+"_Rise at six_. From six to seven, breakfast; from seven to eight,
+recitation; from eight to nine," and so on.
+
+Days ordered in this systematic manner resemble those windows whose
+shutters hardly permit the entrance of air enough to breathe, or light
+to see with. Generally these rules are made only to be broken, but
+D'Argenton allowed no such laxity.
+
+D'Argenton's method of education was too severe for Jack, who was,
+however, by no means wanting in intelligence, and was well advanced in
+his studies. He was disturbed, too, by the personality of the poet, to
+whom he had a very strong aversion, and above all he was overwhelmed by
+the new life he was leading.
+
+Suddenly transported from the mouldy lane, and from the academy, to the
+country, to the woods and the fields, he was at once excited and charmed
+by Nature. The truest way would have been to have laid aside all books
+until the child himself demanded them. Often of a sunny day, when he sat
+in the tower opposite his teacher, he was seized with a strong desire
+to leap out of the window, and rush into the fresh woods after the birds
+that had just flown away, or in search of the squirrel of which he had
+caught a glimpse. What a penance it was to write his copy, while the
+wild roses beckoned him to come and pluck them!
+
+"This child is an idiot," cried D'Argenton, when to all his questions
+Jack stammered some answer as far from what he should have said as if
+he had that moment fallen from the light cloud he had been steadily
+watching. At the end of a month the poet announced that he relinquished
+the task, that it was a mere loss of precious time to himself, and of no
+use to the boy, who neither could nor would learn anything. In
+reality, he was by no means unwilling to abandon the iron rules he had
+established, and which pressed with severity on himself as well as on
+the child. Ida, or rather Charlotte, made no remonstrance. She preferred
+to think her boy incapable of study rather than endure the daily scenes,
+and the incessant lectures and tears of this educational experiment.
+
+Above everything she longed for peace. Her aims were as restricted as
+her intellect, and she lived solely in the present, and any future,
+however brilliant, seemed to her too dearly purchased at the price of
+present tranquillity.
+
+Jack was very happy when he no longer saw under his eyes that placard:
+"Rise at six. From six to seven, breakfast; from seven to weight," &c.
+The days seemed to him longer and brighter. As if he understood that his
+presence in the house was often an annoyance, he absented himself for
+the whole day with that absolute disregard of time natural to children
+and loungers.
+
+He had a great friend in the forester. As soon as he was dressed in the
+morning he started for Father Archambauld's, just as the old man's wife,
+before going to her Parisians, as she called her employers, served her
+husband's breakfast in a fresh, clean room hung with a light green paper
+that represented the same hunting-scene over and over again.
+
+When the forester had finished his meal, he and little Jack started
+out on a long tramp. Father Archambauld showed the child the pheasants'
+nests, with their eggs like large pearls, built in the roots of the
+trees; the haunts of the partridges, the frightened hares, and the young
+kids. The hawthorn's white blossoms perfumed the air, and a variety of
+wild flowers enamelled the turf. The forester's duty was to protect the
+birds and their young broods from all injury, and to destroy the moles
+and snakes. He received a certain sum for the heads or tails of these
+vermin, and every six months carried to Corbiel a bag of dry and dusty
+relics. He would have been better pleased could he have taken also the
+heads of the poachers, with whom he was in constant conflict. He had
+also a great deal of trouble with the peasants who injured his trees.
+
+A doe could be replaced, a dead pheasant was no great matter; but a
+tree, the growth of years, was a vastly different affair. He watched
+them so carefully that he knew all their maladies. One species of
+fir was attacked by tiny worms, which come in some mysterious way by
+thousands. They select the strongest and handsomest specimens, and take
+possession of them. The trees have only their resinous sap as a weapon
+of defence. This sap they pour over their enemies, and over their eggs
+deposited in the crevices of the bark. Jack watched this unequal contest
+with the greatest interest, and saw the slow dropping of these odorous
+tears. Sometimes the fir-tree won the victory, but too often it perished
+and withered slowly, until at last the giant of the forest; whose lofty
+top had been the haunt of singing-birds, where bees had made their home,
+and which had sheltered a thousand different lives, stood white and
+ghastly as if struck by lightning.
+
+During these walks through the woods, the forester and his companion
+talked very little. They listened rather to the sweet and innumerable
+sounds about them. The sound of the wind varied with every tree that it
+touched. Among the pines it moaned and sighed like the sea. Among the
+birches and aspens, it rattled the leaves like castanets; while from the
+borders of the ponds, which were numerous in this part of the forest,
+came gentle rustlings from the long, slender, silken-coated reeds. Jack
+learned to distinguish all these sounds and to love them.
+
+The little boy, however, had incurred the enmity of many of the
+peasants, who saw him constantly with the forester, to whom they had
+sworn eternal hatred. Cowardly and sulky, they touched their hats
+respectfully enough to Jack when they met him with Father Archambauld,
+but when he was alone, they shook their fists at him with horrible
+oaths.
+
+There was one old woman, brown as an Indian squaw, who haunted the very
+dreams of the child. On his way home at sunset, he always met her with
+her fagots on her back. She stood in the path and assailed him with her
+tongue; and sometimes, merely to frighten him, ran after him for a few
+steps. Poor little Jack often reached his mother's side breathless and
+terrified, but, after all, this only added another interest to his life.
+Sometimes Jack found his mother in the kitchen talking in a low voice;
+no sound was to be heard in the house save the ticking of the great
+clock in the dining-room. "Hush, my dear," said his mother; "He is
+up-stairs. He is at work!"
+
+Jack sat down in a corner and watched the cat lying in the sun. With
+the awkwardness of a child who makes a noise merely because he knows he
+ought not to do so, he knocked over something, or moved the table.
+
+"Hush, dear," exclaimed Charlotte, in distress, while Mother
+Archambauld, laying the table, moved on the points of her big
+feet--moved as lightly as possible, so as not to disturb "her master who
+was at work."
+
+He was heard up-stairs--pushing back his chair, or moving his table.
+He had laid a sheet of paper before him; on this paper was written the
+title of his book, but not another word. And yet he now had all that
+formerly he had said would enable him to make a reputation,--leisure,
+sufficient means, freedom from interruption, a pleasant study, and
+country air. When he had had enough of the forest, he had but to turn
+his chair, and from another window he obtained an admirable view of sky
+and water. All the aroma of the woods, all the freshness of the river,
+came directly to him. Nothing could disturb him, unless it might be the
+cooing and fluttering of the pigeons on the roof above.
+
+"Now to work!" cried the poet. He opened his portfolio, and seized his
+pen, but not one line could he write. Think of it! To live in a pavilion
+of the time of Louis XV., on the edge of a forest in that beautiful
+country about Etiolles, to which the memory of the Pompadour is attached
+by knots of rose-colored ribbons and diamond buckles. To have around
+him every essential for poetry,--a charming woman named in memory of
+Goethe's heroine, a Henri II. chair in which to write, a small white
+goat to follow him from place to place, and an antique clock to mark the
+hours and to connect the prosaic Present with the romance of the Past!
+All these were very imposing, but the brain was as sterile as when
+D'Argenton had given lessons all day and retired to his garret at night,
+worn out in body and mind.
+
+When Charlotte's step was heard on the stairs, he assumed an expression
+of profound absorption. "Come in," he said, in reply to her knock,
+timidly repeated. She entered fresh and gay, her beautiful arms bared to
+the elbows, and with so rustic an air that the rice-powder on her face
+seemed to be the flour from some theatrical mill in an opera bouffe.
+
+"I have come to see my poet," she said, as she came in. She had a way
+of drawling out the word poet that exasperated him. "How are you getting
+on?" she continued. "Are you pleased?"
+
+"Pleased? Can one ever be pleased or satisfied in this terrible
+profession, which is a perpetual strain on every nerve!"
+
+"That is true enough, my friend; and yet I would like to know--"
+
+"To know what? Have you any idea how long it took Goethe to write his
+_Faust?_ And yet he lived in a thoroughly artistic atmosphere. He was
+not condemned, as I am, to absolute solitude--mental solitude, I mean."
+
+The poor woman listened in silence. From having so often listened
+to similar complaints from D'Ar-genton, she had at last learned to
+understand the reproaches conveyed in his words.
+
+The poet's tone signified, "It is not you who can fill the blank around
+me." In fact, he found her stupid, and was bored to death when alone
+with her.
+
+Without really being conscious of it, the thing that had fascinated him
+in this woman was the frame in which she was set. He adored the
+luxury by which she was surrounded. Now that he had her all to
+himself--transformed and rechristened her, she had lost half her charm
+in his eyes, and yet she was more lovely than ever. It was amusing to
+witness the air of business with which he opened each morning the three
+or four journals to which he subscribed. He broke the seals as if
+he expected to find in their columns something of absorbing personal
+interest; as, for example, a critique of his unwritten poem, or a resume
+of the book that he meant some day to write. He read these journals
+without missing one word, and always found something to arouse his
+contempt or anger. Other people were so fortunate: their pieces were
+played; and what pieces they were! Their books were printed; and such
+books! As for himself, his ideas were stolen before he could write them
+down.
+
+"You know, Charlotte, yesterday a new play by Emile Angier was produced;
+it was simply my _Pommes D'Atlante_."
+
+"But that is outrageous! I will write myself to this Monsieur Angier,"
+said poor Lottie, in a great state of indignation.
+
+During these remarks, Jack said not one word; but as D'Argenton lashed
+himself into frenzy, his old antipathy to the child revived, and the
+heavy frowns with which he glanced toward the little fellow showed him
+very clearly that his hatred was only smothered, and would burst forth
+on the smallest provocation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.~~THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF BELISAIRE.
+
+One afternoon, when D'Argenton and Charlotte had gone to drive, Jack,
+who was alone with Mother Archambauld, saw that he must relinquish his
+usual excursion to the forest on account of a storm that was coming up.
+
+The July sky was heavy with black clouds, copper-colored on the edges;
+distant rumblings of thunder were heard, and the valley had that air of
+expectation which often precedes a storm.
+
+Fatigued by the child's restlessness, the forester's wife looked out at
+the weather, and said to Jack,--
+
+"Come, Master Jack, it does not rain; and it would be very kind of you
+to go and get me a little grass for my rabbits."
+
+The child, enchanted at being of use, took a basket and went gayly off
+to search in a ditch for the food the rabbits liked.
+
+The white road stretched before him, the rising wind blew the dust in
+clouds, when suddenly Jack heard a voice crying, "Hats! Hats to sell!
+Nice Panamas!"
+
+Jack looked over the edge of the ditch, and saw a pedler carrying on his
+shoulders an enormous basket piled with straw hats. He walked as if he
+were footsore and weary.
+
+Have you ever thought how dismal the life of an itinerant salesman
+must be? He knows not where he will sleep at night, or even that he can
+obtain the shelter of a barn; for the average peasant always regards a
+pedler, or any stranger, indeed, as an adventurer, and watches him with
+distrustful eyes.
+
+"Hats! Hats to sell!" For whose ears did he intend this repetition of
+his monotonous cry? There was not a person in sight, nor a house. Was it
+for the benefit of the birds, who, feeling the coming of the storm, had
+taken shelter in the trees? The man took a seat on a pile of stones,
+while Jack, on the other side of the road, examined him with much
+curiosity. His face was forbidding to a certain extent, but expressed so
+much suffering in the heavy features, that Jack's kind heart was filled
+with pity. At that moment a thunder-clap was heard; the man looked up
+at the skies anxiously, and then called to Jack to ask how far off the
+village was.
+
+"Half a mile exactly," answered the child.
+
+"And the shower will be here in a few moments," said the pedler,
+despairingly. "All my hats will be wet, and I shall be ruined."
+
+The child thought of his own memorable journey, and he wished to do a
+kind act.
+
+"You can come to our house," he said, "and then your hats will not
+be injured." The pedler grasped eagerly at this permission, for his
+merchandise was so delicate. The two hurried on as fast as possible; the
+man walking, however, as if he were treading on hot iron.
+
+"Are you in pain?" asked the child.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I am; my shoes are too small for me; you see my feet are
+so big that I can never find anything large enough for them. O, if I
+should ever be rich, I would have a pair of shoes made to measure!"
+
+They reached Aulnettes. The pedler deposited in the hall his scaffold
+of hats, and stood there humbly enough. But Jack led him into the
+dining-room, saying, "You must have a glass of wine and a bit of bread."
+
+Mother Archambauld frowned, but nevertheless put on the table a big loaf
+and a pot of wine.
+
+"Now a slice of ham," said Jack, in a tone of command.
+
+"But the master does not wish any one to touch the ham," said the old
+woman, grumbling. In fact, D'Argenton was something of a glutton, and
+there were always some dainties in the pantry preserved for his especial
+enjoyment.
+
+"Never mind! bring it out!" said the child, delighted at playing the
+part of host.
+
+The good woman obeyed reluctantly. The ped-ler's appetite was of the
+most formidable description, and while he supped he told his simple
+story. His name was Belisaire, and he was the eldest of a large
+family, and spent the summer wandering from town to town.--A violent
+thunder-clap shook the house, the rain fell in torrents, and the noise
+was terrific. At that moment some one knocked. Jack turned pale. "They
+have come!" he said with a gasp.
+
+It was D'Argenton who entered, accompanied by Charlotte. They were not
+to have returned until late, but seeing the approach of the storm, they
+had given up their plan. They were, however, wet to the skin, and the
+poet was in a fearful rage with himself and every one else. "A fire in
+the parlor," he said, in a tone of command.
+
+But while they were taking off their wraps in the hall; D'Argenton
+perceived the formidable pile of hats.
+
+"What is that?" he asked. Ah! if Jack could but have sunk a hundred feet
+under ground with his stranger guest and the littered table! The poet
+entered the room, looked about, and understood everything. The child
+stammered a word or two of apology, but the other did not listen.
+
+"Come here, Charlotte. Master Jack receives his friends to-day, it
+seems."
+
+"O, Jack! Jack!" cried the mother in a horrified tone of reproach.
+
+"Do not scold him, madame," stammered Belisaire. "I only am in fault!"
+
+Here D'Argenton, out of all patience, threw open the door with a most
+imposing gesture. "Go at once," he said, violently; "how dare you come
+into this house?"
+
+Belisaire, to whom no manner of humiliation was new, offered no word of
+remonstrance, but snatched up his basket, cast one look of distress
+at the tempest out-of-doors, and another of gratitude toward little
+Jack--who sighed as he heard the rain falling like hail on the
+Panamas,--and hurried down the garden walk. No sooner had the man
+reached the highway, than his melancholy voice resumed the cry, "Hats!
+Hats to sell!"
+
+In the dining-room profound silence reigned; the servant was kindling a
+fire, and Charlotte was shaking the poet's coat, while he sulkily strode
+up and down the room.
+
+As he passed the table he caught sight of the ham on which the pedler's
+knife had made sad havoc. D'Argenton turned pale. Remember that the ham
+was sacred, like his wine, his mustard, and mineral water. "What! the
+ham, too!" he exclaimed.
+
+Charlotte, utterly stupefied by such audacity, could only mechanically
+repeat his words.
+
+"I said, madame, that they ought not to cut the ham, that such pork was
+too good for such a vagabond. But the little fellow does not know much
+yet, he is so young."
+
+Jack by this time was quite alarmed at what he had done, and could only
+beg pardon in a troubled tone.
+
+"Pardon, indeed!" cried the poet, giving way, as it must be admitted
+he rarely did, to his temper, and shaking the boy violently, exclaimed,
+"What right had you to touch that ham? You knew it was not yours. You
+know that nothing here is yours; for the bed you sleep on, for the food
+you eat, you are indebted to my bounty. And why should I care for you?
+I know not even your name!" Here an imploring gesture from Charlotte
+stopped the torrent of words. Mother Archambauld was still in the room,
+and listening with eagerness. The poet turned away suddenly, and rushed
+up stairs, banging the door after him.
+
+Jack remained, looking at his mother in consternation. She wrung her
+pretty hands, and again implored heaven to tell her what she had done to
+merit such a hard fate.
+
+This was her only resource in the serious perplexities of life; and,
+naturally, her question remained unanswered.
+
+To add the finishing touch to the discomfort of the house, D'Argenton
+was now taken with one of "his attacks," a form of bilious fever.
+
+Charlotte petted and soothed him, and waited upon him by inches. The
+sister-of-charity spirit, that lies in the depths of every womanly
+nature, made her love her poet the more because he was suffering. How
+tenderly she protected his nerves! She laid a woollen cloth on the table
+under the white one to soften the noise of the plates and the silver.
+She piled the Henry II. chair with cushions, and had her rolls of hot
+flannels and her tisanes in readiness at all hours of the day and night.
+
+Sometimes the poor little woman was fearfully rebuffed and mortified by
+a fretful exclamation from the poet. "Do be quiet, Charlotte; you talk
+too much!"
+
+This illness brought the good-natured doctor to the house once more.
+Charlotte met him in the hall. "Come quick, doctor, our dear poet is
+suffering," she said, anxiously.
+
+"Nonsense, my dear; he only wants a little amusement."
+
+In fact, D'Argenton, who greeted the physician in the most languid
+tones, soon forgot to keep up the farce in the pleasure of seeing a
+new face, which made a pleasant break in his monotonous life, and a
+few moments later beheld him launched on some dazzling episode of his
+Parisian life. The doctor saw no reason to doubt the truth of these
+narrations told in such measured and careful phrases, and was always
+pleased with the appearance of the family,--the intellectual husband,
+the pretty gay wife, and the amusing child; and no intuition gave him a
+hint, as might have been the case with a more delicate organization,
+of the peculiarity and bitterness of the ties which bound the household
+together.
+
+Often, therefore, on these bright midsummer days, the doctor's horse
+was fastened to the palisades, while the old man drank the cool glass
+carefully mixed for him by Charlotte herself, and as he drank, he told
+of his wonderful adventures in India. Jack listened with eyes and ears
+wide open.
+
+"Jack!" said D'Argenton, peremptorily, and pointed to the door.
+
+"Let him stay, I beg of you; I like to have children around me. I am
+quite sure that your boy has discovered that I have a grandchild;" and
+the old man talked of his little Cecile, who was two years younger than
+Jack.
+
+"Bring her to see us, doctor," said Charlotte; "the two children would
+be so happy together."
+
+"Thank you, dear madame; but her grandmother would never consent. She
+never trusts the child to any one; and she herself never goes anywhere
+since our great sorrow."
+
+This sorrow, of which the old doctor often spoke, was the loss of his
+daughter and his son-in-law within a year after their marriage. Some
+mystery surrounded this double catastrophe. Even Mother Archambauld, who
+knew everything, contented herself with saying, "Yes, poor things! they
+have had a great deal of trouble."
+
+The only prescription given by the doctor was a verbal one, "Keep him
+amused, madame; keep him amused!"
+
+How could poor Charlotte do this? They went off together in a little
+carriage; breakfast, books, and a butterfly-net accompanied them to the
+forest; but he was bored to death. They bought a boat, but a tete-a-tete
+in the middle of the Seine was worse than one on shore; and the little
+boat soon lay moored at the landing, half full of water and dead leaves.
+
+Then the poet took to building; he planned a new staircase and an
+Italian terrace: but even this did not amuse him.
+
+One day a man, who came to tune the pianoforte, extolled the merits of
+an AEolian harp. D'Argenton immediately ordered one made on a gigantic
+scale, and placed it on his roof. From that moment poor little Jack's
+life was a burden to him. The melancholy wail of the instrument, like
+a soul in purgatory, pursued him in his dreams. To the child's great
+relief, the poet was equally disturbed, and the harp was ordered to
+the end of the garden; but its shrieks and moans were still heard.
+D'Argenton fiercely commanded that the instrument should be buried,
+which was done, and the earth heaped upon it as over some mad animal.
+All these various occupations failing to amuse her poet, Charlotte
+reluctantly decided to invite some of his old friends, but was repaid
+for her sacrifice by witnessing D'Argenton's joy on being told that Dr.
+Hirsch and Labassandre were soon to visit them.
+
+When Jack entered the house, a few days later, he heard the voices of
+his old professors. The child felt an emotion of sick terror, for the
+sounds recalled the memory of so many wretched hours. He slipped quietly
+into the garden, there to await the dinner-bell.
+
+"Come, gentlemen," said Charlotte, smilingly, as she appeared on the
+terrace,--her large white apron indicating that au a good housekeeper
+she by no means disdained on occasion to lay aside her lace ruffles and
+take an active part.
+
+The professors promptly obeyed this summons to dinner, and greeted Jack
+as he took his seat with every appearance of cordiality. Two large doors
+opened on the lawn, beyond which lay the forest.
+
+"You are a lucky fellow," said Labassandre. "Tomorrow I shall be in that
+hot, dusty town, eating a miserable dinner."
+
+"It is a good thing to be certain of having even a miserable dinner,"
+grumbled Dr. Hirsch.
+
+"Why not remain here for a time?" said D'Argen-ton, cordially. "There is
+a room for each of you; the cellar has some good wine in it--"
+
+"And we can make excursions," interrupted Charlotte, gayly.
+
+"But what would become of my rehearsals?" said Labassandre.
+
+"But you, Dr. Hirsch," continued Charlotte, "you are tied down to the
+opera-house!"
+
+"Certainly not; and my patients are nearly all in the country at this
+season."
+
+The idea of Dr. Hirsch having any patients was very funny, and yet no
+one laughed.
+
+"Well, decide!" cried the poet, "In the first place, you would be doing
+me a favor, and could prescribe for me."
+
+"To be sure. The physician here knows nothing of your constitution,
+while I can soon set you on your feet again. I am sick of the Institute
+and of Moron-val, and never wish to see either more." Thereupon the
+doctor launched forth in a philippic against the school which supported
+him. Moronval was a thorough humbug, he never paid anybody, and every
+one was giving him up; the affair of Madou had done him great injury;
+and finally Dr. Hirsch went so far as to compliment Jack on his
+energetic departure.
+
+At this moment Dr. Rivals was shown into the dining-room; he was
+overjoyed at finding so gay and talkative a circle. "You see, madame, I
+was right: our invalid only needed a little excitement."
+
+"There I differ from you!" cried Dr. Hirsch, fiercely, snuffing the
+battle from afar.
+
+Old Rivals examined this singular person with some distrust. "Dr.
+Hirsch," said D'Argenton, "allow me to present you to Dr. Rivals."
+They bowed like two duellists on the field who salute each other
+before crossing their swords. The country physician concluded his
+new acquaintance to be some famous Parisian practitioner, full of
+eccentricities and hobbies. D'Argenton's illness was the occasion of a
+long discussion between the physicians.
+
+It was droll to see the poet's expression. He was inclined to take
+offence that Dr. Rivals should consider him a mere hypochondriac, and
+again to be equally annoyed when Dr. Hirsch insisted upon his having a
+hundred diseases, each one with a worse name than the others.
+
+Charlotte listened with tears in her eyes.
+
+"But this is utter nonsense," cried Rivals, who had listened
+impatiently; "there are no such diseases, in the first place, and if
+there were, our friend has no such symptoms."
+
+This was too much for Dr. Hirsch, and the battle began in earnest. They
+hurled at each other titles of books in every language, names of every
+drug known and unknown to the faculty. The scene was more laughable than
+terrific, and was very much like one from "Moliere." Jack and his mother
+escaped to the piazza, Where Labassandre was already trying his voice.
+The winged inhabitants of the forest twittered in terror; the peacocks
+in the neighboring chateau answered by those alarmed cries with which
+they greet the approach of a thunder-shower; the neighboring peasants
+started from their sleep, and old Mother Archambauld wondered what was
+going on in the little house, where the moon shone so whitely on the
+legend in gold characters over the door:
+
+     PARVA DOMUS, MAGNA QUIES.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.~~CECILE.
+
+"Where are you going so early?" asked Dr. Hirsch, indolently, as he
+saw Charlotte, gayly dressed, prayer-book in hand, come slowly down the
+stairs, followed by Jack, who was once more clad in the pet costume of
+Lord Pembroke.
+
+"To church, my dear sir. Has not D'Argenton told you that I have an
+especial duty to perform there this morning? Come with us, will you
+not?"
+
+It was Assumption Day, and Charlotte had been much flattered by being
+asked to distribute the bread. She, with her child, took the seats
+reserved for them on a bench close to the choir. The church was adorned
+with flowers. The choir-boys were in surplices freshly ironed, and on
+a rustic table the loaves of bread were piled high. To complete the
+picture, all the foresters, in their green costumes, with their knives
+in their belts and their carbines in their hands, had come to join in
+the Te Deum of this official fete.
+
+Ida de Barancy would have been certainly much astonished had some one
+told her a year before, that she would one day assist at a religious
+festival in a village church, under the name of the Vicomtesse
+D'Argenton, and that she would have all the consideration and prestige
+of a married woman. This new role amused and interested her. She
+corrected Jack, turned the pages of her prayer-book, and shook out her
+rustling silk skirts in the most edifying fashion.
+
+When it was time for the offertory, the tall Swiss, armed with a
+halberd, came for Jack, and bending low whispered in his mother's ear
+a question as to what little girl should be chosen to assist him;
+Charlotte hesitated, for "she knew so few persons in the church.
+Then the Swiss suggested Dr. Rivals' grandchild--a little girl on the
+opposite side sitting next an old lady in black. The two children walked
+slowly behind the majestic official, Cecile carrying a velvet bag much
+too large for her little fingers, and Jack bearing an enormous wax
+candle ornamented with floating ribbons and artificial flowers. They
+were both charming: he in his Scotch costume, and she simply dressed,
+with waves of soft brown hair parted on her childish brow, and her face
+illuminated by large gray eyes. The breath of fresh flowers mingled with
+the fumes of incense that hung in clouds throughout the church. Cecile
+presented her bag with a gentle, imploring smile. Jack was very grave.
+The little fluttering hand in its thread glove, which he held in his
+own, reminded him of a bird that he had once taken from its nest in the
+forest. Did he dream that the little girl would be his best friend, and
+that, later, all that was most precious in life for him would come from
+her?
+
+"They would make a pretty pair," said an old woman, as the children
+passed her, and in a lower voice added, "Poor little soul, I hope she
+will be more fortunate than her mother!"
+
+Their duties over, Jack returned to his place, still under the influence
+of the hand he had so lightly held. But additional pleasure was in
+store for him. As they left the church, Madame Rivals approached Madame
+D'Argenton and asked permission to take Jack home with her to breakfast.
+Charlotte colored high with gratification, straightened the boy's
+necktie, and, kissing him, whispered, "Be a good child!"
+
+From this day forth, when Jack was not at home he was at the old
+doctor's, who lived in a house in no degree better than that of his
+neighbors, and only distinguished from them by the words Night-Bell on a
+brass plate above a small button at the side of the door. The walls were
+black with age. Here and there, however, an observant eye could see that
+some attempts had been made to rejuvenate the mansion; but everything of
+that nature had been interrupted on the day of their great sorrow, and
+the old people had never had the heart to go on with their improvements
+since; an unfinished summer-house seemed to say, with a discouraged air,
+"What is the use?" The garden was in a complete state of neglect. Grass
+grew over the walks, and weeds choked the fountain. The human beings in
+the house had much the same air. From Madame Rivals, who, eight years
+after her daughter's death, still wore the deepest of black, down
+to little Cecile, whose childish face had a precocious expression of
+sorrow, and the old servant who for a quarter of a century had shared
+the griefs and sorrows of the family,--all seemed to live in an
+atmosphere of eternal regret. The doctor, who kept up a certain
+intercourse with the outer world, was the only one who was ever
+cheerful.
+
+To Madame Rivals, Cecile was at once a blessing and a sorrow, for the
+child was a perpetual reminder of the daughter she had lost. To the
+doctor, on the contrary, it seemed that the little girl had taken her
+mother's place, and sometimes, when he was with her alone, he would
+give way to a loud and merry laugh, which would be quickly silenced on
+meeting his wife's sad eyes, full of astonished reproach.
+
+Little Cecile's life was by no means a gay one. She lived in the garden,
+or in a large room where a door, that was always closed, led to the
+apartment that had once been her mother's, and which was full of the
+souvenirs of that short life. Madame Rivals alone ever entered this
+room, but little Cecile often stood on the threshold, awed and silent.
+The child had never been sent to school, and this isolation was very
+bad for her; she needed the association of other children. "Let us ask
+little D'Argenton here," said her grandfather: "the boy is charming!"
+
+"Yes; but who knows anything about these people? Whence do they come?"
+answered his wife. "Who knows them?"
+
+"Everybody, my dear. The husband is very eccentric, certainly, but he is
+an artist, or a journalist rather, and they are privileged. The woman
+is not quite a lady, I admit, but she is well enough. I will answer for
+their respectability."
+
+Madame Rivals shook her head. She had but slight confidence in her
+husband's insight into character, and sighed in an ostentatious way.
+
+Old Rivals colored guiltily, but returned in a moment to his original
+idea.
+
+"The child will be ill if she has not some change. Besides, what harm
+could possibly happen?"
+
+The grandmother then consented, and Jack and Cecile became close
+companions. The old lady grew very fond of the little fellow. She saw
+that he was neglected at home, that the buttons were off his coat, and
+that he had no lesson-hours.
+
+"Do you not go to school, my dear?"
+
+"No, madame," was the answer; and then quickly added,--for a child's
+instinct is very delicate,--"Mamma teaches me."
+
+"I cannot understand," said Madame Rivals to her husband, "how they can
+let this child grow up in this way, idling his time from morning till
+night."
+
+"The child is not very clever," answered the doctor, anxious to excuse
+his friends.
+
+"No, it is not that; it is that his stepfather does not like him."
+
+Jack's best friends were in the doctor's house. Cecile adored him. They
+played together in the garden if the weather was fair, in the pharmacy
+if it was stormy. Madame Rivals was always there, and as there was no
+apothecary's store in Etiolles, put up simple prescriptions herself.
+She had done this for so many years, that she had attained considerable
+experience, and was often consulted in her husband's absence. The
+children found vast amusement in deciphering the labels on the bottles,
+and pasting on new ones. Jack did this with all a boy's awkwardness,
+while little Cecile used her hands as gravely and deftly as a woman
+grown.
+
+The old physician delighted in taking the children with him when he went
+about the country to visit his patients. The carriage was large, the
+children small, so that the three were stowed in very comfortably, and
+merrily jogged over the rough roads. Wherever they went they were warmly
+welcomed, and while the doctor climbed the narrow stairs, the children
+roamed at will through the farm-yard and fields.
+
+Illness among these peasant homes assumes a very singular aspect. It is
+never allowed to interfere with the routine and labors of daily life.
+The animals must be fed and housed for the night, and driven out to
+pasture in the morning, whether the farmer be well or ill. If ill, the
+wife has no time to nurse him, or even to be anxious. After a hard day's
+toil she throws herself on her pallet and sleeps soundly until dawn,
+while her good man tosses feverishly at her side, longing for morning.
+Every one worshipped the doctor, who they affirmed would have been very
+rich, had he not been so generous.
+
+His professional visits over, the old man and the children started for
+home. The Seine, misty and dark with the approach of evening, had yet
+occasional bars of golden light crossing its surface. Slender trees,
+with their foliage heavily massed at the top, like palms, and the low
+white houses along the brink, gave a vague suggestion of an Eastern
+scene. "It is like Nazareth," said little Cecile; and the two children
+told each other stories while the carriage rolled slowly homeward.
+
+Doctor Rivals soon discovered that Jack was by no means wanting in
+intelligence, and determined, with his natural kindness of heart, to
+himself supply the great deficiencies in education by giving him an
+hour's instruction daily. Those of my readers who are in the habit of
+enjoying a siesta after dinner, will appreciate the sacrifice made by
+the old man, when I add that it was this precise time that he now freely
+gave to the little boy, who, in his turn, gratefully applied himself
+with his whole heart to his lessons. Cecile was almost always present,
+and was as pleased as Jack himself when her grandfather, examining the
+copy-book, said, "Well done!" To his mother, Jack said nothing of
+his labors; he determined to prove to her at some future day that the
+diagnosis of the poet had been incorrect. This concealment was rendered
+very easy, as the mother grew hourly more and more indifferent to her
+child, and more completely absorbed in D'Argenton. The boy's comings and
+goings were almost unnoticed. His seat at the table was often vacant,
+but no one asked where he had been. New guests filled the board, for
+D'Argenton kept open house; yet the poet was by no means generous in his
+hospitality, and when Charlotte would say to him, timidly, "I am out of
+money, my friend," he would reply by a wry face and the word, "Already?"
+But vanity was stronger than avarice, and the pleasure of patronizing
+his old friends, the Bohemians, with whom he had formerly lived, carried
+the day. They all knew that he had a pleasant home, that the air was
+good and the table better; consequently, one would say to another, "Who
+wants to go to Etiolles to-night?" They came in droves.
+
+Poor Charlotte was in despair. "Madame Archambauld, are there
+eggs?--is there any game? Company has come, and what shall we give
+them?"
+
+"Anything will suit, madame, I fancy, for they look half starved," said
+the old woman, astonished at the unkempt, unshorn, and hungry aspect of
+her master's friends.
+
+D'Argenton delighted in showing them over the house; and then they
+dispersed to the fields, to the river-side, and into the forest, as
+happy and frolicsome as old horses turned out to grass. In the fresh
+country, in the full sunlight, those rusty coats and worn faces seemed
+more rusty and more worn than when seen in Paris; but they were happy,
+and D'Argenton radiant. No one ventured to dispute his eternal "I
+think," and "I know." Was he not the master of the house, and had he not
+the key of the wine cellar?
+
+Charlotte, too, was well pleased. It was to her inconsequent nature and
+Bohemian instincts a renewal of the excitement of her old life. She
+was flattered and admired, and, while remaining true to her poet, was
+pleased to show him that she had not lost her power of charming.
+
+Months passed on. The little house was enveloped in the melancholy mists
+of autumn; then winter snows whitened the roof, followed by the fierce
+winds of March; and finally a new spring, with its lilacs and violets,
+gladdened the hearts of the inmates of the cottage. Nothing was changed
+there. D'Argenton, perhaps, had two or three new symptoms, dignified
+by Doctor Hirsch with singular names. Charlotte was as totally without
+salient characteristics, as pretty and sentimental, as she had always
+been. Jack had grown and developed amazingly, and having studied
+industriously, knew quite as much as other boys of his age.
+
+"Send him to school now," said Doctor Rivals to his mother, "and I
+answer for his making a figure."
+
+"Ah, doctor, how good you are!" cried Charlotte, a little ashamed, and
+feeling the indirect reproach conveyed in the interest expressed by a
+stranger, as contrasted with her own indifference.
+
+D'Argenton answered coldly that he would reflect upon the matter, that
+he had grave objections to a school, &c., and when alone with Charlotte,
+expressed his indignation at the doctor's interference, but from that
+time took more interest in the movements of the boy.
+
+"Come here, sir," said Labassandre, one day, to Jack. The child obeyed
+somewhat anxiously. "Who made that net in the chestnut-tree at the foot
+of the garden?"
+
+"It was I, sir."
+
+Cecile had expressed a wish for a living squirrel, and Jack had
+manufactured a most ingenious snare of steel wire.
+
+"Did you make it yourself, without any aid?"
+
+"Yes, sir," answered the child.
+
+"It is wonderful, very wonderful," continued the singer, turning to the
+others. "The child has a positive genius for mechanics."
+
+In the evening there was a grand discussion. "Yes, madame/," said
+Labassandre, addressing Charlotte; "the man of the future, the coming
+man, is the mechanic. Rank has had its day, the middle classes theirs,
+and now it is the workman's turn. You may to-day despise his horny
+hands, in twenty years he will lead the world."
+
+"He is right," interrupted D'Argenton, and Doctor Hirsch nodded
+approvingly. Singularly enough, Jack, who generally heard the
+conversation going on about him without heeding it, on this occasion
+felt a keen interest, as if he had a presentiment of the future.
+
+Labassandre described his former life as a blacksmith at the village
+forge. "You know, my friends," he said, "whether I have been successful.
+You know that I have had plenty of applause, and of medals. You may
+believe me or not, as you please, but I assure you I would part with
+all sooner than with this;" and the man rolled up his shirt-sleeve and
+displayed an enormous arm tattooed in red and blue. Two blacksmith's
+hammers were crossed within a circle of oak-leaves; an inscription was
+above these emblems in small letters: _Work and Liberty_. Labassandre
+proceeded to deplore the unhappy hour when the manager of the opera at
+Nantes had heard him sing. Had he been let alone, he would by this time
+have been the proprietor of a large machine shop, with a provision laid
+up for his old age.
+
+"Yes," said Charlotte, "but you were very strong, and I have heard you
+say that the life was a hard one."
+
+"Precisely; but I am inclined to believe that the individual in question
+is sufficiently robust."
+
+"I will answer for that," said Dr. Hirsch.
+
+Charlotte made other objections. She hinted that some natures were more
+refined than others--"that certain aristocratic instincts--"
+
+Here D'Argenton interrupted her in a rage. "What nonsense! My friends
+occupy themselves in your behalf, and then you find fault, and utter
+absurdities."
+
+Charlotte burst into tears. Jack ran away, for he felt a strong desire
+to fly at the throat of the tyrant who had spoken so roughly to his
+pretty mother.
+
+Nothing more was said for some days; but the child noticed a change in
+his mother's manner toward him: she kissed him often, and kissed him
+with that lingering tenderness we show to those we love and from whom we
+are about to part. Jack was the more troubled as he heard D'Argenton say
+to Dr. Rivals, with a satirical smile, "We are all busy, sir, in your
+pupil's interest. You will hear some news in a few days that will
+astonish you."
+
+The old man was delighted, and said to his wife, "You see, my dear, that
+I did well to make them open their eyes."
+
+"Who knows? I distrust that man, and do not believe he intends any good
+to the child. It is better sometimes that your enemy should sit with
+folded arms than trouble himself about you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.~~LIFE IS NOT A ROMANCE.
+
+One Sunday morning, just after the arrival of the train that had brought
+Labassandre and a noisy band of friends, Jack, who was in the garden
+busy with his squirrel-net, heard his mother call him. Her voice came
+from the window of the poet's room. Something in its tone, or a certain
+instinct so marked in some persons, told the child that the crisis had
+come, and he tremblingly ascended the stairs. On the Henri Deux chair
+D'Argenton sat, throned as it were, while Labassandre and Dr. Hirsch
+stood on either side. Jack saw at once that there were the tribunal, the
+judge, and the witnesses, while his mother sat a little apart at an open
+window.
+
+"Come here!" said the poet, sternly, and with such an assumption of
+dignity that one was tempted to believe that the Henry Deux chair itself
+had spoken. "I have often told you that life is not a romance; you have
+seen me crushed, worn and weary with my literary labors; your turn
+has now come to enter the arena. You are a man,"--the child was but
+twelve,--"you are a man now, and must prove yourself to be one. For
+a year,--the year that I have been supposed to neglect you,--I have
+permitted you to run free, and, thanks to my peculiar talents of
+observation, I have been able to decide on your path in life. I have
+watched the development of your instincts, tastes, and habits, and,
+with your mother's consent, have taken a step of importance." Jack was
+frightened, and turned to his mother for sympathy. Charlotte still sat
+gazing from the window, shading her eyes from the sun. D'Argenton called
+on Labassandre to produce the letter he had received. The singer pulled
+out a large, ill-folded peasant's letter, and read it aloud:--
+
+     "FOUNDRY D'INDRET.
+
+     "My Dear Brother: I have spoken to the master in regard to
+     the young man, your friend's son, and he is willing, in
+     spite of his youth, to accept him as an apprentice. He may
+     live under our roof, and in four years I promise you that he
+     shall know his trade. Everybody is well here. My wife and
+     Zenaide send messages.
+
+     "Rondic."
+
+"You hear, Jack," interrupted D'Argenton; "in four years you will hold a
+position second to none in the world,--you will be a good workman."
+
+The child had seen the working classes in Paris; above all, he had seen
+a noisy crowd of men in dirty blouses leaving a shop at six o'clock in
+the _Passage des Douze Maisons_. The idea of wearing a blouse was
+the first that struck him. He remembered his mother's tone of
+contempt,--"Those are workmen, those men in blouses!"--he remembered the
+care with which she avoided touching them in the street as she passed.
+But he was more moved at the thought of leaving the beautiful forest,
+the summits of whose waving trees he even now caught a glimpse of from
+the window, the Rivals, and above all his mother, whom he loved so much
+and had found again after so much difficulty.
+
+Charlotte, at the open window, shivered from head to foot, and her hand
+dashed away a tear. Was she watching in that western sky the fading away
+of all her dreams, her illusions, and her hopes?
+
+"Then must I go away?" asked the child, faintly.
+
+The men smiled pityingly, and from the window came a great sob.
+
+"In a week we will go, my boy," said Labassandre, cheeringly. But
+D'Argenton, with a frown directed to the window, said, "You can leave
+the room now, and be ready for your journey in a week."
+
+Jack ran down the stairs, and out into the village street, and did
+not stop to take breath until he reached the house of Dr. Rivals, who
+listened to his story with indignation.
+
+"It is preposterous!" he cried. "The very idea of making a mechanic of
+you is absurd. I will see your father at once."
+
+The persons who saw the two pass through the street--the doctor
+gesticulating, and little Jack without a hat--concluded that some one
+must be ill at Aulnettes. This was not the case, however; for Dr. Rivals
+heard loud talking and laughing as he entered the house, and Charlotte,
+as she descended the stairs, was singing a bar from the last opera.
+
+"I wish to say a few words in private to you, sir," said Mr. Rivals.
+
+"We are among friends," answered D'Argenton, "and have no secrets. You
+have something to say, I suppose, in regard to Jack. These gentlemen
+know all that I have done for him, my motives, and the peculiar
+circumstances of the case."
+
+"But, my friend "--Charlotte said, timidly, fearing the explanation that
+was forthcoming.
+
+"Go on, doctor," interrupted the poet, sternly.
+
+"Jack has just told me that you have apprenticed him to the Forge at
+Indret. This, of course, is a mistake on his part."
+
+"Not in the least, sir."
+
+"But you can have no conception of the child's nature, nor of his
+constitution. It is his health, his very existence, with which you are
+trifling. I assure you, madame," he continued, turning toward Charlotte,
+"that your child could not endure such a life. I am speaking now simply
+of his physique. Mentally and spiritually, he is equally unfitted for
+it."
+
+"You are mistaken, doctor," interrupted D'Argen-ton; "I know the boy
+better than you possibly can. He is only fit for manual labor, and now
+that I offer him the opportunity of earning his daily bread in this
+way, of exercising the one talent he may have, he goes to you and makes
+complaints of me."
+
+Jack tried to excuse himself. His friend bade him be silent, and
+continued,--
+
+"He did not complain to me. He simply informed me of your decision. I
+told him to come at once to his mother, and to you, and entreat you to
+reconsider your determination, and not degrade him in this way."
+
+"I deny the degradation," shouted Labassandre. "Manual labor does not
+degrade a man. The Saviour of the world was a carpenter."
+
+"That is true," murmured Charlotte, before whose eyes at once floated a
+vision of her boy as the infant Jesus in a procession on some feast-day.
+
+"Do not listen to such utter nonsense, dear ma-dame," cried the doctor,
+exasperated out of all patience. "To make your boy a mechanic is to
+separate from him forever. You might send him to the other end of the
+world, and yet he would not be so far from you. You will see when it is
+too late; the day will come that you will blush for him, when he
+will appear before you, not as the loving, tender son, but humble and
+servile, as holding a social position far inferior to your own."
+
+Jack, who had not yet said a word, dismayed at this vivid picture of the
+future, started up from his seat in the corner.
+
+"I will not be a mechanic!" he said, in a firm voice.
+
+"O, Jack!" cried his mother, in consternation.
+
+But D'Argenton thundered out, "You will not be a mechanic, you say? But
+you will eat, and sleep, and be clothed at my expense! No, sir; I have
+had enough of you, and I never cared much for parasites." Then, suddenly
+cooling down, he concluded in a lower tone by a command to the boy to
+retire to his bedroom. There the child heard a loud and angry discussion
+going on below, but the words were not to be understood. Suddenly the
+hall-door opened, and Mr. Rivals was heard to say,--
+
+"May I be hanged if I ever cross this threshold again!"
+
+At this moment Charlotte came in, her eyes red with weeping. For the
+first time she seemed to have lost all consciousness of self, and had
+laid aside her role of the coquettish, pretty woman. The tears she had
+shed had been those that age a mother's face, and leave ineffaceable
+marks upon it.
+
+"Listen to me, Jack," she said, tenderly. "You have made me very
+unhappy. You have been impertinent and ungrateful to your best friends.
+I know, my child, that you will be happy in your new life. I acknowledge
+that at first I was troubled at the idea; but you heard what they said,
+did you not? A mechanic is very different nowadays from what it was
+once. And, besides, at your age you should rely on the judgment of those
+older than yourself, who have only your interests at heart."
+
+A sob from the child interrupted her.
+
+"Then you, too, send me away!"
+
+The mother snatched him to her heart, and kissed him passionately. "I
+send you away, my darling! You know that if the matter rested with
+me, you should never leave me; but, my child, we must both of us be
+reasonable, and think a little of the future, which is dreary enough for
+us." And then Charlotte hesitatingly continued, "You know, dear, you are
+very young, and there are many things you cannot understand. Some day,
+when you are older, I will tell you the secret of your birth. It is an
+absolute romance: some day you shall learn your father's name. But now
+all that is necessary for you to understand is, that we have not a penny
+in the world, and are absolutely dependent on--D'Argenton." This name
+the poor woman uttered with shame and hesitation, accompanied, at the
+same time, with a touching look of appeal to her son. "I cannot," she
+continued, "ask him to do anything more for us; he has already done so
+much. Besides, he is not rich. What am I to do between you both? Ah, if
+I could only go in your place to Indret and earn my bread! And yet
+you would refuse an opening that gives you a certainty of earning your
+livelihood, and of becoming your own master."
+
+By the sparkle in her boy's eyes the mother saw that these words had
+struck home, and in a caressing tone she continued, "Do this for me,
+Jack; do this for your mother. The time may come when I shall have to
+look to you as my sole support." Did she really believe her own words?
+Was it a presentiment, one of those momentary flashes of light that
+illuminate the future's dark horizon? or had she simply talked for
+effect?
+
+At all events, she could have found no better way to conquer this
+generous nature. The effect was instantaneous. The idea that his mother
+some day would lean on him suddenly decided him to yield at once. He
+looked her straight in the eyes. "Promise me that you will never be
+ashamed of me when my hands are black, and that you will always love
+me."
+
+She covered her boy with kisses, concealing in this way her trouble and
+remorse, for from this time henceforward the unhappy woman was a prey to
+remorse, and never thought of her child without an agonized contraction
+of the heart.
+
+But he, supposing that her embarrassment came from anxiety, and possibly
+from shame, tore himself away, and ran toward the stairs.
+
+"Come, mama, I will tell him that I accept."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," said the little fellow to D'Argenton, as he
+opened the door; "I was very wrong in refusing your kindness. I accept
+it with thanks."
+
+"I am happy to find that reflection has taught you wisdom. But now
+express your gratitude to M. Labassandre: it is he to whom you are
+indebted."
+
+The child extended his hand, which was quickly ingulfed in the enormous
+paw of the artist.
+
+This last week Jack spent in his former haunts he was more anxious
+than sad, and the responsibility he felt made itself seen in two little
+wrinkles on his childish brow. He was determined not to go away without
+seeing Cecile.
+
+"But, my dear, after the scene here the other day, it would not
+be suitable," remonstrated his mother. But the night before Jack's
+departure, D'Argenton, full of triumph at the success of his plans,
+consented that the boy should take leave of his friends. He went there
+in the evening. The house was dark, save a streak of light coming from
+the library--if library it could be called--a mere closet, crammed with
+books. The doctor was there, and exclaimed, as the door opened, "I
+was afraid they would not let you come to say good-bye, my boy! It was
+partially my fault. I was too quick-tempered by far. My wife scolded me
+well. She has gone away, you know, with Cecile, to pass a month in the
+Pyrenees with my sister. The child was not well; I think I told her of
+your impending departure too abruptly. Ah, these children! we think they
+do not feel, but we are mistaken, and they feel quite as deeply as we
+ourselves." He spoke to Jack as one man to another. In fact, every one
+treated him in the same way at present. And yet the little fellow now
+burst into a violent passion of tears at the thought of his little
+friend having gone away without his seeing her.
+
+"Do you know what I am doing now, my lad?" asked the old man. "Well, I
+am selecting some books that you must read carefully. Employ in this way
+every leisure moment. Remember that books are our best friends. I do not
+think you will understand this just yet, but one day you will do so, I
+am sure. In the mean time, promise me to read them,"--the old man kissed
+the boy twice,--"for Cecile and myself," he said, kindly; and, as the
+door closed, the child heard him say, "Poor child, poor child!"
+
+The words were the same as at the Jesuits' College; but by this time
+Jack had learned why they pitied him. The next morning they started,
+Labassandre in a most extraordinary costume, dressed, in fact, for
+an expedition across the Pampas,--high gaiters, a green velvet vest,
+a knapsack, and a knife in his girdle. The poet was at once solemn and
+happy: solemn, because he felt that he had accomplished a great duty;
+happy, because this departure filled him with joy.
+
+Charlotte embraced Jack tenderly and with tears. "You will take good
+care of him, M. Labassandre?"
+
+"As of my best note, madame."
+
+Charlotte sobbed. The boy sought to hide his emotion, for the thought of
+working for his mother had given him courage and strength. At the end
+of the garden path he turned once more, that he might carry away in his
+memory a last picture of the house, and the face of the woman who smiled
+through her tears.
+
+"Write often!" cried the mother.
+
+And the poet shouted, in stentorian tones, "Remember, Jack, life is not
+a romance!"
+
+Life is not a romance; but was it not one for him? The selfish
+egotist! He stood on the threshold of his little home, with one hand on
+Charlotte's shoulder, the roses in bloom all about him, and he himself
+in a pose pretentious enough for a photograph, and so radiant at having
+won the day, that he forgot his hatred, and waved a paternal adieu to
+the child he had driven from the shelter of his roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.~~INDRET.
+
+The opera-singer stood upright in the boat and cried, "Is not the scene
+beautiful, Jack?"
+
+It was about four o'clock--a July evening; the waves glittered in the
+sunlight, and the air palpitated with heat. Large sails, that in the
+golden atmosphere looked snowy white, passed by from time to time; they
+were boats from Noirmoutiers, loaded to the brim with sparkling white
+salt. Peasants in their picturesque costumes were crowded in, and the
+caps of the women were as white as the salt Other boats were laden with
+grain. Occasionally a three-masted vessel came slowly up the stream,
+arriving, perhaps, from the end of the world after a two years' voyage,
+and bearing with it something of the poetry and mystery of other lands.
+A fresh breeze came from the sea, and made one long for the deep blue of
+the ocean.
+
+"And Indret--where is it?" asked Jack.
+
+"There, that island opposite."
+
+Through the silvery mists that enveloped the island, Jack saw dimly
+a row of poplar-trees, and some high chimneys from which poured out a
+thick black smoke; at the same time he heard loud blows of hammers on
+iron, and a continual whistling and puffing, as if the island itself had
+been an enormous steamer. As the boat slowly made her way to the wharf,
+the child saw long, low buildings on every side, and close at the
+river-side a row of enormous furnaces, which were filled from the water
+by coal barges.
+
+"There is Rondic!" cried the opera-singer, and from his stupendous
+chest sent forth a hurrah so formidable that it was heard above all the
+clatter of machinery.
+
+The boat stopped, and the brothers met with effusion. The two resembled
+each other very much, though Rondic was older and not so stout. His face
+was closely shaven, and he wore a sailor's hat that shaded a true Breton
+peasant face tanned by the sea, and a pair of eyes as keen as steel.
+
+"And how are you all?" asked Labassandre.
+
+"Well enough, well enough, thank Heaven! And this is our new
+apprentice?--he looks very small and not over-strong."
+
+"Strong as an ox, my dear; and warranted by all the physicians in
+Paris!"
+
+"So much the better, for it is a hard life here. But now hasten, for we
+must present ourselves to the Director at once."
+
+They turned into a long avenue lined by fine trees. The avenue
+terminated in a village street, with white houses on both sides,
+inhabited by the master and head-workmen. At this hour all was silent;
+life and movement were concentrated at the factory; and, but for the
+linen drying in the yards, an occasional cry of an infant, and a pot of
+flowers at the window, one would have supposed the place uninhabited.
+
+"Ah, the flag is lowered!" said the singer, as they reached the door.
+"Once that terrified me!" and he explained to Jack that when the flag
+was dropped from the top of the staff, it meant that the doors of the
+factory were closed. So much the worse for late comers; they were marked
+as absent, and at the third offence dismissed. They were now admitted by
+the porter. There was a frightful tumult pervading the large halls
+which were crossed by tramways. Iron bars and rolls of copper were piled
+between old cannons brought there to be recast. Rondic pointed out all
+the different branches of the establishment; he could not make himself
+understood save by gestures, for the noise was deafening.
+
+Jack was able to see the interiors of the various workshops, the doors
+being set widely open on account of the heat; he saw rapid movements of
+arms and blackened faces; he saw machines in motion, first in shadow,
+and then with a red light playing over their polished surface.
+
+Puffs of hot air, a smell of oil and of iron, accompanied by an
+impalpable black dust, a dust that was as sharp as needles and sparkled
+like diamonds,--all this Jack felt; but the peculiar characteristic
+of the place was a certain jarring, something like the effort of
+an enormous beast to shake off the chains that bound him in some
+subterranean dungeon.
+
+They had now reached an old chateau of the time of the League.
+
+"Here we are," said Rondic; and addressing his brother, "Will you go up
+with us?"
+
+"Indeed I will; I am, besides, by no means unwilling to see 'the monkey'
+once more, and to show him that I have become somebody and something."
+
+He pulled down his velvet vest, and glanced at his yellow boots and
+knapsack. Rondic made no remark, but seemed somewhat annoyed.
+
+They passed through the low postern; on either side of the hall were
+small and badly lighted rooms, where clerks were very busy writing. In
+the inner room, a man with a stern and haughty face sat writing under a
+high window.
+
+"Ah, it is you, Pere Rondic!"
+
+"Yes, sir; I come to present the new apprentice, and to thank you for--"
+
+"This is the prodigy, then, is it? It seems, young man, that you have
+an absolute talent for mechanics. But, Rondic, he does not look very
+strong. Is he delicate?"
+
+"No, sir; on the contrary, I have been assured that he is remarkably
+robust."
+
+"Remarkably," repeated Labassandre, coming forward, and, in reply to
+the astonished glance of the Director, proceeded to say that he left the
+manufactory six years before to join the opera in Paris.
+
+"Ah, yes, I remember," answered the Director, coldly enough, rising at
+the same time as if to indicate that the conversation was at an end.
+"Take away your apprentice, Rondic, and try and make a good workman of
+him. Under you he must turn out well."
+
+The opera-singer, vexed at having produced no effect, went away somewhat
+crestfallen. Rondic lingered and said a few words to his master, and
+then the two men and the child descended the stairs together, each with
+a different impression. Jack thought of the words "he does not look very
+strong," while Labassandre digested his own mortification as he best
+might. "Has anything gone wrong?" he suddenly asked his brother,--"the
+Director seems even more surly now than in my day."
+
+"No; he spoke to me of Chariot, our poor sister's son, who is giving us
+a great deal of trouble."
+
+"In what way?" asked the artist.
+
+"Since his mother's death he drinks and gambles, and has contracted
+debts. He is a wonderful draughtsman, and has high wages, but spends
+them before he has them. He has promised us all to reform, but he breaks
+his promises as fast as he makes them. I have paid his debts for him
+several times, but I can never do it again. I have my own family, you
+see, and Zenaide is growing up, and she must be established. Poor girl!
+Women have more sense than we. I wanted her to marry her cousin, but
+she would not consent. Now we are trying to separate him from his bad
+acquaintances here, and the Director has found a situation at Nantes;
+but I dare say the obstinate fellow will object. You will reason with
+him to-night, can't you? He will, perhaps, listen to you."
+
+"I will see what I can do," answered Labassandre, pompously.
+
+As they talked they reached the main street, crowded at this hour with
+all classes of people, some in mechanics' blouses, others wearing coats.
+Jack was struck with the contrast presented by a crowd like this to one
+in Paris, composed of similar classes.
+
+Labassandre was greeted with enthusiasm. The whisper went about that
+he received a hundred thousand francs per year for merely singing. His
+theatrical costume won universal admiration, and his bland smile shone
+first on one side and then on the other, as he nodded patronizingly to
+first one and then another of his old friends.
+
+At the door of Rondic's house stood a young woman talking to a youth two
+or three steps below. Jack thought she must be the old man's daughter,
+and then remembered that he had married a second time. She was tall
+and slender, young and pretty, with a gentle face, white throat, and a
+graceful head which bent slightly forward as if bowed by its rich weight
+of hair. Unlike the Breton peasants, she wore no cap; her light dress
+and black apron were totally unlike the costume of a working woman.
+
+"Is she not pretty?" asked Rondic of his brother. "She has been giving a
+lecture to her nephew."
+
+Madame Rondic turned at that moment, and greeted them warmly. "I hope,"
+she said to the child, "that you will be happy with us."
+
+They entered the house, and as they took their seats at the table,
+Labassandre said with a theatrical start, "And where is Zenaide?"
+
+"We will not wait for her," answered Rondic; "she will be here
+presently. She is at work now at the chateau, for she has become a
+famous seamstress."
+
+"Indeed! Then she must have learned also to keep her temper well under
+control, if she can work at the Director's," said Labassandre, "for he
+is such an arrogant, haughty person--"
+
+"You are very much mistaken," interrupted Ron-die; "he is, on the
+contrary, a most excellent man; strict, perhaps, but when a master
+has to manage two thousand operatives, he must be somewhat of a
+disciplinarian. Is not that so, Clarisse?" and the old man turned to his
+wife, who, seemingly occupied with her dinner, paid no attention to him.
+A certain preoccupation was very evident.
+
+At this moment the youth, with whom Madame Rondic had been talking
+at the door, came in and shook hands with his uncle Labassandre, who
+replied coldly to his greeting; thinking, possibly, of the remonstrances
+he had promised to lavish upon him. Zenaide quickly followed: a plump
+little girl, red and out of breath; not pretty, and square in face and
+figure, she looked like her father. She wore a white cap, and her short
+skirts, and small shawl pinned over her shoulders, increased her general
+clumsiness. But her heavy eyebrows and square chin indicated an unusual
+amount of firmness and decision, offering the strongest possible
+contrast to the gentle, irresolute expression of her stepmother's sweet
+face. Without a moment's delay, not waiting to detach the enormous
+shears that hung at her side, or to disembarrass herself of the needles
+and pins which glittered on her breast like a cuirass, the girl slipped
+into a seat next to Jack. The presence of the strangers did not
+abash her in the least. Whatever she had to say she said, simply and
+decidedly; but when she spoke to her cousin Chariot, it was in a vexed
+tone.
+
+He did not appear to notice this, but replied with jests which left more
+than one scar.
+
+"And I wished them to marry each other," said Father Rondic, in a
+despairing, complaining tone, as he heard them dispute.
+
+"And I made no objection," said the young man with a laugh, as he looked
+at his cousin.
+
+"But I did, then," answered the girl abruptly, frowning and unabashed.
+"And I am glad of it. Had I married you, my handsome cousin, I should
+have drowned myself by this time!"
+
+These words were said with so much unction that for a few moments the
+handsome cousin was silent and discomfited.
+
+Clarisse was startled, and turned to her daughter-in-law with a timid
+look of appeal.
+
+"Listen, Chariot," said Rondic, anxious to change the conversation: "to
+prove to you that the Director is a good man. He has found a splendid
+place at Guerigny for you. You will have a better salary there than
+here, and "--here Rondic hesitated, glanced at the irresponsive face
+of the youth, then at his daughter and at his wife, as if at a loss to
+finish his phrase.
+
+"And, it is better to go away, uncle, than to be dismissed!" answered
+Chariot, roughly. "But I do not agree with you. If the Director does not
+want me, let him say so,--and I will then look out for myself!"
+
+"He is right!" cried Labassandre, thumping loud applause on the table. A
+hot discussion now arose; but Chariot was firm in his refusal.
+
+Zenaide did not open her lips, but she never took her eyes from her
+stepmother, who was busy about the table.
+
+"And you, mamma," said she at last, "is it not your opinion that Chariot
+should go to Guerigny?"
+
+"Certainly, certainly," answered Madame Rondic, quickly, "I think he
+ought to accept the offer."
+
+Chariot rose quickly from his chair.
+
+"Very well," he said, moodily, "since every one wishes to get rid of
+me here, it is easy for me to decide. I shall leave in a week; in the
+meantime I do not wish to hear any more about it."
+
+The men now adjourned to a table in the garden, neighbors came in, and
+to each as he entered Rondic offered a measure of wine; they smoked
+their pipes, and talked and laughed loudly and roughly.
+
+Jack listened to them sadly. "Must I become like these?" he said to
+himself, with a thrill of horror.
+
+During the evening Rondic presented the lad to the foreman of the
+workshops. Labescam, a heavy Cyclops, opened his eyes wide when he saw
+his future apprentice, dressed like a gentleman, with such dainty white
+hands. Jack was very delicate and girlish in his appearance. His curls
+were cut, to be sure, but the short hair was in crisp waves, and the
+air of distinction characteristic of the boy, and which so irritated
+D'Argenton, was more apparent in his present surroundings than in his
+former home. Labescam muttered that he looked like a sick chicken.
+
+"O," said Rondic, "it is only the fatigue of his journey and these
+clothes that give him that look;" and then turning to his wife, the good
+man said,
+
+"You must find a blouse for the apprentice; and now send him to bed, he
+is half asleep, and to-morrow the poor lad must be up at five o'clock!"
+
+The two women took Jack into the house: it was small and of two stories,
+the first floor divided into two rooms--one called the parlor, which had
+a sofa, armchairs, and some large shells on the chimney-piece.
+
+One of the rooms above was nearly filled by a very large bed hung with
+damask curtains trimmed with heavy ball fringe. In Zenaide's room the
+bed was in the wall, in the old Breton style. A wardrobe of carved oak
+filled one side of the room; a crucifix and holy images, hung over
+by rosaries of all kinds, made of ivory, shells, and American corn,
+completed the simple arrangements. In a corner, however, stood a screen
+which concealed the ladder that led to the loft where the apprentice was
+to sleep.
+
+"This is my room," said Zenaide, "and you, my boy, will be up there just
+over my head. But never mind that; you may dance as much as you please,
+I sleep too soundly to be disturbed."
+
+A lantern was given to him. He said good-night, and climbed to his loft,
+which even at that hour of the night was stifling. A narrow window in
+the roof was all there was. The dormitory at Moronval had prepared
+Jack for strange sleeping-places; but there he had companionship in his
+miseries: here he had no Madou, here he had nobody. The child looked
+about him. On the bed lay his costume for the next day; the large
+pantaloons of blue cloth and the blouse looked as if some person had
+thrown himself down exhausted with fatigue.
+
+Jack said half aloud, "It is I lying there!" and while he stood, sadly
+enough, he heard the confused noise of the men in the garden, and at the
+same time an earnest discussion in the room below between Zenaide and
+her stepmother.
+
+The young girl's voice was easily distinguished, heavy like a man's;
+Madame Rondic's tones, on the contrary, were thin and flute-like, and
+seemed at times choked by tears.
+
+"And he is going!" she cried, with more passion than her ordinary
+appearance would have led one to suppose her capable of.
+
+Then Zenaide spoke--remonstrating, reasoning.
+
+Jack felt himself in a new world; he was half afraid of all these
+people, but the memory of his mother sustained him. He thought of her
+as he looked at the sky set thick with stars. Suddenly he heard a long,
+shivering sigh and a sob, and found that Madame Rondic was looking out
+into the night, and weeping like himself, at a window below.
+
+In the morning, Father Rondic called him; he swallowed a tumbler of wine
+and ate a crust of bread, and hurried to the machine-shop. And there,
+could his foolish mother have seen him, how quickly would she have taken
+her child from his laborious task, for which he was so totally unfitted
+by nature and education. The regulations for, lack of punctuality
+were very strict. The first offence was a fine, and the third absolute
+dismissal. Jack was generally at the door before the first sound of the
+bell; but one day, two or three months after his arrival on the island,
+he was delayed by the ill-nature of others. His hat had been blown away
+by a sudden gust of wind just as he reached the forge. "Stop it!" cried
+the child, running after it. Just as he reached it, an apprentice coming
+up the street gave the hat a kick and sent it on; another did the same,
+and then another. This was very amusing to all save Jack, who, out
+of breath and angry, felt a strong desire to weep, for he knew that a
+positive hatred toward him was hidden under all this apparent jesting.
+In the meantime the bell was sounding its last strokes, and the
+child was compelled to relinquish the useless pursuit. He was utterly
+wretched, for it was no small expense to buy a new cap; he must write to
+his mother for money, and D'Argenton would read the letter. This was
+bad enough; but the consciousness that he was disliked among his
+fellow-workmen troubled him still more.
+
+Some persons need tenderness as plants need heat to sustain life. Jack
+was one of these, and he asked himself sadly why no one loved him in his
+new abiding-place. Just as he arrived at the open door, he heard
+quick breathing behind him, a heavy hand was laid on his shoulder, and
+turning, he saw a smiling, hideous face, while a rough hand extended the
+missing cap.
+
+Where had he seen that face? "I have it!" he cried at last; but at that
+moment there was no time to renew his acquaintance with the pedler,
+to whom, and to whose fragile stock of goods, he had given such timely
+shelter on that showery summer's day.
+
+The child's spirits rose, he was less sad, less lonely. While his hands
+were busy with his monotonous toil, his mind was occupied with thoughts
+of the past: he saw again the lovely country road near his mother's
+house; he heard the low rumbling of the doctor's gig, and felt the fresh
+breeze from the river, even there in the stifling atmosphere of the
+machine-shop.
+
+That evening he searched for Belisaire, but in vain; again the next day,
+but could learn nothing of him; and by degrees the uncouth face that had
+revived so many beautiful memories, in the child's sick heart faded and
+died away, and he was again left alone.
+
+The boy was far from a favorite among the men; they teased, and
+played practical jokes upon him. Sunday was his only day of rest and
+relaxation. Then, with one of Dr. Rivals' books, Jack sought a quiet
+nook on the bank of the river. He had found a deep fissure in the rocks,
+where he sat quite concealed from view, his book open on his knee, the
+rush, the magic, and the extent of the water before him. The distant
+church-bells rang out praises to the Lord, and all was rest and peace.
+Occasionally a vessel drifted past, and from afar came the laughter of
+children at play.
+
+He read, but his studies were often too deep for him, and he would lift
+his eyes from the pages, and listen dreamily to the soft lapping of the
+water on the pebbles of the shore, while his thoughts wandered to his
+mother and his little friend.
+
+At last autumnal rains came, and then the child passed his Sundays at
+the Rondics, who were all very kind to him, Zenaide in particular. The
+old man felt a certain contempt for Jack's physical delicacy, and said
+the boy stunted his growth by his devotion to books, but "he was a good
+little fellow all the same!" In reality, old Rondic felt a great
+respect for Jack's attainments, his own being of the most superficial
+description. He could read and write, to be sure, but that was all; and
+since he had married the second Madame Rondic, he had become painfully
+conscious of his deficiencies. His wife was the daughter of a
+subordinate artillery officer, the belle and beauty of a small town.
+She was well brought up,--one of a numerous family, where each took
+her share of toil and economy. She accepted Rondic, notwithstanding the
+disparity of years and his lack of education, and entertained for her
+husband the greatest possible affection. He adored his wife, and would
+make any sacrifice for her happiness or her gratification. He thought
+her prettier than any of the wives of his friends,--who were all, in
+fact, stout Breton peasants, more occupied with their household cares
+than with anything else. Clarisse had a certain air about her, and
+dressed and arranged her hair in a way that offered the greatest
+contrast to the monastic aspect of the women of the country, who covered
+their hair with thick folds of linen, and concealed their figures with
+the clumsy fullness of their skirts.
+
+His house, too, was different from those about him. Behind the full
+white curtains stood a pot of flowers, sweet basil or gillyflowers,
+and the furniture was carefully waxed and polished; and Rondic was
+delighted, when he returned home at night, to find so carefully arranged
+a home, and a wife as neatly dressed as if it were Sunday. He never
+asked himself why Clarisse, after the house was in order for the day,
+took her seat at the window with folded hands, instead of occupying
+herself with needlework, like other women whose days were far too short
+for all their duties.
+
+He supposed, innocently enough, that his wife thought only of him while
+adorning herself; but the whole village of Indret could have told him
+that another occupied all her thoughts, and in this gossip the names of
+Madame Rondic and Chariot were never separated. They said that the two
+had known each other before Madame Rondic's marriage, and that if the
+nephew had wished he could have married the lady, instead of his uncle.
+
+But the young fellow had no such desire. He merely thought that Clarisse
+was charmingly pretty, and that it would be very nice to have her for
+his aunt. But later, when they were thrown so much together, while
+Father Rondic slept in the arm-chair and Zenaide sewed at the chateau,
+these two natures were irresistibly attracted toward each other. But no
+one had a right to make any invidious remark; they had, besides, always
+watching over them a pair of frightfully suspicious eyes, those of
+Zenaide. She had a way of interrupting their interviews, of appearing
+suddenly, when least expected; and, however fatigued she might be by her
+day's work, she took her seat in the chimney-corner with her knitting.
+Zenaide, in fact, played the part of the jealous and suspicious husband.
+Picture to yourself, if you please, a husband with all the instincts and
+clearsightedness of a woman!
+
+The warfare between herself and Chariot was incessant, and the little
+outbursts served to conceal the real antipathy; but while Father Rondic
+smiled contentedly, Clarisse turned pale as if at distant thunder.
+
+Zenaide had triumphed: she had so managed at the chateau that the
+Director had decided to send Chariot to Guerigny, to study a new model
+of a machine there. Months would be necessary for him to perfect his
+work. Clarisse understood very well that Zenaide was at the bottom
+of this movement, but she was not altogether displeased at Chariot's
+departure; she flung herself on Zenaide's stronger nature, and entreated
+her protection.
+
+Jack had understood for some time that between these two women there
+was a secret. He loved them both: Zenaide won his respect and his
+admiration, while Madame Rondic, more elegant and more carefully
+dressed, seemed to be a remnant of the refinements of his former life.
+He fancied that she was like his mother; and yet Ida was lively, gay,
+and talkative, while Madame Rondic was always languid and silent. They
+had not a feature alike, nor was there any similarity in the color of
+their hair. Nevertheless, they did resemble each other, but it was
+a resemblance as vague and indefinite as would result from the same
+perfume among the clothing, or of something more subtile still, which
+only a skilful chemist of the human soul could have analyzed.
+
+Sometimes on Sunday, Jack read aloud to the two women and to Rondic.
+The parlor was the room in which they assembled on these occasions.
+The apartment was decorated with a highly colored view of Naples, some
+enormous shells, vitrified sponges, and all those foreign curiosities
+which their vicinity to the sea seemed naturally to bring to them.
+Handmade lace trimmed the curtains, and a sofa and an arm-chair of plush
+made up the furniture of the apartment. In the arm-chair Father Rondic
+took his seat to listen to the reading, while Clarisse sat in her usual
+place at the window, idly looking out. Zenaide profited by her one day
+at home to mend the house-bold linen, disregarding the fact of the day
+being Sunday. Among the books given to Jack by Dr. Rivals was Dante's
+_Inferno_. The book fascinated the child, for it described a spectacle
+that he had constantly before his eyes. Those half naked human forms,
+those flames, those deep ditches of molten metal, all seemed to him one
+of the circles of which the poet wrote.
+
+One Sunday he was reading to his usual audience from his favorite book;
+Father Rondic was asleep, according to his ordinary custom, but the two
+women listened with fixed attention. It was the episode of Francesca da
+Rimini. Clarisse bowed her head and shuddered. Zenaide frowned until her
+heavy eyebrows met, and drove her needle through her work with mad zeal.
+
+Those grand sonorous lines filled the humble roof with music. Tears
+stood in the eyes of Clarisse as she listened. Without noticing them,
+Zenaide spoke abruptly as the voice of the reader ceased.
+
+"What a wicked, impudent woman," she cried, "not only to relate her
+crime, but to boast of it!"
+
+"It is true that she was guilty," said Clarisse, "but she was also very
+unhappy."
+
+"Unhappy! Don't say that, mamma; one would think that you pitied this
+Francesca."
+
+"And why should I not, my child? She loved him before her marriage, and
+she was driven to espouse a man whom she did not love."
+
+"Love him or not makes but little difference. From the moment she
+married him she was bound to be faithful. The story says that he was
+old, and that seems to me an additional reason for respecting him more,
+and for preventing other people from laughing at him. The old man did
+right to kill them,--it was only what they deserved!"
+
+She spoke with great violence. Her affection as a daughter, her honor as
+a woman, influenced her words, and she judged and spoke with that cruel
+candor that belongs to youth, and which judges life from the ideal
+it has itself created, without comprehending in the least any of the
+terrible exigencies which may arise.
+
+Clarisse did not answer. She turned her face away, and was looking out
+of the window. Jack, with his eyes on his book, thought of what he had
+been reading. Here, amid these humble surroundings, this immortal legend
+of guilty love had echoed "through the corridors of time," and after
+four hundred years had awakened a response. Suddenly through the open
+casement came a cry, "Hats! hats to sell!" Jack started to his feet and
+ran into the street; but quick as he was, Clarisse had preceded him, and
+as he went out, she came in, crushing a letter into her pocket.
+
+The pedler was far down the street.
+
+"Belisaire!" shouted Jack.
+
+The man turned. "I was sure it was you," continued Jack, breathlessly.
+"Do you come here often?"
+
+"Yes, very often;" and then Belisaire added, after a moment, "How
+happens it, Master Jack, that you are here, and have left that pretty
+house?"
+
+The boy hesitated, and the pedler seeing this, continued,--
+
+"That was a famous ham, was it not? And that lovely lady, who had such a
+gentle face, she was your mother, was she not?"
+
+Jack was so happy at hearing her name mentioned that he would have
+lingered there at the corner of the street for an hour, but Belisaire
+said he was in haste, that he had a letter to deliver, and must go.
+
+When Jack entered the house, Madame Rondic met him at the door. She was
+very pale, and said, in a low voice, with trembling lips,--
+
+"What did you want of that man?"
+
+The child answered that he had known him at Etiolles, and that they had
+been talking of his parents.
+
+She uttered a sigh of relief. But that whole evening she was even
+quieter than usual, and her head seemed bowed by more than the weight of
+her blonde braids.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.~~A MIDNIGHT INTERVIEW.
+
+"Chateau des Aulnettes.
+
+"I am not pleased with you, my child. M. Rondic has written to his
+brother a long letter, in which he says, that in the year that you
+have been at Indret you have made no progress. He speaks kindly of you,
+nevertheless, but does not seem to think you adapted for your present
+life. We are all grieved to hear this, and feel that you are not doing
+all that you might do. M. Rondic also says that the air of the workshops
+is not good for you, that you are pale and thin, and that at the least
+exertion the perspiration rolls down your face. I cannot understand
+this, and fear that you are imprudent, that you go out in the evening
+uncovered, that you sleep with your windows open, and that you forget to
+tie your scarf around your throat. This must not be; your health is of
+the first importance.
+
+"I admit that your present occupation is not as pleasant as running wild
+in the forest would be, but remember what M. D'Argenton told you, that
+'life is not a romance.' He knows this very well, poor man!--better,
+too, to-day, than ever before. You have no conception of the annoyances
+to which this great poet is exposed. The low conspiracies that have been
+formed against him are almost incredible. They are about to bring out
+a play at the Theatre Francais called '_La Fille de Faust_' It is not
+D'Argenton's play, because his is not written, but it is his idea, and
+his title! We do not know whom to suspect, for he is surrounded with
+faithful friends. Whoever the guilty party may be, our friend has
+been most painfully affected, and has been seriously ill. Dr. Hirsch
+fortunately was here, for Dr. Rivals still continues to sulk. That
+reminds me to tell you that we hear that you keep up your correspondence
+with the doctor, of which M. d'Argenton entirely disapproves. It is
+not wise, my child, to keep up any association with people above your
+station; it only leads to all sorts of chimerical aspirations. Your
+friendship for little Cecile M. d'Argenton regards also as a waste of
+time. You must, therefore, relinquish it, as we think that you
+would then enter with more interest into your present life. You will
+understand, my child, that I am now speaking entirely in your interest.
+You are now fifteen. You are safely launched in an enviable career.
+A future opens before you, and you can make of yourself just what you
+please.
+
+"Your loving mother,
+
+"Charlotte."
+
+"P. S. Ten o'clock at night.
+
+"Dearest,--I am alone, and hasten to add a good night to my letter, to
+say on paper what I would say to you were you here with me now. Do not
+be discouraged. You know just what he is. _He_ is very determined,
+and has resolved that you shall be a machinist, and you must be. Is he
+right? I cannot say. I beg of you to be careful of your health; it must
+be damp where you are; and if you need anything, write to me under cover
+to the Archambaulds. Have you any more chocolate? For this, and for any
+other little things you want, I lay aside from my personal expenses a
+little money every month. So you see that you are teaching me economy.
+Remember that some day I may have only you to rely upon.
+
+"If you knew how sad I am sometimes in thinking of the future! Life is
+not very gay here, and I am not always happy. But then, as you know, my
+sad moments do not last long. I laugh and cry at the same time without
+knowing why. I have no reason to complain, either. He is nervous like
+all artists, but I comprehend the real generosity and nobility of his
+nature. Farewell! I finish my letter for Mere Archambauld to mail as
+she goes home. We shall not keep the good woman long. M. d'Argenton
+distrusts her. He thinks she is paid by his enemies to steal his ideas
+and titles for books and plays! Good night, my dearest."
+
+Between the lines of this lengthy letter Jack saw two faces,--that of
+D'Argenton, dictatorial and stern,--and his mother's, gentle and tender.
+How under subjection she was! How crushed was her expansive nature! A
+child's imagination supplies his thoughts with illustrations. It seemed
+to Jack, as he read, that his Ida--she was always Ida to her boy--was
+shut up in a tower, making signals of distress to him.
+
+Yes, he would work hard, he would make money, and take his mother away
+from such tyranny; and as a first step he put away all his books.
+
+"You are right," said old Rondic; "your books distract your attention."
+
+In the workshop Jack heard constant allusions made to the Rondic
+household, and particularly to the relations existing between Clarisse
+and Chariot.
+
+Every one knew that the two met continually at a town half-way
+between Saint Nazarre and Indret. Here Clarisse went under pretence of
+purchasing provisions that could not be procured on the island. In the
+contemptuous glances of the men who met her, in their familiar nods, she
+read that her secret was known, and yet with blushes of shame dyeing the
+cheeks that all the fresh breezes from the Loire had no power to
+cool, she went on. Jack knew all this. No delicacy was observed in the
+discussion of such subjects before the child. Things were called by
+their right names, and they laughed as they talked. Jack did not laugh,
+however. He pitied the husband so deluded and deceived. He pitied also
+the woman whose weakness was shown in her very way of knotting her hair,
+in the way she sat, and whose pleading eyes always seemed to be asking
+pardon for some fault committed. He wanted to whisper to her, "Take
+care--you are watched." But to Char-lot he would have liked to say, "Go
+away, and let this woman alone!"
+
+He was also indignant in seeing his friend Belisaire playing such a part
+in this mournful drama. The pedler carried all the letters that passed
+between the lovers. Many a time Jack had seen him drop one into Madame
+Rondic's apron while she changed some money, and, disgusted with his old
+ally, the child no longer lingered to speak when they met in the street.
+
+Belisaire had no idea of the reason of this coolness. He suspected it
+so little, that one day, when he could not find Clarisse, he went to the
+machine-shop, and with an air of great mystery gave the letter to the
+apprentice. "It is for madame; give it to her secretly!"
+
+Jack recognized the writing of Chariot. "No," he said at once; "I will
+not touch this letter, and I think you would do better to sell your hats
+than to meddle with such matters."
+
+Belisaire looked at him with amazement.
+
+"You know very well," said the boy, "what these letters are; and do you
+think that you are doing right to aid in deceiving that old man?"
+
+The pedler's face turned scarlet.
+
+"I never deceived any one; if papers are given to me to carry, I carry
+them, that is all. Be sure of one thing, and that is, if I were the sort
+of person you call me, I should be much better off than I am today!"
+
+Jack tried to make him see the thing as he saw it, but evidently the
+man, however honest, was without any delicacy of perception. "And I,
+too," thought Jack, suddenly, "am of the people now. What right have I
+to any such refinements?"
+
+That Father Rondic knew nothing of all that was going on, was not
+astonishing. But Zenaide, where was she? Of what was she thinking?
+
+Zenaide was on the spot,--more than usual, too, for she had not been at
+the chateau for a month. Her eyes were also widely open, and were more
+keen and vivacious than ever, for Zenaide was about to be married to a
+handsome young soldier attached to the customhouse at Nantes, and the
+girl's dowry was seven thousand francs. Pere Rondic thought this too
+much, but the soldier was firm. The old man had made no provision for
+Clarisse. If he should die, what would become of her?
+
+But his wife said, "You are yet young--we will be economical. Let the
+soldier have Zenaide and the seven thousand francs, for the girl loves
+him!"
+
+Zenaide spent a great deal of time before her mirror. She did not
+deceive herself. "I am ugly, and M. Maugin will not marry me for my
+beauty, but let him marry me, and he shall love me later."
+
+And the girl gave a little nod, for she knew the unselfish devotion of
+which she was capable, the tenderness and patience with which she would
+watch over her husband. But all these new interests had so absorbed her
+that Zenaide had partially forgotten her suspicions; they returned to
+her at intervals, while she was sewing on her wedding-dress, but she
+did not notice her mother's pallor nor uneasiness, nor did she feel the
+burning heat of those slender hands. She did not notice her long and
+frequent disappearances, and she heard nothing of what was rumored in
+the town. She saw and heard nothing but her own radiant happiness. The
+banns were published, the marriage-day fixed, and the little house was
+full of the joyous excitement that precedes a wedding. Zenaide ran up
+and down stairs twenty times each day with the movements of a young
+hippopotamus. Her friends came and went, little gifts were pouring in,
+for the girl was a great favorite in spite of her occasional abruptness.
+Jack wished to make her a present; his mother had sent him a hundred
+francs.
+
+"This money is your own, my Jack," Charlotte wrote. "Buy with it a gift
+for M'lle Rondic, and some clothes for yourself. I wish you to make a
+good appearance at the wedding, and I am afraid that your wardrobe is in
+a pitiable condition. Say nothing about it in your letters, nor of me to
+the Rondics. They would thank me, which would be an annoyance, and bring
+me a reproof besides."
+
+For two days Jack carried this money with pride in his pocket. He would
+go to Nantes and buy a new suit. What a delight it would be! and how
+kind his mother was! One thing troubled him: What could he purchase
+for Zenaide; he must first see what she had.
+
+So thinking one dark night, as he entered the house, he ran against some
+one who was coming down the steps.
+
+"Is that you, Belisaire?"
+
+There was no reply, but as Jack pushed open the door, he saw that he was
+not mistaken, that Belisaire had been there.
+
+Clarisse was in the corridor, shivering with the cold, and so absorbed
+by the letter she was reading in the gleam of light from the half open
+door of the parlor, that she did not even look up as Jack went in. The
+letter evidently contained some startling intelligence, and the boy
+suddenly remembered having that day heard that Chariot had lost a large
+sum of money in gambling with the crew of an English ship that had just
+arrived at Nantes from Calcutta.
+
+In the parlor Zenaide and Maugin were alone.
+
+Pere Rondic had gone to Chateaubriand and would not return until the
+next day, which did not prevent her future husband from dining with
+them. He sat in the large arm-chair, his feet comfortably extended.
+While Zenaide, carefully dressed, and her hair arranged by her
+stepmother, laid the table, this calm and reasonable lover entertained
+her by an estimate of the prices of the various grains, indigos,
+and oils that entered the port of Nantes. And such a wonderful
+prestidigitateur is love that Zenaide was moved to the depths of her
+soul by these details, and listened to them as to music.
+
+Jack's entrance disturbed the lovers. "Ah, here is Jack I I had no idea
+it was so late!" cried the girl. "And mamma, where is she?"
+
+Clarisse came in, pale but calm.
+
+"Poor woman!" thought Jack, as he watched her trying to smile, to talk,
+and to eat, swallowing at intervals great draughts of water, as if to
+choke down some terrible emotion. Zenaide was blind to all this. She
+had lost her own appetite, and watched her soldier's plate, seeming
+delighted at the rapidity with which the delicate morsels disappeared.
+
+Maugin talked well, and ate and drank with marvellous appetite; he
+weighed his words as carefully as he did the square bits into which
+he cut his bread; he held his wine-glass to the light, testing and
+scrutinizing it each time he drank. A dinner, with him, was evidently
+a matter of importance as well as of time. This evening it seemed as
+if Clarisse could not endure it; she rose from the table, went to the
+window, listened to the rattling of the hail on the glass, and then
+turning round, said,--
+
+"What a night it is, M. Maugin I I wish you were safely at home."
+
+"I don't, then!" cried Zenaide, so earnestly that they all laughed. But
+the remark made by Clarisse bore its fruit, and the soldier rose to go.
+But it took him some time to get off. There was his lantern to light,
+his gloves to button; and the girl took all these duties on herself. At
+last the soldier was in readiness; his hood was pulled over his eyes, a
+scarf wound about his throat, then Zenaide said good night, and watched
+her Esquimau-looking lover somewhat anxiously down the street. What
+perils might he not have to run in that thick darkness!
+
+Her stepmother called her impatiently. The nervous excitement of
+Clarisse had momentarily increased. Jack had noticed this, and also that
+she looked constantly at the clock.
+
+"How cold it must be to-night on the Loire," said Zenaide.
+
+"Cold, indeed!" answered Clarisse, with a shiver.
+
+"Come," she said, as the clock struck ten, "let us go to bed."
+
+Then seeing that Jack was about to lock the outer door as usual, she
+stopped him, saying,--
+
+"I have done it myself. Let us go up stairs."
+
+But Zenaide had not finished talking of M. Maugin. "Do you like his
+moustache, Jack?" she asked.
+
+"Will you go to bed?" asked Madame Rondic, pretending to laugh, but
+trembling nervously.
+
+At last the three are on the narrow staircase.
+
+"Good night," said Clarisse; "I am dying with sleep."
+
+But her eyes were very bright. Jack put his foot on his ladder, but
+Zenaide's room was so crowded with her gifts and purchases, that it
+seemed to him a most auspicious occasion to pass them in review. Friends
+had had them under examination, and they were still displayed on the
+commode: some silver spoons, a prayer-book, gloves, and all about
+tumbled bits of paper and the colored ribbon that had fastened these
+gifts from the chateau; then came the more humble presents from the
+wives of the employes. Zenaide showed them all with pride. The boy
+uttered exclamations of wonder. "But what shall I give her?" he said to
+himself over and over again.
+
+"And my trousseau, Jack, you have not seen it! Wait, and I will show it
+to you."
+
+With a quaint old key she opened the carved wardrobe that had been in
+the family for a hundred years; the two doors swung open, a delicious
+violet perfume filled the room, and Jack could see and admire the piles
+of sheets spun by the first Madame Rondic, and the ruffled and fluted
+linen piled in snowy masses.
+
+In fact, Jack had never seen such a display. His mother's wardrobe held
+laces and fine embroideries, not household articles. Then, lifting a
+heavy pile, she showed Jack a casket. "Guess what is in this," Zenaide
+said, with a laugh; "it contains my dowry, my dear little dowry, that
+in a fortnight will belong to M. Maugin. Ah, when I think of it, I could
+sing and dance with joy!"
+
+And the girl held out her skirts with each hand, and executed an
+elephantine gambol, shaking the casket she still held in her hand.
+Suddenly she stopped; some one had rapped on the wall.
+
+"Let the boy go to bed," said her stepmother in an irritated tone; "you
+know he must be up early."
+
+A little ashamed, the future Madame Maugin shut her wardrobe, and said
+good night to Jack, who ascended his ladder; and five minutes later the
+little house, wrapped in snow and rocked by the wind, slept like its
+neighbors in the silence of the night.
+
+There is no light in the parlor of the Rondic mansion save that which
+comes from the fitful gleam of the dying fire in the chimney. A woman
+sat there, and at her feet knelt a man in vehement supplication.
+
+"I entreat you," he whispered, "if you love me--"
+
+If she loved him! Had she not at his command left the door open that he
+might enter? Had she not adorned herself in the dress and ornaments that
+he liked, to make herself beautiful in his eyes? What could it be that
+he was asking her now to grant to him? How was it that she, usually so
+weak, was now so strong in her denials? Let us listen for a moment.
+
+"No, no," she answered, indignantly, "it is impossible."
+
+"But I only ask it for two days, Clarisse. With these six thousand
+francs I will pay the five thousand I have lost, and with the other
+thousand I will conquer fortune."
+
+She looked at him with an expression of absolute terror.
+
+"No, no," she repeated, "it cannot be. You must find some other way."
+
+"But there is none."
+
+"Listen. I have a rich friend; I will write to her and ask her to lend
+me the money."
+
+"But I must have it to-morrow."
+
+"Well, then, find the Director; tell him the truth."
+
+"And he will dismiss me instantly. No; my plan is much the best. In two
+days I will restore the money."
+
+"You only say that."
+
+"I swear it." And, seeing that his words did not convince her, he added,
+"I had better have said nothing to you, but have gone at once to the
+wardrobe and taken what I needed."
+
+But she answered, trembling, for she feared that he would yet do this,
+"Do you not know that Zenaide counts her money every day? This very
+night she showed the casket to the apprentice."
+
+Chariot started. "Is that so?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; the poor girl is very happy. It would kill her to lose it.
+Besides, the key is not in the wardrobe."
+
+Suddenly perceiving that she was weakening her own position, she was
+silent. The young man was no longer the supplicating lover, he was
+the spoiled child of the house, imploring his aunt to save him from
+dishonor.
+
+Through her tears she mechanically repeated the words, "It is
+impossible."
+
+Suddenly he rose to his feet.
+
+"You will not? Very good. Only one thing remains then. Farewell! I will
+not survive disgrace."
+
+He expected a cry. No; she came toward him.
+
+"You wish to die! Ah, well, so do I! I have had enough of life, of
+shame, of falsehood, and of love--love that must be concealed with such
+care that I am never sure of finding it. I am ready."
+
+He drew back. "What folly!" he said, sullenly. "This is too much," he
+added, vehemently, after a moment's silence, and hurried to the stairs.
+
+She followed him. "Where are you going?" she asked.
+
+"Leave me!" he said, roughly. She snatched his arm.
+
+"Take care!" she whispered with quivering lips. "If you take one more
+step in that direction, I will call for assistance!"
+
+"Call, then! Let the world know that your nephew is your lover, and your
+lover a thief."
+
+He hissed these words, in her ear, for they both spoke very low,
+impressed, in spite of themselves, by the silence and repose of the
+house. By the red light of the dying fire he appeared to her suddenly
+in his true colors, just what he really was, unmasked by one of those
+violent emotions which show the inner workings of the soul.
+
+She saw him with his keen eyes reddened by constant examination of
+the cards; she thought of all she had sacrificed for this man; she
+remembered the care with which she had adorned herself for this
+interview. Suddenly she was overwhelmed by profound disgust for herself
+and for him, and sank, half-fainting, on the couch; and while the thief
+crept up the familiar staircase, she buried her face in the pillows
+to stifle her cries and sobs, and to prevent herself from seeing and
+hearing anything.
+
+The streets of Indret were as dark as at midnight, for it was not yet
+six o'clock. Here and there a light from a baker's window or a wine-shop
+shone dimly through the thick fog. In one of these wineshops sat Chariot
+and Jack.
+
+"Another glass, my boy!"
+
+"No more, thank you. I fear it would make me very ill."
+
+Chariot laughed. "And you a Parisian! Waiter, bring more wine!"
+
+The boy dared make no farther objection. The attentions of which he
+was the object flattered him immensely. That this man, who for eighteen
+months had never vouchsafed him any notice, should, meeting him by
+chance that morning in the streets, have invited him to the cabaret and
+treated him, was a matter of surprise and congratulation to himself. At
+first Jack was somewhat distrustful of such courtesy, for the other had
+such a singular way of repeating his question, "Is there nothing new at
+the Rondics? Really, nothing new?"
+
+"I wonder," thought the apprentice, "if he wishes me to carry his
+letters, instead of Belisaire!"
+
+But after a little while the boy became more at ease. Perhaps Chariot,
+he thought, may not be such a bad fellow. A good friend might induce him
+to relinquish play, and make him a better man.
+
+After Jack had taken his third glass of wine, he became very cordial,
+and offered to become this good friend. Chariot accepting the offer with
+enthusiasm, the boy thought himself justified in at once offering his
+advice.
+
+"Look here, M. Chariot, listen to me, and don't play any more."
+
+The blow struck home, for the young man's lips trembled nervously, and
+he swallowed a glass of brandy at one gulp.
+
+At that moment the factory-bell sounded.
+
+"I must go," cried Jack, starting to his feet. And, as his friend had
+paid for the first and second wine they had drank, he considered it
+essential that he should now pay in his turn; so he drew a louis from
+his pocket, and tossed it on the table.
+
+"Hallo! a yellow boy!" said the barkeeper, unaccustomed to seeing such
+in the possession of apprentices. Chariot started, but made no remark.
+
+"Had Jack been to the wardrobe also?" he said to himself. The boy was
+delighted at the sensation he had created. "And I have more of the
+same kind," he added, tapping his pocket. And then he whispered in his
+companion's ear, "It is for a present that I mean to buy Zenaide."
+
+Chariot said, mechanically, "Is it?" and turned away with a smile.
+
+The innkeeper fingered the gold piece with some uneasiness.
+
+"Hurry," said Jack, "or I shall be late."
+
+"I wish, my boy," said Chariot, "that you could have remained with me
+until my boat left, which will not be for an hour."
+
+And he gently drew the lad toward the Loire. It was easily done, for,
+coming out from the cabaret into the cold air, the wine the child had
+drank made him giddy. It seemed to him that his head weighed a thousand
+pounds. This did not last long, however. "Hark!" he said; "the bell has
+stopped, I think." They turned back. Jack was terrified, for it was the
+first time that he had ever been late at the Works. But Chariot was in
+despair. "It is my fault," he reiterated. He declared that he would
+see the Director and explain matters, and was altogether so utterly
+miserable, that Jack was obliged to console him by saying that it was
+of no great consequence, after all; that he could afford to be marked
+'absent' for once. "I will go with you to the boat."
+
+The boy was so gratified by what he believed to be the good effect
+of his words on Chariot, that he enlarged on the noble nature of Pere
+Rondic and of Clarisse.
+
+"O, had you seen her this morning, you would have pitied her. She was so
+pale that she looked as if she were dead."
+
+Chariot started.
+
+"And she ate nothing. I am afraid she will be ill. And she never spoke."
+
+"Poor woman!" said Chariot, with a sigh of relief which Jack took for one
+of sorrow.
+
+They reached the wharf. The boat was not there. A thick fog covered the
+river from one shore to the other.
+
+"Let us go in here," said Chariot It was a little wooden shed, intended
+as a shelter for workmen while waiting in bad weather. Clarisse knew
+this shed very well, and the old woman who sold brandy and coffee in the
+corner had seen Madame Rondic many a time when she crossed the Loire.
+
+"Let us take a drop of brandy to keep out the cold," said Chariot.
+At that moment a shrill whistle was heard; it was the boat for Saint
+Nazarre. "Good-bye, Jack, and a thousand thanks for your good advice!"
+
+"Don't mention it," said the lad, heartily; "but pray give up gambling."
+
+"Of course I will," answered the other, hurrying on board to hide his
+amusement. When Jack was again alone he felt no desire to return to
+the Works; he was in a state of unusual excitement. Even the heavy fog
+hanging over the Loire interested him. Suddenly he said to himself, "Why
+do I not go to Nantes and buy Zenaide's gift to-day?" A few moments saw
+him on the way; but as there was no train until noon, he must wait for
+some time, and was compelled to pass that time in a room where there
+were several of the old employes of the Works, who had been discharged
+for various misdemeanors. They received the lad civilly enough, and
+listened attentively when he took up some remark that was made, and
+uttered some platitudes, stolen from D'Ar-genton, on the rights of
+labor.
+
+"Listen!" they said to each other; "it is easy to see that the boy comes
+from Paris."
+
+Jack, excited by this applause and sympathy, talked fast and freely.
+Suddenly the room swam around--all grew dark. A fresh breeze restored
+him to consciousness. He was seated on the bank of the river, and a
+sailor was bathing his forehead.
+
+"Are you better?" said the man.
+
+"Yes, much better," answered Jack, his teeth chattering.
+
+"Then go on board."
+
+"Go where?" said the apprentice, in amazement.
+
+"Why, have you forgotten that you hired a boat, and sent for provisions?
+And here comes the man with them."
+
+Jack was stupefied with amazement, but he was too weak to argue any
+point; he embarked without remonstrance. He had a little money left,
+with which he could buy some little souvenir for Zenaide, so that his
+trip to Nantes would not be thrown away absolutely. He breakfasted
+with a poor enough appetite, and sat at the end of the boat, wrapped in
+thought. He dreamily recalled books that he had read--tales of strange
+adventures on the sea; but why did a certain old volume of Robinson
+Crusoe persistently come before him? He saw the rubbed and yellowed
+page, the vignette of Robinson in his hammock surrounded by drunken
+sailors, and above it the inscription, "And in a night of debauch I
+forgot all my good resolutions."
+
+He was brought back to real life by the songs of his companions, and
+by a pair of keen bright eyes that were fixed upon his own. Jack was
+annoyed by this gaze, and leaned forward with a bottle in his hand.
+
+"Drink with me, captain!" he said.
+
+The man declined abruptly. The younger sailor whispered to Jack, "Let
+him alone; he did not wish to take you on board; his wife settled things
+for him; he thought you had more money than you ought to have!"
+
+Jack was indignant at being treated like a thief. He exclaimed that his
+money was his own, that it had been given him by------. Here he stopped,
+remembering that his mother had forbidden him to mention her name.
+"But," he continued, "I can have more money when I wish it, and I am
+going to buy a wedding present for Zenaide."
+
+He talked on, but no one listened, for a grand dispute between the two
+men was well under way as to the place where they should land.
+
+At last they entered the harbor of Nantes. Old houses, with carved
+fronts and stone balconies, met his eyes, crowded as it were among the
+shipping at the wharves. Large vessels lay at anchor in the harbor,
+looking to the boy like captives who panted for liberty, sunshine, and
+space. Then he thought of Madou, of his flight and concealment among the
+cargo in the hold. But this thought was gone in a moment, and he found
+himself on shore between his two companions, whom he soon loses and
+finds again. They cross one bridge, and then another, and wander with
+neither end nor aim. They drink at intervals; night comes, and the
+boy accompanies the sailors to a low dance-house, still in the strange
+excitement in which he has been all day. Finally, he finds himself alone
+on a bench, in a public square, in a state of exhaustion that is far
+from sleep. The profound solitude terrifies him, when suddenly he hears
+the well-known cry,--
+
+"Hats! hats! Hats to sell!"
+
+"Belisaire!" called the boy.
+
+It was Belisaire. Jack made a futile effort at explanation. The man
+scolded the boy gently, lifted him up, and led him away.
+
+Where are they going? And who comes here? and what do they want of him?
+Rough men accost him; they shake him and put irons on his wrists, and he
+cannot resist, for he is still more than half asleep. He sleeps in the
+wagon into which he is thrust; in the boat, where he lies utterly inert;
+and how happy he is after being thus buffeted about to finally throw
+himself on a straw pallet, shut out from all further disturbance by huge
+locks and bolts.
+
+In the morning a frightful noise over his head awoke Jack suddenly. Ah,
+what a dismal awakening is that of drunkenness! The nervous trembling
+in every limb, the intense thirst and exhaustion, the shame and
+inexpressible anguish of the human being seeing himself reduced to the
+level of a beast, and so disgusted with his tarnished existence that he
+feels incapable of beginning life again.
+
+It was still too dark to distinguish objects, but he knew that he was
+not in his little attic. He caught a glimpse of the coming dawn in the
+white light from two high windows. Where was he? In the corner he began
+to see a confused mass of cords and pulleys. Suddenly he heard the same
+noise that had awakened him: it was a clock, and one that he well knew.
+He was at Indret, then, but where?
+
+Could it be that he was shut in the tower where refractory apprentices
+were occasionally put? And what had he done? He tried to recall the
+events of the day before, and, confused as his mind still was, he
+remembered enough to cover him with shame. He groaned heavily. The groan
+was answered by a sigh from the corner. He was not alone, then!
+
+"Who is there?" asked Jack, uneasily; "is it Belisaire?" he added. But
+why should Belisaire be there with him?
+
+"Yes, it is I," answered the man, in a tone of desperation.
+
+"In the name of heaven tell me why we are shut up here like two
+criminals?"
+
+"What other people have been doing I can't tell," muttered the old man;
+"I only speak for myself, and I have done no harm to any one. My
+hats are ruined,--and I, too, for that matter!" continued Belisaire,
+dolefully.
+
+"But what have I done?" asked Jack, for he could not imagine that among
+the many follies of which he had been guilty there was one more grave
+than another.
+
+"They say--But why do you make me tell you? You know well enough what
+they say."
+
+"Indeed, I do not; pray, go on."
+
+"Well, they say that you have stolen Zenaide's dowry."
+
+The boy uttered an exclamation of horror. "But you do not believe this,
+Belisaire?"
+
+The old man did not answer. Every one at Indret thought Jack guilty.
+Every circumstance was against the boy. On the first report of the
+robbery, Jack was looked for, but was not to be found. Chariot had
+very well managed matters. All along the road there were traces of
+the robbery in the gold pieces displayed so liberally. Only one thing
+disturbed the belief of the boy's guilt in the minds of the villagers:
+what could he have done with the six thousand francs? Neither
+Belisaire's pocket nor his own displayed any indication that such a sum
+of money had been in their possession.
+
+Soon after daybreak the superintendent sent for the prisoners. They were
+covered with mud, and were unwashed and unshorn; yet Jack had a certain
+grace and refinement in spite of all this; but Belisaire's naturally
+ugly countenance was so distorted by grief and anxiety, that, as the two
+appeared, the spectators unanimously decided that this gentle-looking
+child was the mere instrument of the wretched being with whom he was
+unfortunately connected. As Jack looked about he saw several faces which
+seemed like those of some terrible nightmare, and his courage deserted
+him. He recognized the sailors, and the proprietors of several of the
+wineshops, with many others of those whom he had seen on that
+disastrous yesterday. The child begged for a private interview with the
+superintendent, and was admitted to the office, where he found Father
+Rondic, whom Jack went forward at once to greet with extended hand. The
+old man drew back sadly but resolutely.
+
+"Out of regard for your youth, Jack," said the Director, "and from
+respect to your parents, and in consideration of your hitherto good
+behavior, I have begged that, instead of being carried to Nantes and
+placed in prison, you shall remain here. I now tell you that it is for
+you to decide what will be done. Tell me the truth. Tell Father Rondic
+and myself what you have done with the money, give him back what is
+left, and--no, do not interrupt me," continued the Director, with a
+frown. "Return the money, and I will then send you to your parents."
+
+Here Belisaire attempted to speak. "Be quiet, fellow!" said the
+superintendent; "I cannot understand how you can have the audacity to
+speak. We believe you to be in reality the guilty party, and that this
+child has simply been your tool."
+
+Jack wished to protest against this condemnation of his friend; but old
+Rondic gave him no time.
+
+"You are quite right, sir, it is bad company that has led the lad
+astray. Everybody loved him in my house; we had every confidence in him
+until he met this miserable wretch."
+
+Belisaire looked so heart-broken at this wholesale condemnation that
+Jack rushed boldly forward in his defence. "I assure you, air, that I
+met Belisaire late in the day."
+
+"Do you mean," said the superintendent, "that you committed this robbery
+all alone?"
+
+"I have done no wrong, sir."
+
+"Take care, my lad--you are going down hill with rapidity. Your guilt
+is very evident, and it is useless to deny it. You were alone with the
+Rondic women in their house all night. Zenaide showed you the casket,
+and even showed you where it was kept. In the night she heard some one
+moving in your attic; she spoke; naturally you made no reply. She knew
+that it must be you, for there was no one else in the house. Then you
+must remember that we know how much money you threw away yesterday."
+
+Jack was about to say, "My mother sent it to me," when he remembered
+that she had forbidden him to mention this. So he hesitatingly murmured
+that he had been saving his money for some time.
+
+"What nonsense!" cried the Director. "Do you think you can make us
+believe that with your small wages you could have laid aside the amount
+you squandered yesterday? Tell the truth, my lad, and repair the evil
+you have done as well as possible."
+
+Then Father Rondic spoke. "Tell us, my boy, where this money is.
+Remember that it is Zenaide's dowry, that I have toiled day and night to
+lay it aside for her, feeling that with it I might make her happy.
+You did not think of all this, I am sure, and were led away by the
+temptation of the moment. But now that you have had time to reflect, you
+will tell us the truth. Remember, Jack, that I am old, that time may not
+be given me to replace this money. Ah, my good lad, speak!"
+
+The poor man's lips trembled. It must have been a hardened criminal who
+could have resisted such a touching appeal. Belisaire was so moved that
+he made ar series of the most extraordinary gestures. "Give him the
+money, Jack, I beg of you!" he whispered.
+
+Alas I if the child had had the money, how gladly he would have placed
+it in the hands of old Rondic, but he could only say,--
+
+"I have stolen nothing--I swear I have not!"
+
+The superintendent rose from his chair impatiently. "We have had enough
+of this. Your heart must be of adamant to resist such an appeal as has
+been made to you. I shall send you up-stairs again, and give you until
+to-night to reflect. If you do not then make a full confession, I shall
+hand you over to the proper tribunal."
+
+The boy was then left all the long day in solitude. He tried to sleep,
+but the knowledge that every one thought him guilty, that his own
+shameful conduct had given ample reason for such a judgment, overwhelmed
+him with sorrow. How could he prove his innocence? By showing his
+mother's letter. But if D'Argenton should know of it? No, he could not
+sacrifice his mother! What, then, should he do? And the boy lay on the
+straw bed, turning over in his bewildered brain the difficulties of his
+position. Around him went on the business of life; he heard the workmen
+come and go. It was evening, and he would be sent to prison. Suddenly he
+heard the stairs creak under a heavy tread, then the turning of the key,
+and Zenaide entered hastily.
+
+"Good heavens," she cried, "how high up you are!"
+
+She said this with a careless air, but she had wept so much that her
+eyes were red and inflamed, her hair was roughened and carelessly put
+up. The poor girl smiled at Jack. "I am ugly, am I not? I have no figure
+nor complexion. I have a big nose and small eyes; but two days ago I had
+a handsome dowry, and I cared but little if some of the malicious young
+girls said, 'It is only for your money that Maugin wishes to marry you,'
+as if I did not know this! He wanted my money, but I loved him! And now,
+Jack, all is changed. To-night he will come and say farewell, and I
+shall not complain. Only, Jack, before he comes, I thought I would have
+a little talk with you."
+
+Jack had hidden his face, and was crying. Zenaide felt a ray of hope at
+this.
+
+"You will give me back my money, Jack, will you not?" she added
+entreatingly.
+
+"But I have not got it, I assure you."
+
+"Do not say that. You are afraid of me, but I will not reproach you.
+If you have spent a little you are quite welcome, but tell me where the
+rest is!"
+
+"Listen to me, Zenaide: this is horrible. Why should every one think me
+guilty?"
+
+She went on as if he had not spoken. "Do you understand that without
+this money I shall be miserable? In your mother's name I entreat you
+here on my knees!"
+
+She threw herself on the floor by the side of the bed where the boy sat,
+and gave way to tears and sobs. Jack, who was as unhappy as she, tried
+to take her hand. Suddenly she started up. "You will be punished. No one
+will ever love you because your heart is bad!" and she left the room.
+She ran hastily down the stairs to the superintendent's room, whom she
+found with her father. She could not speak, for her tears choked her.
+
+"Be comforted, my child!" said the Director. "Your father tells me that
+the mother of this boy is married to a very rich man. We will write to
+them. If they are good people, your dowry will be restored to you."
+
+He wrote the following letter:--
+
+"Madame: Your son has stolen a sum of money from the honest and
+hard-working man with whom he lived. This sum represents the savings of
+years. I have not yet handed him over to the authorities, hoping that he
+might be induced to restore at least a portion of this money. But I am
+afraid that it has all been squandered among drunken companions. If that
+is the case, you should indemnify the Rondics for their loss. The amount
+is six thousand francs. I await your decision before taking any further
+steps."
+
+And he signed his name.
+
+"Poor things--it is terrible news for them!" said Pere Rondic, who amid
+his own sorrows could still think of those of others.
+
+Zenaide looked up indignantly. "Why do you pity these people? If the boy
+has taken my money, let them replace it."
+
+How pitiless is youth! The girl gave not one thought to the mother's
+despair when she should hear of her son's crime. Old Rondic, on the
+contrary, said to himself, "She will die of shame!"
+
+In due time this letter written by the superintendent reached its
+destination, as letters which contain bad news generally do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.~~CHARLOTTE'S JOURNEY.
+
+One gray morning Charlotte was cutting the last bunches from the vines;
+the poet was at work, and Dr. Hirsch was asleep, when the postman
+reached Aulnettes.
+
+"Ah! a letter from Indret!" said D'Argenton, slowly opening his
+newspapers,--"and some verses by Hugo!"
+
+Why did the poet watch this unopened letter as a dog watches a bone that
+he does not wish himself, and is yet determined that no one else shall
+touch? Simply because Charlotte's eyes had kindled at the sight of it,
+and because this most selfish of beings felt that for a moment he had
+become a secondary object in the mother's eyes.
+
+From the hour of Jack's departure, his mother's love for him had
+increased. She avoided speaking of him, however, lest she should
+irritate her poet He divined this, and his hatred and jealousy of
+the child increased. And when the early letters of Ron-die contained
+complaints of Jack, he was very much delighted. But this was not enough.
+He wished to mortify and degrade the boy still more. His hour had come.
+At the first words of the letter, for he finally opened it, his eyes
+flamed with malicious joy. "Ah! I knew it!" he cried, and he handed the
+sheet to Charlotte.
+
+What a terrible blow for her! Wounded in her maternal pride before the
+poet, wounded, too, by his evident satisfaction, the poor woman was
+still more overwhelmed by the reproaches of her own conscience. "It is
+my own fault!" she said to herself, "why did I abandon him?"
+
+Now he must be saved, and at all hazards. But where should she find the
+money? She had nothing. The sale of her furniture had brought in some
+millions of francs, but they had been quickly spent. The trifles of
+jewelry she had would not bring half the necessary sum. She never
+thought of appealing to D'Argenton. First, he hated the boy; and next,
+he was very miserly. Besides, he was far from rich. They lived with
+great economy in the winter, the better to keep up their hospitality
+during the summer.
+
+"I have always felt," said D'Argenton, after leaving her time to finish
+the letter, "that this boy was bad at heart!"
+
+She made no reply; indeed she hardly heard what he said. She was
+thinking that her child would go to prison if she could not obtain the
+money.
+
+He continued, "What a disgrace this is to me!" The mother was still
+saying to herself, "The money, where shall I get it?"
+
+He determined to prevent her asking him the question he saw on her lips.
+
+"We are not rich enough to do anything!"
+
+"Ah! if you could," she murmured.
+
+He became very angry. "If I could!" he cried. "I expected that! You
+know better than any one else how enormous our expenses are here. It is
+enough that for two years I have supported that boy without paying for
+the thefts he has committed. Six thousand francs! where shall I find
+them?"
+
+"I did not think of you," she answered, slowly.
+
+"Of whom, then?" he questioned, sternly.
+
+With heightened color, and with lips quivering with shame, she uttered a
+name, expecting from her poet an explosion of wrath.
+
+He was silent for a moment.
+
+"I can but make one more sacrifice for you, Charlotte," he said,
+pompously.
+
+"Thanks! thanks! How good you are!" she cried.
+
+And they lowered their voices, for Dr. Hirsch was heard descending the
+stairs.
+
+It was a most singular conversation--syllabic and disjointed--he
+affecting great repugnance, she great brevity. "It was impossible to
+trust to a letter," Charlotte said. Then, terrified at her own audacity,
+she added, "Suppose I go to Tours myself."
+
+With the utmost tranquillity he answered, "Very well, we will go."
+
+"How good you are, dear!" she cried: "you will go with me there, and
+then to Indret with the money!" and the foolish creature kissed his
+hands with tears. The truth was that he did not care for her to go to
+Tours without him; he knew that she had lived there and been happy.
+Suppose she should never return to him! She was so weak, so shallow,
+so inconsistent! The sight of her old lover, of the luxury she had
+relinquished--the influence of her child, might decide her to cast aside
+the heavy chains with which he had loaded her. In addition, he was by
+no means averse to this little journey, nor to playing his part in the
+drama at Indret.
+
+He told Charlotte that he would never abandon her, that he was ready
+to share her sorrows as well as her joys; and, in short, convinced
+Charlotte that he loved her more than ever.
+
+At dinner he said to Doctor Hirsch, "We are obliged to go to Indret,
+the child has got into trouble, and you must keep house in our absence."
+They left by the night express and reached Tours early in the morning.
+The old friend of Ida de Barancy lived in one of those pretty chateaux
+overlooking the Loire. He was a widower without children, an excellent
+man, and a man of the world. In spite of her infidelity, he had none but
+the kindest recollection of the light-hearted woman who for a time had
+brightened his solitude. He consequently replied to a little note sent
+by Charlotte that he was ready to receive her.
+
+D'Argenton and she took a carriage from the hotel, and as they
+approached the chateau, Charlotte began to grow uneasy. "It cannot be,"
+she said to herself, "that he intends to go in with me!" She sat in the
+corner of the carriage, looking out at the fields where she had so often
+wandered with the boy, who was now wearing a workman's blouse.
+
+D'Argenton watched her from the corner of his eyes, gnawing his
+moustache with fury. She was very pretty that morning, a little pale
+from emotion and from a night of travel. D'Argenton was uneasy
+and restless; he began to regret having accompanied her, and felt
+embarrassed by the part he was playing.
+
+When he saw the chateau, with its grounds and fountains, its air of
+wealth, he reproached himself for his own imprudence. "She will never
+return to Aulnettes," he thought. At the end of the avenue he stopped
+the carriage. "I will wait here," he said, abruptly; and added, with a
+sad smile, "Do not be long."
+
+Ten minutes later he saw Charlotte on the terrace with a tall and
+elegant-looking man. Then began for him a terrible anguish. What were
+they saying? Should he ever see her again? And it was that detestable
+boy that had given him all this disturbance. The poet sat on the fallen
+trunk of a tree, watching feverishly the distant door. Before him was
+outspread a charming landscape--wooded hills, sloping vineyards, and
+meadows overhung with willows; on one side a ruin of the time of Louis
+IX., and on the other, one of those chateaux common enough on the shores
+of the Loire. Just below him a sort of canal was in process of building.
+He watched the workmen in a mechanical sort of way; they were clothed
+in uniform, and seemed an organized body. He rose and sauntered toward
+them. The laborers were only children, and their reddened eyes and pale
+faces told the story of their confinement to the poorer quarters of the
+town.
+
+"Who are these children?" questioned the poet.
+
+"They belong to the penitentiary," was the answer from the official who
+superintended them.
+
+D'Argenton asked question after question, saying that he was intimately
+connected with a family whose only son had just plunged them into deep
+affliction.
+
+"Send him to us," was the curt reply, "as soon as he leaves the prison."
+
+"But I doubt if he goes to prison," said D'Argen-ton, with a shade of
+regret in his voice; "the parents have paid the amount."
+
+"Well, then, we have another establishment--the _Maison Paternelle_.
+I have some of the circulars here in my pocket, and perhaps you would
+glance over them, sir."
+
+D'Argenton took the papers and turned back toward the house. The
+carriage was coming down the avenue, and soon Charlotte, her color
+heightened and her eyes bright with hope for her child, appeared.
+
+"I have succeeded," she cried, as the poet entered the carriage.
+
+"Ah!" he answered, dryly, relapsing into silence, turning over his
+circulars with an air of affected interest. Charlotte, too, was silent,
+supposing his pride wounded; and finally he was obliged to say, "You
+succeeded, then?"
+
+"Completely. It has always been his intention to give Jack, on his
+coming of age, a present of ten thousand francs. He has given it to me
+now. Six thousand will repay the money, and the other four thousand I am
+to employ as I think best for my child's advantage."
+
+"Employ it, then, in placing him in the _Maison Paternelle_, at Mertray,
+for two or three years. It is there only that one can learn to make an
+honest man from out of a thief."
+
+She started, for the harsh word recalled her to reality. We know that in
+that poor little brain impressions are very transitory.
+
+"I am ready to do whatever you choose," she said, "you have been so good
+and generous!"
+
+The poet was enchanted; he was still master, and he proceeded to read
+Charlotte a long lecture. Her maternal weakness was the cause of all
+that had happened. The master-hand of a man was absolutely essential.
+She did not answer, being occupied with joy at the thought of her child
+not being sent to prison.
+
+It was on Sunday morning that they reached Basse Indret. The poet went
+at once to the superintendent's, while Charlotte remained alone at the
+inn, for hotel there was none at the village. The rain beating against
+the windows, and the loud talking in the house, gave her the first clear
+impression she had received of the exile to which she had condemned her
+boy. However guilty he might be, he was still her child--her Jack. She
+remembered him as a little fellow, bright, intelligent, and sensitive,
+and the idea that he would presently appear before her as a thief and in
+a workman's blouse, seemed almost incredible. Ah! had she kept her child
+with her, or had she sent him with other boys of his age to school, he
+would have been kept from temptation. The old doctor was right, after
+all. And Jack had lived with these people for two years! All the
+prejudices of her superficial nature revolted against her surroundings.
+She was incapable of comprehending the grandeur of a task accomplished,
+of a life purchased by the fatigue of the body and the labor of the
+hands. To change the current of her thoughts, she took up the prospectus
+of which we have spoken--"_Maison Paternelle_." The system adopted was
+absolute isolation. The mother's heart swelled with anguish, and she
+closed the book and went to the window, where she stood with her eyes
+fixed on a small bit of the Loire that she saw at the foot of a street,
+where the water was as rough as the sea itself.
+
+D'Argenton, in the meantime, was accomplishing his mission. He would
+not have relinquished the duty for any amount of money. He was fond
+of attitudes and scenes. He prepared in advance the terms in which he
+should address the criminal.
+
+An old woman pointed out the house of the Rondics, but when he reached
+it he hesitated. Must he not have made a mistake? From the wide open
+windows came the sound of gay music, and heavy feet were heard keeping
+time to it. "No, this cannot be it," said D'Argenton, who naturally
+expected to find a desolate house.
+
+"Come, Zenaide, it is your turn," called some one.
+
+"Zenaide"--why, that was Rondic's daughter! These people certainly did
+not take this affair much to heart. All at once a crowd of white-capped
+women passed the window, singing loudly.
+
+"Come, Brigadier I come, Jack!" said some one.
+
+Somewhat mystified, the poet pushed open the door, and amid the dust and
+crowd he saw Jack, radiant with happiness, dancing with a stout girl,
+who smiled with her whole heart at a good-looking fellow in uniform. In
+a corner sat a gray-haired man, much amused by all that was going on;
+with him was a tall, pale, young woman, who looked very sad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.~~CLARISSE.
+
+This was what had happened. The day after he had written to Jack's
+mother, the superintendent was in his office alone, when Madame Rondic
+entered, pale and agitated. Paying little attention to the coolness with
+which she was received, her conduct having for a long time habituated
+her to the silent contempt of all who respected themselves, she refused
+to sit down, and, standing erect, said slowly, attempting to conceal her
+emotion,--
+
+"I have come to tell you that the apprentice is not guilty; that it is
+not he who has stolen my stepdaughter's dowry."
+
+The Director started from his chair. "But, ma-dame, every proof is
+against him."
+
+"What proofs? The most important is that, my husband being away, Jack
+was alone with us in the house. It is just this proof that I have come
+to destroy, for there was another man there that night."
+
+"What man? Chariot?"
+
+She made a sign of assent. Ah, how pale she was!
+
+"Then he took the money?"
+
+There was a moment's hesitation. The white lips parted, and an almost
+inaudible reply was whispered, "No, it was not he who took it; I gave it
+to him!"
+
+"Unhappy woman!"
+
+"Yes, most unhappy. He said that he needed it for two days only, and I
+bore for that time the sight of my husband's despair and of Zenaide's
+tears, and the fear of seeing an innocent person condemned. Nothing came
+from Chariot. I wrote to him that if by the next day at eleven I heard
+nothing, I should denounce myself,--and here I am."
+
+"But what am I to do?"
+
+"Arrest the real criminals, now that you know who they are."
+
+"But your husband--it will kill him!"
+
+"And me, too," she replied, with haughty bitterness. "To die is a very
+simple matter; to live is far more difficult."
+
+She spoke of death with a tone of feverish longing in her voice.
+
+"If your death could repair your fault," returned the Director, gravely;
+"if it could restore the money to the poor girl, I could understand why
+you should wish to die. But--"
+
+"What shall be done, then," she asked, plaintively; and all at once
+she became the Clarisse of old. Her unwonted courage and determination
+failed her.
+
+"First, we must know what has become of this money; he must have some of
+it still."
+
+Clarisse shook her head. She knew too well how madly that gambler
+played. She knew that he had thrust her aside, almost walked over her,
+to procure this money, and that he would play until he had lost his last
+sou.
+
+The superintendent touched his bell. A gendarme entered:
+
+"Go at once to Saint Nazarre," said his chief; "say to Chariot that I
+require his presence here at once. You will wait for him."
+
+"Chariot is here, sir; I just saw him come out from Madame Rondic's; he
+cannot be far off."
+
+"That is all right. Go after him quickly. Do not tell him, however, that
+Madame Rondic is here."
+
+The man hurried away. Neither the superintendent nor Clarisse spoke. She
+stood leaning against the corner of the desk. The jar of the machinery,
+the wild whistling of the steam, made a fitting accompaniment to the
+tumult of her soul. The door opened.
+
+"You sent for me," said Chariot, in a gay voice.
+
+The presence of Clarisse, her pallor, and the stern look of his chief,
+told the story. She had kept her word. For a moment his bold face lost
+its color, and he looked like an animal driven into a corner.
+
+"Not a word," said the Director; "we know all that you wish to say. This
+woman has robbed her husband and her daughter for you. You promised to
+return her the money in two days. Where is it?"
+
+Chariot turned beseechingly toward Clarisse. She did not look at him;
+she had seen him too well that terrible night.
+
+"Where is the money?" repeated the superintendent.
+
+"Here--I have brought it."
+
+What he said was true. He had kept his promise to Clarisse, but not
+finding her at home, had only too gladly carried it away again.
+
+His chief took up the bills. "Is it all here?"
+
+"All but eight hundred francs," the other answered, with some
+hesitation; "but I will return them."
+
+"Now sit down and write at my dictation," said the superintendent,
+sternly.
+
+Clarisse looked up quickly. This letter was a matter of life and death
+to her.
+
+"Write: 'It is I who, in a moment of insane folly, took six thousand
+francs from the wardrobe in the Rondic house.'"
+
+Chariot internally rebelled at these words, but he was afraid that
+Clarisse would establish the facts in all their naked cruelty.
+
+The superintendent continued: "'I return the money; it burns me. Release
+the poor fellows who have been suspected, and entreat my uncle to
+forgive me. Tell him that I am going away, and shall return only when,
+through labor and penitence, I shall have acquired the right to shake an
+honest man's hand.' Now sign it."
+
+Seeing that Chariot hesitated, the superintendent said, peremptorily,
+"Take care, young man! I warn you that if you do not sign this letter,
+and address it to me, this woman will be at once arrested."
+
+Chariot signed.
+
+"Now go," resumed the superintendent, "to Guerigny, if you will, and
+try to behave well. Remember, moreover, that if I hear of you in the
+neighborhood of Indret, you will be arrested at once."
+
+As Chariot left the room, he cast one glance at Clarisse. But the charm
+was broken; she turned her head away resolutely, and when the door
+closed tried to express her gratitude to the superintendent.
+
+"Do not thank me, madame," he said; "it is for your husband's sake that
+I have acted, with the hope of sparing him the most horrible torture
+that can overwhelm a man."
+
+"It is in my husband's name that I thank you. I am thinking of him, and
+of the sacrifice I must make for him."
+
+"What sacrifice?"
+
+"That of living, sir, when death would be so sweet. I am so weary."
+
+And in fact the woman looked so ill, so prostrated, that the
+superintendent feared some catastrophe. He answered compassionately,
+"Keep up your courage, madame, and remember that your husband loves
+you."
+
+And Jack? Ah, he had his day of triumph! The superintendent ordered
+a placard to be put up in all the buildings, announcing the boy's
+innocence. He was feted and caressed. One thing only was lacking, and
+that was news of Belisaire.
+
+When the prison-doors were thrown open, the pedler disappeared. Jack was
+greatly distressed at this, but nevertheless breakfasted merrily with
+Zenaide and her soldier, and had forgotten all his woes, when D'Argenton
+appeared, majestic and clothed in black. It was in vain that they
+explained the finding of the money, the innocence of Jack, and that a
+second letter had been sent narrating all these facts; in vain did these
+good people treat Jack with familiar kindness: D'Argenton's manner did
+not relax; he expressed in the choicest terms his regret that Jack had
+given so much trouble.
+
+"But it is I who owe him every apology," cried the old man.
+
+D'Argenton did not condescend to listen: he spoke of honor and duty,
+and of the abyss to which such evil conduct must always lead. Jack was
+confused, for he remembered his journey to Nantes, and the stall in
+which Zenaide's lover could testify to having seen him; he therefore
+listened with downcast eyes to the ponderous eloquence of the lecturer,
+who fairly talked Father Rondic to sleep.
+
+"You must be very thirsty after talking so long," said Zenaide,
+innocently, as she brought a pitcher of cider and a fresh cake. And the
+cake looked so nice, so fresh and crisp, that the poet--who was, as we
+know, something of an epicure--made a breach in it quite as large as
+that in the ham made by Beli-saire at Aulnettes.
+
+Jack had discovered one thing only from all D'Argenton's long words,--he
+had learned that the poet had brought the money to rescue him from
+disgrace, and the child began to believe that he had done the man great
+injustice, and that his coldness was only on the surface. The boy,
+therefore, had never been so respectful. This, and the cordial reception
+of the Rondics, put the poet into the most amiable state of mind.
+You should have seen him with Jack as they trod the narrow streets of
+Indret!
+
+"Shall I tell him that his mother is so near?" said D'Argenton, unwilling
+to introduce her boy to Charlotte in the character of hero and martyr;
+it was more than the selfish nature of the man could support. And yet,
+to deprive Charlotte and her son of the joy of seeing each other once
+more it was necessary to be provided with some reason; and this reason
+Jack himself soon furnished.
+
+The poor little fellow, deluded by such extraordinary amiability,
+acknowledged to M. d'Argenton that he did not like his present life;
+that he should not be anything of a machinist; that he was too far from
+his mother. He was not afraid of work, but he liked brain work better
+than manual labor. These words had hardly passed the boy's lips, when he
+saw a change in his hearer.
+
+"You pain me, Jack, you pain me seriously; and your mother would be
+very unhappy did she hear you utter such opinions. You have forgotten
+apparently that I have said to you a hundred times that this century
+was no time for Utopian dreams, for idle fancies;" and on this text he
+wandered on for more than an hour. And while these two walked on the
+side of the river, a lonely woman, tired of the solitude of her room in
+the inn, came down to the other bank, to watch for the boat that was to
+bring her the little criminal,--the boy whom she had not seen for two
+years, and whom she dearly loved. But D'Argenton had determined to keep
+them apart. It was wisest--Jack was too unsettled. Charlotte would
+be reasonable enough to comprehend this, and would willingly make the
+sacrifice for her child's interest.
+
+And thus it came to pass that Jack and his mother, separated only by the
+river, so near that they could have heard each other speak across its
+waters, did not meet that night, nor for many a long day afterwards.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.~~IN THE ENGINE-ROOM.
+
+How is it that days of such interminable length can be merged into such
+swiftly-passing years? Two have passed since Zenaide was married, and
+since Jack's terrible adventure. He has worked conscientiously, and
+loathes the thought of a wineshop. The house is sad and desolate since
+Zenaide's marriage; Madame Rondic rarely goes out, and occupies her
+accustomed seat at the window, the curtain of which, however, is never
+lifted, for she expects no one now. Her days and nights are all
+alike monotonous and dreary. Father Rondic alone preserves his former
+serenity.
+
+The winter has been a cold one. The Loire has overflowed the island,
+part of which remained under water four months, and the air was filled
+with fogs and miasma. Jack has had a bad cough, and has passed some
+weeks in the infirmary. Occasionally a letter has come for him, tender
+and loving when his mother wrote in secret, didactic and severe when
+the poet looked over her shoulder. The only news sent by his mother was,
+that her poet had had a grand reconciliation with the Moronvals, who now
+came on Sundays, with some of their pupils, to dine at Aulnettes.
+
+Moronval, Madou, and the academy seemed far enough away to Jack, who
+thought of himself in those old days as of a superior being, and could
+see little resemblance between his coarse skin and round shoulders, and
+the dainty pink and white child whose face he dimly remembered.
+
+Thus were Dr. Rivals' words justified: "It is social distinctions that
+create final and absolute separations."
+
+Jack thought often of the old doctor and of Cecile, and on the first of
+January each year had written them a long letter. But the two last had
+remained unanswered.
+
+One thought alone sustained Jack in his sad life: his mother might need
+him, and he must work hard for her sake.
+
+Unfortunately wages are in proportion to the value of the work, and not
+to the ambition of the workman, and Jack had no talent in the direction
+of his career. He was seventeen, his apprenticeship over, and yet he
+received but three francs per day. With these three francs he must pay
+for his room, his food, and his dress; that is, he must replace his
+coarse clothing as it was worn out; and what should he do if his mother
+were to write and say, "I am coming to live with you "?
+
+"Look here," said Pere Rondic, "your parents made a great mistake in not
+listening to me. You have no business here; now how would you like to
+make a voyage? The chief engineer of the 'Cydnus' wants an assistant.
+You can have six francs per day, be fed, lodged, and warmed. Shall I
+write and say you will like the situation?"
+
+The idea of the double pay, the love of travel that Madou's wild tales
+had awakened in his childish nature, combined to render Jack highly
+pleased at the proposed change. He left Indret one July morning, just
+four years after his arrival. What a superb day it was! The air became
+more fresh as the little steamer he was on approached the ocean. Jack
+had never seen the sea. The fresh salt breeze inspired him with
+restless longing. Saint Nazarre lay before him,--the harbor crowded with
+shipping. They landed at the dock, and there learned that the Cydnus, of
+the _Compagnie Transatlantique_, would sail at three o'clock that day,
+and was already lying outside,--this being, in fact, the only way to
+have the crew all on board at the moment of departure.
+
+Jack and his companion--for Father Rondic had insisted on seeing him on
+board his ship--had no time to see anything of the town, which had all
+the vivacity of a market-day.
+
+The wharf was piled with vegetables, with baskets of fruit, and with
+fowls which, tied together, were wildly struggling for liberty.
+Near their merchandise stood the Breton peasants waiting quietly for
+purchasers. They were in no hurry, and made no appeal to the passers-by.
+In contrast to these, there was a number of small peddlers, selling pins,
+cravats, and portemonnaies, who were loudly crying their wares. Sailors
+were hurrying to and fro, and Rondic learned from one of them that the
+chief engineer of the Cydnus was in a very bad humor because he had not
+his full number of stokers on board.
+
+"We must hasten," said Rondic; and they hailed a boat, and rapidly
+threaded their way through the harbor. The enormous transatlantic
+steamers lay at their wharves as if asleep; the decks of two large
+English ships just arrived from Calcutta were covered with sailors, all
+hard at work. They passed between these motionless masses, where the
+water was as dark as a canal running through the midst of a city under
+high walls; then they saw the Cydnus lying, with her steam on. A wiry
+little man, in his shirt-sleeves, with three stripes on his cap, hailed
+Jack and Rondic as their boat came alongside the steamer.
+
+His words were inaudible through the din and tumult, but his gestures
+were eloquent enough. This was Blanchet, the chief engineer.
+
+"You have come, then, have you?" he shouted. "I was afraid you meant
+to leave me in the lurch."
+
+"It was my fault," said Rondic; "I wished to accompany the lad, and I
+could not get away yesterday."
+
+"On board with you, quick!" returned the engineer; "he must get into his
+place at once."
+
+They descended first one ladder, then another, and another. Jack, who
+had never been on board a large steamer, was stupefied at the size
+and the depth of this one. They descended to an abyss where the eyes
+accustomed to the light of day could distinguish absolutely nothing. The
+heat was stifling, and a final ladder led to the engine-room, where the
+heavy atmosphere, charged with a smell of oil, was almost insupportable.
+Great activity reigned in this room; a general examination was being
+made of the machinery, which glittered with cleanliness. Jack looked on
+curiously at the enormous structure, knowing that it would soon be his
+duty to watch it day and night.
+
+At the end of the engine-room was a long passage. "That is where the
+coal is kept," said the engineer, carelessly; "and on the other side the
+stokers sleep."
+
+Jack shuddered. The dormitory at the academy, the garret-room at the
+Rondics, were palaces in comparison.
+
+The engineer pushed open a small door. Imagine a long cave, reddened
+by the reflection of a dozen furnaces in full blast; men, almost naked,
+were stirring the fire, the sweat pouring from their faces.
+
+"Here is your man," said Blanchet to the head workman.
+
+"All right, sir," said the other without turning round.
+
+"Farewell," said Rondic. "Take care of yourself, my boy!" and he was
+gone.
+
+Jack was soon set to work; his task was to carry the cinders from the
+furnace to the deck, and there throw them into the sea. It was very hard
+work: the baskets were heavy, the ladders narrow, and the change
+from the pure air above to the stifling atmosphere below absolutely
+suffocating. On the third trip Jack felt his legs giving way under him.
+He found it impossible to even lift his basket, and sank into a corner
+half fainting. One of the stokers, seeing his condition, brought him a
+large flask of brandy.
+
+"Thank you; I never drink anything," said Jack.
+
+The other laughed. "You will drink here," he answered.
+
+"Never," murmured Jack; and lifting the heavy basket, more by an effort
+of will than by muscular force, he ascended the ladder.
+
+From the deck an animated spectacle was to be seen. The little steamer
+ran to and fro from the wharf to the ship, laden with passengers who
+came hurriedly on board. The passengers were representatives of all
+nations. Some were gay, and others were weeping, but in the faces of
+all was to be read an anxiety or a hope; for these displacements, these
+movings, are almost invariably the result of some great disturbance, and
+are, in general, the last quiver of the shock that throws you from one
+continent to the other.
+
+This same feverish element pervaded everything, even the vessel that
+strained at its anchor. It animated the curious crowd on the jetty
+who had come, some of them, to catch a last look of some dear face. It
+animated the fishing-boats, whose sails were spread for a night of toil.
+
+Jack, with his empty basket at his feet, stood looking down at the
+passengers,--those belonging to the cabins comfortably established,
+those of the steerage seated on their slender luggage. Where were they
+going? What wild fancy took them away? What cold and stern reality
+awaited them on their landing? One couple interested him especially:
+it was a mother and a child who recalled to him the memory of Ida and
+little Jack. The lady was young and in black, with a heavy wrap thrown
+about her, a Mexican sarape with wide stripes. She had a certain air of
+independence characteristic of the wives of military or naval officers,
+who, from the frequent absence of their husbands, are thrown on their
+own resources. The child, dressed in the English fashion, looked as if
+he might have belonged to Lord Pembroke. When they passed Jack they both
+turned aside, and the long silk skirts were lifted that they might not
+touch his blackened garments. It was an almost imperceptible movement,
+but Jack understood it. A rough oath and a slap on the shoulder
+interrupted his sad thoughts.
+
+"What the deuce are you up here for, sir? Go down to your post!" It
+was the engineer making his rounds. Jack went down without a word,
+humiliated at the reproof.
+
+As he put his foot on the last ladder, a shudder was felt throughout the
+ship: she had started.
+
+"Stand there!" said the head stoker.
+
+Jack took his place before one of those gaping mouths; it was his duty
+to fill it, and to rake it, and to keep the fire clear. This was not
+such an easy matter, as, being unaccustomed to the sea, the pitching
+of the vessel came near throwing him into the flames. He nevertheless
+toiled on courageously, but at the end of an hour he was blind and deaf,
+stifled by the blood that rushed to his head. He did as the others
+did, and ran to the outer air. Ah, how good it was! Almost immediately,
+however, an icy blast struck him between the shoulders.
+
+"Quick, give me the brandy!" he cried with a choked voice, to the man
+who had previously offered it to him.
+
+"Here it is, comrade; I knew very well that you would want it before
+long."
+
+He swallowed an enormous draught; it was almost pure alcohol, but he was
+so cold that it seemed like water. After a moment a comfortable warmth
+spread over his whole system, and then began a burning sensation in his
+stomach. To extinguish this fire he drank again. Fire within, and fire
+without,--flame upon flame,--was this the way that he was to live in
+future?
+
+Then began a life of toil, hardship, and drunkenness that lasted three
+years:--three years whose seasons were all alike in that heated room
+down in the bowels of that big ship.
+
+He sailed from country to country; he heard their names, Italian,
+French, and Spanish, but of them all he saw nothing. The fairer the
+climes they visited, the hotter was his chamber of torment. When he had
+emptied his cinders, broken his coal, and filled his furnaces, he slept
+the sleep of exhaustion and intoxication; for a stoker must drink if he
+lives. In the darkness of his life there was but one bright spot, his
+mother. She was like the Madonna in a chapel where all the lights are
+extinguished save the one that burns before her shrine. Now that he had
+become a man, much of the mystery of her life had become clear to him.
+His respect for Charlotte was changed to tender pity, and he loved her
+as we love those for whom we suffer. Even in his most despairing moments
+he remembered the end for which he toiled, and a mechanical instinct
+made him carefully preserve almost every sou of his wages.
+
+Meanwhile, distance and time weakened the intercourse between mother and
+son. Jack's letters became more and more rare. Those of Charlotte were
+frequent, but they spoke of things so foreign to his new life, that
+he read them only to hear their music, the far off echo of a living
+tenderness.
+
+Letters from Etiolles told him of D'Argenton; later, some from Paris
+spoke of their having again taken up their residence there, and of the
+poet having founded a Review, in consequence of the solicitations of
+friends. This would be a way of bringing his works prominently before
+the public, as well as to increase his income. At Havana Jack found a
+large package addressed to him. It was the first number of the magazine.
+The stoker mechanically turned its leaves, leaving on them the traces of
+his blackened fingers; and suddenly, as he saw the well-known names of
+D'Argenton, Moronval, and Hirsch on the smooth pages, he was seized
+with wild rage and indignation, and he cried aloud, as he shook his fist
+impatiently in the air, "Wretches, wretches! what have you made of me?"
+
+This emotion was but brief; day by day his intellect weakened, and,
+strangely enough, he gained in physical health; he was stronger, and
+better able to support the fatigues of his daily labor; he seemed hardly
+to recognize any difference between bis days when the ship tossed and
+groaned, and his nights when he slept a drunken sleep, disturbed only by
+an occasional nightmare.
+
+Was that frightful shock and crash of the Cydnus one of these dreams?
+That rushing of water, those cries of frightened women,--was all that a
+dream? His comrades called him, shook him. "Jack, Jack!" they cried; he
+staggered out, half naked. The engine-room was already half under water,
+the compass broken, the fires extinguished. The men ran against each
+other in the darkness. "What is it?" they cried.
+
+An American ship had run them down. The men struggled up the narrow
+ladder; at the head stood the chief engineer with a revolver in his
+hand.
+
+"The first man that attempts to pass me I will shoot! Go to your
+furnaces! Land is not far off; we shall reach it yet if my orders are
+obeyed." Each one turned, with rage and despair in his heart. They
+charged the furnaces with wet coal, and volumes of gas and smoke poured
+out; while the water still ascending, in spite of the constant work at
+the pumps, was as cold as ice. The pumps refuse to work, the furnaces
+will not burn. The stokers are in water up to their shoulders before the
+voice of the chief engineer is heard: "Save yourselves, my men, if you
+can!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.~~D'ARGENTON'S MAGAZINE.
+
+In a narrow street, quiet and orderly, in one of those houses belonging
+to the last century, D'Argen-ton had established himself as editor of
+the new magazine; while Jack, our friend Jack, was its proprietor.
+Do not smile: this was really the case; his money had been used to
+establish it Charlotte had some little scruple at first in so employing
+these funds, which she wished to preserve intact for the boy on his
+attaining his majority; but she yielded to the poet's persuasions.
+
+"Come, my dear, listen! Figures are figures, you' know. Can there be a
+better investment than this Review? It is far safer than any railroad,
+at least Have I not placed my own funds in it?"
+
+Within six months D'Argenton had sacrificed thirty thousand francs, and
+the receipts had been nothing, while the expenses were enormous. Besides
+the offices of the magazine, D'Argenton had hired in the same house a
+large apartment, from which he had a superb view. The city, the Seine,
+Notre Dame, numberless spires and domes, were all spread before his
+eyes. He saw the carriages pass over the bridges, and the boats glide
+through the arches. "Here I can live and breathe," he said to himself.
+"It was impossible for me to accomplish anything in that dull little
+hole of Aulnettes! How could one work in such a lethargic atmosphere?"
+
+Charlotte was still young and gay; she managed the house and the
+kitchen, which was no small matter with the number of persons who daily
+assembled around her table. The poet, too, had recently acquired the
+habit of dictating instead of writing, and as Charlotte wrote a graceful
+English hand, he employed her as secretary. Every evening, when they
+were alone, he walked up and down the large room and dictated for an
+hour. In the silent old house, his solemn voice, and another sweeter and
+fresher, awakened singular echoes. "Our author is composing," said the
+concierge with respect.
+
+Let us look in upon the D'Argenton menage. We find them installed in a
+charming little room, filled with the aroma of green tea and of Havana
+cigars. Charlotte is preparing her writing-table, arranging her pens,
+and straightening the ream of thick paper. D'Argenton is in excellent
+vein; he is in the humor to dictate all night, and twists his moustache,
+where glitter many silvery hairs. He waits to be inspired. Charlotte,
+however, as is often the case in a household, is very differently
+disposed: a cloud is on her face, which is pale and anxious; but
+notwithstanding her evident fatigue, she dips her pen in the inkstand.
+
+"Let us see--we are at chapter first. Have you written that?"
+
+"Chapter first," repeated Charlotte, in a low, sad voice.
+
+The poet looked at her with annoyance; then, with an evident
+determination not to question her, he continued,--
+
+"In a valley among the Pyrenees, those Pyrenees so rich in legendary
+lore--"
+
+He repeated these words several times, then turning to Charlotte, he
+said, "Have you written this?"
+
+She made an effort to repeat the words, but stopped, her voice strangled
+with sobs. In vain did she try to restrain herself, her tears flowed in
+torrents.
+
+"What on earth is the matter?" said D'Argenton. "Is it this news of
+the Cydnus? It is a mere flying report, I am sure, and I attach no
+importance to it. Dr. Hirsch was to call at the office of the Company
+to-day, and he will be here directly."
+
+He spoke in a satirical tone, slightly disdainful, as the weak,
+children, fools, and invalids are often addressed. Was she not something
+of all these?
+
+"Where were we?" he continued, when she was calmer. "You have made me
+lose the thread. Read me all you have written."
+
+Charlotte wiped her tears away.
+
+"In a valley among the Pyrenees, those Pyrenees so rich in legendary
+lore--"
+
+"Go on."
+
+"It is all," she answered.
+
+The poet was very much surprised; it seemed to him that he had dictated
+much more. The terrible advantage thought has over expression bewildered
+him. All that he dreamed, all that was in embryo within his brain, he
+fancied was already in form and on the page, and he was aghast at the
+disproportion between the dream and the reality. His delusion was like
+that of Don Quixote,--he believed himself in the Empyrean, and took the
+vapors from the kitchen for the breath of heaven, and, seated on his
+wooden horse, felt all the shock of an imaginary fall.. Had he been in
+such a state of mental exaltation merely to produce those two lines?
+Were these the only result of that frantic rubbing of his dishevelled
+hair, of that weary pacing to and fro?'
+
+He was furious, for he felt that he was ridiculous. "It is your fault,"
+he said to Charlotte. "How can a man work in the face of a crying woman?
+It is always the same thing--nothing is accomplished. Years pass away
+and the places are filled. Do you not know how small a thing disturbs
+literary composition? I ought to live in a tower a thousand feet above
+all the futilities of life, instead of being surrounded by caprices,
+disorder, and childishness." As he speaks he strikes a furious blow upon
+the table, and poor Charlotte, with the tears pouring from her eyes,
+gathers up the pens and papers that have flown about the room in wild
+confusion.
+
+The arrival of Dr. Hirsch ends this deplorable scene, and after a while
+tranquillity is restored. The doctor is not alone; Labassandre comes
+with him, and both are grave and mysterious in their manner.
+
+Charlotte turns hastily. "What-news, doctor?" she asks.
+
+"None, madame; no news whatever."
+
+But Charlotte detected a covert glance at D'Argenton, and knew that the
+physician's words were false.
+
+"And what do the officers of the Company say?" continued the mother,
+determined to learn the truth.
+
+Labassandre undertook to answer, and while he spoke, the doctor
+contrived to convey to D'Argenton that the Cydnus had gone to the
+bottom",--"a collision at sea--every soul was lost."
+
+D'Argenton's face never changed, and it would have been difficult to
+form any idea of his feelings.
+
+"I have been at work," he said. "Excuse me, I need the fresh air."
+
+"You are right," said Charlotte; "go out for a walk;" and the poor
+woman, who usually detained her poet in the house lest the high-born
+ladies of the Faubourg St. Germain should entrap him, is this evening
+delighted to see him leave her, that she may weep in peace--that she may
+yield to all the wild terror and mournful presentiments that assail her.
+This is why even the presence of the servant annoys her, and she sends
+her to her attic.
+
+"Madame wishes to be alone! Is not madame afraid? The noise of the wind
+is very dismal on the balcony."
+
+"No, I am not afraid; leave me."
+
+At last she was alone. She could think at her ease, without the voice of
+her tyrant saying, "What are you thinking about?" Ever since she had
+read in the Journal the brief words, "There is no intelligence of the
+Cydnus," the image of her child had pursued her. Her nights had been
+sleepless, and she listened to the wind with singular terror. It seemed
+to blow from all quarters, rattling the windows and wailing through the
+chimneys. But whether it whispered or shrieked, it spoke to her, and
+said what it always says to the mothers and wives of sailors, who turn
+pale as they listen. The wind comes from afar, but it comes quickly and
+has met with many adventures. With one gust it has torn away the sails
+of a vessel, set fire to a quiet home, and carried death and destruction
+on its wings. This it is that gives to its voice such melancholy
+intonations.
+
+This night it was dreary enough: it rattles the windows and whistles
+under the doors; it wishes to come in, for it bears a message to this
+poor mother, and it sounds like an appeal or a warning. The ticking
+of the clock, the distant noise of a locomotive, all take the same
+plaintive tone and beseeching accent. Charlotte knows only too well
+what the wind wishes to tell her. It is a story of a ship rolling on the
+broad ocean, without sails or rudder--of a maddened crowd on the deck,
+of cries and shrieks, curses and prayers. Her hallucination is so strong
+that she even hears from the ship a beseeching cry of "Mamma!" She
+starts to her feet; she bears it again. To escape it, she walks about
+the room, opens the door and looks down the corridor. She sees nothing,
+but she hears a sigh, and, raising her lamp higher, discovers a dark
+shadow crouched in the corner.
+
+"Who is that?" she cried, half in terror, half in hope.
+
+"It is I, dear mother!" said a weak voice.
+
+She ran toward him. It is her boy--a tall, rough sailor--rising as she
+approached him, with the aid of a pair of crutches. And this is what
+she has made of her child! Not a word, not an exclamation, not a caress.
+They look at each other, and tears fill the eyes of both.
+
+A certain fatality attaches itself to some people, which renders them
+and all that they do absolutely ridiculous. When D'Argenton returned
+that night, he came with the determination to disclose the fatal news to
+Charlotte, and to have the whole affair concluded. The manner in which
+he turned the key in the lock announced this solemn determination.
+But what was his surprise to find the parlor a blaze of light!
+Charlotte--and on the table by the fire the remains of a meal. She came
+to him in a terrible state of agitation.
+
+"Hush! Pray make no noise--he is here and asleep."
+
+"Who is here?"
+
+"Jack, of course. He has been shipwrecked, and is severely injured. He
+has been saved as by a miracle. He has just come from Rio Janeiro, where
+he spent two months in a hospital."
+
+D'Argenton forced a smile, which Charlotte endeavored to believe was one
+of satisfaction. It must be acknowledged that he behaved very well, and
+said at once that Jack must stay there until he was entirely recovered.
+In fact, he could do no less for the actual proprietor of his Review.
+
+The first excitement over, the ordinary life of the poet and Charlotte
+was resumed, changed only by the presence of the poor lame fellow, whose
+legs were badly burned by the explosion of a boiler, and had not yet
+healed. He was clothed in a jacket of blue cloth. His light moustache,
+the color of ripe wheat, was struggling into sight through the thick
+coating of tan that darkened his face; his eyes were red and inflamed,
+for the lashes had been burned off; and in a state of apathy painful to
+witness, the son of Ida de Barancy dragged himself from chair to chair,
+to the irritation of D'Argenton and to the great shame of his mother.
+When some stranger entered the house and cast an astonished glance at
+this figure, which offered so strange a contrast to the quiet, luxurious
+surroundings, she hastened to say, "It is my son, he has been very ill,"
+in the same way that the mothers of deformed children quickly mention
+the relationship, lest they should surprise a smile or a compassionate
+look. But if she was pained in seeing her darling in this state, and
+blushed at the vulgarity of his manners or his awkwardness at the table,
+she was still more mortified at the tone of contempt with which her
+husband's friends spoke of her son.
+
+Jack saw little difference in the habitues of the house, save that they
+were older, had less hair and fewer teeth; in every other respect they
+were the same. They had attained no higher social position, and were
+still without visible means of support.
+
+They met every day to discuss the prospects of the Review, and twice
+each week they all dined at D'Argenton's table. Moronval generally
+brought with him his two last pupils. One was a young Japanese prince
+of an indefinite age, and who, robbed of his floating robes, seemed very
+small and slender. With his little cane and hat, he looked like a figure
+of yellow clay fallen from an etagere upon the Parisian sidewalk. The
+other, with narrow slits of eyes and a black beard, recalled certain
+vague remembrances to Jack, who at last recognized his old friend Said
+who had offered him cigar ends on their first interview.
+
+The education of this unfortunate youth had been long since finished,
+but his parents had left him with Moronval to be initiated into the
+manners and customs of fashionable society. All these persons treated
+Jack with a certain air of condescension. He remained Master Jack to but
+one person--that was that most amiable of women, Madame Moronval, who
+wore the same silk dress that he had seen her in years before. He cared
+little whether he was called "Master Jack," or "My boy,"--his two months
+in the hospital, his three years of alcoholic indulgence, the atmosphere
+of the engine-room, and the final tempestuous conclusion, had caused him
+such profound exhaustion, such a desire for quiet, that he sat with his
+pipe between his teeth, silent and half asleep.
+
+"He is intoxicated," said D'Argent on sometimes.
+
+This was not the case; but the young man found his only pleasure in the
+society of his mother on the rare occasions when the poet was absent.
+Then he drew his chair close to hers, and listened to her rather than
+talk himself. Her voice made a delicious murmur in his ears like that of
+the first bees on a warm spring day.
+
+Once, when they were alone, he said to Charlotte, very slowly, "When I
+was a child I went on a long voyage--did I not?"
+
+She looked at him a little troubled. It was the first time in his life
+that he had asked a question in regard to his history.
+
+"Why do you wish to know?"
+
+"Because, three years ago, the first day that I was on board a steamer,
+I had a singular sensation. It seemed to me that I had seen it all
+before; the cabins, and the narrow ladders, impressed me as familiar; it
+seemed to me that I had once played on those very stairs."
+
+She looked around to assure herself that they were entirely alone.
+
+"It was not a dream, Jack. You were three years old when we came from
+Algiers. Your father died suddenly, and we came back to Tours."
+
+"What was my father's name?"
+
+She hesitated, much agitated, for she was not prepared for this sudden
+curiosity; and yet she could not refuse to answer these questions.
+
+"He was called by one of the grandest names in France, my child--by
+a name that you and I would bear to-day if a sudden and terrible
+catastrophe had not prevented him from repairing his fault. Ah, we
+were very young when we met! I must tell you that at that time I had a
+perfect passion for the chase. I remember a little Arabian horse called
+Soliman--"
+
+She was gone, at full speed, mounted on this horse, and Jack made no
+effort to interrupt her--he knew that it was useless. But when she
+stopped to take breath, he profited by this brief halt to return to his
+fixed idea.
+
+"What was my father's name?" he repeated.
+
+How astonished those clear eyes looked! She had totally forgotten of
+whom they had been speaking. She answered quickly,--"He was called
+the Marquis de l'Epau." Jack certainly had but little of his mother's
+respect for high birth, its rights and its prerogatives, for he received
+with the greatest tranquillity the intelligence of his illustrious
+descent. What mattered it to him that his father was a marquis, and
+bore a distinguished name? This did not prevent his son from earning his
+bread as a stoker on the Cydnus.
+
+"Look here, Charlotte," said D'Argenton impatiently, one day, "something
+must be done! A decided step must be taken with this boy. He cannot
+remain here forever without doing anything. He is quite well again; he
+eats like an ox. He coughs a little still, to be sure, but Dr. Hirsch
+says that is nothing,--that he will always cough. He must decide on
+something. If the life in the engine-room of a steamer is too severe for
+him, let him try a railroad."
+
+Charlotte ventured to say, timidly, "If you could see how he loses his
+breath when he climbs the stairs, and how thin he is, you would still
+feel that he is far from well. Can you not employ him on some of the
+office work?"
+
+"I will speak to Moronval," was the reply.
+
+The result of this was, that Jack for some days did everything in the
+office except sweep the rooms. With his usual imperturbability, Jack
+fulfilled these various duties, enduring the contemptuous remarks of
+Moronval with the same indifference that he opposed to D'Argenton's cold
+contempt. Moronval had a certain fixed salary on the magazine; it was
+small, to be sure, but he added to it by supplementary labors, for which
+he was paid certain sums on account. The subscription books lay open on
+the desk, expenses went on, but no receipts came in. In fact, there was
+but one subscriber, Charlotte's friend at Tours, and but one proprietor,
+and he, with a glue-pot and brush, was at work in a corner. Neither
+Jack nor any one else realized this; but D'Argenton knew it and felt
+it hourly, and soon hated more strongly than ever the youth upon whose
+money he was living.
+
+At the end of a week it was announced that Jack was useless in the
+office.
+
+"But, my dear," said Charlotte, "he does all he can!"
+
+"And what is that? He is lazy and indifferent; he knows not how to sit
+nor how to stand, and he falls asleep over his plate at dinner; and
+since this great, shambling fellow has appeared here, you have grown ten
+years older, my love. Besides, he drinks, I assure you that he drinks."
+
+Charlotte bowed her head and wept; she knew that her son drank, but
+whose fault was it? Had they not thrown him into the gulf?
+
+"I have an idea, Charlotte! Suppose we send him to Etiolles for change
+of air. We will give him a little money, and it will be a good thing for
+him."
+
+She thanked him enthusiastically, and it was decided that she would go
+the next day to install her son at Aulnettes.
+
+They arrived there on one of those soft autumnal mornings which have all
+the beauty of summer without its excessive heat. There was not a breath
+in the air; the birds sang loudly, the fallen leaves rustled gently, and
+a perfume of rich maturity of ripened grain and fruit filled the air.
+The paths through the woods were still green and fresh; Jack recognized
+them all, and, seeing them, regained a portion of his lost youth. Nature
+herself seemed to welcome him with open arms, and he was soothed and
+comforted. Charlotte left her son early the next morning, and the little
+house, with its windows thrown wide open to the soft air and sunlight,
+had a peaceful aspect.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.~~THE CONVALESCENT.
+
+"And to think that for five years I have been allowed to remain in the
+belief that my Jack was a thief!"
+
+"But, Dr. Rivals--"
+
+"And that if I had not happened to ask for a glass of milk at the
+Archambaulds, I should have continued to think so!"
+
+It was, on feet, at the forester's cottage that Jack and his old friend
+had met.
+
+For ten days the youth had been living in solitude at Aulnettes. Each
+day he had become more like the Jack of his childhood. The only persons
+with whom he held any communication were the old forester and his wife,
+who had served Charlotte faithfully for so long a time. She watched over
+his health, purchased his provisions, and often cooked his dinner over
+her own fire, while he sat and smoked at the door. These people never
+asked a question, but when they saw his thin figure and heard his
+constant cough, they shook their heads.
+
+The interview between Dr. Rivals and Jack was at first embarrassing
+to both, but after a little conversation, and as soon as the doctor
+understood the truth, the awkwardness passed away.
+
+"And now," said the old gentleman, gayly, "I hope we shall see you
+often. You have been sent out to grass, apparently, like an old horse,
+but you need more than that. You require great care, my boy, great
+care,--particularly in the coming season. Etiolles is not Nice, you
+understand. Our house is changed, for my poor wife died four years
+ago,--died of absolute grief. My granddaughter does her best to take her
+place; she keeps my books and makes up my prescriptions. How glad she
+will be to see you! Now when will you come?"
+
+Jack hesitated, as if he read his thoughts. The doctor added,--
+
+"Cecile knows nothing of all your troubles; so come without any feeling
+of restraint. It is too cold for you to be out late to-night; this fog
+is not good for you; but I shall expect you at breakfast to-morrow. Now
+in with you quickly; you must not be out after the dews begin to fall.
+If you do not appear I shall come for you."
+
+As Jack closed the door of the house, he had a singular impression. It
+seemed to him that he had just come home from one of those long drives
+with the doctor; that he should find his mother in the dining-room,
+while the poet was above in the tower.
+
+He passed the evening in the chimney-corner, before a fire made of dried
+grape-vines, for life in the engine-room had made him very chilly. As of
+old, when he returned from his country excursions with the doctor, the
+remembrance of his kindness and affection rendered him impervious to the
+slights he received at home, so now did the prospect of seeing Cecile
+people his solitude with dear phantoms and happy visions, that remained
+with him even while he slept.
+
+The next day he knocked at the Rivals' door.
+
+"The doctor has not come in. Mademoiselle is in the office," was the
+reply of the little servant who had replaced the faithful old woman he
+had known. Jack turned to the office; he knocked hurriedly, impatient to
+behold his former companion.
+
+"Come in, Jack," said a sweet voice.
+
+Instead of obeying, he was seized with a strange emotion of fear.
+
+The door opened suddenly, and Jack asked himself if the charming
+apparition on the threshold, in her blue dress and clustering blonde
+hair, was not the sun itself. How intimidated he would have been had
+not the little hand slipped into his own recalled so many sweet
+recollections of their common child-hood!
+
+"Life has been very hard for you, my grandfather tells me," she said. "I
+have had much sorrow, too. Dear grandmamma is dead; she loved you, and
+often spoke of you."
+
+He sat opposite to her, looking at her. She was tall and graceful; as
+she stood leaning against the corner of an old bookcase, she bent her
+head slightly to talk to her friend, and reminded him of a bird.
+
+Jack remembered that his mother was beautiful also; but in Cecile
+there was something indefinable--an aroma of some divine spring-time,
+something fresh and pure, to which Charlotte's mannerisms and graces
+bore little resemblance.
+
+Suddenly, while he sat in this ecstasy before her, he caught sight of
+his own hand. It seemed enormous to him; it was black and hardened, and
+the nails were broken and deformed,--irretrievably injured by contact
+with fire and iron. He was ashamed, but could not conceal them even
+by putting them in his pocket. But he saw himself now with the eyes of
+others, dressed in shabby clothes and an old vest of D'Argenton's, that
+was too small for him and too short in the sleeves. In addition to this
+physical awkwardness, poor Jack was overwhelmed by the memory of all the
+disgraceful scenes through which he had passed. The drunken orgies, the
+hours of beastly intoxication, all returned to his recollection, and it
+seemed to him that Cecile knew them, too. The slight cloud that hung on
+her fair young brow, the compassion he read in her eyes, all told him
+that she understood his shame and humiliation. He wished to run away and
+shut himself into a room at Aulnettes, and never leave it again.
+
+Fortunately, some one came into the office, and Cecile, busy at her
+scales, writing the labels as her grandmother had done, gave Jack time
+to recover his equanimity.
+
+How good and patient she was! These poor peasant women were very stupid
+and wearisome with their long explanations. She encouraged them with
+her sympathy, cheered them with her words of counsel, and reproved them
+gently for their mistakes.
+
+She was busy at this moment with an old acquaintance of Jack's,--the
+very woman who had taken so much pleasure in terrifying him when he was
+little. Bowed, as nearly all the peasantry are by their daily labor,
+burned by the sun, and powdered by the dust, old Sale yet retained a
+little life in her sharp eyes. She spoke of her good man, who had been
+sick for months,--who could not work, and yet had to eat. She said two
+or three things calculated to disconcert a young girl, and looked Cecile
+directly in the face with malicious delight. Two or three times Jack
+felt a strong inclination to put the wretch out of the door; but he
+restrained himself when he saw the cold dignity with which Cecile
+listened.
+
+The old woman finally finished her discourse, and, as she passed Jack
+going out, recognized him.
+
+"What!" she exclaimed, "the little Aulnettes boy come to life again?
+Ah, Mademoiselle Cecile, your uncle won't want you to marry him now, I
+fancy, though there was a time when everybody thought that was what the
+doctor desired;" and, chuckling, she left the room.
+
+Jack turned pale. The old woman had finally struck the blow that, so
+many years ago, she had threatened him with. But Jack was not the
+only one who was disturbed. A fair face, bent low over a big book, was
+scarlet with annoyance.
+
+"Come, Catherine, bring the soup." It was the doctor who spoke. "And you
+two, have you not found a word to say to each other after seven years'
+absence?"
+
+At the table Jack was no more at his ease. He was afraid that some of
+his bad habits would show themselves; and his hands--what could he
+do with them? With one he must hold his fork, but with the other? The
+whiteness of the linen made it look appallingly black. Cecile saw his
+discomfort, and understanding that her watchfulness increased it, hardly
+glanced again in his direction.
+
+Catherine took away the dessert, and put before the young girl hot
+water, sugar, and a bottle of old brandy. It was she who since her
+grandmother's death had mixed the doctor's grog. And the good man
+had not gained by the change; for she, as the doctor observed in a
+melancholy tone, "diminished daily the quantity of alcohol."
+
+When she had served her grandfather, Cecile turned toward their guest.
+
+"Do you drink brandy?" she asked.
+
+"Does he drink brandy?" said the doctor, with a laugh, "and he in an
+engine-room for three years? Don't you know--ignorant little puss that
+you are--that that is the only way the poor fellows can live? On board
+a vessel where I was, one fellow drank a bottle of pure spirit at a
+draught. Make Jack's strong, my dear."
+
+She looked at her old friend sadly and seriously.
+
+"Will you have some?"
+
+"No, mademoiselle," he answered, in a low, ashamed voice; and he
+withdrew his glass,--for which effort of self-denial he was rewarded by
+one of those eloquent looks of gratitude which some women can give, and
+which are only understood by those whom they address.
+
+"Upon my word, a conversion!" said the doctor, laughing. But Jack was
+converted only after the fashion of savages, who consent to believe in
+God only to please the missionaries. The peasants of Etiolles, at work
+in the fields, who saw Jack on his way home that night, might have had
+every reason to suppose that he was crazy or intoxicated. He was talking
+to himself, and gesticulating wildly. "Yes," he exclaimed,
+"M. d'Argenton was right: I am a mere artisan and must live and die with
+my equals; it is useless for me to try and rise above them." It was a
+very long time since the young man had felt any such energy. New
+thoughts and ideas crowded into his mind; among them was Cecile's image.
+What a marvel of grace and purity she was! He sighed as he thought that
+had he been differently educated, he might have ventured to ask her to
+become his wife. At this moment, as he turned a sharp angle in the road,
+he found himself face to face with Mother Sale, who was dragging a fagot
+of wood. The old woman looked at him with a wicked smile, that in his
+present mood exasperated him to such a degree that his look of anger so
+terrified the old creature that she dropped her fagot and ran into the
+wood.
+
+That evening he spent in darkness, and lighted neither fire nor lamp.
+Seated in a corner of the dining-room, with his eyes fixed on the glass
+doors that led to the garden, through which the soft mist of a superb
+autumnal night was visible, he thought of his childhood, and of the last
+years of his life.
+
+No, Cecile would not marry him. In the first place, he was a mechanic;
+secondly, his birth was illegitimate. It was the first time in his life
+that this thought had weighed upon him, for Jack had not lived among
+very scrupulous people. He had never heard his father's name mentioned,
+and therefore rarely thought of him, being as unable to measure the
+extent of his loss as a deaf mute is unable to realize the blessing of
+the senses he lacks.
+
+But now the question of his birth occupied him to the exclusion of all
+others.
+
+He had listened calmly to the name of his father when Charlotte told it;
+but now he would like to learn from her every detail. Was he really a
+marquis? Was he certainly dead? Had not his mother said this merely to
+avoid the disclosure of a mortifying desertion? And if this father were
+still alive, would he not be willing to give his name to his son? The
+poor fellow was ignorant of the fact that a true woman's heart is more
+moved by compassion than by all the vain distinctions of the world.
+
+"I will write to my mother," he thought. But the questions he wished
+to ask were so delicate and complicated, that he resolved to see her at
+once, and have one of those earnest conversations where eyes do the work
+of words, and where silence is as eloquent as speech. Unfortunately he
+had no money for his railroad fare. "Pshaw!" he said, "I can go on foot.
+I did it when I was eleven, and I can surely try it again." And he did
+try it the next day; and if it seemed to him less long and less lonely
+than it did before, it was far more sad.
+
+Jack saw the spot where he had slept, the little gate at Villeneuve
+Saint-George's, where he had been dropped by the kind couple from their
+carriage, the pile of stones where the recumbent form of a man had so
+terrified him, and he sighed to think that if the Jack of his youth
+could suddenly rise from the dust of the highway, he would be more
+afraid of the Jack of to-day than of any other dismal wanderer.
+
+He reached Paris in the afternoon. A settled, cold rain was falling;
+and pursuing the comparison that he had made of his souvenirs with the
+present time, he recalled the glow of the sunset on that May evening
+when his mother appeared to him, like the archangel Michael, wrapped in
+glory, and chasing away the shades of night.
+
+Instead of the little house at Aulnettes where Ida sang amid her roses,
+Jack saw D'Argenton just issuing from the door, followed by Moronval,
+who was carrying a bundle of proofs.
+
+"Here is Jack!" said Moronval.
+
+The poet started and looked up. To see these two men, one dressed with
+so much care, brushed, perfumed, and gloved; the other in a velvet coat,
+much too short for him, shiny from wear and weather, no one would have
+supposed that any tie could exist between them.
+
+Jack extended his hand to D'Argenton, who gave one finger in return, and
+asked if the house at Aulnettes was rented.
+
+"Rented?" said the other, not understanding.
+
+"To be sure. Seeing you here, I supposed that of course the house was
+occupied, and you were compelled to leave it."
+
+"No," said Jack, somewhat disconcerted; "no one has even called to look
+at the place."
+
+"What are you here for?"
+
+"To see my mother."
+
+"Filial affection is a most excellent thing. Unfortunately, however,
+there are travelling expenses to be thought of."
+
+"I came on foot," said Jack, with simple dignity.
+
+"Indeed!" drawled D'Argenton, and then added, "I am glad to see that your
+legs are in better order than your arms."
+
+And pleased at this mot, the poet bowed coldly, and went on.
+
+A week before, and these words would have scarcely been noticed by Jack,
+but since the previous night he had not been the same person. His pride
+was now so wounded that he would have returned to Aulnettes without
+seeing his mother, had he not wished to speak to her most seriously.
+He entered the salon; it was in disorder: chairs and benches were being
+brought in, for a great fete was in progress of arrangement, which
+was the reason that D'Argenton was so out of temper on seeing
+Jack. Charlotte did not appear pleased, but stopped in some of her
+preparations.
+
+"Is it you, my dear Jack. You come for money, too, I fancy. I forgot it
+utterly,--that is, I begged Dr. Hirsch to hand it to you. He is going
+to Aulnettes in two or three days to make some very curious experiments
+with perfumes. He has made an extraordinary discovery."
+
+They were talking in the centre of the room; a half dozen workmen were
+going to and fro, driving nails, and moving the furniture.
+
+"I wish to speak seriously," said Jack.
+
+"What! now? You know that serious conversation is not my forte; and
+to-day all is in confusion. We have sent out five hundred invitations,
+it will be superb! Come here, then, if it is absolutely necessary.
+I have arranged a veranda for smoking. Come and see if it is not
+convenient?"
+
+She went with him into a veranda covered with striped cotton, furnished
+with a sofa and jardiniere, but rather dismal-looking with the rain
+pattering on the zinc roof.
+
+Jack said to himself, "I had better have written," and did not know what
+to say first.
+
+"Well?" said Charlotte, leaning her chin on her hand in that graceful
+attitude that some women adopt when they listen. He hesitated a moment,
+as one hesitates in placing a heavy load upon an etagere of trifles,
+for that which he had to say seemed too much for that pretty little head
+that leaned toward him.
+
+"I should like--I should like to talk to you of my father," he said,
+with some hesitation.
+
+On the end of her tongue she had the words, "What folly!" If she did
+not utter them, the expression of her face, in which were to be read
+amazement and fear, spoke for her.
+
+"It is too sad for us, my child, to discuss. But still, painful as
+it is to me, I understand your feelings, and am ready to gratify you.
+Besides," she added, solemnly, "I have always intended, when you were
+twenty, to reveal to you the secret of your birth."
+
+It was time now for him to look astonished. Had she forgotten that three
+months previous she had made this disclosure. Nevertheless, he uttered
+no protest, he wished to compare her story of to-day with an older
+narration. How well he knew her!
+
+"Is it true that my father was noble?" he asked, suddenly.
+
+"Indeed he was, my child."
+
+"A marquis?"
+
+"No, only a baron."
+
+"But I supposed--in fact, you told me--"
+
+"No, no--it was the elder branch of the Bulac family that was noble."
+
+"He was connected then with the Bulac family?"
+
+"Most assuredly. He was the head of the younger branch."
+
+"And his name was--"
+
+"The Baron de Bulac--a lieutenant in the navy."
+
+Jack felt dizzy, and had only strength to ask, "How long since he died?"
+
+"O, years and years!" said Charlotte, hurriedly.
+
+That his father was dead he was sure; but had his mother told him a
+falsehood now, or on the previous occasion? Was he a De Bulac or a
+L'Epau?
+
+"You are looking ill, child," said Charlotte, interrupting herself in
+the midst of a long romance she was telling, "your hands are like ice."
+
+"Never mind, I shall get warm with exercise," answered Jack, with
+difficulty.
+
+"Are you going so soon? Well, it is best that you should get back before
+it is late." She kissed him tenderly, tied a handkerchief around his
+throat, and slipped some money into his pocket. She fancied that his
+silence and sadness came from seeing all the preparations for a fete in
+which he was to have no share, and when her maid summoned her for the
+waiting coiffeur, she said good-bye hurriedly.
+
+"You see I must leave you; write often, and take good care of yourself."
+
+He went slowly down the steps, with his face turned toward his mother
+all the time. He was sad at heart, but not by reason of this fete from
+which he was excluded, but at the thought of all the happiness in life
+from which he had been always shut out. He thought of the children who
+could love and respect their parents, who had a name, a fireside, and a
+family. He remembered, too, that his unhappy fate would prevent him from
+asking any woman to share his life. He was wretched without realizing
+that to regret these joys was in fact to be worthy of them, and that it
+was only the fall perception of the sad truths of his destiny that would
+impart the strength to cope with them.
+
+Wrapped in these dismal meditations, he had reached the Lyons station, a
+spot where the mud seems deeper, and the fog thicker, than elsewhere.
+It was just the hour that the manufactories closed. A tired crowd,
+overwhelmed by discouragement and distress, hurried through the streets,
+going at once to the wine-shops, some of which had as a sign the one
+word _Consolation_, as if drunkenness and forgetfulness were the sole
+refuge for the wretched. Jack, feeling that darkness had settled down on
+his life as absolutely as it had on this cold autumnal night, uttered an
+exclamation of despair.
+
+"They are right; what is there left to do but to drink?" and entering
+one of those miserable drink-ing-shops, Jack called for a double measure
+of brandy. Just as he lifted his glass, amid the din of coarse voices,
+and through the thick smoke, he heard a flute-like voice,--
+
+"Do you drink brandy, Jack?"
+
+No, he did not drink it, nor would he ever touch it again. He left the
+shop abruptly, leaving his glass untouched and the money on the counter.
+
+How Jack had a sharp illness of some weeks' duration after this long
+walk; how Dr. Hirsch experimented upon him until routed by Dr. Rivals,
+who carried the youth to his own house and nursed him again to health,
+is too long a story. We prefer also to introduce our readers to Jack
+seated in a comfortable arm-chair, reading at the window of the doctor's
+office. It was peaceful about him, a peace that came from the sunny sky,
+the silent house, and the gentle footfall of Cecile.
+
+He was so happy that he rarely spoke, and contented himself with
+watching the movements of the dear presence that pervaded the simple
+home. She sewed and kept her grandfather's accounts.
+
+"I am sure," she said, looking up from her book, "that the dear man
+forgets half his visits. Did you notice what he said yesterday, Jack?"
+
+"Mademoiselle!" he answered, with a start.
+
+He had not heard one word, although he had been watching her with all
+his eyes. If Cecile said, "My friend," it seemed to Jack that no
+other person had ever so called him; and when she said farewell, or
+good-night, his heart contracted as if he were never to see her again.
+Her slightest words were full of meaning, and her simple, unaffected
+ways were a delight to the youth. In his state of convalescence he was
+more susceptible to these influences than he would ordinarily have been.
+
+O, the delicious days he spent in that blessed home! The office, a
+large, deserted room, with white curtains at the windows opening on a
+village street, communicated to him its healthful calm. The room
+was filled with the odors of plants culled in the splendor of their
+flowering, and he drank it in with delight.
+
+In the scent of the balsam he heard the rushing of the clear brooks in
+the forest, and the woods were green and shady, when he caught the odor
+of the herbs gathered from the foot of the tall oaks.
+
+With returning strength Jack tried to read; he turned over the old
+volumes, and found those in which he had studied so long before, and
+which he could now far better comprehend. The doctor was out nearly all
+day, and the two young people remained alone. This would have horrified
+many a prudent mother, and, of course, had Madame Rivals been living, it
+would not have been permitted; but the doctor was a child himself, and
+then, who knows? he may have had his own plans.
+
+Meanwhile D'Argenton, informed of Jack's removal to the Rivals, saw fit
+to take great offence. "It is not at all proper," wrote Charlotte, "that
+you should remain there. People will think us unwilling to give you the
+care you need? You place us in a false position."
+
+This letter failing to produce any effect, the poet wrote himself:--"I
+sent Hirsch to cure you, but you preferred a country idiot to the
+science of our friend! As you call yourself better, I give you now two
+days to return to Aulnettes. If you are not there at the expiration
+of that time, I shall consider that you have been guilty of flagrant
+disobedience, and from that moment all is over between us."
+
+As Jack did not move, Charlotte appeared on the scene. She came with
+much dignity, and with a crowd of phrases that she had learned by heart
+from her poet. M. Rivals received her at the door, and, not in the least
+intimidated by her coldness, said at once, "I ought to tell you, madame,
+that it is my fault alone that your son did not obey you. He has passed
+through a great crisis. Fortunately he is at an age when constitutions
+can be reformed, and I trust that his will resist the rough trials to
+which it has been exposed. Hirsch would have killed him with his musk
+and his other perfumes. I took him away from the poisonous atmosphere,
+and now I hope the boy is out of danger. Leave him to me a while longer,
+and you shall have him back more healthy than ever, and capable of
+renewing the battle of life; but if you let that impostor Hirsch
+get hold of him again, I shall think that you wish to get rid of him
+forever."
+
+"Ah! M. Rivals, what a thing to say! What have I done to deserve such an
+insult?" and Charlotte burst into tears. The doctor soothed her with
+a few kind words, and then let her go alone into the office to see her
+son. She found him changed and improved much, as if he had thrown off
+some outer husk, but exhausted and weakened by the transformation. He
+turned pale when he saw her.
+
+"You have come to take me away," he exclaimed.
+
+"Not at all," she answered, hastily. "The doctor wishes you to remain,
+and where would you be so well as with the doctor who loves you so
+tenderly?"
+
+For the first time in his life Jack had been happy away from his mother,
+and a departure from the roof under which he was would have certainly
+caused him a relapse. Charlotte was evidently uncomfortable; she looked
+tired and troubled.
+
+"We have a large entertainment every month, and every fortnight a
+reading, and all the confusion gives me a headache. Then the Japanese
+prince at the Moronval Academy has written a poem, M. D'Argenton has
+translated it into French, and we are both of us learning the Japanese
+tongue. I find it very difficult, and have come to the conclusion that
+literature is not my forte. The Review does not bring in a single cent,
+and has not now one subscriber. By the way, our good friend at Tours is
+dead. Do you remember him?"
+
+At this moment Cecile came in and was received by Charlotte with the
+most flattering exclamations and much warmth of manner. She talked of
+D'Argenton and of their friend at Tours, which annoyed Jack intensely,
+for he would have wished neither person to have been mentioned in
+Cecile's pure presence, and over and over again he stopped the careless
+babble of his mother who had no such scruples. They urged Madame
+D'Argenton to remain to dinner, but she had already lingered too long,
+and was uneasily occupied in inventing a series of excuses for her
+delay, which should be in readiness when she encountered her poet's
+frowning face.
+
+"Above all, Jack, if you write to me, be sure that you put on your
+letter '_to be called for_,' for M. D'Argenton is much vexed with you
+just now. So do not be astonished if I scold you a little in my next
+letter, for he is always there when I write. He even dictates my
+sentences sometimes; but don't mind, dear, you will understand."
+
+She acknowledged her slavery with naivete, and Jack was consoled for the
+tyranny by which she was oppressed by seeing her go away in excellent
+spirits, and with her shawl wrapped so gracefully around her, and her
+travelling-bag carried as lightly as she carried all the burdens of
+life.
+
+Have you ever seen those water-lilies, whose long stems arise from the
+depths of the river, finding their way through all obstacles until they
+expand on the surface, opening their magnificent white cups, and filling
+the air with their delicate perfume? Thus grew and flowered the love of
+these two young hearts. With Cecile, the divine flower had grown in a
+limpid soul, where the most careless eyes could have discerned it.
+With Jack, its roots had been tangled and deformed, but when the stems
+reached the regions of air and light, they straightened themselves, and
+needed but little more to burst into flower.
+
+"If you wish," said M. Rivals, one evening, "we will go to-morrow to the
+vintage at Coudray; the farmer will send his wagon; you two can go in
+that in the morning, and I will join you at dinner."
+
+They accepted the proposition with delight. They started on a bright
+morning at the end of October. A soft haze hung over the landscape,
+retreating before them, as it seemed; upon the mown fields and on the
+bundles of golden grain, upon the slender plants, the last remains of
+the summer's brightness, long silken threads floated like particles of
+gray fog. The river ran on one side of the highway, bordered by huge
+trees. The freshness of the air heightened the spirits of the two young
+travellers, who sat on the rough seat with their feet in the straw, and
+holding on with both hands to the side of the wagon. One of the farmer's
+daughters drove a young ass, who, harassed by the wasps, which are
+very numerous at the time when the air is full of the aroma of ripening
+fruits, impatiently shook his long ears.
+
+They went on and on until they reached a hill-side, where they saw a
+crowd at work. Jack and Cecile each snatched a wicker basket and joined
+the others. What a pretty sight it was! The rustic landscape seen
+between the vine-draped arches, the narrow stream, winding and
+picturesque, full of green islands, a little cascade and its white foam,
+and above all, the fog showing through a golden mist, and a fresh breeze
+that suggested long evenings and bright fires.
+
+This charming day was very short, at least so Jack found it. He did not
+leave Cecile's side for a minute. She wore a broad-brimmed hat and a
+skirt of flowered cambric. He filled her basket with the finest of the
+grapes, exquisite in their purple bloom, delicate as the dust on the
+wings of a butterfly. They examined the fruit together; and when Jack
+raised his eyes, he admired on the cheeks of the young girl the same
+faint, powdery bloom. Her hair, blown in the wind in a soft halo above
+her brow, added to this effect. He had never seen a face so changed and
+brightened as hers. Exercise and the excitement of her pretty toil,
+the gayety of the vineyard, the laughs and shouts of the laborers, had
+absolutely transformed M. Rivals' quiet housekeeper. She became a child
+once more, ran down the slopes, lifted her basket on her shoulder,
+watched her burden carefully, and walked with that rhythmical step which
+Jack remembered to have seen in the Breton women as they bore on their
+heads their full water-jugs. There came a time in the day when these two
+young persons, overwhelmed by fatigue, took their seats at the entrance
+of a little grove where the dry leaves rustled under their feet.
+
+And then? Ah, well, they said nothing. They let the night descend softly
+on the most beautiful dream of their lives; and when the swift autumnal
+twilight brought out in the darkness the bright windows of the simple
+homes scattered about, the wind freshened, and Cecile insisted on
+fastening around Jack's throat the scarf she had brought, the warmth and
+softness of the fabric, the consciousness of being cared for, was like a
+caress to the lover.
+
+He took her hand, and her fingers lingered in his for a moment; that was
+all. When they returned to the farm the doctor had just arrived; they
+heard his cheery voice in the courtyard. The chill of the early autumnal
+evenings has a charm that both Cecile and Jack felt as they entered the
+large room filled with the light from the fire. At supper innumerable
+dusty bottles were produced, but Jack manifested profound indifference
+to their charms. The doctor, on the contrary, fully appreciated them, so
+fully that his granddaughter quietly left her seat, ordered the carriage
+to be harnessed, and wrapped herself in her cloak. Dr. Rivals seeing
+her in readiness, rose without remonstrance, leaving on the table his
+half-filled glass.
+
+The three drove home, as in the olden days, through the quiet country
+roads; the cabriolet, which had increased in size as had its occupants,
+groaned a little on its well-used springs. This noise took nothing from
+the charm of the drive, which the stars, so numberless in autumn, seemed
+to follow with a golden shower.
+
+"Are you cold, Jack?" said the doctor, suddenly.
+
+How could he be cold? The fringe of Cecile's great shawl just touched
+him.
+
+Alas! why must there be a to-morrow to such delicious days? Jack knew
+now that he loved Cecile, but he realized also that this love would be
+to him only an additional cause of sorrow. She was too far above him,
+and although he had changed much since he had been so near her, although
+he had thrown aside much of the roughness of his habits and appearance,
+he still felt himself unworthy of the lovely fairy who had transformed
+him.
+
+The mere idea that the girl should know that he adored her was
+distasteful to him. Besides, as his bodily health returned, he began to
+grow ashamed of his hours of inaction in "the office." What would she
+think of him should he continue to remain there? Cost what it would, he
+must go.
+
+One morning he entered M. Rivals' house to thank him for all his
+kindness, and to inform him of his decision.
+
+"You are right," said the old man; "you are well now bodily and
+mentally, and you can soon find some employment."
+
+There was a long silence, and Jack was disturbed by the singular
+attention with which M. Rivals regarded him. "You have something to say
+to me," said the doctor, abruptly.
+
+Jack colored and hesitated.
+
+"I thought," continued the doctor, "that when a youth was in love with a
+girl who had no other relation than an old grandfather, the proper thing
+was to speak to him frankly."
+
+Jack, without answering, hid his face in his hands.
+
+"Why are you so troubled, my boy?" continued his old friend.
+
+"I did not dare to speak to you," answered Jack; "I am poor and without
+any position."
+
+"You can remedy all this."
+
+"But there is something else: you do not know that I am illegitimate!"
+
+"Yes, I know--and so is she," said the doctor, calmly. "Now listen to a
+long story."
+
+They were in the doctor's library. Through the open window they saw a
+superb autumnal landscape, long country roads bordered with leafless
+trees; and beyond, the old country cemetery, its yew-trees prostrated,
+and its crosses upheaved.
+
+"You have never been there," said M. Rivals, pointing out to Jack this
+melancholy spot. "Nearly in the centre is a large white stone, on which
+is the one word Madeleine.
+
+"There lies my daughter, Cecile's mother. She wished to be placed apart
+from us all, and desired that only her Christian name should be put upon
+her tomb, saying that she was not worthy to bear the name of her father
+and mother. Dear child, she was so proud! She had done nothing to merit
+this exile after death, and if any should have been punished, it was I,
+an old fool, whose obstinacy brought all our misfortunes upon us.
+
+"One day, eighteen years ago this very month, I was sent for in a hurry
+on account of an accident that had happened at a hunt in the Foret de
+Senart. A gentleman had been shot in the leg. I found the wounded man on
+the state-bed at the Archambaulds. He was a handsome fellow, with light
+hair and eyes, those northern eyes that have something of the cold
+glitter of ice. He bore with admirable courage the extraction of the
+balls, and, the operation over, thanked me in excellent French, though
+with a foreign accent. As he could not be moved without danger, I
+continued to attend him at the forester's; I learned that he was a
+Russian of high rank,--'the Comte Nadine,' his companions called him.
+
+"Although the wound was dangerous, Nadine, thanks to his youth and good
+constitution, as well as to the care of Mother Archambauld, was
+soon able to leave his bed, but as he could not walk at all, I took
+compassion on his loneliness, and often carried him in my cabriolet home
+to my own house to dine. Sometimes, when the weather was bad, he spent
+the night with us. I must acknowledge to you that I adored the man.
+He had great stores of information, had been everywhere, and seen
+everything. To my wife he gave the pharmaceutic recipes of his own land,
+to my daughter he taught the melodies of the Ukraine. We were positively
+enchanted with him all of us, and when I turned my face homeward on a
+rainy evening, I thought with pleasure that I should find so congenial a
+person at my fireside. My wife resisted somewhat the general enthusiasm,
+but as it was rather her habit to cultivate a certain distrust as a
+balance to my recklessness, I paid little attention. Meanwhile our
+invalid was quite well enough to return to Paris, but he did not go, and
+I did not ask either myself or him why he lingered.
+
+"One day my wife said, 'M. Nadine must explain why he comes so often to
+the house; people are beginning to gossip about Madeleine and himself.'
+
+"'What nonsense!' I exclaimed. I had the absurd notion that the count
+lingered at Etiolles on my account; I thought he liked our long talks,
+idiot that I was. Had I looked at my daughter when he entered the
+room, I should have seen her change color and bend assiduously over her
+embroidery all the while he was there. But there are no eyes so blind
+as those which will not see; and I chose to be blind. Finally, when
+Madeleine acknowledged to her mother that they loved each other, I went
+to find the comte to force an explanation.
+
+"He loved my daughter, he said, and asked me for her hand, although he
+wished me to understand the obstacles that would be thrown in the way by
+his family. He said, however, that he was of an age to act for himself,
+and that he had some small income, which, added to the amount that I
+could give Madeleine, would secure their comfort.
+
+"A great disproportion of fortune would have terrified me, while the
+very moderation of his resources attracted me. And then his air of
+lordly decision, his promptness in arranging everything, was singularly
+attractive. In short, he was installed in the house as my future
+son-in-law, without my asking too curiously by what door he entered. I
+realized that there was something a little irregular in the affair, but
+my daughter was very happy; and when her mother said, 'We must know more
+before we give up our daughter,' I laughed at her, I was so certain
+that all was right. One day I spoke of him to M. Vieville, one of the
+huntsmen.
+
+"'Indeed, I know nothing of the Comte Nadine,' he said; 'he strikes me
+as an excellent fellow. I know that he bears a celebrated name, and that
+he is well educated. But if I had a daughter involved, I should wish
+to know more than this. I should write, if I were you, to the Russian
+embassy; they can tell you everything there.'
+
+"You suppose, of course, that I went to the embassy. That is just what I
+did not do; I was too careless, too blindly confident, too busy. I have
+never been able in my whole life to do what I wished, for I have never
+had any time; my whole existence has been too short for the half of
+what I have wished to do. Tormented by my wife on the subject of this
+additional information, I finished by lying, 'Yes, yes, I went there;
+everything is satisfactory.' Since then I remember the singular air of
+the comte each time he thought I was going to Paris; but at that time
+I saw nothing; I was absorbed in the plans that my children were making
+for their future happiness. They were to live with us three months in
+the year, and to spend the rest of the time in St. Petersburg, where
+Nadine was offered a government situation. My poor wife ended in sharing
+my joy and satisfaction.
+
+"The end of the winter passed in correspondence. The count's papers were
+long in coming, his parents utterly refused their consent. At last
+the papers came--a package of hieroglyphics impossible to
+decipher,--certificates of birth, baptism, &c. That which particularly
+amused us was a sheet filled with the titles of my future son-in-law,
+Ivanovitch Nicolaevitch Stephanovitch.
+
+"'Have you really as many names as that?' said my poor child, laughing;
+'and I am only Madeleine Rivals.'
+
+"There was at first some talk of the marriage taking place in Paris
+with great pomp, but Nadine reflected that it was not wise to brave
+the paternal authority on this point, so the ceremony took place at
+Etiolles, in the little church where to this very day are to be seen the
+records of an irreparable falsehood. How happy I was that morning as I
+entered the church with my daughter trembling on my arm, feeling that
+she owed all her happiness to me!
+
+"Then, after mass, breakfast at the house, and the departure of the
+bridal couple in a post-chaise--I can see them now as they drove away.
+
+"The ones who go are generally happy; those who stay are sad enough.
+When we took our seats at the table that night, the empty chair at our
+side was dreary enough. I had business which took me out-of-doors; but
+the poor mother was alone the greater part of the time, and her heart
+was devoured by her regrets. Such is the destiny of women; all their
+sorrows and their griefs come from within, and are interwoven with their
+daily lives and employments.
+
+"The letters that we soon began to receive from Pisa, and Florence, were
+radiant with happiness. I began to build a little house by the side
+of our own; we chose the furniture and the wall papers. 'They are
+here--they are there,' we said; and at last we expected the final
+letters we should receive before they returned.
+
+"One evening I came in late; my wife had gone to her room; I supped
+alone; when suddenly I heard a step in the garden. The door opened, my
+daughter appeared; but she was no longer the fair young girl whom I had
+parted with a month before. She looked thin and ill, was poorly dressed,
+and carried in her hand a little travelling-bag.
+
+"'It is I,' she whispered hoarsely; 'I have come.'
+
+"'Good heavens! what has happened? Where is Nadine?'
+
+"She did not answer; her eyes closed, and she trembled violently from
+head to foot. You may imagine my suspense.
+
+"'Speak to me, my child. What has happened? Where is your husband?'
+
+"'I have none--I have never had one;' and suddenly, without looking at
+me, she began to tell me, in a low voice, her horrible history.
+
+"He was not a count, his name was not Nadine. He was a Russian Jew
+by the name of Roesh, a miserable adventurer. He was married at Riga,
+married at St. Petersburg. All his papers were false, manufactured by
+himself. His resources he owed to his skill in counterfeiting bills
+on the Russian bank. At Turin he had been arrested on an order of
+extradition. Think of my little girl alone in this foreign town,
+separated violently from her husband, learning abruptly that he was a
+forger and a bigamist,--for he made a full confession of his crimes. She
+had but one thought, that of seeking refuge with us. Her brain was so
+bewildered, that, as she told us afterwards, when she was asked where
+she was going, she simply answered 'To mamma.' She left Turin hastily,
+without her luggage, and at last she was safe with us, and weeping for
+the first time since the catastrophe.
+
+"I said, 'Restrain yourself, my love, you will awaken your mother!' but
+my tears fell as fast as her own. The next day my wife learned all; she
+did not reproach me. 'I knew,' she said, 'from the beginning that there
+was some misfortune in this marriage.' And, in fact, she had certain
+presentiments of evil from the hour that the man came under our roof.
+What is the diagnosis of a physician compared to the warning and
+confidences whispered by destiny into the ear of certain women? In the
+neighborhood the arrival of my child was quickly known. 'Your travellers
+have returned,' they said. They asked few questions, for they readily
+saw that I was unhappy. They noticed that the count was not with us,
+that Madeleine and her mother never went out; and very soon I found
+myself met with compassionate glances that were harder to bear than
+anything else. My daughter had not confided to me that a child would
+be born from this disastrous union, but sat sewing day after day,
+ornamenting the dainty garments, which are the joy and pride of mothers,
+with ribbons and lace; I fancied, however, that she looked at them with
+feelings of shame, for the least allusion to the man who had deceived
+her made her turn pale. But my wife, who saw things with clearer vision
+than my own, said, 'You are mistaken: she loves him still.'
+
+"Yes, she loved, and strong as was her contempt and distrust, her love
+was stronger still. It was this that killed her, for she died soon after
+Cecile's birth. We found under her pillow a letter, worn in all its
+folds, the only one she had ever received from Nadine, written before
+their marriage. She had read it often, but she died without once
+pronouncing the name that I am sure trembled all the time on her lips.
+
+"You are astonished that in a tranquil village like this a complicated
+drama could have been enacted, such as would seem possible only in the
+crowded cities of London and Paris. When fate thus attacks, by chance as
+it were, a little corner so sheltered by hedges and trees, I am reminded
+of those spent balls which during a battle kill a laborer at work in
+the fields, or a child returning from school. I think if we had not had
+little Cecile, my wife would have died with her daughter. Her life from
+that hour was one long silence, full of regrets and self-reproach.
+
+"But it was necessary to bring up this child, and to keep her in
+ignorance of the circumstances of her birth. This was a matter of
+difficulty; it is true that we were relieved of her father, who died a
+few months after his condemnation. Unfortunately, several persons knew
+the whole story; and we wished to preserve Cecile from all the gossip
+she would hear if she associated with other children. You saw how
+solitary her life was. Thanks to this precaution, she to-day knows
+nothing of the tempest that surrounded her birth; for not one of the
+kind people about us would utter one word which would give her reason
+to suspect that there was any mystery. My wife, however, was always in
+dread of some childish questions from Cecile. But I had other fears:
+who could be certain that the child of my child did not inherit from her
+father some of his vices? I acknowledge to you, Jack, that for years
+I dreaded seeing her father's characteristics in Cecile; I dreaded the
+discovery of deceit and falsehood; but what joy it has been to me to
+find that the child is the perfected image of her mother! She has the
+same tender and half-sad smile, the same candid eyes, and lips that can
+say No.
+
+"Meanwhile the future alarmed me: my granddaughter must some day learn
+the truth, and that truth must be divulged if she should ever marry.
+
+"'She must never love any one,' said her grandmother.
+
+"If this were possible, would it be wise to pass through life without a
+protector? Her destiny must be united with a fate as exceptional as her
+own. Such a one could hardly be found in our village, and in Paris we
+knew no one. It was about the time when these anxieties occupied our
+minds that your mother came to this place. She was supposed to be
+the wife of D'Argenton, but the forester's wife told me the real
+circumstances. I said to myself instantly, 'This boy ought to be
+Cecile's husband;' and from that time I attended to your education.
+
+"I looked forward to the time that you, a man grown, would come to
+me and ask her hand. This was the reason, of course, that I was so
+indignant when D'Argenton sent you to Indret. I said to myself, however,
+Jack may emerge from this trial in triumph. If he studies, if he works
+with his head as well as his hands, he may still be worthy of the wife
+I wish to give him. The letters that we received from you were all
+that they should be, and I ventured to indulge the hope I have named.
+Suddenly came the intelligence of the robbery. Ah, my friend, how
+terrified I was! how I bemoaned the weakness of your mother, and the
+tyranny of the monster who had driven you to evil courses! I respected,
+nevertheless, the tender affection that existed toward you in the heart
+of my little girl, I had not the courage to undeceive her. We talked of
+you constantly until the day when I told her that I had seen you at the
+forester's. If you could have seen the light in her eyes, and how busy
+she was all day! a sign with her always of some excitement, as if her
+heart beating too quickly needed something, either a pen or a needle, to
+regulate its movements.
+
+"Now, Jack, you love my child. I have watched you for two months, and I
+am satisfied that the future is in your own hands. I wish you to study
+medicine and take my place at Etiolles. I first thought of keeping you
+here, but I concluded that it would take four years to complete your
+studies, and that your residence with us for that length of time would
+not be advisable. In Paris you can study in the evening, and work all
+day, and come to us on Sundays. I will examine your week's work and
+advise you, and Cecile will encourage you. Velpeau and others have done
+this, and you can do the same. Will you try? Cecile is the reward."
+
+Jack was utterly overwhelmed, and could only heartily shake the hand of
+the old man. But perhaps Cecile's affection was only that of a sister:
+and four years was a long time: would she consent to wait?
+
+"Ah, my boy, I cannot answer these questions," said M. Rivals, gayly;
+"but I authorize you to ask them at headquarters. Cecile is up-stairs;
+go and speak to her."
+
+That was rather a difficult matter, with a heart going like a
+trip-hammer, and a voice choked with emotion. Cecile was writing in the
+office.
+
+"Cecile," he said, as he entered the room, "I am going away." She rose
+from her seat, very pale. "I am going to work," he continued. "Your
+grandfather has given me permission to tell you that I love you, and
+that I hope to win you as my wife."
+
+He spoke in so low a voice that any other person than Cecile would have
+failed to understand him. But she understood him very well. And in this
+room, lighted by the level rays of the setting sun, the young girl stood
+listening to this declaration of love as to an echo of her own thoughts.
+She was perfectly unabashed and undisturbed, a tender smile on her lips,
+and her eyes full of tears. She understood perfectly that their life
+would be no holiday, that they would be racked by separations and long
+years of waiting.
+
+"Jack," she said, after he had explained all his plans, "I will wait for
+you, not only four years, but forever."
+
+Jack went to Paris in search of employment, found it in the house of
+Eyssendeck, at six francs a day; then tried to procure lodgings not
+too far removed from the manufactory. He was happy, full of hope and
+courage, impatient to begin his double work as mechanic and student. The
+crowd pushed against him, and he did not feel them; nor was he conscious
+of the cold of this December night; nor did he hear the young apprentice
+girls, as they passed him, say to each other, "What a handsome man!" The
+great Faubourg was alive and seemed to encourage him with its gayety.
+
+"What a pleasure it is to live!" said Jack; "and how hard I mean to
+work!" Suddenly he stumbled against a great square basket filled with
+fur hats and caps; this basket stood at the door of a shoemaker's stall.
+Jack looked in and saw Belisaire, as ugly as ever, but cleaner and
+better clothed. Jack was delighted to see him, and entered at once; but
+Belisaire was too deeply absorbed in the examination of a pair of shoes
+that the cobbler was showing him, to look up. These shoes were not for
+himself, but for a tiny child of four or five years of age, pale and
+thin, with a head much too large for his body. Belisaire was talking to
+the child.
+
+"And they are nice and thick, my dear, and will keep those poor little
+feet warm."
+
+Jack's appearance did not seem to surprise him.
+
+"Where did you come from?" he asked, as calmly as if he had seen him the
+night before.
+
+"How are you, Belisaire? Is this your child?"
+
+"O, no; it belongs to Madame Weber," said the pedler, with a sigh; and
+when he had ascertained that the little thing was well fitted, Belisaire
+drew from his pocket a long purse of red wool, and took out some silver
+pieces that he placed in the cobbler's hand with that air of importance
+assumed by working people when they pay away money.
+
+"Where are you going, comrade?" said the pedler to Jack, as they stood
+on the pavement, in a tone so expressive that it seemed to say, If you
+take this side, I shall go the other.
+
+Jack, who felt this without being able to understand it, said, "I hardly
+know where I am going. I am a journeyman at Eyssendeck's, and I want to
+find a room not too far away."
+
+"At Eyssendeck's?" said the pedler. "It is not easy to get in there; one
+must bring the best of recommendations."
+
+The expression of his eyes enlightened Jack. Belisaire believed
+him guilty of the robbery,--so true it is that accusations, however
+unfounded and however explained away, yet leave spots and tarnishes.
+When Belisaire saw the letters of the superintendent at Indret, and
+heard the whole story, his whole face lighted up with his old smile.
+"Listen, Jack, it is too late to seek a lodging to-night; come with me,
+for I have a room where you can sleep tonight, and perhaps can suggest
+something that will suit you. But we will talk about that as we sup.
+Come now."
+
+Behold the three--Jack, the pedler, and Madame Weber's little one, whose
+new shoes clattered on the sidewalk famously--were soon hurrying along
+the streets. Belisaire informed Jack that his sister was now a widow,
+and that he had gone into business with her. Occasionally, in the full
+tide of 'his history, he stopped to shout his old cry of "Hats! hats!
+Hats to sell!" But before he reached his home, he was obliged to
+lift into his arms Madame Weber's little boy, who had begun to weep
+despairingly.
+
+"Poor little fellow!" said Belisaire, "he is not in the habit of
+walking. He rarely goes out, and it is merely that I may take him out
+with me sometimes that I have had him measured for these new shoes. His
+mother is away from home at work all day; she is a good, hard-working
+woman, and has to leave her child to the care of a neighbor. Here we
+are!"
+
+They entered one of those large houses whose numerous windows are like
+narrow slits in the walls. The doors open on the long corridors, which
+serve as ante-rooms, where the poor people place their stoves and their
+boxes. At this hour they were at dinner. Jack, as he passed, looked in
+at the doors, which stood wide open.
+
+"Good evening," said the pedler.
+
+"Good evening," said the friendly voices from within.
+
+In some rooms it was different: there was no fire, no light--a woman
+and children watching for the father, who was at the wine-shop round the
+corner.
+
+The pedler's room was at the top of the house, and he seemed very proud
+of it. "I am going to show you how well I am established, but you must
+wait until I have taken this child to its mother." He looked under the
+door of a room opposite his own, pulled out a key and unlocked it,
+went directly to the stove where had simmered all day the soup for the
+evening meal. He lighted a candle and fastened the child into a high
+chair at the table, gave it a spoon and a saucepan to play with, and
+then said, "Come away quickly; Madame Weber will be here in a minute,
+and I wish to hear what she will say when she sees the child's new
+shoes." He smiled as he opened his room--a long attic divided in two. A
+pile of hats told his business, and the bare walls his poverty.
+
+Belisaire lighted his lamp and arranged his dinner, which consisted of
+a fine salad of potatoes and salt herring. He took from a closet two
+plates, bread and wine, and placed them on a little table. "Now," he
+said, with an air of triumph, "all is ready, though it is not much
+like that famous ham you gave me in the country." The potato salad was
+excellent, however, and Jack did justice to it. Belisaire was delighted
+with the appetite of his guest, and did his duty as host with great
+delight, rising every two or three minutes to see if the water was
+boiling for the coffee.
+
+"You have a taste for housekeeping, Belisaire," said Jack, "and have
+things nicely arranged."
+
+"Not yet," answered the pedler; "I need very many articles,--in fact,
+these are only lent to me by Madame Weber while we are waiting."
+
+"Waiting for what?" asked Jack.
+
+"Until we can be married!" answered the pedler, boldly, indifferent to
+Jack's gay laugh. "Madame Weber is a good woman, and you will see her
+soon. We are not rich enough to start alone in housekeeping, but if we
+could find some one to share the expenses, we would lodge and feed him,
+do his washing and all, and it would not be a bad thing for him, any
+more than for us. Where there is enough for two there is always enough
+for three, you know! The difficulty is to find some one who is orderly
+and sober, and won't make too much trouble in the house."
+
+"How should I do, Belisaire?"
+
+"Would you like it, Jack? I have been thinking about it for an hour,
+but did not dare speak of it. Perhaps our table would be too simple for
+you."
+
+"No, Belisaire, nothing would be too simple. I wish to be very
+economical, for I, too, am thinking of marrying."
+
+"Really! But in that case we can't make our arrangements."
+
+Jack laughed, and explained that his marriage was an affair of four
+years later.
+
+"Well, then, it is all settled. What a happy chance it was that we met.
+Hark! I hear Madame Weber."
+
+A heavy step mounted the stairs; the child heard it too, for it began
+a melancholy wail. "I am coming," cried the woman from the end of the
+corridor, to console the little one.
+
+"Listen," said Belisaire. The door opened; an exclamation, followed by a
+laugh, was heard, and presently Madame Weber, with her child on her arm,
+entered Belisaire's room. She was a tall, good-looking woman, of about
+thirty, and she laughed as she showed him the little one's feet, but
+there was a tear in her eye as she said, "You are the person who has
+done this."
+
+"Now," said Belisaire, with simplicity, "how could she guess so well?"
+
+Madame Weber took a seat at the table, and a cup of coffee, and Jack was
+presented to her as their future associate. I must acknowledge that
+she received him with a certain reserve, but when she had examined the
+aspirant for this distinction, and learned that the two men had known
+each other for ten years, and that she had before her the hero of the
+story of the ham that she had heard so many times, her face lost its
+expression of distrust, and she held out her hand to Jack.
+
+"This time Belisaire is right. He has brought me a half dozen of his
+comrades who were not worth the cord to hang them with. He is very
+innocent, because he is so good."
+
+Then came a discussion as to arrangements. It was decided that until the
+marriage he should share Belisaire's room and buy himself a bed; they
+would share the expenses, and Jack would pay his proportion every
+Saturday. After the marriage, they would establish themselves more
+commodiously, and nearer the Eyssendeck Works. This establishment
+recalled to him Indret on a smaller scale. Owing to lack of space, there
+were in the same room three rows, one above the other, of machines.
+Jack was on the upper floor, where all the noise and dust of the place
+ascended. When he leaned over the railing of the gallery, he beheld
+a constant whirl of human arms, and a regular and monotonous beat of
+machinery.
+
+The heat was intense, worse than at Indret, because there was less
+ventilation; but Jack bore up bravely under it, for his inner life
+supported him through all the trials of the day. His companions saw
+intuitively that he lived apart from them, indifferent to their petty
+quarrels and rivalries. Jack shared neither their pleasures nor their
+hatreds. He never listened to their sullen complaints, nor the muttered
+thunder of this great Faubourg, concealed like a Ghetto in this
+magnificent city. He paid no attention to the socialistic theories, the
+natural growth in the minds of those who live poor and suffering so near
+the wealthier classes.
+
+I am not disposed to assert that Jack's companions liked him especially,
+but they respected him at all events. As to the workwomen, they
+looked upon him much as a Prince Rodolphe,--for they had all read "The
+Mysteries of Paris,"--and admired his tall, slender figure and his
+careful dress. But the poor girls threw away their smiles, for he passed
+their corner of the establishment with scarcely a glance. This corner
+was never without its excitement and drama, for most of the workwomen
+had a lover among the men, and this led to all sorts of jealousies and
+scenes.
+
+Jack went to and fro from the manufactory alone. He was in haste to
+reach his lodgings, to throw aside his workman's blouse, and to bury
+himself in his books. Surrounded with these, many of them those he
+had used at school, he commenced the labors of the evening, and was
+astonished to find with what facility he regained all that he thought
+he had forever lost. Sometimes, however, he encountered an unexpected
+difficulty, and it was touching to see the young man, whose hands were
+distorted and clumsy from handling heavy weights, sometimes throw aside
+his pen in despair. At his side Belisaire sat sewing the straw of
+his summer hats, in respectful silence, the stupefaction of a savage
+assistant at a magician's incantations. He frowned when Jack frowned,
+grew impatient, and when his comrade came to the end of some difficult
+passage, nodded his head with an air of triumph. The noise of the
+pedler's big needle passing through the stiff straw, the student's pen
+scratching upon the paper, the gigantic dictionaries hastily taken up
+and thrown down, filled the attic with a quiet and healthy atmosphere;
+and when Jack raised his eyes he saw from the windows the light of other
+lamps, and other shadows courageously prolonging their labors into the
+middle of the night.
+
+After her child was asleep, Madame Weber, to economize coal and oil,
+brought her work to the room of her friend; she sowed in silence. It had
+been decided that they should not marry until spring, the winter to the
+poor being always a season of anxiety and privation. Jack, as he wrote,
+thought, "How happy they are." His own happiness came on Sundays. Never
+did any coquette take such pains with her toilette as did Jack on those
+days, for he was determined that nothing about him should remind Cecile
+of his daily toil; well might he have been taken for Prince Rodolphe had
+he been seen as he started off.
+
+Delicious day! without hours or minutes--a day of uninterrupted
+felicity. The whole house greeted him warmly, a bright fire burned in
+the salon, flowers bloomed at the windows, and Cecile and the doctor
+made him feel how dear he was to them both. After they had dined,
+M. Rivals examined the work of the week, corrected everything, and
+explained all that had puzzled the youth.
+
+Then came a walk through the woods, if the day was fair, and they
+often passed the chalet where Dr. Hirsch still came to pursue certain
+experiments. So black was the smoke that poured from the chimneys, that
+one would have fancied that the man was burning all the drugs in the
+world. "Don't you smell the poison?" said M. Rivals, indignantly. But
+the young people passed the house in silence; they instinctively felt
+that there were no kindly sentiments within those walls toward them,
+and, in fact, feared that the fanatic Dr. Hirsch was sent there as
+a spy. But what had they to fear, after all? Was not all intercourse
+between D'Argenton and Charlotte's son forever ended? For three months
+they had not met. Since Jack had been engaged to Cecile, and under-stood
+the dignity and purity of love, he had hated D'Argenton, making him
+responsible for the fault of his weak mother, whose chains were riveted
+more closely by the violence and tyranny under which a nobler nature
+would have revolted. Charlotte, who feared scenes and explanations, had
+relinquished all hope of reconciliation between these two men. She never
+mentioned her son to D'Argenton, and saw him only in secret.
+
+She had even visited the machine-shop in a fiacre and closely veiled,
+and Jack's fellow-workmen had seen him talking earnestly with a woman
+elegant in appearance and still young. They circulated all sorts of
+gossip in regard to the mysterious visitor, which finally reached Jack's
+ears, who begged his mother not to expose herself to such remarks. They
+then saw each other in the gardens, or in some of the churches; for,
+like many other women of similar characteristics, she had become
+_devote_ as she grew old, as much from an overflow of idle
+sentimentality as from a passion for honors and ceremonies. In these
+rare and brief interviews Charlotte talked all the time, as was her
+habit, but with a worn, sad air. She said, however, that she was happy
+and at peace, and that she had every confidence in M. d'Argenton's
+brilliant future. But one day, as mother and son were leaving the
+church-door, she said to him, with some embarrassment, "Jack, can you
+let me have a little money for a few days? I have made some mistake in
+my accounts, and have not money enough to carry me to the end of the
+month, and I dare not ask D'Argenton for a penny."
+
+He did not let her finish; he had just been paid off, and he placed the
+whole amount in his mother's hand. Then, in the bright sunshine he saw
+what the obscurity of the church had concealed: traces of tears and a
+look of despair on the face that was generally so smiling and fresh.
+Intense compassion filled his heart. "You are unhappy," he said; "come
+to me, I shall-be so glad to have you."
+
+She started. "No, it is impossible," she said, in a low voice; "he has
+so many trials just now;" and she hurried away as if to escape some
+temptation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.~~THE WEDDING-PARTY.
+
+It was a summer morning. The pedler and his comrade were up before
+daybreak. One was sweeping and dusting, with as little noise as
+possible, careful not to disturb his companion, who was established at
+the open window. The sky was the cloudless one of June, pale blue with
+a faint tinge of rose still lingering in the east, that could be seen
+between the chimneys. In front of Jack was a zinc roof, which, when
+the sun was in mid-heaven, became a terrible mirror. At this moment it
+reflected faintly the tints of the sky, so that the tall chimneys looked
+like the masts of a vessel floating on a glittering sea. Below was
+heard the noise from the poultry owned by the various inhabitants of the
+Faubourg. Suddenly a cry was heard: "Madame Jacob! Madame Mathieu! Here
+is your bread."
+
+It was four o'clock. The labors of the day had begun. The woman whose
+daily business it was to supply that quarter with bread from the baker's
+had begun her rounds. Her basket was filled with loaves of all sizes,
+sweet-smelling and warm. She carries them all through the corridors,
+placing them at the corners of the various doors; her shrill voice
+aroused the sleepers; doors opened and shut; childish voices uttered
+cries of joy, and little bare feet pattered to meet the good woman, and
+returned hugging a loaf as big as themselves, with that peculiar gesture
+that you see in the poor people who come out of the bake-shops,
+and which shows the thoughtful observer what that hard-earned bread
+signifies to them.
+
+All the world is now astir; windows are thrown open, even those where
+the lamps have burned the greater part of the night. At one sits a
+sad-faced woman, at a sewing-machine, aided by a little girl, who hands
+her the several pieces of her work. At another a young girl, with hair
+already neatly braided, is carefully cutting a slice of bread for her
+slender breakfast, watching that no crumb shall fall on the floor she
+swept at daybreak. Further on is a window shaded by a large red curtain
+to keep off the reflection from the zinc roof. All these rooms open
+on the other side into a dark and ugly house of enormous size. But the
+student heeds nothing but his work. One sound only depresses him at
+times, and that is the voice of an old woman, who says every morning,
+before the noises of the street have begun, "How happy people ought to
+be who can go to the country on a day like this!" To whom does the poor
+woman utter these words, day after day? To the whole world, to herself,
+or only to the canary, whose cage, covered with fresh leaves, she hangs
+on the shutters? Perhaps she is talking to her flowers. Jack never knew,
+but he is much of her opinion, and would gladly echo her words; for his
+first waking thoughts turn toward a tranquil village street, toward a
+little green door, Jack has just reached this point in his reverie when
+a rustle of silk is heard, and the handle of his door rattles.
+
+"Turn to the right," said Belisaire, who was making the coffee.
+
+The handle is still aimlessly rattled. Belisaire, with the coffee-pot
+in his hand, impatiently throws it open, and Charlotte rushes in.
+Belisaire, stupefied at this inundation of flounces, feathers, and
+laces, bows again and again, while Jack's mother, who does not recognize
+him, excuses herself, and retreats toward the door.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," she said; "I made a mistake."
+
+At the sound of her voice Jack rises from his chair in astonishment
+
+"Mother!" he cried.
+
+She ran to him and took refuge in his arms.
+
+"Save me, my child, save me! That man, for whom I have sacrificed
+everything,--my life and that of my child,--has beaten me cruelly. This
+morning, when he came in after two days' absence, I ventured to make
+some observation; I thought I had a right to speak. He flew into a
+frightful passion, and--"
+
+The end of her sentence was lost in a torrent of tears and in convulsive
+sobs. Belisaire had retired at her first words, and discreetly closed
+the door after him. Jack looks at his mother, full of terror and pity.
+How pale and how changed she is! In the clear light of the young day the
+marks of time are clearly visible on her face, and the gray hairs,
+that she has not taken the trouble to conceal, shine like silver on her
+blue-veined temples. Without any attempt at controlling her emotion, she
+speaks without restraint, pouring forth all her wrongs.
+
+"How I have suffered, Jack! He passes his life now at the cafes and in
+dissipation. Did you know that, when he went to Indret with that money,
+I was there in the village, and crazy to see you? He reproaches me with
+the bread you ate under his roof, and yet--yes, I will tell you what I
+never meant you to know--I had ten thousand francs of yours that were
+given to me for you exclusively. Well, D'Argenton put them into his
+Review; I know that he meant to pay you large interest, but the ten
+thousand francs have been swallowed up with all the others, and when I
+asked him if he did not intend to account to you for them, do you know
+what he did? He drew up a long bill of all that he has paid for you.
+Your board at Etiolles, that amounts to fifteen thousand francs. But he
+does not ask you to pay the difference; is not that very generous?" and
+Charlotte laughed sarcastically. "I tell you I have borne everything,"
+she continued,--"the rages he has fallen into on your account, and
+the mean way in which he has talked with his friends of the affair at
+Indret; as if your innocence had never been fully established!
+
+"And then to leave me in ignorance of his where-abouts, to spend his
+time with some countess in the Faubourg St. Germaine,--for those women
+are all crazy about him,--and then to receive my reproaches with such
+disdain, and finally to strike me! Me, Ida de Barancy! This was too
+much. I dressed, and put on my hat, and then I went to him. I said,
+'Look at me, M. d'Argenton; look at me well; it is the last time that
+you will see me; I am going to my child.' And then I came away."
+
+Jack had listened in silence to these revelations, growing paler and
+paler, and so filled with shame for the woman who narrated them that he
+could not look at her. When she had finished, he took her hand gently,
+and with much sweetness, but also with much solemnity, he said,--
+
+"I thank you for having come to me, dear mother. Only one thing was
+lacking to complete my happiness, and that was your presence. Now take
+care! I shall never allow you to leave me."
+
+"Leave you! No, Jack; we will always live together--we two. You know
+I told you that the day would come when I should need you. It has come
+now."
+
+Under her son's caresses she became tranquillized. There came an
+occasional sob, like a child who has wept for a long time.
+
+"You see," she said, "how happy we may be. I owe you much care and
+tenderness. I feel now that I can breathe freely. Your room is bare and
+small, but it seems to me like Paradise itself."
+
+This brief summary of the apartment regarded by Belisaire as so
+magnificent, disturbed Jack somewhat as to the future; but he had no
+time now for discussions; he had but half an hour before he must leave,
+and he must decide at once on something definite. He must consult
+Belisaire, whom he heard patiently pacing the corridor, and who
+would have waited until nightfall without once knocking to see if the
+interview was over.
+
+"Belisaire, my mother has come to live with me; how shall we manage?"
+
+Belisaire started as he thought, "And now the marriage must be
+postponed, for Jack will not be one of our little menage!"
+
+But he concealed his disappointment, and exerted himself to suggest
+some plan that would relieve his friend of present embarrassment. It
+was decided finally that he should relinquish the room to Jack and his
+mother and find for himself a closet to sleep in, depositing his stock
+of hats and his furniture with Madame Weber.
+
+Jack presented his friend to Belisaire, who remembered very well the
+fair lady at Aulnettes, and at once placed himself for the day at the
+service of Ida de Barancy; for "Charlotte" was no more heard of. A bed
+must be purchased, a couple of chairs, and a dressing-bureau. Jack took
+from the drawer where he kept his savings three or four gold pieces
+which he gave his mother.
+
+"You know," he said, "that if marketing is disagreeable to you, good
+Madame Weber will attend to the dinners."
+
+"Not at all; Belisaire will simply tell me where to go. I intend to do
+everything for you; you will see the nice little dinner I shall have
+ready for you when you come back to-night."
+
+She had laid aside her shawl, rolled up her sleeves, and was all ready
+to begin her work. Jack, delighted to see her so energetic, embraced her
+with his whole heart, and left his room in a very joyous frame of mind.
+With what courage he toiled all day! The present unfortunate career and
+hopeless future of his mother had troubled him for some time, and marred
+his joys and his hopes. To what depth of degradation would D'Argenton
+compel her to sink! To what end was she destined! Now all was changed.
+Ida, tenderly protected by his filial love, would become worthy of her
+whom she would some day call "my daughter."
+
+It seemed to Jack, moreover, that this event in some way diminished
+the distance between Cecile and himself, and he smiled to himself as
+he thought of it. But after his work, as he drew near his home, he was
+seized by a panic. Should he find his mother there? He knew with what
+promptitude Ida gave wings to her fancies and caprices, and he feared
+lest she had felt the temptation to re-tie the knot so hastily broken.
+But on the staircase this dread vanished. Above all the noises of the
+house he heard a fresh, clear voice singing like a lark. Jack stood on
+the threshold in mute amazement. Thoroughly freshened and cleaned, with
+Belisaire's goods gone, and with the addition of a pretty bed and dainty
+dressing-bureau, the room looked like a different place. There were
+flowers on the chimney, and the table was spread with a white cloth,
+on which stood a tempting-looking pie and a bottle of wine. Ida, in an
+embroidered skirt and loose sack, a little cap mounted on the top of her
+puffs, hardly looked like herself.
+
+"Well!" she said, running to meet him; "and what do you think of it!"
+
+"It is altogether charming. And how quick you have been!"
+
+"Yes; Belisaire helped me, and his nice widow also. I have invited them
+to dine with us."
+
+"But what will you do for dishes?"
+
+"You will see. I have bought a few, and our neighbors on the other side
+have lent me some. They are very obliging also."
+
+Jack, who had never thought these people particularly complaisant,
+opened his eyes wide.
+
+"But this is not all. I went to buy this pie at a place where they sell
+them fifteen cents less than anywhere else. It was so far, however, that
+I had to take a carriage to return."
+
+This was thoroughly characteristic. A carriage at two francs to save
+fifteen cents! She evidently knew where the best things were to be
+found.
+
+The bread came from the Vienna bakery, and the coffee and dessert from
+the _Palais Royale_. Jack listened with a sinking heart. She saw that
+something was wrong.
+
+"Have I spent too much?" she asked.
+
+"No, I think not,--for one occasion," he answered, with same hesitation.
+
+"But I have not been extravagant. Look here," she said, and she showed
+him a long green book; "in this I mean to keep my accounts. I will show
+my entries to you after dinner."
+
+Belisaire and Madame Weber with her child now entered the room. It was
+truly delicious to see the airs of condescension with which Ida received
+them; but her manner was withal so kind that they were soon entirely at
+their ease.
+
+Belisaire was somewhat out of spirits, for he saw that his marriage must
+be indefinitely postponed, as he had lost his "comrade." Ah, one may
+well compare the events of this world to the see-saws arranged by
+children, which lifts one of the players, while the other at the same
+time feels all the hardness of the earth below. Jack mounted toward the
+light, while his companion descended toward the implacable reality. To
+begin with, the person called Belisaire--who should in reality have been
+named Resignation, Devotion, or Patience--was now obliged to relinquish
+his pleasant room and sleep in a closet, the only place on that floor;
+not for worlds would he have gone farther from Madame Weber.
+
+Their guests gone, and Jack and his mother alone, she was astonished to
+see him bring out a pile of books.
+
+"What are you going to do?" she asked.
+
+"I am going to study." And he then told her of the double life he led;
+of his hopes, and the reward that was held out to him at the end. Until
+then he had never confided them to her, fearing that she would inform
+D'Argenton, whom he utterly distrusted, and he feared that in some way
+his happiness would be compromised. But now that his mother belonged to
+him alone, he could speak to her of Cecile and of his supreme joy. Jack
+talked with enthusiasm of his love, but soon saw that his mother did not
+understand him. She had a certain amount of sentiment, but love had not
+the same signification for her that it had for him. She listened to him
+with the same interest that she would have felt in the third act at
+the _Gymnase_, when the _Ingenue_ in a white dress, with rose-colored
+ribbons, listened to the declaration of a lover with frizzed hair. She
+was pleased with the spectacle as presented by her son, and said two
+or three times, "How nice! how very nice! It makes me think of Paul and
+Virginia!"
+
+Fortunately, lovers, when speaking of their passion, listen to the
+echoes of their words in their own hearts, and Jack, thus absorbed,
+heard none of the commonplace comments of his mother.
+
+Jack had been living a week in this way when, one evening, Belisaire
+came to meet him with a radiant face. "We are to be married at once!
+Madame Weber has found a 'comrade.'"
+
+Jack, who had been the unintentional cause of his friend's
+disappointment, was equally well pleased. This pleasure, however, did
+not last; for, on seeing "the comrade," he received a most unpleasant
+impression. The man was tall and powerfully built, but the expression of
+his face was far from agreeable.
+
+The great day arrived at last. Among the middle classes, a day is
+generally given to the civil marriage, another to the wedding at the
+church; but the people to whom time is money cannot afford this. So they
+generally take Saturday for the two ceremonies.
+
+Belisaire's wedding, therefore, occurred on that day, and was really one
+of the most imposing of the many processions they met on their way to
+the municipality. Although the white dress of the bride was missing,
+Madame Weber, in her quality of widow, wore a dress of brilliant blue
+of that bright indigo shade so dear to persons who like solid colors;
+a many-hued shawl was carefully folded on her arm, and a superb cap,
+ornamented with ribbons and flowers, displayed her beaming peasant face.
+She walked by the side of Belisaire's father, a little dried-up old man,
+with a hooked nose and abrupt movements, and a perpetual cough that
+his new daughter-in-law endeavored to soothe by rubbing his back with
+considerable violence. These repeated frictions somewhat disturbed the
+dignity of the wedding procession.
+
+Belisaire came next, giving his arm to his sister, whose nose was as
+hooked as her father's. Belisaire himself looked almost handsome; he led
+by one hand Madame Weber's little child. Then came a crowd of relatives
+and friends, and finally Jack, Madame de Barancy being unwilling to do
+more than honor the wedding-dinner with her presence. This repast was to
+take place at Vincennes.
+
+When the train that brought the party reached the restaurant, the room
+engaged by Belisaire was still occupied. This gave them time to look
+at the lake and to amuse themselves with examining the crowd of
+merrymakers. They were dancing and singing, playing blind-man's-buff and
+innumerable other games; under the trees a girl was mending the flounces
+of a bride's dress. O, those white dresses! With what joy those girls
+let them drag over the lawn, imagining themselves for that one occasion
+women of fashion. It is precisely this illusion that the people seek in
+their hours of amusement: a pretence of riches, a momentary semblance of
+the envied and happy of this earth.
+
+Belisaire's party were too hungry to be gay, and they hailed with joy
+the announcement that dinner was ready at last. The table was laid in
+one of those large rooms whose walls were frescoed in faded colors, and
+whose size was apparently increased by innumerable mirrors. At each
+end of the table was a huge bouquet of artificial orange blossoms, a
+centrepiece of pink and white sugar, and ornaments of the same, which
+had officiated at many a wedding-dinner in the previous six months. They
+took their seats in solemn silence, though Madame do Barancy had not yet
+arrived.
+
+The guests were somewhat intimidated by the black-coated waiters, who
+disdainfully looked at these poor people who were dining at a dollar per
+head, a sum which each one of the guests thought of with respect, and
+envied Belisaire who could afford such an extravagant entertainment.
+The waiters were, however, filled with profound contempt, which they
+expressed by winks at each other, invisible however to the guests.
+
+Belisaire had just at his side one of these gentlemen, who filled him
+with holy horror; another, opposite behind his wife's chair, watched him
+so disagreeably that the good man scarcely dared lift his eyes from
+the _carte_,--on which, among familiar words like ducks, chickens,
+and beans, appeared the well-known names of generals, towns, and
+battles--Marengo, Richelieu, and so on. Belisaire, like the others, was
+stupefied, the more so when two plates of soup were presented with
+the question, "Bisque, or Puree de Crecy?" Or two bottles: "Xeres, or
+Pacaset, sir?"
+
+They answered at hazard as one does in some of those society games where
+you are requested to select one of two flowers. In fact, the answer was
+of little consequence since both plates contained the same tasteless
+mixture. There was so much ceremony that the dinner threatened to be
+very dull, and interminable as well, from the indecision of the guests
+as to the dishes they should accept. It was Madame Weber's clear head
+and decided hand that cut this Gordian knot. She turned to her child.
+"Eat everything," she said, "it costs us enough."
+
+These words of wisdom had their effect on the whole assembly, and after
+a little the table was gay enough. Suddenly the door was thrown open,
+and Ida de Barancy entered, smiling and charming.
+
+"A thousand pardons, my friends, but I had a carriage that crept."
+
+She wore her most beautiful dress, for she rarely had an opportunity
+nowadays of making a toilette, and produced a most extraordinary effect.
+The way in which she took her seat by Belisaire, and put her gloves in a
+wineglass, the manner in which she signed to one of the waiters to
+bring her the carte, overwhelmed the assembly with admiration. It was
+delightful to see her order about those imposing waiters. One of them
+she had recognized, the one who terrified Belisaire so much. "You are
+here then, now!" she said carelessly; and shook her bracelets, and
+kissed her hand to her son, asked for a footstool, some ice, and
+eau-de-Seltz, and soon knew the resources of the establishment.
+
+"But, good heavens, you are not very gay here!" she cried suddenly.
+She rose, took her plate in one hand, her glass in the other. "I ask
+permission to change places with Madame Belisaire; I am quite sure that
+her husband will not complain."
+
+This was done with much grace and consideration. The little Weber
+uttered a shout of indignation on seeing his mother rise from her chair,
+and all this noise and confusion soon changed the previous stiffness and
+restraint into laughs and gayety. The waiters went round and round the
+table executing marvellous feats, serving twenty persons from one duck
+so adroitly carved and served that each one had as much as he wanted.
+And the peas fell like hail on the plates; and the beans--prepared
+at one end of the table with salt, pepper, and butter; and such
+butter!--were mixed by a waiter who smiled maliciously as he stirred the
+fell combination.
+
+At last the champagne came. With the exception of Ida, not one person
+there knew anything more of this wine than the name; and champagne
+signified to them riches, gay dinners, and gorgeous festivals. They
+talked about it in a low voice, waited and watched for it. Finally, at
+dessert, a waiter appeared with a silver-capped bottle that he proceeded
+to open. Ida, who never lost an opportunity of making a sensation and
+assuming an attitude, put her pretty hands over her ears, but the cork
+came out like any other cork; the waiter, holding the bottle high, went
+around the table very quickly. The bottle was inexhaustible; each person
+had some froth and a few drops at the bottom of the glass, which he
+drank with respect, and even believed that there was still more in the
+bottle. It did not matter: the magic of the word champagne had produced
+its effect, and there is so much French gayety in the least particle of
+its froth that an astonishing animation at once pervaded the assembly. A
+dance was proposed; but music costs so much!
+
+"Ah! if we only had a piano," said Ida de Barancy, with a sigh, at the
+same time moving her fingers on the table as if she knew how to play.
+Belisaire disappeared for a few moments, but soon returned with a
+village musician, who was ready to play until morning. Jack and his
+mother at first felt out of their element in the noisy romp that ensued,
+but Ida finally organized a cotillon, and the rustling of her silk
+skirts and the jangling of her bracelets filled the souls of the younger
+women with admiration and jealousy. Meanwhile the night wore on, the
+little Weber was asleep wrapped in a shawl on a sofa in the corner. Jack
+had made many signs to Ida, who pretended not to understand, carried
+away as she was by the pleasure and happiness about her. Jack was like
+an old father who is anxious to take his daughter home from a ball.
+
+"It is late," he said.
+
+"Wait, dear," was her answer. At length, however, he seized her cloak,
+and wrapping it around her, drew her away. There was no train at that
+hour, and indeed no omnibus; fortunately a fiacre was passing, which
+they hailed. But the newly married pair decided to return on foot
+through the Bois de Vincennes. The fresh morning air was delicious
+after the heat of the restaurant; the child slept sweetly on Belisaire's
+shoulder, and did not even awake when he was placed in his bed. Madame
+Belisaire threw aside her wedding-dress, assumed a plainer one, and at
+once entered on the duties of the day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.~~EFFECTS OF POETRY.
+
+The first visit of Madame de Barancy at Etoilles gave Jack great
+pleasure and also great anxiety. He was proud of his mother, but he knew
+her, nevertheless, to be weak and rash. He feared Cecile's calm judgment
+and intuitive perceptions, keen and quick as they sometimes are in the
+young. The first few moments tranquillized him a little. The emphatic
+tone in which Ida addressed Cecile as "my daughter" was all well enough,
+but when under the influence of a good breakfast Madame de Barancy
+dropped her serious air and began some of her extravagant stories, Jack
+felt all his apprehensions revive. She kept her auditors on the _qui
+vive_. Some one spoke of relatives that M. Rivals had in the Pyrenees.
+
+"Ah, yes, the Pyrenees!" she sighed. "Gavarni, the Mer de Glace, and all
+that. I made that journey fifteen years ago with a friend of my family,
+the Duc de Casares, a Spaniard. I made his acquaintance at Biarritz in a
+most amusing way!"
+
+Cecile having said how fond she was of the sea, Ida again began,--
+
+"Ah, my love, had you seen it as I have seen it in a tempest off Palma!
+I was in the saloon with the captain, a coarse sort of man, who insisted
+on my drinking punch. I refused. Then the wretch got very angry, and
+opened the window, took me just at the waist, and held me above the
+water in the lightning and rain."
+
+Jack tried to cut in two these dangerous recitals, but they came to life
+again, like those reptiles which, however mutilated, still retain life
+and animation.
+
+The climax of his uneasiness was reached, however, when, just as his
+lessons were to begin, he heard his mother propose to Cecile to go down
+into the garden. What would she say when he was not there? He watched
+them from the window; Cecile's slender figure and quiet movements were
+those of a well-born, well-bred woman, while Ida, still handsome, but
+loud in her style and costume, affected the manners of a young girl. For
+the first time Jack felt his lessons to be very long, and only breathed
+freely again when they were all together walking in the woods. But
+on this day his mother's presence disturbed the harmony. She had no
+comprehension of love, and saw it only as something utterly ridiculous.
+But the worst of all was the sudden respect she entertained for _les
+convenances_. She recalled the young people, bade them "not to wander
+away so far, but to keep in sight," and then she looked at the doctor in
+a significant way. Jack saw more than once that his mother grated on
+the old doctor's nerves; but the forest was so lovely, Cecile so
+affectionate, and the few words they ex-changed were so mingled with the
+sweet clatter of birds and the humming of bees, that by degrees the poor
+boy forgot his terrible companion. But Ida wished to make a sensation,
+so they stopped at the forester's. Mere Archambauld was delighted to see
+her old mistress, paid her many compliments, but asked not a question in
+regard to D'Argenton, her keen personal sense telling her that she
+had best not. But the sight of this good creature, for a long time so
+intimately connected with their life at Aul-nettes, was too much for
+Ida. Without waiting for the lunch so carefully prepared by Mother
+Archambauld, she rose suddenly from her chair, as suddenly as if in
+answer to a summons unheard by the others, and went swiftly through the
+forest paths to her old home at Aulnettes.
+
+The tower was more enshrouded than ever in its green foliage, and the
+blinds were closely drawn. Ida stood in lonely silence, listening to the
+tale told with silent eloquence by these gray stones. Then she broke
+a branch from the clematis that threw its sprays over the wall, and
+inhaled the breath of its starry white blossoms.
+
+"What is it, dear mother?" said Jack, who had hastened to follow her.
+
+"Ah!" she said, with rapidly falling tears, "you know I have so much
+buried here!"
+
+Indeed the house, in its melancholy silence and with the Latin
+inscription over the door, resembled a tomb. She dried her eyes, but for
+that evening her gayety was gone. In vain did Cecile, who had been told
+that Madame D'Argenton was separated from her husband, try with minor
+cares to efface the painful impression of the day; in vain did Jack seek
+to interest her in all his projects for the future.
+
+"You see, my child," she said, on her way home, "that it is not best for
+me to come here with you. I have suffered too much, and the wound is too
+recent."
+
+Her voice trembled, and it was easy to see that, after all the
+humiliations to which she had been subjected by this man, she yet loved
+him.
+
+For many Sundays after, Jack came alone to Etiolles, and relinquished
+what to him was the greatest happiness of the day, the twilight walk,
+and the quiet talk with Cecile, that he might return to Paris in time to
+dine with his mother. He took the afternoon train, and passed from
+the tranquillity of the country to the animation of a Sunday in the
+Faubourg. The sidewalks were covered by little tables, where families
+sat drinking their coffee, and crowds were standing, with their noses in
+the air, watching an enormous yellow balloon that had just been released
+from its moorings.
+
+In remoter streets, people sat on the steps of the doors, and in the
+courtyard of the large, silent house the concierge was chatting with his
+neighbors, who had taken chairs out to breathe air a little fresher than
+they could obtain in their confined quarters within.
+
+Sometimes, in Jack's absence, Ida, tired of her loneliness, went to
+a little reading-room kept by a certain Madame Leveque. The shop was
+filled with mouldy books, was literally obstructed by magazines and
+illustrated papers, which she let for a sou a day.
+
+Here lived a dirty, pretentious old woman, who spent her time in making
+a certain kind of antiquated trimming of narrow, colored ribbons.
+
+It seems that Madame Leveque had known better days, and that under the
+first empire her father was a man of considerable importance. "I am the
+godchild of the Duc de Dantzic," she said to Ida, with emphasis. She was
+one of the relics of past days, such as one finds occasionally in the
+secluded corners of old Paris. Like the dusty contents of her shop, her
+gilt-edged books torn and incomplete, her conversation glittered with
+stories of past splendors. That enchanting reign, of which she had seen
+but the conclusion, had dazzled her eyes, and the mere tone in which she
+pronounced the titles of that time evoked the memory of epaulettes and
+gold lace. And her anecdotes of Josephine, and of the ladies of the
+court! One especial tale Madame Leveque was never tired of telling: it
+was of the fire at the Austrian embassy, the night of the famous ball
+given by the Princess of Schwartzenberg. All her subsequent years had
+been lighted by those flames, and by that light she saw a procession of
+gorgeous marshals, tall ladies in very low dresses, with heads dressed
+_a la Titus or a la Grecque_, and the emperor, in his green coat and
+white trousers, carrying in his arms across the garden the fainting
+Madame de Schwartzenberg.
+
+Ida, with her passion for rank, delighted in the society of this
+half-crazed old creature, and while the two women sat in the dark
+shop, with the names of dukes and marquises gliding lightly from their
+tongues, a workman would come in to buy a paper for a sou, or some
+woman, impatient for the conclusion of some serial romance, would come
+in to ask if the magazine had not yet arrived, and cheerfully pay the
+two cents that would deprive her, if she were old, of her snuff, and, if
+she were young, of her radishes for breakfast.
+
+Occasionally Madame Leveque passed a Sunday with friends, and then Ida
+had no other amusement than that which she derived from turning over a
+pile of books taken at hazard from Madame Leveque's shelves. These books
+were soiled and tumbled, with spots of grease and crumbs of bread upon
+them, showing that they had been read while eating. She sat reading by
+the window,--reading until her head swam. She read to escape thinking.
+Singularly out of place in this house, the incessant toil that she saw
+going on about her depressed her, instead of, as with her son, exciting
+her to more strenuous exertions.
+
+The pale, sad woman who sat at her machine day after day, the other with
+her sing-song repetition of the words, "How happy people ought to be who
+can go to the country in such weather!" exasperated her almost beyond
+endurance. The transparent blue of the sky, the soft summer air, made
+all these miseries seem blacker and less endurable; in the same way that
+the repose of Sunday, disturbed only by church-bells and the twitter of
+the sparrows on the roofs, weighed painfully on her spirits. She thought
+of her early life, of her drives and walks, of the gay parties in the
+country, and above all of the more recent years at Etiolles. She thought
+of D'Argenton reciting one of his poems on the porch in the moonlight.
+Where was he? What was he doing? Three months had passed since she left
+him, and he had not written one word. Then the book fell from her hands,
+and she sat buried in thought until the arrival of her son, whom she
+endeavored to welcome with a smile. But he read the whole story in
+the disorder of the room and in the careless toilet. Nothing was in
+readiness for dinner.
+
+"I have done nothing," she said, sadly. "The weather is so warm, and I
+am discouraged."
+
+"Why discouraged, dear mother? Are you not with me? You want some
+little amusement, I fancy. Let us dine out to-day," he continued, with a
+tender, pitying smile. But Ida wished to make a toilet; to take out
+from her wardrobe some one of her pretty costumes of other days, too
+coquettish, too conspicuous for her present circumstances. To dress as
+modestly as possible, and walk through these poor streets, afforded her
+no amusement. In spite of her care to avoid anything noticeable in her
+costume, Jack always detected some eccentricity,--in the length of her
+skirts, which required a carriage, or in the cut of her corsage, or the
+trimming of her hat. Jack and his mother then went to dine at Bagnolet
+or Romainville, and dined drearily enough. They attempted some little
+conversation, but they found it almost impossible. Their lives had been
+so different that they really now had little in common. While Ida was
+disgusted with the coarse table-cloth spotted by wine, and polished,
+with a disgusted face, her plate and glass with her napkin, Jack hardly
+perceived this negligence of service, but was astonished at his mother's
+ignorance and indifference upon many other points.
+
+She had certain phrases caught from D'Argenton, a peremptory tone in
+discussion, a didactic "I think so; I believe; I know." She generally
+began and finished her arguments with some disdainful gesture that
+signified, "I am very good to take the trouble to talk to you." Thanks
+to that miracle of assimilation by which, at the end of some years,
+husband and wife resemble each other, Jack was terrified to see an
+occasional look of D'Argenton on his mother's face. On her lips was
+often to be detected the sarcastic smile that had been the bugbear of
+his boy-hood, and which he always dreaded to see in D'Argenton.
+Never had a sculptor found in his clay more docile material than the
+pretentious poet had discovered in this poor woman.
+
+After dinner, one of their favorite walks on these long summer evenings
+was the Square des Buttes-Chaumont, a melancholy-looking spot on the old
+heights of Montfaucon. The grottos and bridges, the precipices and pine
+groves, seemed to add to the general dreariness. But there was something
+artificial and romantic in the place that pleased Ida by its resemblance
+to a park. She allowed her dress to trail over the sand of the alleys,
+admired the exotics, and would have liked to write her name on the
+ruined wall, with the scores of others that were already there. When
+they were tired with walking, they took their seats at the summit of the
+hill, to enjoy the superb view that was spread out before them. Paris,
+softened and veiled by dust and smoke, lay at their feet. The heights
+around the faubourgs looked in the mist like an immense circle,
+connected by Pere la Chaise on one side, and Montmartre on the other,
+with Montfaucon; nearer them they could witness the enjoyment of the
+people. In the winding alleys and under the groups of trees young
+people were singing and dancing, while on the hillside, sitting amid
+the yellowed grass, and on the dried red earth, families were gathered
+together like flocks of sheep.
+
+Ida saw all this with weary, contemptuous eyes, and her very attitude
+said, "How inexpressibly tiresome it is!" Jack felt helpless before this
+persistent melancholy. He thought he might make the acquaintance of some
+one of these honest, simple families, and perhaps in their society his
+mother might be cheered. Once he thought he had found what he wanted.
+It was one Sunday. Before them walked an old man, rustic in appearance,
+leading two little children, over whom he was bending with that
+wonderful patience which only grandfathers are possessed of.
+
+"I certainly know that man," said Jack to his mother; "it is--it must be
+M. Rondic."
+
+Rondic it was, but so aged and grown so thin, that it was a wonder
+that his former apprentice had recognized him. The girl with him was a
+miniature of Zenaide, while the boy looked like Maugin.
+
+The good old man showed great pleasure in meeting Jack, but his smile
+was sad, and then Jack saw that he wore crape on his hat. The youth
+dared not ask a question until, as they turned a corner, Zenaide bore
+down upon them like a ship under full sail. She had changed her plaited
+skirt and ruffled cap for a Parisian dress and bonnet, and looked larger
+than ever. She had the arm of her husband, who was now attached to one
+of the custom-houses, and who was in uniform. Zenaide adored M. Maugin
+and was absurdly proud of him, while he looked very happy in being so
+worshipped.
+
+Jack presented his mother to all these good people; then, as they
+divided into two groups, he said in a low voice to Zenaide, "What has
+happened? Is it possible that Madame Clarisse--"
+
+"Yes, she is dead; she was drowned in the Loire accidentally."
+
+Then she added, "We say 'accidentally' on father's account; but you, who
+knew her so well, may be quite sure that it was by no accident that she
+perished. She died because she could never see Chariot again. Ah, what
+wicked men there are in this world!"
+
+Jack glanced at his mother, and was quite ready to agree with his
+companion.
+
+"Poor father! we thought that he could not survive the shock," resumed
+Zenaide; "but then he never suspected the truth. When M. Maugin got his
+position in Paris, we made him come with us, and we live all together
+in the Eue des Silas at Charonne. You will come and see him, won't you,
+Jack? You know he always loved you; and now only the children amuse him.
+Perhaps you can make him talk. But let us join him; he is looking at us,
+and thinks we are speaking of him, and he does not like that."
+
+Ida, who was deep in conversation with M. Maugin, stopped short as Jack
+approached her. He suspected that she had been talking of D'Argenton, as
+indeed she had, praising his genius and recounting his successes, which,
+had she confined herself to the truth, would not have taken long. They
+separated, promising to meet again soon; and Jack, not long afterward,
+called upon them with his mother.
+
+He found the old ornaments on the chimney that he had learned to know so
+well at Indret, the sponges and corals; he recognized the big wardrobe
+as an old friend. The rooms were exquisitely clean, and presented a
+perfect picture of a Breton interior transplanted to Paris. But he soon
+saw that his mother was bored by Zenaide, who was too energetic and
+positive to suit her, and that there, as everywhere else, she was
+haunted by the same melancholy and the same disgust which she expressed
+in the brief phrase, "It smells of the work-shop."
+
+The house, the room she lived in, the bread she ate, all seemed
+impregnated with one smell, one especial flavor. If she opened the
+window, she perceived it even more strongly; if she went out, each
+breath of wind brought it to her. The people she saw--even her own Jack,
+when he returned at night with his blouse spotted with oil--exhaled the
+same baleful odor, which she fancied clung even to herself--the odor of
+toil--and filled her with immense sadness.
+
+One evening, Jack found his mother in a state of extraordinary
+excitement; her eyes were bright and complexion animated. "D'Argenton
+has written to me!" she cried, as he entered the room; "yes, my dear, he
+has actually dared to write to me. For four months he did not vouchsafe
+a syllable. He writes me now that he is about to return to Paris, and
+that, if I need him, he is at my disposal."
+
+"You do not need him, I think," said Jack, quietly, though he was in
+reality as much moved as his mother herself.
+
+"Of course I do not," she answered, hurriedly.
+
+"And what shall you say?"
+
+"Say! To a wretch who has dared to lift his hand to me? You do not
+yet know me. I have, thank Heaven, more pride than that. I have just
+finished his letter, and have torn it into a thousand bits. I am curious
+to see his house, though, now that I am not there to keep all in order.
+He is evidently out of spirits, and perhaps he is not well, as he has
+been for two months at--what is the name of the place?" and she calmly
+drew from her pocket the letter which she said she had destroyed. "Ah,
+yes, it is at the springs of Royat that he has been. What nonsense!
+Those mineral springs have always been bad for him."
+
+Jack colored at her falsehood, but said not one word. All the evening
+she was busy, and seemed to have regained the courage and animation
+of her first days with her son. While at work she talked to herself.
+Suddenly she crossed the room to Jack.
+
+"You are full of courage, my boy," she said, kissing him.
+
+He was occupied in watching all that was going on within his mother's
+mind. "It is not I whom she kisses," he said, shrewdly; and his
+suspicions were confirmed by a trifle that proved how completely the
+past had taken possession of the poor woman's mind. She never ceased
+humming the words of a little song of D'Argenton's, which the poet was
+in the habit of singing himself at the piano in the twilight. Over and
+over again she sang the refrain, and the words revived in Jack's mind
+only sad and shameful memories. Ah, if he had dared, what words he would
+have said to the woman before him! But she was his mother; he loved
+her, and wished by his own respect to teach her to respect herself. He
+therefore kept strict guard over his lips. This first warning of coming
+danger, however, awoke in him all the jealous foreboding of a man who
+was about to be betrayed. He studied her way of saying good-bye to him
+when he left in the morning, and he analyzed her smile of greeting on
+his return. He could not watch her himself, nor could he confide to any
+other person the distrust with which she inspired him. He knew how often
+a woman surrounds the man whom she deceives in an atmosphere of tender
+attentions,--the manifestations of hidden remorse. Once, on his way
+home, he thought he saw Hirsch and Labassandre turning a distant corner.
+
+"Has any one been here?" he said to the concierge; and by the way he was
+answered he saw that some plot was already organized against him.
+The Sunday after on his return from Etiolles he found his mother so
+completely absorbed in her book that she did not even hear him come in.
+He would not have noticed this, knowing her mania for romances, had not
+Ida made an attempt to conceal the book.
+
+"You startled me," she said, half pouting.
+
+"What are you reading?" he asked.
+
+"Nothing,--some nonsense. And how are our friends?" But as she spoke,
+a blush covered her face and glowed under her fine transparent skin.
+It was one of the peculiarities of this childish nature that she was at
+once prompt and unskilful in falsehood. Annoyed by his earnest gaze, she
+rose from her chair. "You wish to know what I am reading! Look, then."
+He saw once more the glossy cover of the Review that he had read for
+the first time in the engine-room of the Cydnus; only it was thinner
+and smaller. Jack would not have opened it if the following title on the
+outer page had not met his eyes:--
+
+        THE   PARTING.
+
+          A  POEM.
+
+ By the Vicomte Amacry d'Abgentoh.
+
+And commenced thus:--
+
+"TO ONE WHO HAS GONE.
+
+"What! with out one word of farewell, Without a turn of the head..."
+
+Two hundred lines followed these. That there might be no mistake, the
+name of Charlotte occurred several times. Jack flung down the magazine
+with a shrug of the shoulders. "And he dared to send you this?"
+
+"Yes; two or three days ago."
+
+Ida was dying to pick up the book from the floor, but dared not. After a
+while she stooped, carelessly.
+
+"You do not intend to keep those verses, do you? They are simply
+absurd."
+
+"But I do not think them so."
+
+"He simply beats his wings and crows, mother dear; his words touch no
+human heart."
+
+"Be more just, Jack,"--her voice trembled,--"heaven knows that I know
+M. D'Argenton better than any one, his faults and the defects of his
+nature, because I have suffered from them. The man I give up to you; as
+to the poet, it is a different thing. In the opinion of every one, the
+peculiarity of M. D'Argenton's genius is the sympathetic quality of his
+verses. Musset had it irksome degree; and I think that the beginning
+of this poem, 'The Parting,' is very touching: the young woman who goes
+away in the morning fog in her ball-dress without one word of farewell."
+
+Jack could not restrain himself. "But the woman is yourself," he cried,
+"and you know under what circumstances you left."
+
+She answered, coldly,--
+
+"Is it kind in you, my son, to recall such humiliations? Had M.
+D'Argenton treated me a thousand times worse than he has, I should be
+able, I hope, to recognize the fact that he stands at the head of the
+poets of France. More than one person who speaks of him with contempt
+to-day, will yet be proud of having known him and of having sat at his
+table!" And as she finished she left the room with great dignity. Jack
+took his seat at his desk, but his heart was not in his work. He felt
+that "the enemy," as in his childish days he had called the vicomte,
+was gradually making his approaches. In fact Amaury d'Argenton was as
+unhappy apart from Charlotte as she was herself. Victim and executioner,
+indispensable to each other, he felt profoundly the emptiness of divided
+lives. From the first hour of their separation the poet had adopted
+a dramatic and Byronic tone as of a broken heart. He was seen in the
+restaurants at night, surrounded by a group of flatterers who talked
+of her; he wished to have every one know his misery and its details;
+he wished to have people think that he was drowning his sorrows in
+dissipation. When he said, "Waiter! bring me some pure absinthe," it was
+that some one at the next table might whisper, "He is killing himself by
+inches--all for a woman!"
+
+D'Argenton succeeded simply in disordering his stomach and injuring his
+constitution. His "attacks" were more frequent, and Charlotte's absence
+was extremely inconvenient. What other woman would ever have endured his
+perpetual complaints? Who would administer his powders and tisanes.
+He was afraid, too, to be alone, and made some one, Hirsch or another,
+sleep on a sofa in his room. The evenings were dreary because he was
+environed by disorder and dust, which all women, even that foolish Ida,
+contrive to get rid of in some way. Neither the fire nor the lamp would
+burn, and currents of air whistled under all the doors; and in the
+depths of his selfish nature D'Argenton sincerely regretted his
+companion, and became seriously unhappy. Then he decided to take a
+journey, but that did him no good, to judge from the melancholy tone of
+his letters to his friends.
+
+One idea tormented him, that the woman whom he so regretted was happy
+away from him, and in the society of her son. Moronval said, "Write a
+poem about it," and D'Argenton went to work. Unfortunately, instead of
+being calmed by this composition, he was more excited than ever, and
+the separation became more and more intolerable. As soon as the Review
+appeared, Hirsch and Labassandre were bidden to carry a copy at once to
+the Rue des Panoyeaux.
+
+This done, D'Argenton decided that it was time to make a grand _coup_.
+He dressed with great care, took a fiacre, and presented himself at
+Charlotte's door at an hour that he knew Jack must be away. D'Argenton
+was very pale, and the beating of his heart choked him. One of the
+greatest mysteries in human nature is that such persons have a heart,
+and that that heart is capable of beating. It was not love that moved
+him, but he saw a certain romance in the affair, the carriage stationed
+at the corner as for an elopement, and above all the hope of gratifying
+his hatred of Jack. He pictured to himself the disappointment of the
+youth on his return to find that the bird had flown. He meant to appear
+suddenly before Charlotte, to throw himself at her feet, and, giving her
+no time to think, to carry her away with him at once. She must be very
+much changed since he last saw her if she could resist him. He entered
+her room without knocking, saying in a low voice, "It is I."
+
+There was no Charlotte; but instead, Jack stood before him. Jack, on
+account of the occurrence of his mother's birthday, had a holiday, and
+was at work with his books. Ida was asleep on her bed in the alcove. The
+two men looked at each other in silence. This time the poet had not the
+advantage. In the first place, he was not at home; next, how could
+he treat as an inferior this tall, proud-looking fellow, in whose
+intelligent face appeared, as if still more to exasperate the lover,
+something of his mother's beauty.
+
+"Why do you come here?" asked Jack.
+
+The other stammered and colored. "I was told that your mother was here."
+
+"So she is; but I am with her, and you shall not see her."
+
+This was said rapidly and in a low voice; then Jack took D'Argenton by
+the shoulder and wheeled him back into the corridor. The poet with some
+difficulty preserved his footing.
+
+"Jack," he said, endeavoring to be dignified,--"there has been a
+misunderstanding for some time between us, but now that you are a man,
+all this should cease. I offer you my hand, my child."
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders. "Of what use are these theatricals between
+us, sir? You detest me, and I return the compliment!"
+
+"And since when have we been such enemies, Jack?"
+
+"Ever since we knew each other! My earliest recollection is of absolute
+hatred toward you. Besides, why should we not hate each other like the
+bitterest of foes? By what other name should I call you? Who and what
+are you? Believe me that if ever in my life I have thought of you
+without anger, it has never been without a blush of shame."
+
+"It is true, Jack, that our position toward each other has been entirely
+false. But, my dear friend, life is not a romance."
+
+But Jack cut short this discourse.
+
+"You are right, sir, life is not a romance: it is, on the contrary, a
+very serious and positive matter. In proof of which, permit me to say
+that every instant of my time is occupied, and that I cannot lose one
+of them in useless discussions. For ten years my mother has been your
+slave. All that I suffered in this time my pride will never let you
+know. My mother now belongs to me, and I mean to keep her. What do you
+want of her? Her hair is gray, and your treatment of her has made great
+wrinkles on her forehead. She is no longer a pretty woman, but she is my
+mother!"
+
+They looked each other straight in the face as they stood in that
+narrow, squalid corridor. It was a fitting frame for a scene so
+humiliating.
+
+"You strangely mistake the sense of my words," said the poet, deadly
+pale. "I know that your resources must be very moderate; I come, as an
+old friend, to see if I can serve you in any way."
+
+"We need nothing. The work of my hands supplies us with all we require."
+
+"You are very proud, my dear Jack; you were not so always."
+
+"That is very true, sir, and also that your presence, that I once was
+forced to endure, has now become odious to me."
+
+The attitude of the young man was so determined and so insulting, his
+looks so thoroughly carried out his words, that the poet dared not
+add one word, and descended the stairs, where his careful costume was
+strangely out of place. When Jack heard his last footfall, he returned
+to his room: on the threshold stood Ida, strangely white, her eyes
+swollen with tears and sleep.
+
+"I was there," she said in a low voice; "I heard everything, even that I
+was old and had wrinkles."
+
+He approached her, took her hands, and looked into the depths of her
+eyes.
+
+"He is not far away. Shall I call him?"
+
+She disengaged her hands, threw her arms around his neck, and with one
+of those sudden impulses that prevented her from being utterly unworthy,
+exclaimed, "You are right, Jack; I am your mother, and only your
+mother!"
+
+Some days after this scene, Jack wrote the following letter to M.
+Rivals:--
+
+"My Dear Friend: She has left me, and gone back to him. It all happened
+in such an unexpected manner that I have not yet recovered from the
+blow. Alas! she of whom I must complain is my mother. It would be more
+dignified to keep silence, but I cannot. I knew in my childhood a negro
+lad who said, 'If the world could not sigh, the world would stifle!' I
+never fully understood this until to-day, for it seems to me that if I
+do not write you this letter, that I could not live. I could not wait
+until Sunday because I could not speak before Cecile. I told you of
+the explanation that man and I had, did I not? Well, from that time my
+mother was so very sad, and seemed so worn out by the scene she had gone
+through, that I resolved to change our residence. I understood that a
+battle was being fought, and that, if I wished her to be victorious,
+if I wished to keep my mother with me, that I must employ all means and
+devices. Our street and house displeased her. I wanted something gayer
+and more airy. I hired then at Charonne Rue de Silas three rooms newly
+papered. I furnished these rooms with great care. All the money I had
+saved--pardon me these details--I devoted to this purpose. Belisaire
+aided me in moving, while Zenaide was in the same street, and I counted
+on her in many ways. All these arrangements were made secretly, and
+I hoped a great surprise and pleasure was in store for my mother. The
+place was as quiet as a village street, the trees were well grown and
+green, and I fancied that she would, when established there, have less
+to regret in the country-life she had so much enjoyed.
+
+"Yesterday evening everything was in readiness. Belisaire was to tell
+her that I was waiting for her at the Rondics, and then he was to take
+her to our new home. I was there waiting; white curtains hung at all the
+windows, and great bunches of roses were on the chimney. I had made a
+little fire, for the evening was cool, and it gave a home look to the
+room. In the midst of my contentment I had a sudden presentiment. It was
+like an electric spark. 'She will not come.' In vain did I call
+myself an idiot, in vain did I arrange and rearrange her chair and her
+footstool. I knew that she would never come. More than once in my life I
+have had these intuitions. One might believe that Fate, before striking
+her heaviest blows, had a moment of compassion, and gave me a warning.
+
+"She did not come, but Belisaire brought a note from her. It was very
+brief, merely stating that M. D'Argenton was very ill, and that she
+regarded it as her duty to watch at his side. As soon as he was well she
+would return. Ill! I had not thought of that. I might call myself ill,
+too, and keep her at my bedside. How well he understood her, the wretch!
+How thoroughly he had studied that weak but kindly nature! You remember
+those 'attacks' he talked of at Etiolles, and which so soon disappeared
+after a good dinner. It is one of those which he now has. But my mother
+was only too glad of an excuse, and allowed herself to be deceived. But
+to return to my story. Behold me alone in this little home, amid all
+the wasted efforts, time and money! Was it not cruel? I could not remain
+there; I returned to my old room. The house seemed to me as sad as a
+funeral-chamber. I permitted the fire to die out, and the roses wither
+and fall on the marble hearth below with a gentle rustle. I took the
+rooms for two years, and I shall keep them with something of the same
+superstition with which one preserves for a long time the cage from
+which some favorite bird has flown. If my mother returns we will go
+there together. But if she does not I shall never inhabit the place.
+I have now told you all, but do not let Cecile see this letter. Ah,
+my friend, will she too desert me? The treachery of those we love is
+terrible indeed. But of what am I thinking; I have her word and her
+promise, and Cecile always tells the truth."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.~~CECILE UNHAPPY RESOLVE.
+
+Fob a long time Jack had faith that his mother would return. In the
+morning, in the evening, in the silence of midday, he fancied that he
+heard the rustling of her dress, her light step on the threshold. When
+he went to the Rondics he glanced at the little house, hoping to see the
+windows opened and Ida installed in the refuge, the address of which,
+with the key, he had sent to her: "The house is ready. Come when you
+will." Not a word in reply. The desertion was final and absolute.
+
+Jack was in great grief. When our mothers do us harm, it wounds and
+grieves us, and seems like a direct cruelty from the hand of God. But
+Cecile was the magician to cure him; she knew just the words to use,
+and her delicate tenderness defied the rough trials of destiny. A great
+resource to him at this time was hard work, which is one's best defence
+against sorrow and regrets. While his mother had been with him, she,
+without knowing it, had often prevented him from working. Her indecision
+had been at times very harassing. She sometimes was all ready to go out,
+with hat and shawl on, when she would suddenly decide to remain at home.
+Now that she was gone, he took rapid strides and regained his lost time.
+Each Sunday he went to Etiolles; he was at once more in love, and wiser.
+The doctor was delighted with the progress of his pupil; before a year
+was over, he said, if he went on in this way, he could take his degree.
+
+These words thrilled Jack with joy, and when he repeated them to
+Belisaire, the little attic positively glowed and palpitated with
+happiness. Madame Belisaire was suddenly filled with a desire to learn,
+and her husband must teach her to read. But while M. Rivals was pleased
+at Jack's progress with his books, he was discontented with the state of
+his health; the old cough had come back, his eyes were feverish and his
+hands hot.
+
+"I do not like this," said the good man; "you work too hard; you must
+stop; you have plenty of time: Cecile does not mean to run away."
+
+Never had the girl been more loving and tender; she seemed to feel
+that she mast take his mother's place as well as her own; and it was
+precisely this sweetness that induced Jack to make greater exertions
+each day. His bodily frame was in the same condition as that of the
+Fakirs of India--urged to such a point of feverish excitement that pain
+becomes a pleasure. He was grateful to the cold of his little attic,
+and to the hard dry cough that kept him from sleeping. Sometimes at his
+writing-table he suddenly felt lightness throughout all his being--a
+strange clearness of perception and an extraordinary excitement of all
+his intellectual faculties; but this was accompanied with great physical
+exhaustion.
+
+His work went like lightning, and all the difficulties of his task
+disappeared. He would have gone on thus to the end of his labor, had he
+not received a painful shock. A telegram arrived:
+
+     "Do not come to-morrow; we are going away for a week.
+     Rivals."
+
+Jack received that despatch just as Madame Belisaire had ironed his fine
+linen for the next day. The suddenness of this departure, the brevity
+of the despatch, and even the printed characters instead of his friend's
+well-known writing, affected him most painfully. He expected a letter
+from Cecile or the doctor to explain the mystery, but nothing came, and
+for a week he was a prey to suspense and anxiety. The truth was: neither
+Cecile nor the doctor had left home, but that M. Rivals wished for time
+to prepare the youth for an unexpected blow--for a decision of Cecile's
+so extraordinary that he hoped his granddaughter would be induced to
+reconsider it. One evening, on coming into the house, he had found
+Cecile in a state of singular agitation; her lips were pale but firmly
+closed. He tried to make her smile at the dinner-table, but in vain; and
+suddenly, in reply to some remark of his in regard to Jack's coming,
+she said, "I do not wish him to come."
+
+He looked at her in amazement. She was as pale as death, but in a
+firm voice she repeated, "I do not wish him to come on Sunday, or ever
+again."
+
+"What is the matter, my child?"
+
+"Nothing, dear grandfather, save that I can never marry Jack."
+
+"You frighten me, Cecile! Tell me what you mean."
+
+"I am simply beginning to understand myself. I do not love him; I was
+mistaken."
+
+"Good heavens, child, are you quite mad? You have had some childish
+misunderstanding."
+
+"No, grandpapa, I assure you that I have for Jack a sister's friendship,
+nothing more. I cannot be his wife."
+
+The doctor was startled. "Cecile," he said, gravely, "do you love any
+other person?"
+
+She colored. "No; but I do not wish to marry;" and to all that M. Rivals
+said she would make no other reply.
+
+He asked her what would be said, what would be thought by their little
+world. "Remember," he said, "that to Jack this will be a frightful blow;
+his whole future will be sacrificed."
+
+Cecile's pale features quivered nervously. Her grandfather took her
+hand.
+
+"My child," he said, "think well before you decide a question of such
+importance."
+
+"No," she answered; "the sooner he knows my decision the better for us
+both. I know that I am going to pain him deeply, but the longer we delay
+the worse it will be, and I cannot see him again until he knows the
+truth; I am incapable of such treachery."
+
+"Then you mean to give the boy his dismissal," said the doctor, in a
+rage. "Good heavens! what strange creatures women are!"
+
+She looked at him with such an expression of despair that he stopped
+short.
+
+"No, no, little girl, I am not angry with you. It is my fault more than
+yours. You were too young to know your own mind. I am an old fool, and
+shall always be one until the bitter end."
+
+Then came the painful duty of writing to Jack. He began a dozen letters,
+destroyed them all, and finally sent the telegram, hoping that Cecile
+would have come to her senses before the week was over.
+
+The next Saturday, when Dr. Rivals said to his granddaughter, "He will
+come to-morrow; is your decision irrevocable?"
+
+"Irrevocable," she said, slowly.
+
+Jack arrived early on Sunday. When he reached the door the servant said,
+"My master is waiting for you in the garden."
+
+Jack felt chilled to the heart, and the doctor's face increased his
+fears, for he, though for forty years accustomed to the sight of human
+suffering, was as troubled as Jack.
+
+"Cecile is here--is she not?" were the youth's first words.
+
+"No, my friend, I left her--at--where we have been, you know; and she
+will remain some time."
+
+"Dr. Rivals, tell me what is wrong. She does not wish to see me again?
+Is that it?"
+
+The doctor could not answer. Jack seated himself for fear he should
+fall. They were at the foot of the garden. It was a fresh, bright
+November morning; hoar-frost lay on the lawn, a faint haze hung over the
+distant hills and reminded him of that day at Coudray, the vintage,
+and their first whisper of love. The doctor laid a paternal hand on his
+shoulder. "Jack," he whispered, "do not be unhappy. She is very young
+and will perhaps change her mind. It is a mere caprice."
+
+"No, doctor, Cecile never has caprices. That would be horrible--to
+drive a knife into a man's heart merely from caprice! I am sure she has
+reflected for a long time before she came to this decision. She knew
+that her love was my life, and that in tearing it up my life would also
+perish. If she has done this, then it is because she knew well that it
+was her duty so to do. I ought to have expected it; I should have known
+that so great a happiness could not be for me."
+
+He staggered to his feet. His friend took his hand. "Forgive me, my
+brave boy; I hoped to make you both happy."
+
+"Do not reproach yourself. Tell her that I accept her decision. Last
+year," he continued, "I began the only happy season of my life. I was
+born on that day, and to-day I die. But these few happy months I owe to
+you and to Cecile;" and the youth hurried away.
+
+"But you will breakfast with me," said the doctor.
+
+"No; I should be too sad a guest."
+
+He crossed the garden with a firm step, and went away without once
+looking back. Had he turned he would have seen, half hidden by the
+curtain of a window in the second story, a face as pale and agitated as
+his own. The girl extended her slender arms, and tears rained down her
+cheeks. The following days were sad enough. The little house that had
+for months been bright and gay, resumed its ancient mournful aspect. The
+doctor, much troubled, noticed that his granddaughter spent much of her
+time in her mother's former room. Where Madeleine had formerly wept, her
+child now shed in turn her tears. "Would she die as did her mother?"
+
+The doctor asked himself, day after day, If she did not love Jack, why
+was she so sad? If she did love him, why had she refused him? The old
+man was sure that there was some mystery, something that he ought to
+know; but at the least question, Cecile ran away as if in fear.
+
+One night the bell rang a summons from a dying man. It was the husband
+of old Sale, who had met with an accident. These people lived near
+Aul-nettes, in a miserable little hole, and on a straw bed in the
+corner lay the sick man. When Dr. Rivals entered the place he was nearly
+suffocated by the odor of burning herbs.
+
+"What have you been doing here, Mother Sale?" he said. The old woman
+hesitated, and wished to tell a falsehood; he gave her no time, however.
+"So Hirsch is here again, is he?" he continued. "Open the doors and
+windows, you will be suffocated."
+
+While M. Rivals bent over the sick man, he half opened his eyes. "Tell
+him, wife, tell him," he muttered.
+
+The old woman paid no attention, and the man began again: "Tell him, I
+say, tell him."
+
+The doctor looked at Mother Sale, who turned a deep scarlet. "I am sure
+I am very sorry if I said anything to hurt the feelings of such a good
+young lady," she muttered.
+
+"What young lady? Of whom do you speak?" asked the doctor, turning
+hastily around.
+
+"Well, sir, I will tell you the truth. The mad doctor gave me twenty
+francs to tell Mamselle Cecile the story of her father and mother."
+
+M. Rivals seized the old peasant woman and shook her violently.
+
+"And you dared to do that?" he cried, in a furious rage.
+
+"It was for twenty francs. I could never have opened my lips but for the
+twenty francs, sir. In the first place, I knew nothing about it until he
+told me, so that I could repeat it."
+
+"The wretch! But who could have told him?"
+
+A groan from the sick-bed recalled the physician to his duty. All the
+long night he watched there, and when all was over he returned in haste
+to Etiolles and went directly in search of Cecile. Her room was empty,
+and the bed had not been slept in. His heart stood still. He ran to
+the office, still he found no one. But the door of Madeleine's old room
+stood open, and there among the relics of the dear dead, prostrate on
+the _Prie-Dieu_, was Cecile asleep, in an attitude that told of a night
+of prayer and tears. She opened her eyes as her grandfather touched her.
+
+"And the wretches told you the secret that we have taken so much pains
+to hide from you! And strangers and enemies told you, my poor little
+darling, the sad tale we concealed."
+
+She hid her face on his shoulder. "I am so ashamed," she whispered.
+
+"And this is the reason that you did not wish to marry? Tell me why?"
+
+"Because I did not wish to acknowledge my mother's dishonor, and my
+conscience compelled me to have no secrets from my husband. There was
+but one thing to do, and I did it."
+
+"But you love him?"
+
+"With my whole heart; and I believe he loves me so well that he would
+marry me in spite of my shameful history; but I would never consent to
+such a sacrifice. A man does not marry a girl who has no father--who has
+no name, or, if she had one, it would be that of a robber and forger."
+
+"But you are mistaken, my child; Jack was proud and happy to marry you
+with a thorough knowledge of your history. I told it all to him, and if
+you had had more confidence in me, you would have avoided this trial to
+us all."
+
+"And he was willing to marry me!"
+
+"Child! he loves you. Besides, your destinies are similar. He has no
+father, and his mother has never been married. The only difference
+between you is that your mother was a saint, and his is a sinner."
+
+Then the doctor, who had told Jack Cecile's history, now related to her
+the long martyrdom of the youth she loved. He told her of his exile from
+his mother's arms--of all that he had endured. "I understand it all now,"
+he cried; "it is she who has told Hirsch of your mother's marriage."
+
+While the doctor was talking, Cecile was overwhelmed with despair to
+think that she had caused Jack, already so unhappy, so much needless
+sorrow. "O, how he has suffered!" she sobbed. "Have you heard anything
+from him?"
+
+"No; but he can come and tell you himself all that you wish to know,"
+answered her grandfather, with a smile.
+
+"But he may not wish to come."
+
+"Well, then, we will go to him. It is Sunday; let us find him and bring
+him home with us."
+
+An hour or two later, M. Rivals and his granddaughter were on their
+way to Paris. Just after they left, a man stopped before the house. He
+looked at the little door. "This is the place," he said, and he
+rang. The servant opened the door, but seeing before her one of those
+dangerous ped-lers that wander through the country, she attempted to
+close it again.
+
+"What do you want?"
+
+"The gentleman of the house."
+
+"He is not at home."
+
+"And the young lady?"
+
+"She is not at home, either."
+
+"When will they be back?"
+
+"I have no idea!" And she closed the door.
+
+"Good heavens!" said Belisaire, in a choked voice; "and must he be
+permitted to die without any help?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.~~A MELANCHOLY SPECTACLE.
+
+That evening there was a great literary entertainment at the editors of
+the Review; a fete had been arranged to celebrate Charlotte's return, at
+which it was proposed that D'Argenton should read his new poem.
+
+But was there not something rather ridiculous in deploring the absence
+of a person who was then present? And how could he describe the
+sufferings of a deserted lover, he who was supposed at the moment to be
+at the summit of bliss, by reason of the return of the beloved object?
+Never had the apartments been so luxuriously arranged; flowers were
+there in profusion. The toilet of Charlotte was in exquisite taste,
+white with clusters of violets, and all the surroundings breathed an
+atmosphere of riches. Yet nothing could have been more deceptive.
+The Review was in a dying condition; the numbers appearing at longer
+intervals, and growing small by degrees and beautifully less. D'Argenton
+had swallowed up in it the half of his fortune, and now wished to sell
+it. It was this unfortunate situation, added to an attack skilfully
+managed, that had induced the foolish Charlotte to return to him. He had
+only to assume before her the air of a great man crushed by unmerited
+misfortune, for her to reply that she would serve him always.
+
+D'Argenton was foolish and conceited, but he understood the nature of
+this woman in a most wonderful degree. She thought him handsomer and
+more fascinating than he was twelve years before, when she saw him for
+the first time, under the chandeliers of the Moronval salon. Many of the
+same persons were there also: Labassandre in bottle-green velvet, with
+the high boots of Faust; and Dr. Hirsch with his coat-sleeves spotted by
+various chemicals; and Moronval in a black coat very white in the seams,
+and a white cravat very black in the folds; several "children of the
+sun,"--the everlasting Japanese prince, and the Egyptian from the banks
+of the Nile. What a strange set of people they were! They might have
+been a band of pilgrims on the march toward some unknown Mecca, whose
+golden lamps retreat before them. During the twelve years that we have
+known them, many have fallen from the ranks, but others have risen to
+take their places; nothing discourages them, neither cold nor heat,
+nor even hunger. They hurry on, but they never arrive. Among them
+D'Argenton, better clothed and better fed, resembled a rich Hadji with
+his harem, his pipes, and his riches; on this evening he was especially
+radiant, for he had triumphed.
+
+During the reading of the poem Charlotte sat in an attitude of feigned
+indifference, blushing occasionally at veiled allusions to herself.
+Near her was Madame Moronval, who, small as she was, seemed quite tall
+because of the extraordinary height of her forehead and the length of
+her chin. The poem went on and on, the fire crackled on the hearth, and
+the wind rattled against the glass doors of the balcony, as it did on a
+certain night of which Charlotte apparently had but little remembrance.
+Suddenly, during a most pathetic passage, the door opened suddenly; the
+servant appeared, and with a terrified air summoned her mistress.
+
+"Madame, madame!" she cried.
+
+Charlotte went to her. "What is it?" she asked.
+
+"A man insists on seeing you. I told him that it was impossible; but he
+said he would wait for you, and he seated himself on the stairs."
+
+"I will see him," said Charlotte, much moved; for she guessed at the
+purport of the message.
+
+But D'Argenton objected, and turning toward Labassandre, he said, "Will
+you have the goodness to see who this intruder is?" and the poet turned
+back to the table to resume his reading. But the door opened again wide
+enough to admit the head and arm of Labassandre, who beckoned earnestly.
+
+"What is it?" said D'Argenton, impatiently, when he reached the
+ante-room.
+
+"Jack is very ill," said the tenor.
+
+"I don't believe it," answered the poet.
+
+"This man swears that it is so."
+
+D'Argenton looked at the man, whose face was not absolutely unknown to
+him.
+
+"Did you come from the gentleman,--that is to say, did he send you?"
+
+"No; he is too sick to send any one. It is three weeks since he has been
+in his bed, and very, very ill."
+
+"What is his disease?"
+
+"Something on the lungs, and the doctors say that he cannot live; so I
+thought I had better come and tell his mother."
+
+"What is your name?"
+
+"Belisaire, sir; but the lady knows me."
+
+"Very well, then," said the poet, "you will say to the one who sent you,
+that the game is a good one, though rather old, and he had better try
+something else."
+
+"Sir?" said the pedler, interrogatively, for he did not comprehend these
+sarcastic words.
+
+But D'Argenton had left the room, and Belisaire stood in silent
+amazement, having caught a glimpse of the lighted salon and its crowd of
+people.
+
+"It is nothing, only a mistake," said the poet on his entrance; and
+while he majestically resumed his reading, the pedler hurried home
+through the dark streets, through the sharp hail and fierce wind, eager
+to reach Jack, who lay in a high fever, on the narrow iron bed in the
+attic-room.
+
+He had been taken ill on his return from Etiolles; he lay there, almost
+without speaking, a victim to fever and a severe cold, so serious, that
+the physicians warned his friends that they had everything to fear.
+Belisaire wished to summon M. Rivals, but to this Jack refused to
+consent. This was the only energy he had shown since his illness, and
+the only time he had spoken voluntarily, save when he told his friend to
+take his watch, and a ring he owned, and sell them.
+
+All Jack's savings had been absorbed in furnishing the rooms at
+Charonne, and the Belisaire household was equally impoverished through
+their recent marriage. But it mattered very little; the pedler and his
+wife were capable of every sacrifice for their friend; they carried
+to the Mont de Piete the greater part of their furniture, piece by
+piece--for medicines were so dear. They were advised to send Jack to the
+hospital. "He would be better off; and, besides, he would then cost you
+nothing," was the argument employed. The good people were now at the end
+of their resources, and decided to inform Charlotte of her son's danger.
+
+"Bring her back with you," said Madame Belisaire to her husband. "To see
+his mother would be such a comfort to the lad. He never speaks of her
+because he is so proud."
+
+But Belisaire did not bring her. He returned in a very unhappy frame
+of mind, from the reception he had received. His wife, with her child
+asleep on her lap, talked in a low voice to a neighbor, in front of a
+poor little fire--such a one as is called a widow's fire by the people.
+The two women listened to Jack's painful breathing, and to the horrible
+cough that choked him. One would never have recognized this unfurnished,
+dismal room as the bright attic where cheerful voices had resounded such
+a short time before. There was no sign of books or studies. A pot of
+tisane was simmering on the hearth, filling the air with that peculiar
+odor which tells of a sickroom. Belisaire came in.
+
+"Alone?" said his wife.
+
+He told in a low voice that he had not been permitted to see Jack's
+mother.
+
+"But had you no blood in your veins? You should have entered by force
+and called aloud, 'Madame, your son is dying!' Ah, my poor Belisaire,
+you will never be anything but a weak chicken!"
+
+"But, had I undertaken such a thing, I should simply have been
+arrested," said the poor man, in a distressed tone.
+
+"But what are we going to do?" resumed Madame Belisaire. "This poor boy
+must have better care than we can give him."
+
+A neighbor spoke. "He must go to the hospital, as the physician said."
+
+"Hush, hush! not so loud!" said Belisaire, pointing to the bed; "I'm
+afraid he heard you."
+
+"What of that? He is not your brother, nor your son; and it would be
+better for you in every respect."
+
+"But he is my friend," answered Belisaire, proudly; and in his tone was
+so much honest devotion that his wife's eyes filled with tears.
+
+The neighbors shrugged their shoulders and went away. After their
+departure, the room looked less cold and less bare.
+
+Jack had heard all that was said. In spite of his weakness he slept
+little, and lay with his face turned to the wall, with eyes wide open.
+If that blank surface, wrinkled and tarnished like the face of a very
+old woman, could have spoken, it would have said that in those pitiful
+eyes but one expression could have been seen, that of utter and
+overwhelming despair. He never complained, however; he even tried, at
+times, to smile at his stout nurse, when she brought him his
+tisanes. The long and solitary days passed away in this inaction and
+helplessness. Why was he not strong in health and body like the people
+about him, and yet for whom did he wish to labor? His mother had left
+him, Cecile had deserted him. The faces of these two women haunted him
+day and night. When Charlotte's gay and indifferent smile faded away,
+the delicate features of Cecile appeared before him, veiled in the
+mystery of her strange refusal; and the youth lay there incapable of a
+word or a gesture, while his pulses beat with accelerated force, and his
+hollow cough shook him from head to foot.
+
+The day after this conversation at Jack's bedside, Madame Belisaire
+was much startled, on entering the room, to find him, tall and gaunt,
+sitting in front of the fire. "Why are you out of your bed?" she asked
+with severity.
+
+"I am going to the hospital, my kind friend; it is impossible for me to
+stay here any longer. Do not attempt to detain me, for go I will."
+
+"But, Mr. Jack, you cannot walk there, weak as you are."
+
+"Yes, I can, if your husband will give me the help of his arm."
+
+It was useless to resist such determination, and Jack said farewell to
+Madame Belisaire, and descended the stairs with one sad look of farewell
+at the humble home which had been illuminated by so many fair dreams and
+hopes. How long the walk was! They stopped occasionally, but dared not
+linger long, for the air was sharp. Under the lowering December skies
+the sick youth looked worse even than when he lay in his bed. His hair
+was wet with perspiration, the hurrying crowds made him dizzy and
+faint. Paris is like a huge battlefield where mere existence demands a
+struggle; and Jack seemed like a wounded soldier borne from the field by
+a comrade.
+
+It was still early when they reached the hospital. Early as it was,
+however, they found the huge waiting-room filled with persons. An
+enormous stove made the air of the room almost intolerable, with its
+smell of hot iron. When Jack entered, assisted by Belisaire/all eyes
+were turned upon him. They were awaiting the arrival of the physician,
+who would give, or refuse, a card of admittance. Each one was describing
+his symptoms to some indifferent hearer, and endeavoring to show that
+he was more ill than any one else. Jack listened to these dismal
+conversations, seated between a stout man who coughed violently, and a
+slender young girl whose thin shawl was so tightly drawn over her head
+that only her wild and affrighted eyes were to be seen. Then the door
+opened, and a small, wiry man appeared; it was the physician. A profound
+silence followed all along the benches. The doctor warmed his hands at
+the stove, while he cast a scrutinizing glance about the room. Then he
+began his rounds, followed by a boy carrying the cards of admission to
+the different hospitals. What joy for the poor wretches when they were
+pronounced sick enough to receive a ticket. What disappointment, what
+entreaties from those who were told that they must struggle on yet a
+little longer! The examination was brief, and if it seemed somewhat
+brutal at times, it must be remembered that the number of applicants was
+very large, and that the poor creatures loved to linger over the recital
+of their woes.
+
+Finally the physician reached the stout man next to Jack. "And what is
+the matter with you, sir?" he asked.
+
+"My chest burns like fire," was the answer.
+
+"Ah, your chest burns like fire, does it! Do you not sometimes drink too
+much brandy?"
+
+"Never, sir," answered the patient indignantly.
+
+"Well, then, if you do not drink brandy, how about wine?"
+
+"I drink what I want of that, of course."
+
+"Ah, yes, I understand! You drink with your friends." %
+
+"On pay-days I do, certainly."
+
+"That is, you get drunk once in the week. Let me see your tongue."
+
+When the physician reached Jack, he examined him attentively, asked his
+age and how long he had been ill. Jack answered with much difficulty,
+and while he spoke, Belisaire stood behind him with a face full of
+anxiety.
+
+"Stand up, my man," and the doctor applied his ear to the damp clothing
+of the invalid. "Did you walk here?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"It is most extraordinary that you were able to do so, in the state
+in which you are; but you must not try it again;" and he handed him a
+ticket and passed on to continue his inspection.
+
+Of all the thousand rapid and confused impressions that one receives
+in the streets of Paris, do you remember any one more painful than
+the sight of one of those litters, sheltered from the sun's rays by
+a striped cover, and borne by two men, one behind and the other in
+front,--the form of a human being vaguely defined under the linen
+sheets? Women cross themselves when these litters pass them, as they do
+when a crow flies over their heads.
+
+Sometimes, a mother, a daughter, or a sister, walks at the side of the
+sick man, their eyes swimming in tears at this last indignity to which
+the poor are subjected. Jack thus lay, consoled by the sound of the
+familiar tread of his faithful Belisaire, who occasionally took his hand
+to prove to him that he was not completely deserted.
+
+The sick man at last reached the hospital to which he had been ordered.
+It was a dreary structure, looking out on one side upon a damp garden,
+on the other on a dark court. Twenty beds, two arm-chairs, and a stove,
+were the furniture of the large room to which Jack was carried. Five
+or six phantoms in cotton nightcaps looked up from a game of dominos
+to inspect him, and two or three more started from the stove as if
+frightened.
+
+The corner of the room was brightened by an altar to the Virgin,
+decorated with flowers, candles, and lace; and near by was the desk of
+the matron, who came forward, and in a soft voice, the tones of which
+seemed half lost among the folds of her veil, said:
+
+"Poor fellow, how sick he looks! he must go to bed at once. We have no
+bed yet, but the one at the end there will soon be empty. While we are
+waiting, we will put him on a couch."
+
+This couch was placed close to the bed "that would soon be empty," from
+whence were heard long sighs, dreary enough in themselves, but made a
+thousand times more melancholy by the utter indifference with which they
+were heard by the others in the room. The man was dying, but Jack
+was himself too ill to notice this. He hardly heard Belisaire's "_au
+revoir_" nor the rattling of dishes as the soup was distributed, nor
+a whispering at his side; he was not asleep, but exhausted by fatigue.
+Suddenly a woman's voice, calm and clear, said, "Let us pray."
+
+He saw the dim outline of a woman kneeling near the altar, but in vain
+did he attempt to follow the words that fell rapidly from her lips. The
+concluding sentence reached him, however.
+
+"Protect, O God, my friends and my enemies, all prisoners and
+travellers, the sick and the dying."
+
+Jack slept a feverish sleep, and his dreams were a confused mixture
+of prisoners rattling their chains, and of travellers wandering over
+endless roads. He was one of these travellers: he was on a highway, like
+that of Etiolles; Cecile and his mother were before him refusing to wait
+until he could reach them; this he was prevented from doing by a row of
+enormous machines, the pistons of which were moving with dizzy haste,
+and from whose chimneys were pouring out dark volumes of smoke. Jack
+determined to pass between them; he is seized by their iron arms, torn
+and mangled, and scalded with the hot steam; but he got through and took
+refuge in the Foret de Senart, amid the freshness of which Jack became
+once more a child and was on his way to the forester's; but there at the
+cross-road stood mother Sale; he turned to run, and ran for miles, with
+the old woman close behind him; he heard her nearer and nearer, he felt
+her hot breath on his shoulder; she seized him at last, and with all her
+weight crushed in his chest. Jack awoke with a start; he recognized
+the large room, the beds in a line, and heard the sighs and coughs. He
+dreamed no more, and yet he still felt the same weight across his body,
+something so cold and heavy that he called aloud in terror. The nurses
+ran, and lifted Something, placed it in the next bed, and drew the
+curtains round it closely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.~~DEATH IN THE HOSPITAL.
+
+"Come, wake up! Visitors are here."
+
+Jack opened his eyes, and the first thing that struck him was the
+curtains of the next bed,--they hung in such straight and motionless
+folds to the very ground.
+
+"Well, my boy, you had a pretty bad time last night. The poor fellow in
+the next bed had convulsions and fell over on you. I suppose you were
+terribly frightened. Now raise yourself a little that we may see you.
+But you are very weak."
+
+The man who spoke was about forty years of age, wearing a velvet coat
+and a white apron. His beard was fair and his eyes bright. He feels the
+sick man's pulse and asks him some questions.
+
+"What is your trade?"
+
+"A machinist."
+
+"Do you drink?"
+
+"Not now; I did at one time."
+
+Then a long silence.
+
+"What sort of a life have you led, my poor boy?"
+
+Jack saw in the physician's face the same sympathetic interest that he
+had perceived the previous day. The students surrounded the bed, and the
+doctor explained to them various symptoms that he observed. They were
+at once interesting and alarming, he said; and Jack listened with some
+curiosity to the words "inspiration," "expiration," "phthisis," &c., and
+at last understood that his was looked upon as a most critical case,--so
+critical that, after the physician had left the room, the good sister
+approached, and with gentle discretion asked if his family were in
+Paris, and if he could send to them.
+
+His family! Who were they? A man and a woman who were already there at
+the foot of the bed. They belonged to the lower classes; but he had no
+other friends than these, no other relatives.
+
+"And how are we to-day?" said Belisaire, cheerily, though he kept his
+tears back with difficulty. Madame Belisaire lays on the table two fine
+oranges she has brought, and then, after a kind remark or two, sits in
+silence.
+
+Jack does not speak; his eyes are wide open and fixed. Of what is he
+thinking?
+
+"Jack," said the good woman, suddenly, "I am going to find your mother;"
+and she smiled encouragingly.
+
+Yes, that is what he wants; now that he knows that he must die, he
+forgets all the wrongs his mother has been guilty of toward him.
+
+But Belisaire does not wish his wife to go. He knows that she holds in
+utter contempt "the fine lady," as she calls Jack's mother, that she
+detests the man with the moustache, and that she will make a scene, and
+perhaps--who knows but the police may be called in?
+
+"No," she said, "that is all nonsense;" but finally yielded to the
+persuasions of her husband, and allowed him to go in her stead.
+
+"I will bring her this time, never fear!" he said, with an air of
+confidence.
+
+"Where are you going?" asked the concierge, stopping him at the foot of
+the staircase.
+
+"To M. D'Argenton's."
+
+"Are you the man who was here last night?"
+
+"Precisely," answered Belisaire, innocently.
+
+"Then you need not go up, for there is no one there; they have gone to
+the country, and will not return for some time."
+
+In the country, in all this cold and snow! It seemed impossible. In
+vain did he insist, in vain did he say that the lady's son was very
+ill--dying in the hospital. The concierge held to his statement, and
+would not permit Belisaire to go one step further.
+
+The poor man retreated to the street again. Suddenly a brilliant idea
+struck him. Jack had never told him any of the particulars of what had
+taken place between the Rivals and himself; he had merely stated the
+fact that the marriage was broken off. But at Indret and in Paris he had
+often spoken of the goodness and charity of the kind doctor. If he could
+only be induced to come to Jack's bedside, so that the poor boy could
+have some familiar face about him! Without further hesitation he started
+for Etiolles. Alas, we saw him at the end of this long walk!
+
+During all this time, his wife sat at their friend's side, and knew not
+what to think of this prolonged absence, nor how to calm the agitation
+into which the sick youth was thrown by the expectation of seeing his
+mother. His excitement was unfortunately increased by the crowd that
+always appeared on Sundays at the hospital. Each moment some one of the
+doors was thrown open, and each time Jack expected to see his mother.
+The visitors were clean and neatly dressed who gathered about the
+patients they had come to see, telling them family news and encouraging
+them. Sometimes the voices were choked with tears, though the eyes were
+dry, Jack heard a constant murmur of voices, and the perfume of oranges
+filled the room. But what a disappointment it was, after being lifted by
+the aid of a little stick hung by cords, when he saw that his mother had
+not come! He fell back more exhausted, more despairing than ever.
+
+With him, as with all others who are on the threshold of death, the
+slender thread of life that remained to him was too fragile to attach
+itself to the robust years of his manhood, and took him beyond them into
+the far away days when he was little Jack, the velvet-clad darling of
+Ida de Barancy.
+
+The crowd still came, women and little children, who stood in displeased
+surprise at their father's emaciation and at his nightcap, and uttered
+exclamations of delight at the sight of the beautifully dressed altar.
+But Jack's mother did not appear. Madame Belisaire knows not what to
+say. She has hinted that M. D'Argenton may be ill, or that his mother is
+driving in the Bois, and now she spreads a colored handkerchief on her
+knees and pares an orange.
+
+"She will not come!" said Jack. These very words he had spoken in that
+little home at Charonne which he had prepared with so much tender
+care. But his voice was now weaker, and had even a little anger in its
+accents. "She will not come!" he repeated; and the poor boy closed
+his eyes, but not in sleep. He thought of Cecile. The sister heard his
+sighs, and said to Madame Belisaire, whose large face was shining with
+tears,--
+
+"What is the matter with him? I am afraid he is suffering more."
+
+"It is on account of his mother, whom he expects, and he is troubled
+that she does not come."
+
+"But she must be sent for."
+
+"My husband went long ago. But she is a fine lady; she won't come to a
+hospital and run the risk of soiling her silk skirts."
+
+Suddenly the woman rose in a fit of anger.
+
+"Don't cry, dear," said she to Jack, as she would have spoken to her
+little child; "I am going for your mother."
+
+Jack understood what she said, understood that she had gone, but still
+continued to repeat, in a harsh voice, the words, "She will not come!
+she will not come!"
+
+The sister tried to soothe him. "Calm yourself, my child."
+
+Then Jack rose in a sort of delirium. "I tell you she will not come.
+You do not know her, she is a heartless mother; all the misery of my
+miserable life has come from her! My heart is one huge wound, from the
+gashes she has cut in it. When he pretended to be ill, she went to
+him on wings, and would never again leave him; and I am dying, and she
+refuses to come to me. What a cruel mother! it is she who has killed me,
+and she does not wish to see me die!"
+
+Exhausted by this effort, Jack let his head fall back on the pillow, and
+the sister bent over him in gentle pity, while the brief winter's day
+ended in a yellow twilight and occasional gusts of snow.
+
+Charlotte and D'Argenton descended from their carriage. They had just
+returned from a fashionable concert, and were carefully dressed in
+velvet and furs, light gloves and laces. She was in the best of spirits.
+Remember that she had just shown herself in public with her poet, and
+had shown herself, too, to be as pretty as she was ten years before. The
+complexion was heightened by the sharp wintry air, and the soft wraps
+in which she was enveloped added to her beauty as does the satin and
+quilted lining of a casket enhance the brilliancy of the gems within. A
+woman of the people stood on the sidewalk, and rushed forward on seeing
+her.
+
+"Madame, madame! come at once!"
+
+"Madame Belisaire!" cried Charlotte, turning pale.
+
+"Your child is very ill; he asks for you!"
+
+"But this is a persecution," said D'Argenton. "Let us pass. If the
+gentleman is ill, we will send him a physician."
+
+"He has physicians, and more than he wants, for he is at the hospital."
+
+"At the hospital!"
+
+"Yes, he is there just now, but not for very long. I warn you, if you
+wish to see him you must hurry."
+
+"Come on, Charlotte, come on! It is a frightful lie. It is some trap
+laid ready for you;" and the poet drew Charlotte to the stairs.
+
+"Madame, your son is dying! Ah, God, is it possible that a mother can
+have a heart like this!"
+
+Charlotte turned toward her. "Show me where he is," she said; and the
+two women hurried through the streets, leaving D'Argenton in a state of
+rage, convinced that it was a mere device of his enemies.
+
+Just as Madame Belisaire left the hospital, two persons hurried in,--a
+young girl and an old man.
+
+A divine face bent over Jack. "It is I, my love, it is Cecile."
+
+It was indeed she. It was her fair pale face, paler than usual by reason
+of her tears and her watchings; and the hand that held his was the
+slender one that had already brought the youth such happiness, and yet
+did its part in bringing him where we now see him; for fate is often
+cruel enough to strike you through your dearest and best. The sick youth
+opens his weary eyes to see that he is not dreaming. Cecile is really
+there; she implores his pardon, and explains why she gave him such pain.
+Ah, if she had but known that their destinies were so similar!
+
+As she spoke, a great calm came to Jack, following all the bitterness
+and anger of the past weeks.
+
+"Then you love me?" he whispered.
+
+"Yes, Jack; I have always loved you."
+
+Whispered in this alcove, that had heard so many dying groans, this word
+love had a most extraordinary sweetness, as if some wandering bird had
+taken refuge there.
+
+"How good you are to come, Cecile! Now I shall not utter another murmur.
+I am ready to die, with you at my side."
+
+"Die! Who is talking of dying?" said the old doctor in his heartiest
+voice. "Have no fear, my boy, we will pull you through. You do not look
+like the same person you were when we came."
+
+This was true enough. He was transfigured with happiness. He pressed
+Cecile's hand to his cheek, and whispered an occasional word of
+tenderness.
+
+"All that was lacking to me in life, you have given me, dear. You have
+been friend and sister, wife and mother."
+
+But his excitement soon gave place to exhaustion, his feverish color
+to frightful pallor. The ravages made by disease were only too plainly
+visible. Cecile looked at her grandfather in fright; the room was full
+of shadows, and it seemed to her that she recognized a Presence more
+sombre, more mysterious than Night.
+
+Suddenly Jack half lifted himself: "I hear her," he whispered; "she is
+coming!"
+
+But the watchers at his side heard only the wintry wind in the
+corridors, the steps of the retreating crowd in the court below, and
+the distant noises in the street. He listened a moment, said a few
+unintelligible words, then his head fell back and his eyes closed.
+But he was right. Two women were running up the stairs. They had been
+allowed to enter, though the hour for the admittance of visitors had
+long since passed. But it was one of those occasions where rules may be
+broken and set aside.
+
+When they arrived at the outer door, Charlotte stopped. "I cannot go
+on," she said, "I am frightened."
+
+"Come on," the other answered, roughly; "you must. Ah, to such women as
+you, God should never give children!"
+
+And she pushed Charlotte toward the staircase. The large room, the
+shaded lamps, the kneeling forms, the mother saw at one glance; and
+farther on, at the end of the apartment, were two men bending over a
+bed, and Cecile Rivals, pale as death, supporting a head on her breast.
+
+"Jack, my child!"
+
+M. Rivals turned. "Hush," he said, sternly.
+
+Then came a sigh--a long, shivering sigh.
+
+Charlotte crept nearer, with failing limbs and sinking heart. It was
+Jack indeed, with arms stiffly falling at his side, and eyes fixed on
+vacancy.
+
+The doctor bent over him. "Jack, my friend; it is your mother, she is
+here!"
+
+And she, unhappy woman, stretched out her arms toward him. "Jack, it is
+I! I am here!"
+
+Not a movement.
+
+The mother cried in a tone of horror, "Dead?"
+
+"No," said old Rivals; "no,--_Delivered_."
+
+
+      THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Jack, by Alphonse Daudet
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