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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, La Mere Bauche, by Anthony Trollope
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
+other parts of the world 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.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
+to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
+
+
+
+
+Title: La Mere Bauche
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3550]
+[This file was first posted on June 6, 2001]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA MERE BAUCHE***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman & Hall “Tales of All Countries” edition
+by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+
+
+
+
+                             LA MÈRE BAUCHE.
+
+
+THE Pyreneean valley in which the baths of Vernet are situated is not
+much known to English, or indeed to any travellers.  Tourists in search
+of good hotels and picturesque beauty combined, do not generally extend
+their journeys to the Eastern Pyrenees.  They rarely get beyond Luchon;
+and in this they are right, as they thus end their peregrinations at the
+most lovely spot among these mountains, and are as a rule so deceived,
+imposed on, and bewildered by guides, innkeepers, and horse-owners, at
+this otherwise delightful place, as to become undesirous of further
+travel.  Nor do invalids from distant parts frequent Vernet.  People of
+fashion go to the Eaux Bonnes and to Luchon, and people who are really
+ill to Baréges and Cauterets.  It is at these places that one meets
+crowds of Parisians, and the daughters and wives of rich merchants from
+Bordeaux, with an admixture, now by no means inconsiderable, of
+Englishmen and Englishwomen.  But the Eastern Pyrenees are still
+unfrequented.  And probably they will remain so; for though there are
+among them lovely valleys—and of all such the valley of Vernet is perhaps
+the most lovely—they cannot compete with the mountain scenery of other
+tourists-loved regions in Europe.  At the Port de Venasquez and the
+Brèche de Roland in the Western Pyrenees, or rather, to speak more truly,
+at spots in the close vicinity of these famous mountain entrances from
+France into Spain, one can make comparisons with Switzerland, Northern
+Italy, the Tyrol, and Ireland, which will not be injurious to the scenes
+then under view.  But among the eastern mountains this can rarely be
+done.  The hills do not stand thickly together so as to group themselves;
+the passes from one valley to another, though not wanting in altitude,
+are not close pressed together with overhanging rocks, and are deficient
+in grandeur as well as loveliness.  And then, as a natural consequence of
+all this, the hotels—are not quite as good as they should be.
+
+But there is one mountain among them which can claim to rank with the Píc
+du Midi or the Maledetta.  No one can pooh-pooh the stern old Canigou,
+standing high and solitary, solemn and grand, between the two roads which
+run from Perpignan into Spain, the one by Prades and the other by Le
+Boulon.  Under the Canigou, towards the west, lie the hot baths of
+Vernet, in a close secluded valley, which, as I have said before, is, as
+far as I know, the sweetest spot in these Eastern Pyrenees.
+
+The frequenters of these baths were a few years back gathered almost
+entirely from towns not very far distant, from Perpignan, Narbonne,
+Carcassonne, and Bézières, and the baths were not therefore famous,
+expensive, or luxurious; but those who believed in them believed with
+great faith; and it was certainly the fact that men and women who went
+thither worn with toil, sick with excesses, and nervous through
+over-care, came back fresh and strong, fit once more to attack the world
+with all its woes.  Their character in latter days does not seem to have
+changed, though their circle of admirers may perhaps be somewhat
+extended.
+
+In those days, by far the most noted and illustrious person in the
+village of Vernet was La Mère Bauche.  That there had once been a Père
+Bauche was known to the world, for there was a Fils Bauche who lived with
+his mother; but no one seemed to remember more of him than that he had
+once existed.  At Vernet he had never been known.  La Mère Bauche was a
+native of the village, but her married life had been passed away from it,
+and she had returned in her early widowhood to become proprietress and
+manager, or, as one may say, the heart and soul of the Hôtel Bauche at
+Vernet.
+
+This hotel was a large and somewhat rough establishment, intended for the
+accommodation of invalids who came to Vernet for their health.  It was
+built immediately over one of the thermal springs, so that the water
+flowed from the bowels of the earth directly into the baths.  There was
+accommodation for seventy people, and during the summer and autumn months
+the place was always full.  Not a few also were to be found there during
+the winter and spring, for the charges of Madame Bauche were low, and the
+accommodation reasonably good.
+
+And in this respect, as indeed in all others, Madame Bauche had the
+reputation of being an honest woman.  She had a certain price, from which
+no earthly consideration would induce her to depart; and there were
+certain returns for this price in the shape of déjeuners and dinners,
+baths and beds, which she never failed to give in accordance with the
+dictates of a strict conscience.  These were traits in the character of
+an hotel-keeper which cannot be praised too highly, and which had met
+their due reward in the custom of the public.  But nevertheless there
+were those who thought that there was occasionally ground for complaint
+in the conduct even of Madame Bauche.
+
+In the first place she was deficient in that pleasant smiling softness
+which should belong to any keeper of a house of public entertainment.  In
+her general mode of life she was stern and silent with her guests,
+autocratic, authoritative and sometimes contradictory in her house, and
+altogether irrational and unconciliatory when any change even for a day
+was proposed to her, or when any shadow of a complaint reached her ears.
+
+Indeed of complaint, as made against the establishment, she was
+altogether intolerant.  To such she had but one answer.  He or she who
+complained might leave the place at a moment’s notice if it so pleased
+them.  There were always others ready to take their places.  The power of
+making this answer came to her from the lowness of her prices; and it was
+a power which was very dear to her.
+
+The baths were taken at different hours according to medical advice, but
+the usual time was from five to seven in the morning.  The déjeuner or
+early meal was at nine o’clock, the dinner was at four.  After that, no
+eating or drinking was allowed in the Hôtel Bauche.  There was a café in
+the village, at which ladies and gentlemen could get a cup of coffee or a
+glass of eau sucré; but no such accommodation was to be had in the
+establishment.  Not by any possible bribery or persuasion could any meal
+be procured at any other than the authorised hours.  A visitor who should
+enter the salle à manger more than ten minutes after the last bell would
+be looked at very sourly by Madame Bauche, who on all occasions sat at
+the top of her own table.  Should any one appear as much as half an hour
+late, he would receive only his share of what had not been handed round.
+But after the last dish had been so handed, it was utterly useless for
+any one to enter the room at all.
+
+Her appearance at the period of our tale was perhaps not altogether in
+her favour.  She was about sixty years of age and was very stout and
+short in the neck.  She wore her own gray hair, which at dinner was
+always tidy enough; but during the whole day previous to that hour she
+might be seen with it escaping from under her cap in extreme disorder.
+Her eyebrows were large and bushy, but those alone would not have given
+to her face that look of indomitable sternness which it possessed.  Her
+eyebrows were serious in their effect, but not so serious as the pair of
+green spectacles which she always wore under them.  It was thought by
+those who had analysed the subject that the great secret of Madame
+Bauche’s power lay in her green spectacles.
+
+Her custom was to move about and through the whole establishment every
+day from breakfast till the period came for her to dress for dinner.  She
+would visit every chamber and every bath, walk once or twice round the
+salle à manger, and very repeatedly round the kitchen; she would go into
+every hole and corner, and peer into everything through her green
+spectacles: and in these walks it was not always thought pleasant to meet
+her.  Her custom was to move very slowly, with her hands generally
+clasped behind her back: she rarely spoke to the guests unless she was
+spoken to, and on such occasions she would not often diverge into general
+conversation.  If any one had aught to say connected with the business of
+the establishment, she would listen, and then she would make her
+answers,—often not pleasant in the hearing.
+
+And thus she walked her path through the world, a stern, hard, solemn old
+woman, not without gusts of passionate explosion; but honest withal, and
+not without some inward benevolence and true tenderness of heart.
+Children she had had many, some seven or eight.  One or two had died,
+others had been married; she had sons settled far away from home, and at
+the time of which we are now speaking but one was left in any way subject
+to maternal authority.
+
+Adolphe Bauche was the only one of her children of whom much was
+remembered by the present denizens and hangers-on of the hotel, he was
+the youngest of the number, and having been born only very shortly before
+the return of Madame Bauche to Vernet, had been altogether reared there.
+It was thought by the world of those parts, and rightly thought, that he
+was his mother’s darling—more so than had been any of his brothers and
+sisters,—the very apple of her eye and gem of her life.  At this time he
+was about twenty-five years of age, and for the last two years had been
+absent from Vernet—for reasons which will shortly be made to appear.  He
+had been sent to Paris to see something of the world, and learn to talk
+French instead of the patois of his valley; and having left Paris had
+come down south into Languedoc, and remained there picking up some
+agricultural lore which it was thought might prove useful in the valley
+farms of Vernet.  He was now expected home again very speedily, much to
+his mother’s delight.
+
+That she was kind and gracious to her favourite child does not perhaps
+give much proof of her benevolence; but she had also been kind and
+gracious to the orphan child of a neighbour; nay, to the orphan child of
+a rival innkeeper.  At Vernet there had been more than one water
+establishment, but the proprietor of the second had died some few years
+after Madame Bauche had settled herself at the place.  His house had not
+thrived, and his only child, a little girl, was left altogether without
+provision.
+
+This little girl, Marie Clavert, La Mère Bauche had taken into her own
+house immediately after the father’s death, although she had most
+cordially hated that father.  Marie was then an infant, and Madame Bauche
+had accepted the charge without much thought, perhaps, as to what might
+be the child’s ultimate destiny.  But since then she had thoroughly done
+the duty of a mother by the little girl, who had become the pet of the
+whole establishment, the favourite plaything of Adolphe Bauche, and at
+last of course his early sweetheart.
+
+And then and therefore there had come troubles at Vernet.  Of course all
+the world of the valley had seen what was taking place and what was
+likely to take place, long before Madame Bauche knew anything about it.
+But at last it broke upon her senses that her son, Adolphe Bauche, the
+heir to all her virtues and all her riches, the first young man in that
+or any neighbouring valley, was absolutely contemplating the idea of
+marrying that poor little orphan, Marie Clavert!
+
+That any one should ever fall in love with Marie Clavert had never
+occurred to Madame Bauche.  She had always regarded the child as a child,
+as the object of her charity, and as a little thing to be looked on as
+poor Marie by all the world.  She, looking through her green spectacles,
+had never seen that Marie Clavert was a beautiful creature, full of
+ripening charms, such as young men love to look on.  Marie was of
+infinite daily use to Madame Bauche in a hundred little things about the
+house, and the old lady thoroughly recognised and appreciated her
+ability.  But for this very reason she had never taught herself to regard
+Marie otherwise than as a useful drudge.  She was very fond of her
+protégée—so much so that she would listen to her in affairs about the
+house when she would listen to no one else;—but Marie’s prettiness and
+grace and sweetness as a girl had all been thrown away upon Maman Bauche,
+as Marie used to call her.
+
+But unluckily it had not been thrown away upon Adolphe.  He had
+appreciated, as it was natural that he should do, all that had been so
+utterly indifferent to his mother; and consequently had fallen in love.
+Consequently also he had told his love; and consequently also Marie had
+returned his love.
+
+Adolphe had been hitherto contradicted but in few things, and thought
+that all difficulty would be prevented by his informing his mother that
+he wished to marry Marie Clavert.  But Marie, with a woman’s instinct,
+had known better.  She had trembled and almost crouched with fear when
+she confessed her love; and had absolutely hid herself from sight when
+Adolphe went forth, prepared to ask his mother’s consent to his marriage.
+
+The indignation and passionate wrath of Madame Bauche were past and gone
+two years before the date of this story, and I need not therefore much
+enlarge upon that subject.  She was at first abusive and bitter, which
+was bad for Marie; and afterwards bitter and silent, which was worse.  It
+was of course determined that poor Marie should be sent away to some
+asylum for orphans or penniless paupers—in short anywhere out of the way.
+What mattered her outlook into the world, her happiness, or indeed her
+very existence?  The outlook and happiness of Adolphe Bauche,—was not
+that to be considered as everything at Vernet?
+
+But this terrible sharp aspect of affairs did not last very long.  In the
+first place La Mère Bauche had under those green spectacles a heart that
+in truth was tender and affectionate, and after the first two days of
+anger she admitted that something must be done for Marie Clavert; and
+after the fourth day she acknowledged that the world of the hotel, her
+world, would not go as well without Marie Clavert as it would with her.
+And in the next place Madame Bauche had a friend whose advice in grave
+matters she would sometimes take.  This friend had told her that it would
+be much better to send away Adolphe, since it was so necessary that there
+should be a sending away of some one; that he would be much benefited by
+passing some months of his life away from his native valley; and that an
+absence of a year or two would teach him to forget Marie, even if it did
+not teach Marie to forget him.
+
+And we must say a word or two about this friend.  At Vernet he was
+usually called M. le Capitaine, though in fact he had never reached that
+rank.  He had been in the army, and having been wounded in the leg while
+still a sous-lieutenant, had been pensioned, and had thus been
+interdicted from treading any further the thorny path that leads to
+glory.  For the last fifteen years he had resided under the roof of
+Madame Bauche, at first as a casual visitor, going and coming, but now
+for many years as constant there as she was herself.
+
+He was so constantly called Le Capitaine that his real name was seldom
+heard.  It may however as well be known to us that this was Theodore
+Campan.  He was a tall, well-looking man; always dressed in black
+garments, of a coarse description certainly, but scrupulously clean and
+well brushed; of perhaps fifty years of age, and conspicuous for the
+rigid uprightness of his back—and for a black wooden leg.
+
+This wooden leg was perhaps the most remarkable trait in his character.
+It was always jet black, being painted, or polished, or japanned, as
+occasion might require, by the hands of the capitaine himself.  It was
+longer than ordinary wooden legs, as indeed the capitaine was longer than
+ordinary men; but nevertheless it never seemed in any way to impede the
+rigid punctilious propriety of his movements.  It was never in his way as
+wooden legs usually are in the way of their wearers.  And then to render
+it more illustrious it had round its middle, round the calf of the leg we
+may so say, a band of bright brass which shone like burnished gold.
+
+It had been the capitaine’s custom, now for some years past, to retire
+every evening at about seven o’clock into the sanctum sanctorum of Madame
+Bauche’s habitation, the dark little private sitting-room in which she
+made out her bills and calculated her profits, and there regale himself
+in her presence—and indeed at her expense, for the items never appeared
+in the bill—with coffee and cognac.  I have said that there was never
+eating or drinking at the establishment after the regular dinner-hours;
+but in so saying I spoke of the world at large.  Nothing further was
+allowed in the way of trade; but in the way of friendship so much was
+now-a-days always allowed to the capitaine.
+
+It was at these moments that Madame Bauche discussed her private affairs,
+and asked for and received advice.  For even Madame Bauche was mortal;
+nor could her green spectacles without other aid carry her through all
+the troubles of life.  It was now five years since the world of Vernet
+discovered that La Mère Bauche was going to marry the capitaine; and for
+eighteen months the world of Vernet had been full of this matter: but any
+amount of patience is at last exhausted, and as no further steps in that
+direction were ever taken beyond the daily cup of coffee, that subject
+died away—very much unheeded by La Mère Bauche.
+
+But she, though she thought of no matrimony for herself, thought much of
+matrimony for other people; and over most of those cups of evening coffee
+and cognac a matrimonial project was discussed in these latter days.  It
+has been seen that the capitaine pleaded in Marie’s favour when the fury
+of Madame Bauche’s indignation broke forth; and that ultimately Marie was
+kept at home, and Adolphe sent away by his advice.
+
+“But Adolphe cannot always stay away,” Madame Bauche had pleaded in her
+difficulty.  The truth of this the capitaine had admitted; but Marie, he
+said, might be married to some one else before two years were over.  And
+so the matter had commenced.
+
+But to whom should she be married?  To this question the capitaine had
+answered in perfect innocence of heart, that La Mère Bauche would be much
+better able to make such a choice than himself.  He did not know how
+Marie might stand with regard to money.  If madame would give some little
+“dot,” the affair, the capitaine thought, would be more easily arranged.
+
+All these things took months to say, during which period Marie went on
+with her work in melancholy listlessness.  One comfort she had.  Adolphe,
+before he went, had promised to her, holding in his hand as he did so a
+little cross which she had given him, that no earthly consideration
+should sever them;—that sooner or later he would certainly be her
+husband.  Marie felt that her limbs could not work nor her tongue speak
+were it not for this one drop of water in her cup.
+
+And then, deeply meditating, La Mère Bauche hit upon a plan, and herself
+communicated it to the capitaine over a second cup of coffee into which
+she poured a full teaspoonful more than the usual allowance of cognac.
+Why should not he, the capitaine himself, be the man to marry Marie
+Clavert?
+
+It was a very startling proposal, the idea of matrimony for himself never
+having as yet entered into the capitaine’s head at any period of his
+life; but La Mère Bauche did contrive to make it not altogether
+unacceptable.  As to that matter of dowry she was prepared to be more
+than generous.  She did love Marie well, and could find it in her heart
+to give her anything—any thing except her son, her own Adolphe.  What she
+proposed was this.  Adolphe, himself, would never keep the baths.  If the
+capitaine would take Marie for his wife, Marie, Madame Bauche declared,
+should be the mistress after her death; subject of course to certain
+settlements as to Adolphe’s pecuniary interests.
+
+The plan was discussed a thousand times, and at last so far brought to
+bear that Marie was made acquainted with it—having been called in to sit
+in presence with La Mère Bauche and her future proposed husband.  The
+poor girl manifested no disgust to the stiff ungainly lover whom they
+assigned to her,—who through his whole frame was in appearance almost as
+wooden as his own leg.  On the whole, indeed, Marie liked the capitaine,
+and felt that he was her friend; and in her country such marriages were
+not uncommon.  The capitaine was perhaps a little beyond the age at which
+a man might usually be thought justified in demanding the services of a
+young girl as his nurse and wife, but then Marie of herself had so little
+to give—except her youth, and beauty, and goodness.
+
+But yet she could not absolutely consent; for was she not absolutely
+pledged to her own Adolphe?  And therefore, when the great pecuniary
+advantages were, one by one, displayed before her, and when La Mère
+Bauche, as a last argument, informed her that as wife of the capitaine
+she would be regarded as second mistress in the establishment and not as
+a servant, she could only burst out into tears, and say that she did not
+know.
+
+“I will be very kind to you,” said the capitaine; “as kind as a man can
+be.”
+
+Marie took his hard withered hand and kissed it; and then looked up into
+his face with beseeching eyes which were not without avail upon his
+heart.
+
+“We will not press her now,” said the capitaine.  “There is time enough.”
+
+But let his heart be touched ever so much, one thing was certain.  It
+could not be permitted that she should marry Adolphe.  To that view of
+the matter he had given in his unrestricted adhesion; nor could he by any
+means withdraw it without losing altogether his position in the
+establishment of Madame Bauche.  Nor indeed did his conscience tell him
+that such a marriage should be permitted.  That would be too much.  If
+every pretty girl were allowed to marry the first young man that might
+fall in love with her, what would the world come to?
+
+And it soon appeared that there was not time enough—that the time was
+growing very scant.  In three months Adolphe would be back.  And if
+everything was not arranged by that time, matters might still go astray.
+
+And then Madame Bauche asked her final question: “You do not think, do
+you, that you can ever marry Adolphe?”  And as she asked it the
+accustomed terror of her green spectacles magnified itself tenfold.
+Marie could only answer by another burst of tears.
+
+The affair was at last settled among them.  Marie said that she would
+consent to marry the capitaine when she should hear from Adolphe’s own
+mouth that he, Adolphe, loved her no longer.  She declared with many
+tears that her vows and pledges prevented her from promising more than
+this.  It was not her fault, at any rate not now, that she loved her
+lover.  It was not her fault—not now at least—that she was bound by these
+pledges.  When she heard from his own mouth that he had discarded her,
+then she would marry the capitaine—or indeed sacrifice herself in any
+other way that La Mère Bauche might desire.  What would anything signify
+then?
+
+Madame Bauche’s spectacles remained unmoved; but not her heart.  Marie,
+she told the capitaine, should be equal to herself in the establishment,
+when once she was entitled to be called Madame Campan, and she should be
+to her quite as a daughter.  She should have her cup of coffee every
+evening, and dine at the big table, and wear a silk gown at church, and
+the servants should all call her Madame; a great career should be open to
+her, if she would only give up her foolish girlish childish love for
+Adolphe.  And all these great promises were repeated to Marie by the
+capitaine.
+
+But nevertheless there was but one thing in the world which in Marie’s
+eyes was of any value; and that one thing was the heart of Adolphe
+Bauche.  Without that she would be nothing; with that,—with that assured,
+she could wait patiently till doomsday.
+
+Letters were written to Adolphe during all these eventful doings; and a
+letter came from him saying that he greatly valued Marie’s love, but that
+as it had been clearly proved to him that their marriage would be neither
+for her advantage, nor for his, he was willing to give it up.  He
+consented to her marriage with the capitaine, and expressed his gratitude
+to his mother for the pecuniary advantages which she had held out to him.
+Oh, Adolphe, Adolphe!  But, alas, alas! is not such the way of most men’s
+hearts—and of the hearts of some women?
+
+This letter was read to Marie, but it had no more effect upon her than
+would have had some dry legal document.  In those days and in those
+places men and women did not depend much upon letters; nor when they were
+written, was there expressed in them much of heart or of feeling.  Marie
+would understand, as she was well aware, the glance of Adolphe’s eye and
+the tone of Adolphe’s voice; she would perceive at once from them what
+her lover really meant, what he wished, what in the innermost corner of
+his heart he really desired that she should do.  But from that stiff
+constrained written document she could understand nothing.
+
+It was agreed therefore that Adolphe should return, and that she would
+accept her fate from his mouth.  The capitaine, who knew more of human
+nature than poor Marie, felt tolerably sure of his bride.  Adolphe, who
+had seen something of the world, would not care very much for the girl of
+his own valley.  Money and pleasure, and some little position in the
+world, would soon wean him from his love; and then Marie would accept her
+destiny—as other girls in the same position had done since the French
+world began.
+
+And now it was the evening before Adolphe’s expected arrival.  La Mère
+Bauche was discussing the matter with the capitaine over the usual cup of
+coffee.  Madame Bauche had of late become rather nervous on the matter,
+thinking that they had been somewhat rash in acceding so much to Marie.
+It seemed to her that it was absolutely now left to the two young lovers
+to say whether or no they would have each other or not.  Now nothing on
+earth could be further from Madame Bauche’s intention than this.  Her
+decree and resolve was to heap down blessings on all persons
+concerned—provided always that she could have her own way; but, provided
+she did not have her own way, to heap down,—anything but blessings.  She
+had her code of morality in this matter.  She would do good if possible
+to everybody around her.  But she would not on any score be induced to
+consent that Adolphe should marry Marie Clavert.  Should that be in the
+wind she would rid the house of Marie, of the capitaine, and even of
+Adolphe himself.
+
+She had become therefore somewhat querulous, and self-opinionated in her
+discussions with her friend.
+
+“I don’t know,” she said on the evening in question; “I don’t know.  It
+may be all right; but if Adolphe turns against me, what are we to do
+then?”
+
+“Mère Bauche,” said the capitaine, sipping his coffee and puffing out the
+smoke of his cigar, “Adolphe will not turn against us.”  It had been
+somewhat remarked by many that the capitaine was more at home in the
+house, and somewhat freer in his manner of talking with Madame Bauche,
+since this matrimonial alliance had been on the tapis than he had ever
+been before.  La Mère herself observed it, and did not quite like it; but
+how could she prevent it now?  When the capitaine was once married she
+would make him know his place, in spite of all her promises to Marie.
+
+“But if he says he likes the girl?” continued Madame Bauche.
+
+“My friend, you may be sure that he will say nothing of the kind.  He has
+not been away two years without seeing girls as pretty as Marie.  And
+then you have his letter.”
+
+“That is nothing, capitaine; he would eat his letter as quick as you
+would eat an omelet aux fines herbes.”
+
+Now the capitaine was especially quick over an omelet aux fines herbes.
+
+“And, Mère Bauche, you also have the purse; he will know that he cannot
+eat that, except with your good will.”
+
+“Ah!” exclaimed Madame Bauche, “poor lad!  He has not a sous in the world
+unless I give it to him.”  But it did not seem that this reflection was
+in itself displeasing to her.
+
+“Adolphe will now be a man of the world,” continued the capitaine.  “He
+will know that it does not do to throw away everything for a pair of red
+lips.  That is the folly of a boy, and Adolphe will be no longer a boy.
+Believe me, Mère Bauche, things will be right enough.”
+
+“And then we shall have Marie sick and ill and half dying on our hands,”
+said Madame Bauche.
+
+This was not flattering to the capitaine, and so he felt it.  “Perhaps
+so, perhaps not,” he said.  “But at any rate she will get over it.  It is
+a malady which rarely kills young women—especially when another alliance
+awaits them.”
+
+“Bah!” said Madame Bauche; and in saying that word she avenged herself
+for the too great liberty which the capitaine had lately taken.  He
+shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch of snuff and uninvited helped
+himself to a teaspoonful of cognac.  Then the conference ended, and on
+the next morning before breakfast Adolphe Bauche arrived.
+
+On that morning poor Marie hardly knew how to bear herself.  A month or
+two back, and even up to the last day or two, she had felt a sort of
+confidence that Adolphe would be true to her; but the nearer came that
+fatal day the less strong was the confidence of the poor girl.  She knew
+that those two long-headed, aged counsellors were plotting against her
+happiness, and she felt that she could hardly dare hope for success with
+such terrible foes opposed to her.  On the evening before the day Madame
+Bauche had met her in the passages, and kissed her as she wished her good
+night.  Marie knew little about sacrifices, but she felt that it was a
+sacrificial kiss.
+
+In those days a sort of diligence with the mails for Olette passed
+through Prades early in the morning, and a conveyance was sent from
+Vernet to bring Adolphe to the baths.  Never was prince or princess
+expected with more anxiety.  Madame Bauche was up and dressed long before
+the hour, and was heard to say five several times that she was sure he
+would not come.  The capitaine was out and on the high road, moving about
+with his wooden leg, as perpendicular as a lamp-post and almost as black.
+Marie also was up, but nobody had seen her.  She was up and had been out
+about the place before any of them were stirring; but now that the world
+was on the move she lay hidden like a hare in its form.
+
+And then the old char-à-banc clattered up to the door, and Adolphe jumped
+out of it into his mother’s arms.  He was fatter and fairer than she had
+last seen him, had a larger beard, was more fashionably clothed, and
+certainly looked more like a man.  Marie also saw him out of her little
+window, and she thought that he looked like a god.  Was it probable, she
+said to herself, that one so godlike would still care for her?
+
+The mother was delighted with her son, who rattled away quite at his
+ease.  He shook hands very cordially with the capitaine—of whose intended
+alliance with his own sweetheart he had been informed, and then as he
+entered the house with his hand under his mother’s arm, he asked one
+question about her.  “And where is Marie?” said he.  “Marie! oh upstairs;
+you shall see her after breakfast,” said La Mère Bauche.  And so they
+entered the house, and went in to breakfast among the guests.  Everybody
+had heard something of the story, and they were all on the alert to see
+the young man whose love or want of love was considered to be of so much
+importance.
+
+“You will see that it will be all right,” said the capitaine, carrying
+his head very high.
+
+“I think so, I think so,” said La Mère Bauche, who, now that the
+capitaine was right, no longer desired to contradict him.
+
+“I know that it will be all right,” said the capitaine.  “I told you that
+Adolphe would return a man; and he is a man.  Look at him; he does not
+care this for Marie Clavert;” and the capitaine, with much eloquence in
+his motion, pitched over a neighbouring wall a small stone which he held
+in his hand.
+
+And then they all went to breakfast with many signs of outward joy.  And
+not without some inward joy; for Madame Bauche thought she saw that her
+son was cured of his love.  In the mean time Marie sat up stairs still
+afraid to show herself.
+
+“He has come,” said a young girl, a servant in the house, running up to
+the door of Marie’s room.
+
+“Yes,” said Marie; “I could see that he has come.”
+
+“And, oh, how beautiful he is!” said the girl, putting her hands together
+and looking up to the ceiling.  Marie in her heart of hearts wished that
+he was not half so beautiful, as then her chance of having him might be
+greater.
+
+“And the company are all talking to him as though he were the préfet,”
+said the girl.
+
+“Never mind who is talking to him,” said Marie; “go away, and leave
+me—you are wanted for your work.”  Why before this was he not talking to
+her?  Why not, if he were really true to her?  Alas, it began to fall
+upon her mind that he would be false!  And what then?  What should she do
+then?  She sat still gloomily, thinking of that other spouse that had
+been promised to her.
+
+As speedily after breakfast as was possible Adolphe was invited to a
+conference in his mother’s private room.  She had much debated in her own
+mind whether the capitaine should be invited to this conference or no.
+For many reasons she would have wished to exclude him.  She did not like
+to teach her son that she was unable to manage her own affairs, and she
+would have been well pleased to make the capitaine understand that his
+assistance was not absolutely necessary to her.  But then she had an
+inward fear that her green spectacles would not now be as efficacious on
+Adolphe, as they had once been, in old days, before he had seen the world
+and become a man.  It might be necessary that her son, being a man,
+should be opposed by a man.  So the capitaine was invited to the
+conference.
+
+What took place there need not be described at length.  The three were
+closeted for two hours, at the end of which time they came forth
+together.  The countenance of Madame Bauche was serene and comfortable;
+her hopes of ultimate success ran higher than ever.  The face of the
+capitaine was masked, as are always the faces of great diplomatists; he
+walked placid and upright, raising his wooden leg with an ease and skill
+that was absolutely marvellous.  But poor Adolphe’s brow was clouded.
+Yes, poor Adolphe! for he was poor in spirit, he had pledged himself to
+give up Marie, and to accept the liberal allowance which his mother
+tendered him; but it remained for him now to communicate these tidings to
+Marie herself.
+
+“Could not you tell her?” he had said to his mother, with very little of
+that manliness in his face on which his mother now so prided herself.
+But La Mère Bauche explained to him that it was a part of the general
+agreement that Marie was to hear his decision from his own mouth.
+
+“But you need not regard it,” said the capitaine, with the most
+indifferent air in the world.  “The girl expects it.  Only she has some
+childish idea that she is bound till you yourself release her.  I don’t
+think she will be troublesome.”  Adolphe at that moment did feel that he
+should have liked to kick the capitaine out of his mother’s house.
+
+And where should the meeting take place?  In the hall of the bath-house,
+suggested Madame Bauche; because, as she observed, they could walk round
+and round, and nobody ever went there at that time of day.  But to this
+Adolphe objected; it would be so cold and dismal and melancholy.
+
+The capitaine thought that Mère Bauche’s little parlour was the place;
+but La Mère herself did not like this.  They might be overheard, as she
+well knew; and she guessed that the meeting would not conclude without
+some sobs that would certainly be bitter and might perhaps be loud.
+
+“Send her up to the grotto, and I will follow her,” said Adolphe.  On
+this therefore they agreed.  Now the grotto was a natural excavation in a
+high rock, which stood precipitously upright over the establishment of
+the baths.  A steep zigzag path with almost never-ending steps had been
+made along the face of the rock from a little flower garden attached to
+the house which lay immediately under the mountain.  Close along the
+front of the hotel ran a little brawling river, leaving barely room for a
+road between it and the door; over this there was a wooden bridge leading
+to the garden, and some two or three hundred yards from the bridge began
+the steps by which the ascent was made to the grotto.
+
+When the season was full and the weather perfectly warm the place was
+much frequented.  There was a green table in it, and four or five deal
+chairs; a green garden seat also was there, which however had been
+removed into the innermost back corner of the excavation, as its hinder
+legs were somewhat at fault.  A wall about two feet high ran along the
+face of it, guarding its occupants from the precipice.  In fact it was no
+grotto, but a little chasm in the rock, such as we often see up above our
+heads in rocky valleys, and which by means of these steep steps had been
+turned into a source of exercise and amusement for the visitors at the
+hotel.
+
+Standing at the wall one could look down into the garden, and down also
+upon the shining slate roof of Madame Bauche’s house; and to the left
+might be seen the sombre, silent, snow-capped top of stern old Canigou,
+king of mountains among those Eastern Pyrenees.
+
+And so Madame Bauche undertook to send Marie up to the grotto, and
+Adolphe undertook to follow her thither.  It was now spring; and though
+the winds had fallen and the snow was no longer lying on the lower peaks,
+still the air was fresh and cold, and there was no danger that any of the
+few guests at the establishment would visit the place.
+
+“Make her put on her cloak, Mère Bauche,” said the capitaine, who did not
+wish that his bride should have a cold in her head on their wedding-day.
+La Mère Bauche pished and pshawed, as though she were not minded to pay
+any attention to recommendations on such subjects from the capitaine.
+But nevertheless when Marie was seen slowly to creep across the little
+bridge about fifteen minutes after this time, she had a handkerchief on
+her head, and was closely wrapped in a dark brown cloak.
+
+Poor Marie herself little heeded the cold fresh air, but she was glad to
+avail herself of any means by which she might hide her face.  When Madame
+Bauche sought her out in her own little room, and with a smiling face and
+kind kiss bade her go to the grotto, she knew, or fancied that she knew
+that it was all over.
+
+“He will tell you all the truth,—how it all is,” said La Mère.  “We will
+do all we can, you know, to make you happy, Marie.  But you must remember
+what Monsieur le Curé told us the other day.  In this vale of tears we
+cannot have everything; as we shall have some day, when our poor wicked
+souls have been purged of all their wickedness.  Now go, dear, and take
+your cloak.”
+
+“Yes, maman.”
+
+“And Adolphe will come to you.  And try and behave well, like a sensible
+girl.”
+
+“Yes, maman,”—and so she went, bearing on her brow another sacrificial
+kiss—and bearing in her heart such an unutterable load of woe!
+
+Adolphe had gone out of the house before her; but standing in the stable
+yard, well within the gate so that she should not see him, he watched her
+slowly crossing the bridge and mounting the first flight of the steps.
+He had often seen her tripping up those stairs, and had, almost as often,
+followed her with his quicker feet.  And she, when she would hear him,
+would run; and then he would catch her breathless at the top, and steal
+kisses from her when all power of refusing them had been robbed from her
+by her efforts at escape.  There was no such running now, no such
+following, no thought of such kisses.
+
+As for him, he would fain have skulked off and shirked the interview had
+he dared.  But he did not dare; so he waited there, out of heart, for
+some ten minutes, speaking a word now and then to the bath-man, who was
+standing by, just to show that he was at his ease.  But the bath-man knew
+that he was not at his ease.  Such would-be lies as those rarely achieve
+deception;—are rarely believed.  And then, at the end of the ten minutes,
+with steps as slow as Marie’s had been, he also ascended to the grotto.
+
+Marie had watched him from the top, but so that she herself should not be
+seen.  He however had not once lifted up his head to look for her; but
+with eyes turned to the ground had plodded his way up to the cave.  When
+he entered she was standing in the middle, with her eyes downcast and her
+hands clasped before her.  She had retired some way from the wall, so
+that no eyes might possibly see her but those of her false lover.  There
+she stood when he entered, striving to stand motionless, but trembling
+like a leaf in every limb.
+
+It was only when he reached the top step that he made up his mind how he
+would behave.  Perhaps after all, the capitaine was right; perhaps she
+would not mind it.
+
+“Marie,” said he, with a voice that attempted to be cheerful; “this is an
+odd place to meet in after such a long absence,” and he held out his hand
+to her.  But only his hand!  He offered her no salute.  He did not even
+kiss her cheek as a brother would have done!  Of the rules of the outside
+world it must be remembered that poor Marie knew but little.  He had been
+a brother to her before he had become her lover.
+
+But Marie took his hand saying, “Yes, it has been very long.”
+
+“And now that I have come back,” he went on to say, “it seems that we are
+all in a confusion together.  I never knew such a piece of work.
+However, it is all for the best, I suppose.”
+
+“Perhaps so,” said Marie, still trembling violently, and still looking
+upon the ground.  And then there was silence between them for a minute or
+so.
+
+“I tell you what it is, Marie,” said Adolphe at last, dropping her hand
+and making a great effort to get through the work before him.  “I am
+afraid we two have been very foolish.  Don’t you think we have now?  It
+seems quite clear that we can never get ourselves married.  Don’t you see
+it in that light?”
+
+Marie’s head turned round and round with her, but she was not of the
+fainting order.  She took three steps backwards and leant against the
+wall of the cave.  She also was trying to think how she might best fight
+her battle.  Was there no chance for her?  Could no eloquence, no love
+prevail?  On her own beauty she counted but little; but might not prayers
+do something, and a reference to those old vows which had been so
+frequent, so eager, so solemnly pledged between them?
+
+“Never get ourselves married!” she said, repeating his words.  “Never,
+Adolphe?  Can we never be married?”
+
+“Upon my word, my dear girl, I fear not.  You see my mother is so dead
+against it.”
+
+“But we could wait; could we not?”
+
+“Ah, but that’s just it, Marie.  We cannot wait.  We must decide
+now,—to-day.  You see I can do nothing without money from her—and as for
+you, you see she won’t even let you stay in the house unless you marry
+old Campan at once.  He’s a very good sort of fellow though, old as he
+is.  And if you do marry him, why you see you’ll stay here, and have it
+all your own way in everything.  As for me, I shall come and see you all
+from time to time, and shall be able to push my way as I ought to do.”
+
+“Then, Adolphe, you wish me to marry the capitaine?”
+
+“Upon my honour I think it is the best thing you can do; I do indeed.”
+
+“Oh, Adolphe!”
+
+“What can I do for you, you know?  Suppose I was to go down to my mother
+and tell her that I had decided to keep you myself; what would come of
+it?  Look at it in that light, Marie.”
+
+“She could not turn you out—you her own son!”
+
+“But she would turn you out; and deuced quick, too, I can assure you of
+that; I can, upon my honour.”
+
+“I should not care that,” and she made a motion with her hand to show how
+indifferent she would be to such treatment as regarded herself.  “Not
+that—; if I still had the promise of your love.”
+
+“But what would you do?”
+
+“I would work.  There are other houses beside that one,” and she pointed
+to the slate roof of the Bauche establishment.
+
+“And for me—I should not have a penny in the world,” said the young man.
+
+She came up to him and took his right hand between both of hers and
+pressed it warmly, oh, so warmly.  “You would have my love,” said she;
+“my deepest, warmest best heart’s love should want nothing more, nothing
+on earth, if I could still have yours.”  And she leaned against his
+shoulder and looked with all her eyes into his face.
+
+“But, Marie, that’s nonsense, you know.”
+
+“No, Adolphe, it is not nonsense.  Do not let them teach you so.  What
+does love mean, if it does not mean that?  Oh, Adolphe, you do love me,
+you do love me, you do love me?”
+
+“Yes;—I love you,” he said slowly;—as though he would not have said it,
+if he could have helped it.  And then his arm crept slowly round her
+waist, as though in that also he could not help himself.
+
+“And do not I love you?” said the passionate girl.  “Oh, I do, so dearly;
+with all my heart, with all my soul.  Adolphe, I so love you, that I
+cannot give you up.  Have I not sworn to be yours; sworn, sworn a
+thousand times?  How can I marry that man!  Oh Adolphe how can you wish
+that I should marry him?”  And she clung to him, and looked at him, and
+besought him with her eyes.
+
+“I shouldn’t wish it;—only—” and then he paused.  It was hard to tell her
+that he was willing to sacrifice her to the old man because he wanted
+money from his mother.
+
+“Only what!  But Adolphe, do not wish it at all!  Have you not sworn that
+I should be your wife?  Look here, look at this;” and she brought out
+from her bosom a little charm that he had given her in return for that
+cross.  “Did you not kiss that when you swore before the figure of the
+Virgin that I should be your wife?  And do you not remember that I feared
+to swear too, because your mother was so angry; and then you made me?
+After that, Adolphe!  Oh, Adolphe!  Tell me that I may have some hope.  I
+will wait; oh, I will wait so patiently.”
+
+He turned himself away from her and walked backwards and forwards
+uneasily through the grotto.  He did love her;—love her as such men do
+love sweet, pretty girls.  The warmth of her hand, the affection of her
+touch, the pure bright passion of her tear-laden eye had re-awakened what
+power of love there was within him.  But what was he to do?  Even if he
+were willing to give up the immediate golden hopes which his mother held
+out to him, how was he to begin, and then how carry out this work of
+self-devotion?  Marie would be turned away, and he would be left a victim
+in the hands of his mother, and of that stiff, wooden-legged militaire;—a
+penniless victim, left to mope about the place without a grain of
+influence or a morsel of pleasure.
+
+“But what can we do?” he exclaimed again, as he once more met Marie’s
+searching eye.
+
+“We can be true and honest, and we can wait,” she said, coming close up
+to him and taking hold of his arm.  “I do not fear it; and she is not my
+mother, Adolphe.  You need not fear your own mother.”
+
+“Fear! no, of course I don’t fear.  But I don’t see how the very devil we
+can manage it.”
+
+“Will you let me tell her that I will not marry the capitaine; that I
+will not give up your promises; and then I am ready to leave the house?”
+
+“It would do no good.”
+
+“It would do every good, Adolphe, if I had your promised word once more;
+if I could hear from your own voice one more tone of love.  Do you not
+remember this place?  It was here that you forced me to say that I loved
+you.  It is here also that you will tell me that I have been deceived.”
+
+“It is not I that would deceive you,” he said.  “I wonder that you should
+be so hard upon me.  God knows that I have trouble enough.”
+
+“Well, if I am a trouble to you, be it so.  Be it as you wish,” and she
+leaned back against the wall of the rock, and crossing her arms upon her
+breast looked away from him and fixed her eyes upon the sharp granite
+peaks of Canigou.
+
+He again betook himself to walk backwards and forwards through the cave.
+He had quite enough of love for her to make him wish to marry her; quite
+enough now, at this moment, to make the idea of her marriage with the
+capitaine very distasteful to him; enough probably to make him become a
+decently good husband to her, should fate enable him to marry her; but
+not enough to enable him to support all the punishment which would be the
+sure effects of his mother’s displeasure.  Besides, he had promised his
+mother that he would give up Marie;—had entirely given in his adhesion to
+that plan of the marriage with the capitaine.  He had owned that the path
+of life as marked out for him by his mother was the one which it behoved
+him, as a man, to follow.  It was this view of his duties as a man which
+had I been specially urged on him with all the capitaine’s eloquence.
+And old Campan had entirely succeeded.  It is so easy to get the assent
+of such young men, so weak in mind and so weak in pocket, when the
+arguments are backed by a promise of two thousand francs a year.
+
+“I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” at last he said.  “I’ll get my mother by
+herself, and will ask her to let the matter remain as it is for the
+present.”
+
+“Not if it be a trouble, M. Adolphe;” and the proud girl still held her
+hands upon her bosom, and still looked towards the mountain.
+
+“You know what I mean, Marie.  You can understand how she and the
+capitaine are worrying me.”
+
+“But tell me, Adolphe, do you love me?”
+
+“You know I love you, only.”
+
+“And you will not give me up?”
+
+“I will ask my mother.  I will try and make her yield.”
+
+Marie could not feel that she received much confidence from her lover’s
+promise; but still, even that, weak and unsteady as it was, even that was
+better than absolute fixed rejection.  So she thanked him, promised him
+with tears in her eyes that she would always, always be faithful to him,
+and then bade him go down to the house.  She would follow, she said, as
+soon as his passing had ceased to be observed.
+
+Then she looked at him as though she expected some sign of renewed love.
+But no such sign was vouchsafed to her.  Now that she thirsted for the
+touch of his lip upon her check, it was denied to her.  He did as she
+bade him; he went down, slowly loitering, by himself; and in about half
+an hour she followed him, and unobserved crept to her chamber.
+
+Again we will pass over what took place between the mother and the son;
+but late in that evening, after the guests had gone to bed, Marie
+received a message, desiring her to wait on Madame Bauche in a small
+salon which looked out from one end of the house.  It was intended as a
+private sitting-room should any special stranger arrive who required such
+accommodation, and therefore was but seldom used.  Here she found La Mère
+Bauche sitting in an arm-chair behind a small table on which stood two
+candles; and on a sofa against the wall sat Adolphe.  The capitaine was
+not in the room.
+
+“Shut the door, Marie, and come in and sit down,” said Madame Bauche.  It
+was easy to understand from the tone of her voice that she was angry and
+stern, in an unbending mood, and resolved to carry out to the very letter
+all the threats conveyed by those terrible spectacles.
+
+Marie did as she was bid.  She closed the door and sat down on the chair
+that was nearest to her.
+
+“Marie,” said La Mère Bauche—and the voice sounded fierce in the poor
+girl’s ears, and an angry fire glimmered through the green glasses—“what
+is all this about that I hear?  Do you dare to say that you hold my son
+bound to marry you?”  And then the august mother paused for an answer.
+
+But Marie had no answer to give.  See looked suppliantly towards her
+lover, as though beseeching him to carry on the fight for her.  But if
+she could not do battle for herself, certainly he could not do it for
+her.  What little amount of fighting he had had in him, had been
+thoroughly vanquished before her arrival.
+
+“I will have an answer, and that immediately,” said Madame Bauche.  “I am
+not going to be betrayed into ignominy and disgrace by the object of my
+own charity.  Who picked you out of the gutter, miss, and brought you up
+and fed you, when you would otherwise have gone to the foundling?  And
+this is your gratitude for it all?  You are not satisfied with being fed
+and clothed and cherished by me, but you must rob me of my son!  Know
+this then, Adolphe shall never marry a child of charity such as you are.”
+
+Marie sat still, stunned by the harshness of these words.  La Mère Bauche
+had often scolded her; indeed, she was given to much scolding; but she
+had scolded her as a mother may scold a child.  And when this story of
+Marie’s love first reached her ears, she had been very angry; but her
+anger had never brought her to such a pass as this.  Indeed, Marie had
+not hitherto been taught to look at the matter in this light.  No one had
+heretofore twitted her with eating the bread of charity.  It had not
+occurred to her that on this account she was unfit to be Adolphe’s wife.
+There, in that valley, they were all so nearly equal, that no idea of her
+own inferiority had ever pressed itself upon her mind.  But now—!
+
+When the voice ceased she again looked at him; but it was no longer a
+beseeching look.  Did he also altogether scorn her?  That was now the
+inquiry which her eyes were called upon to make.  No; she could not say
+that he did.  It seemed to her that his energies were chiefly occupied in
+pulling to pieces the tassel on the sofa cushion.
+
+“And now, miss, let me know at once whether this nonsense is to be over
+or not,” continued La Mère Bauche; “and I will tell you at once, I am not
+going to maintain you here, in my house, to plot against our welfare and
+happiness.  As Marie Clavert you shall not stay here.  Capitaine Campan
+is willing to marry you; and as his wife I will keep my word to you,
+though you little deserve it.  If you refuse to marry him, you must go.
+As to my son, he is there; and he will tell you now, in my presence, that
+he altogether declines the honour you propose for him.”
+
+And then she ceased, waiting for an answer, drumming the table with a
+wafer stamp which happened to be ready to her hand; but Marie said
+nothing.  Adolphe had been appealed to; but Adolphe had not yet spoken.
+
+“Well, miss?” said La Mère Bauche
+
+Then Marie rose from her seat, and walking round she touched Adolphe
+lightly on the shoulder.  “Adolphe,” she said, “it is for you to speak
+now.  I will do as you bid me.”
+
+He gave a long sigh, looked first at Marie and then at his mother, shook
+himself slightly, and then spoke: “Upon my word, Marie, I think mother is
+right.  It would never do for us to marry; it would not indeed.”
+
+“Then it is decided,” said Marie, returning to her chair.
+
+“And you will marry the capitaine?” said La Mère Bauche.
+
+Marie merely bowed her head in token of acquiescence.  “Then we are
+friends again.  Come here, Marie, and kiss me.  You must know that it is
+my duty to take care of my own son.  But I don’t want to be angry with
+you if I can help it; I don’t indeed.  When once you are Madame Campan,
+you shall be my own child; and you shall have any room in the house you
+like to choose—there!”  And she once more imprinted a kiss on Marie’s
+cold forehead.
+
+How they all got out of the room, and off to their own chambers, I can
+hardly tell.  But in five minutes from the time of this last kiss they
+were divided.  La Mère Bauche had patted Marie, and smiled on her, and
+called her her dear good little Madame Campan, her young little Mistress
+of the Hôtel Bauche; and had then got herself into her own room,
+satisfied with her own victory.
+
+Nor must my readers be too severe on Madame Bauche.  She had already done
+much for Marie Clavert; and when she found herself once more by her own
+bedside, she prayed to be forgiven for the cruelty which she felt that
+she had shown to the orphan.  But in making this prayer, with her
+favourite crucifix in her hand and the little image of the Virgin before
+her, she pleaded her duty to her son.  Was it not right, she asked the
+Virgin, that she should save her son from a bad marriage?  And then she
+promised ever so much of recompense, both to the Virgin and to Marie; a
+new trousseau for each, with candles to the Virgin, with a gold watch and
+chain for Marie, as soon as she should be Marie Campan.  She had been
+cruel; she acknowledged it.  But at such a crisis was it not defensible?
+And then the recompense should be so full!
+
+But there was one other meeting that night, very short indeed, but not
+the less significant.  Not long after they had all separated, just so
+long as to allow of the house being quiet, Adolphe, still sitting in his
+room, meditating on what the day had done for him, heard a low tap at his
+door.  “Come in,” he said, as men always do say; and Marie opening the
+door, stood just within the verge of his chamber.  She had on her
+countenance neither the soft look of entreating love which she had worn
+up there in the grotto, nor did she appear crushed and subdued as she had
+done before his mother.  She carried her head somewhat more erect than
+usual, and looked boldly out at him from under her soft eyelashes.  There
+might still be love there, but it was love proudly resolving to quell
+itself.  Adolphe, as he looked at her, felt that he was afraid of her.
+
+“It is all over then between us, M. Adolphe?” she said.
+
+“Well, yes.  Don’t you think it had better be so, eh, Marie?”
+
+“And this is the meaning of oaths and vows, sworn to each other so
+sacredly?”
+
+“But, Marie, you heard what my mother said.”
+
+“Oh, sir!  I have not come to ask you again to love me.  Oh no!  I am not
+thinking of that.  But this, this would be a lie if I kept it now; it
+would choke me if I wore it as that man’s wife.  Take it back;” and she
+tendered to him the little charm which she had always worn round her neck
+since he had given it to her.  He took it abstractedly, without thinking
+what he did, and placed it on his dressing-table.
+
+“And you,” she continued, “can you still keep that cross?  Oh, no! you
+must give me back that.  It would remind you too often of vows that were
+untrue.”
+
+“Marie,” he said, “do not be so harsh to me.”
+
+“Harsh!” said she, “no; there has been enough of harshness.  I would not
+be harsh to you, Adolphe.  But give me the cross; it would prove a curse
+to you if you kept it.”
+
+He then opened a little box which stood upon the table, and taking out
+the cross gave it to her.
+
+“And now good-bye,” she said.  “We shall have but little more to say to
+each other.  I know this now, that I was wrong ever to have loved you.  I
+should have been to you as one of the other poor girls in the house.
+But, oh! how was I to help it?”  To this he made no answer, and she,
+closing the door softly, went back to her chamber.  And thus ended the
+first day of Adolphe Bauche’s return to his own house.
+
+On the next morning the capitaine and Marie were formally betrothed.
+This was done with some little ceremony, in the presence of all the
+guests who were staying at the establishment, and with all manner of
+gracious acknowledgments of Marie’s virtues.  It seemed as though La Mère
+Bauche could not be courteous enough to her.  There was no more talk of
+her being a child of charity; no more allusion now to the gutter.  La
+Mère Bauche with her own hand brought her cake with a glass of wine after
+her betrothal was over, and patted her on the cheek, and called her her
+dear little Marie Campan.  And then the capitaine was made up of infinite
+politeness, and the guests all wished her joy, and the servants of the
+house began to perceive that she was a person entitled to respect.  How
+different was all this from that harsh attack that was made on her the
+preceding evening!  Only Adolphe,—he alone kept aloof.  Though he was
+present there he said nothing.  He, and he only, offered no
+congratulations.
+
+In the midst of all these gala doings Marie herself said little or
+nothing.  La Mère Bauche perceived this, but she forgave it.  Angrily as
+she had expressed herself at the idea of Marie’s daring to love her son,
+she had still acknowledged within her own heart that such love had been
+natural.  She could feel no pity for Marie as long as Adolphe was in
+danger; but now she knew how to pity her.  So Marie was still petted and
+still encouraged, though she went through the day’s work sullenly and in
+silence.
+
+As to the capitaine it was all one to him.  He was a man of the world.
+He did not expect that he should really be preferred, con amore, to a
+young fellow like Adolphe.  But he did expect that Marie, like other
+girls, would do as she was bid; and that in a few days she would regain
+her temper and be reconciled to her life.
+
+And then the marriage was fixed for a very early day; for as La Mère
+said, “What was the use of waiting?  All their minds were made up now,
+and therefore the sooner the two were married the better.  Did not the
+capitaine think so?”
+
+The capitaine said that he did think so.
+
+And then Marie was asked.  It was all one to her, she said.  Whatever
+Maman Bauche liked, that she would do; only she would not name a day
+herself.  Indeed she would neither do nor say anything herself which
+tended in any way to a furtherance of these matrimonials.  But then she
+acquiesced, quietly enough if not readily, in what other people did and
+said; and so the marriage was fixed for the day week after Adolphe’s
+return.
+
+The whole of that week passed much in the same way.  The servants about
+the place spoke among themselves of Marie’s perverseness, obstinacy, and
+ingratitude, because she would not look pleased, or answer Madame
+Bauche’s courtesies with gratitude; but La Mère herself showed no signs
+of anger.  Marie had yielded to her, and she required no more.  And she
+remembered also the harsh words she had used to gain her purpose; and she
+reflected on all that Marie had lost.  On these accounts she was
+forbearing and exacted nothing—nothing but that one sacrifice which was
+to be made in accordance to her wishes.
+
+And it was made.  They were married in the great salon, the dining-room,
+immediately after breakfast.  Madame Bauche was dressed in a new puce
+silk dress, and looked very magnificent on the occasion.  She simpered
+and smiled, and looked gay even in spite of her spectacles; and as the
+ceremony was being performed, she held fast clutched in her hand the gold
+watch and chain which were intended for Marie as soon as ever the
+marriage should be completed.
+
+The capitaine was dressed exactly as usual, only that all his clothes
+were new.  Madame Bauche had endeavoured to persuade him to wear a blue
+coat; but he answered that such a change would not, he was sure, be to
+Marie’s taste.  To tell the truth, Marie would hardly have known the
+difference had he presented himself in scarlet vestments.
+
+Adolphe, however, was dressed very finely, but he did not make himself
+prominent on the occasion.  Marie watched him closely, though none saw
+that she did so; and of his garments she could have given an account with
+much accuracy—of his garments, ay! and of every look.  “Is he a man,” she
+said at last to herself, “that he can stand by and see all this?”
+
+She too was dressed in silk.  They had put on her what they pleased, and
+she bore the burden of her wedding finery without complaint and without
+pride.  There was no blush on her face as she walked up to the table at
+which the priest stood, nor hesitation in her low voice as she made the
+necessary answers.  She put her hand into that of the capitaine when
+required to do so; and when the ring was put on her finger she shuddered,
+but ever so slightly.  No one observed it but La Mère Bauche.  “In one
+week she will be used to it, and then we shall all be happy,” said La
+Mère to herself.  “And I,—I will be so kind to her!”
+
+And so the marriage was completed, and the watch was at once given to
+Marie.  “Thank you, maman,” said she, as the trinket was fastened to her
+girdle.  Had it been a pincushion that had cost three sous, it would have
+affected her as much.
+
+And then there was cake and wine and sweetmeats; and after a few minutes
+Marie disappeared.  For an hour or so the capitaine was taken up with the
+congratulating of his friends, and with the efforts necessary to the
+wearing of his new honours with an air of ease; but after that time he
+began to be uneasy because his wife did not come to him.  At two or three
+in the afternoon he went to La Mère Bauche to complain.  “This
+lackadaisical nonsense is no good,” he said.  “At any rate it is too late
+now.  Marie had better come down among us and show herself satisfied with
+her husband.”
+
+But Madame Bauche took Marie’s part.  “You must not be too hard on
+Marie,” she said.  “She has gone through a good deal this week past, and
+is very young; whereas, capitaine, you are not very young.”
+
+The capitaine merely shrugged his shoulders.  In the mean time Mère
+Bauche went up to visit her protégée in her own room, and came down with
+a report that she was suffering from a headache.  She could not appear at
+dinner, Madame Bauche said; but would make one at the little party which
+was to be given in the evening.  With this the capitaine was forced to be
+content.
+
+The dinner therefore went on quietly without her, much as it did on other
+ordinary days.  And then there was a little time for vacancy, during
+which the gentlemen drank their coffee and smoked their cigars at the
+café, talking over the event that had taken place that morning, and the
+ladies brushed their hair and added some ribbon or some brooch to their
+usual apparel.  Twice during this time did Madame Bauche go up to Marie’s
+room with offers to assist her.  “Not yet, maman; not quite yet,” said
+Marie piteously through her tears, and then twice did the green
+spectacles leave the room, covering eyes which also were not dry.  Ah!
+what had she done?  What had she dared to take upon herself to do?  She
+could not undo it now.
+
+And then it became quite dark in the passages and out of doors, and the
+guests assembled in the salon.  La Mère came in and out three or four
+times, uneasy in her gait and unpleasant in her aspect, and everybody
+began to see that things were wrong.  “She is ill, I am afraid,” said
+one.  “The excitement has been too much,” said a second; “and he is so
+old,” whispered a third.  And the capitaine stalked about erect on his
+wooden leg, taking snuff, and striving to look indifferent; but he also
+was uneasy in his mind.
+
+Presently La Mère came in again, with a quicker step than before, and
+whispered something, first to Adolphe and then to the capitaine,
+whereupon they both followed her out of the room.
+
+“Not in her chamber,” said Adolphe.
+
+“Then she must be in yours,” said the capitaine.
+
+“She is in neither,” said La Mère Bauche, with her sternest voice; “nor
+is she in the house!”
+
+And now there was no longer an affectation of indifference on the part of
+any of them.  They were anything but indifferent.  The capitaine was
+eager in his demands that the matter should still be kept secret from the
+guests.  She had always been romantic, he said, and had now gone out to
+walk by the river side.  They three and the old bath-man would go out and
+look for her.
+
+“But it is pitch dark,” said La Mère Bauche.
+
+“We will take lanterns,” said the capitaine.  And so they sallied forth
+with creeping steps over the gravel, so that they might not be heard by
+those within, and proceeded to search for the young wife.
+
+“Marie!  Marie!” said La Mère Bauche, in piteous accents; “do come to me;
+pray do!”
+
+“Hush!” said the capitaine.  “They’ll hear you if you call.”  He could
+not endure that the world should learn that a marriage with him had been
+so distasteful to Marie Clavert.
+
+“Marie, dear Marie!” called Madame Bauche, louder than before, quite
+regardless of the capitaine’s feelings; but no Marie answered.  In her
+innermost heart now did La Mère Bauche wish that this cruel marriage had
+been left undone.
+
+Adolphe was foremost with his lamp, but he hardly dared to look in the
+spot where he felt that it was most likely that she should have taken
+refuge.  How could he meet her again, alone, in that grotto?  Yet he
+alone of the four was young.  It was clearly for him to ascend.  “Marie,”
+he shouted, “are you there?” as he slowly began the long ascent of the
+steps.
+
+But he had hardly begun to mount when a whirring sound struck his ear,
+and he felt that the air near him was moved; and then there was a crash
+upon the lower platform of rock, and a moan, repeated twice, but so
+faintly, and a rustle of silk, and a slight struggle somewhere as he knew
+within twenty paces of him; and then all was again quiet and still in the
+night air.
+
+“What was that?” asked the capitaine in a hoarse voice.  He made his way
+half across the little garden, and he also was within forty or fifty
+yards of the flat rock.  But Adolphe was unable to answer him.  He had
+fainted and the lamp had fallen from his hands and rolled to the bottom
+of the steps.
+
+But the capitaine, though even his heart was all but quenched within him,
+had still strength enough to make his way up to the rock; and there,
+holding the lantern above his eyes, he saw all that was left for him to
+see of his bride.
+
+As for La Mère Bauche, she never again sat at the head of that
+table,—never again dictated to guests,—never again laid down laws for the
+management of any one.  A poor bedridden old woman, she lay there in her
+house at Vernet for some seven tedious years, and then was gathered to
+her fathers.
+
+As for the capitaine—but what matters?  He was made of sterner stuff.
+What matters either the fate of such a one as Adolphe Bauche?
+
+
+
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, La Mere Bauche, by Anthony Trollope
+
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+
+
+
+
+Title: La Mere Bauche
+
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 16, 2015  [eBook #3550]
+[This file was first posted on June 6, 2001]
+
+Language: English
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+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA MERE BAUCHE***
+</pre>
+<p>Transcribed from the 1864 Chapman &amp; Hall &ldquo;Tales of
+All Countries&rdquo; edition by David Price, email
+ccx074@pglaf.org</p>
+<h1>LA M&Egrave;RE BAUCHE.</h1>
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> Pyreneean valley in which the
+baths of Vernet are situated is not much known to English, or
+indeed to any travellers.&nbsp; Tourists in search of good hotels
+and picturesque beauty combined, do not generally extend their
+journeys to the Eastern Pyrenees.&nbsp; They rarely get beyond
+Luchon; and in this they are right, as they thus end their
+peregrinations at the most lovely spot among these mountains, and
+are as a rule so deceived, imposed on, and bewildered by guides,
+innkeepers, and horse-owners, at this otherwise delightful place,
+as to become undesirous of further travel.&nbsp; Nor do invalids
+from distant parts frequent Vernet.&nbsp; People of fashion go to
+the Eaux Bonnes and to Luchon, and people who are really ill to
+Bar&eacute;ges and Cauterets.&nbsp; It is at these places that
+one meets crowds of Parisians, and the daughters and wives of
+rich merchants from Bordeaux, with an admixture, now by no means
+inconsiderable, of Englishmen and Englishwomen.&nbsp; But the
+Eastern Pyrenees are still unfrequented.&nbsp; And probably they
+will remain so; for though there are among them lovely
+valleys&mdash;and of all such the valley of Vernet is perhaps the
+most lovely&mdash;they cannot compete with the mountain scenery
+of other tourists-loved regions in Europe.&nbsp; At the Port de
+Venasquez and the Br&egrave;che de Roland in the Western
+Pyrenees, or rather, to speak more truly, at spots in the close
+vicinity of these famous mountain entrances from France into
+Spain, one can make comparisons with Switzerland, Northern Italy,
+the Tyrol, and Ireland, which will not be injurious to the scenes
+then under view.&nbsp; But among the eastern mountains this can
+rarely be done.&nbsp; The hills do not stand thickly together so
+as to group themselves; the passes from one valley to another,
+though not wanting in altitude, are not close pressed together
+with overhanging rocks, and are deficient in grandeur as well as
+loveliness.&nbsp; And then, as a natural consequence of all this,
+the hotels&mdash;are not quite as good as they should be.</p>
+<p>But there is one mountain among them which can claim to rank
+with the P&iacute;c du Midi or the Maledetta.&nbsp; No one can
+pooh-pooh the stern old Canigou, standing high and solitary,
+solemn and grand, between the two roads which run from Perpignan
+into Spain, the one by Prades and the other by Le Boulon.&nbsp;
+Under the Canigou, towards the west, lie the hot baths of Vernet,
+in a close secluded valley, which, as I have said before, is, as
+far as I know, the sweetest spot in these Eastern Pyrenees.</p>
+<p>The frequenters of these baths were a few years back gathered
+almost entirely from towns not very far distant, from Perpignan,
+Narbonne, Carcassonne, and B&eacute;zi&egrave;res, and the baths
+were not therefore famous, expensive, or luxurious; but those who
+believed in them believed with great faith; and it was certainly
+the fact that men and women who went thither worn with toil, sick
+with excesses, and nervous through over-care, came back fresh and
+strong, fit once more to attack the world with all its
+woes.&nbsp; Their character in latter days does not seem to have
+changed, though their circle of admirers may perhaps be somewhat
+extended.</p>
+<p>In those days, by far the most noted and illustrious person in
+the village of Vernet was La M&egrave;re Bauche.&nbsp; That there
+had once been a P&egrave;re Bauche was known to the world, for
+there was a Fils Bauche who lived with his mother; but no one
+seemed to remember more of him than that he had once
+existed.&nbsp; At Vernet he had never been known.&nbsp; La
+M&egrave;re Bauche was a native of the village, but her married
+life had been passed away from it, and she had returned in her
+early widowhood to become proprietress and manager, or, as one
+may say, the heart and soul of the H&ocirc;tel Bauche at
+Vernet.</p>
+<p>This hotel was a large and somewhat rough establishment,
+intended for the accommodation of invalids who came to Vernet for
+their health.&nbsp; It was built immediately over one of the
+thermal springs, so that the water flowed from the bowels of the
+earth directly into the baths.&nbsp; There was accommodation for
+seventy people, and during the summer and autumn months the place
+was always full.&nbsp; Not a few also were to be found there
+during the winter and spring, for the charges of Madame Bauche
+were low, and the accommodation reasonably good.</p>
+<p>And in this respect, as indeed in all others, Madame Bauche
+had the reputation of being an honest woman.&nbsp; She had a
+certain price, from which no earthly consideration would induce
+her to depart; and there were certain returns for this price in
+the shape of d&eacute;jeuners and dinners, baths and beds, which
+she never failed to give in accordance with the dictates of a
+strict conscience.&nbsp; These were traits in the character of an
+hotel-keeper which cannot be praised too highly, and which had
+met their due reward in the custom of the public.&nbsp; But
+nevertheless there were those who thought that there was
+occasionally ground for complaint in the conduct even of Madame
+Bauche.</p>
+<p>In the first place she was deficient in that pleasant smiling
+softness which should belong to any keeper of a house of public
+entertainment.&nbsp; In her general mode of life she was stern
+and silent with her guests, autocratic, authoritative and
+sometimes contradictory in her house, and altogether irrational
+and unconciliatory when any change even for a day was proposed to
+her, or when any shadow of a complaint reached her ears.</p>
+<p>Indeed of complaint, as made against the establishment, she
+was altogether intolerant.&nbsp; To such she had but one
+answer.&nbsp; He or she who complained might leave the place at a
+moment&rsquo;s notice if it so pleased them.&nbsp; There were
+always others ready to take their places.&nbsp; The power of
+making this answer came to her from the lowness of her prices;
+and it was a power which was very dear to her.</p>
+<p>The baths were taken at different hours according to medical
+advice, but the usual time was from five to seven in the
+morning.&nbsp; The d&eacute;jeuner or early meal was at nine
+o&rsquo;clock, the dinner was at four.&nbsp; After that, no
+eating or drinking was allowed in the H&ocirc;tel Bauche.&nbsp;
+There was a caf&eacute; in the village, at which ladies and
+gentlemen could get a cup of coffee or a glass of eau
+sucr&eacute;; but no such accommodation was to be had in the
+establishment.&nbsp; Not by any possible bribery or persuasion
+could any meal be procured at any other than the authorised
+hours.&nbsp; A visitor who should enter the salle &agrave; manger
+more than ten minutes after the last bell would be looked at very
+sourly by Madame Bauche, who on all occasions sat at the top of
+her own table.&nbsp; Should any one appear as much as half an
+hour late, he would receive only his share of what had not been
+handed round.&nbsp; But after the last dish had been so handed,
+it was utterly useless for any one to enter the room at all.</p>
+<p>Her appearance at the period of our tale was perhaps not
+altogether in her favour.&nbsp; She was about sixty years of age
+and was very stout and short in the neck.&nbsp; She wore her own
+gray hair, which at dinner was always tidy enough; but during the
+whole day previous to that hour she might be seen with it
+escaping from under her cap in extreme disorder.&nbsp; Her
+eyebrows were large and bushy, but those alone would not have
+given to her face that look of indomitable sternness which it
+possessed.&nbsp; Her eyebrows were serious in their effect, but
+not so serious as the pair of green spectacles which she always
+wore under them.&nbsp; It was thought by those who had analysed
+the subject that the great secret of Madame Bauche&rsquo;s power
+lay in her green spectacles.</p>
+<p>Her custom was to move about and through the whole
+establishment every day from breakfast till the period came for
+her to dress for dinner.&nbsp; She would visit every chamber and
+every bath, walk once or twice round the salle &agrave; manger,
+and very repeatedly round the kitchen; she would go into every
+hole and corner, and peer into everything through her green
+spectacles: and in these walks it was not always thought pleasant
+to meet her.&nbsp; Her custom was to move very slowly, with her
+hands generally clasped behind her back: she rarely spoke to the
+guests unless she was spoken to, and on such occasions she would
+not often diverge into general conversation.&nbsp; If any one had
+aught to say connected with the business of the establishment,
+she would listen, and then she would make her
+answers,&mdash;often not pleasant in the hearing.</p>
+<p>And thus she walked her path through the world, a stern, hard,
+solemn old woman, not without gusts of passionate explosion; but
+honest withal, and not without some inward benevolence and true
+tenderness of heart.&nbsp; Children she had had many, some seven
+or eight.&nbsp; One or two had died, others had been married; she
+had sons settled far away from home, and at the time of which we
+are now speaking but one was left in any way subject to maternal
+authority.</p>
+<p>Adolphe Bauche was the only one of her children of whom much
+was remembered by the present denizens and hangers-on of the
+hotel, he was the youngest of the number, and having been born
+only very shortly before the return of Madame Bauche to Vernet,
+had been altogether reared there.&nbsp; It was thought by the
+world of those parts, and rightly thought, that he was his
+mother&rsquo;s darling&mdash;more so than had been any of his
+brothers and sisters,&mdash;the very apple of her eye and gem of
+her life.&nbsp; At this time he was about twenty-five years of
+age, and for the last two years had been absent from
+Vernet&mdash;for reasons which will shortly be made to
+appear.&nbsp; He had been sent to Paris to see something of the
+world, and learn to talk French instead of the patois of his
+valley; and having left Paris had come down south into Languedoc,
+and remained there picking up some agricultural lore which it was
+thought might prove useful in the valley farms of Vernet.&nbsp;
+He was now expected home again very speedily, much to his
+mother&rsquo;s delight.</p>
+<p>That she was kind and gracious to her favourite child does not
+perhaps give much proof of her benevolence; but she had also been
+kind and gracious to the orphan child of a neighbour; nay, to the
+orphan child of a rival innkeeper.&nbsp; At Vernet there had been
+more than one water establishment, but the proprietor of the
+second had died some few years after Madame Bauche had settled
+herself at the place.&nbsp; His house had not thrived, and his
+only child, a little girl, was left altogether without
+provision.</p>
+<p>This little girl, Marie Clavert, La M&egrave;re Bauche had
+taken into her own house immediately after the father&rsquo;s
+death, although she had most cordially hated that father.&nbsp;
+Marie was then an infant, and Madame Bauche had accepted the
+charge without much thought, perhaps, as to what might be the
+child&rsquo;s ultimate destiny.&nbsp; But since then she had
+thoroughly done the duty of a mother by the little girl, who had
+become the pet of the whole establishment, the favourite
+plaything of Adolphe Bauche, and at last of course his early
+sweetheart.</p>
+<p>And then and therefore there had come troubles at
+Vernet.&nbsp; Of course all the world of the valley had seen what
+was taking place and what was likely to take place, long before
+Madame Bauche knew anything about it.&nbsp; But at last it broke
+upon her senses that her son, Adolphe Bauche, the heir to all her
+virtues and all her riches, the first young man in that or any
+neighbouring valley, was absolutely contemplating the idea of
+marrying that poor little orphan, Marie Clavert!</p>
+<p>That any one should ever fall in love with Marie Clavert had
+never occurred to Madame Bauche.&nbsp; She had always regarded
+the child as a child, as the object of her charity, and as a
+little thing to be looked on as poor Marie by all the
+world.&nbsp; She, looking through her green spectacles, had never
+seen that Marie Clavert was a beautiful creature, full of
+ripening charms, such as young men love to look on.&nbsp; Marie
+was of infinite daily use to Madame Bauche in a hundred little
+things about the house, and the old lady thoroughly recognised
+and appreciated her ability.&nbsp; But for this very reason she
+had never taught herself to regard Marie otherwise than as a
+useful drudge.&nbsp; She was very fond of her
+prot&eacute;g&eacute;e&mdash;so much so that she would listen to
+her in affairs about the house when she would listen to no one
+else;&mdash;but Marie&rsquo;s prettiness and grace and sweetness
+as a girl had all been thrown away upon Maman Bauche, as Marie
+used to call her.</p>
+<p>But unluckily it had not been thrown away upon Adolphe.&nbsp;
+He had appreciated, as it was natural that he should do, all that
+had been so utterly indifferent to his mother; and consequently
+had fallen in love.&nbsp; Consequently also he had told his love;
+and consequently also Marie had returned his love.</p>
+<p>Adolphe had been hitherto contradicted but in few things, and
+thought that all difficulty would be prevented by his informing
+his mother that he wished to marry Marie Clavert.&nbsp; But
+Marie, with a woman&rsquo;s instinct, had known better.&nbsp; She
+had trembled and almost crouched with fear when she confessed her
+love; and had absolutely hid herself from sight when Adolphe went
+forth, prepared to ask his mother&rsquo;s consent to his
+marriage.</p>
+<p>The indignation and passionate wrath of Madame Bauche were
+past and gone two years before the date of this story, and I need
+not therefore much enlarge upon that subject.&nbsp; She was at
+first abusive and bitter, which was bad for Marie; and afterwards
+bitter and silent, which was worse.&nbsp; It was of course
+determined that poor Marie should be sent away to some asylum for
+orphans or penniless paupers&mdash;in short anywhere out of the
+way.&nbsp; What mattered her outlook into the world, her
+happiness, or indeed her very existence?&nbsp; The outlook and
+happiness of Adolphe Bauche,&mdash;was not that to be considered
+as everything at Vernet?</p>
+<p>But this terrible sharp aspect of affairs did not last very
+long.&nbsp; In the first place La M&egrave;re Bauche had under
+those green spectacles a heart that in truth was tender and
+affectionate, and after the first two days of anger she admitted
+that something must be done for Marie Clavert; and after the
+fourth day she acknowledged that the world of the hotel, her
+world, would not go as well without Marie Clavert as it would
+with her.&nbsp; And in the next place Madame Bauche had a friend
+whose advice in grave matters she would sometimes take.&nbsp;
+This friend had told her that it would be much better to send
+away Adolphe, since it was so necessary that there should be a
+sending away of some one; that he would be much benefited by
+passing some months of his life away from his native valley; and
+that an absence of a year or two would teach him to forget Marie,
+even if it did not teach Marie to forget him.</p>
+<p>And we must say a word or two about this friend.&nbsp; At
+Vernet he was usually called M. le Capitaine, though in fact he
+had never reached that rank.&nbsp; He had been in the army, and
+having been wounded in the leg while still a sous-lieutenant, had
+been pensioned, and had thus been interdicted from treading any
+further the thorny path that leads to glory.&nbsp; For the last
+fifteen years he had resided under the roof of Madame Bauche, at
+first as a casual visitor, going and coming, but now for many
+years as constant there as she was herself.</p>
+<p>He was so constantly called Le Capitaine that his real name
+was seldom heard.&nbsp; It may however as well be known to us
+that this was Theodore Campan.&nbsp; He was a tall, well-looking
+man; always dressed in black garments, of a coarse description
+certainly, but scrupulously clean and well brushed; of perhaps
+fifty years of age, and conspicuous for the rigid uprightness of
+his back&mdash;and for a black wooden leg.</p>
+<p>This wooden leg was perhaps the most remarkable trait in his
+character.&nbsp; It was always jet black, being painted, or
+polished, or japanned, as occasion might require, by the hands of
+the capitaine himself.&nbsp; It was longer than ordinary wooden
+legs, as indeed the capitaine was longer than ordinary men; but
+nevertheless it never seemed in any way to impede the rigid
+punctilious propriety of his movements.&nbsp; It was never in his
+way as wooden legs usually are in the way of their wearers.&nbsp;
+And then to render it more illustrious it had round its middle,
+round the calf of the leg we may so say, a band of bright brass
+which shone like burnished gold.</p>
+<p>It had been the capitaine&rsquo;s custom, now for some years
+past, to retire every evening at about seven o&rsquo;clock into
+the sanctum sanctorum of Madame Bauche&rsquo;s habitation, the
+dark little private sitting-room in which she made out her bills
+and calculated her profits, and there regale himself in her
+presence&mdash;and indeed at her expense, for the items never
+appeared in the bill&mdash;with coffee and cognac.&nbsp; I have
+said that there was never eating or drinking at the establishment
+after the regular dinner-hours; but in so saying I spoke of the
+world at large.&nbsp; Nothing further was allowed in the way of
+trade; but in the way of friendship so much was now-a-days always
+allowed to the capitaine.</p>
+<p>It was at these moments that Madame Bauche discussed her
+private affairs, and asked for and received advice.&nbsp; For
+even Madame Bauche was mortal; nor could her green spectacles
+without other aid carry her through all the troubles of
+life.&nbsp; It was now five years since the world of Vernet
+discovered that La M&egrave;re Bauche was going to marry the
+capitaine; and for eighteen months the world of Vernet had been
+full of this matter: but any amount of patience is at last
+exhausted, and as no further steps in that direction were ever
+taken beyond the daily cup of coffee, that subject died
+away&mdash;very much unheeded by La M&egrave;re Bauche.</p>
+<p>But she, though she thought of no matrimony for herself,
+thought much of matrimony for other people; and over most of
+those cups of evening coffee and cognac a matrimonial project was
+discussed in these latter days.&nbsp; It has been seen that the
+capitaine pleaded in Marie&rsquo;s favour when the fury of Madame
+Bauche&rsquo;s indignation broke forth; and that ultimately Marie
+was kept at home, and Adolphe sent away by his advice.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But Adolphe cannot always stay away,&rdquo; Madame
+Bauche had pleaded in her difficulty.&nbsp; The truth of this the
+capitaine had admitted; but Marie, he said, might be married to
+some one else before two years were over.&nbsp; And so the matter
+had commenced.</p>
+<p>But to whom should she be married?&nbsp; To this question the
+capitaine had answered in perfect innocence of heart, that La
+M&egrave;re Bauche would be much better able to make such a
+choice than himself.&nbsp; He did not know how Marie might stand
+with regard to money.&nbsp; If madame would give some little
+&ldquo;dot,&rdquo; the affair, the capitaine thought, would be
+more easily arranged.</p>
+<p>All these things took months to say, during which period Marie
+went on with her work in melancholy listlessness.&nbsp; One
+comfort she had.&nbsp; Adolphe, before he went, had promised to
+her, holding in his hand as he did so a little cross which she
+had given him, that no earthly consideration should sever
+them;&mdash;that sooner or later he would certainly be her
+husband.&nbsp; Marie felt that her limbs could not work nor her
+tongue speak were it not for this one drop of water in her
+cup.</p>
+<p>And then, deeply meditating, La M&egrave;re Bauche hit upon a
+plan, and herself communicated it to the capitaine over a second
+cup of coffee into which she poured a full teaspoonful more than
+the usual allowance of cognac.&nbsp; Why should not he, the
+capitaine himself, be the man to marry Marie Clavert?</p>
+<p>It was a very startling proposal, the idea of matrimony for
+himself never having as yet entered into the capitaine&rsquo;s
+head at any period of his life; but La M&egrave;re Bauche did
+contrive to make it not altogether unacceptable.&nbsp; As to that
+matter of dowry she was prepared to be more than generous.&nbsp;
+She did love Marie well, and could find it in her heart to give
+her anything&mdash;any thing except her son, her own
+Adolphe.&nbsp; What she proposed was this.&nbsp; Adolphe,
+himself, would never keep the baths.&nbsp; If the capitaine would
+take Marie for his wife, Marie, Madame Bauche declared, should be
+the mistress after her death; subject of course to certain
+settlements as to Adolphe&rsquo;s pecuniary interests.</p>
+<p>The plan was discussed a thousand times, and at last so far
+brought to bear that Marie was made acquainted with
+it&mdash;having been called in to sit in presence with La
+M&egrave;re Bauche and her future proposed husband.&nbsp; The
+poor girl manifested no disgust to the stiff ungainly lover whom
+they assigned to her,&mdash;who through his whole frame was in
+appearance almost as wooden as his own leg.&nbsp; On the whole,
+indeed, Marie liked the capitaine, and felt that he was her
+friend; and in her country such marriages were not
+uncommon.&nbsp; The capitaine was perhaps a little beyond the age
+at which a man might usually be thought justified in demanding
+the services of a young girl as his nurse and wife, but then
+Marie of herself had so little to give&mdash;except her youth,
+and beauty, and goodness.</p>
+<p>But yet she could not absolutely consent; for was she not
+absolutely pledged to her own Adolphe?&nbsp; And therefore, when
+the great pecuniary advantages were, one by one, displayed before
+her, and when La M&egrave;re Bauche, as a last argument, informed
+her that as wife of the capitaine she would be regarded as second
+mistress in the establishment and not as a servant, she could
+only burst out into tears, and say that she did not know.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will be very kind to you,&rdquo; said the capitaine;
+&ldquo;as kind as a man can be.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Marie took his hard withered hand and kissed it; and then
+looked up into his face with beseeching eyes which were not
+without avail upon his heart.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We will not press her now,&rdquo; said the
+capitaine.&nbsp; &ldquo;There is time enough.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But let his heart be touched ever so much, one thing was
+certain.&nbsp; It could not be permitted that she should marry
+Adolphe.&nbsp; To that view of the matter he had given in his
+unrestricted adhesion; nor could he by any means withdraw it
+without losing altogether his position in the establishment of
+Madame Bauche.&nbsp; Nor indeed did his conscience tell him that
+such a marriage should be permitted.&nbsp; That would be too
+much.&nbsp; If every pretty girl were allowed to marry the first
+young man that might fall in love with her, what would the world
+come to?</p>
+<p>And it soon appeared that there was not time enough&mdash;that
+the time was growing very scant.&nbsp; In three months Adolphe
+would be back.&nbsp; And if everything was not arranged by that
+time, matters might still go astray.</p>
+<p>And then Madame Bauche asked her final question: &ldquo;You do
+not think, do you, that you can ever marry Adolphe?&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And as she asked it the accustomed terror of her green spectacles
+magnified itself tenfold.&nbsp; Marie could only answer by
+another burst of tears.</p>
+<p>The affair was at last settled among them.&nbsp; Marie said
+that she would consent to marry the capitaine when she should
+hear from Adolphe&rsquo;s own mouth that he, Adolphe, loved her
+no longer.&nbsp; She declared with many tears that her vows and
+pledges prevented her from promising more than this.&nbsp; It was
+not her fault, at any rate not now, that she loved her
+lover.&nbsp; It was not her fault&mdash;not now at
+least&mdash;that she was bound by these pledges.&nbsp; When she
+heard from his own mouth that he had discarded her, then she
+would marry the capitaine&mdash;or indeed sacrifice herself in
+any other way that La M&egrave;re Bauche might desire.&nbsp; What
+would anything signify then?</p>
+<p>Madame Bauche&rsquo;s spectacles remained unmoved; but not her
+heart.&nbsp; Marie, she told the capitaine, should be equal to
+herself in the establishment, when once she was entitled to be
+called Madame Campan, and she should be to her quite as a
+daughter.&nbsp; She should have her cup of coffee every evening,
+and dine at the big table, and wear a silk gown at church, and
+the servants should all call her Madame; a great career should be
+open to her, if she would only give up her foolish girlish
+childish love for Adolphe.&nbsp; And all these great promises
+were repeated to Marie by the capitaine.</p>
+<p>But nevertheless there was but one thing in the world which in
+Marie&rsquo;s eyes was of any value; and that one thing was the
+heart of Adolphe Bauche.&nbsp; Without that she would be nothing;
+with that,&mdash;with that assured, she could wait patiently till
+doomsday.</p>
+<p>Letters were written to Adolphe during all these eventful
+doings; and a letter came from him saying that he greatly valued
+Marie&rsquo;s love, but that as it had been clearly proved to him
+that their marriage would be neither for her advantage, nor for
+his, he was willing to give it up.&nbsp; He consented to her
+marriage with the capitaine, and expressed his gratitude to his
+mother for the pecuniary advantages which she had held out to
+him.&nbsp; Oh, Adolphe, Adolphe!&nbsp; But, alas, alas! is not
+such the way of most men&rsquo;s hearts&mdash;and of the hearts
+of some women?</p>
+<p>This letter was read to Marie, but it had no more effect upon
+her than would have had some dry legal document.&nbsp; In those
+days and in those places men and women did not depend much upon
+letters; nor when they were written, was there expressed in them
+much of heart or of feeling.&nbsp; Marie would understand, as she
+was well aware, the glance of Adolphe&rsquo;s eye and the tone of
+Adolphe&rsquo;s voice; she would perceive at once from them what
+her lover really meant, what he wished, what in the innermost
+corner of his heart he really desired that she should do.&nbsp;
+But from that stiff constrained written document she could
+understand nothing.</p>
+<p>It was agreed therefore that Adolphe should return, and that
+she would accept her fate from his mouth.&nbsp; The capitaine,
+who knew more of human nature than poor Marie, felt tolerably
+sure of his bride.&nbsp; Adolphe, who had seen something of the
+world, would not care very much for the girl of his own
+valley.&nbsp; Money and pleasure, and some little position in the
+world, would soon wean him from his love; and then Marie would
+accept her destiny&mdash;as other girls in the same position had
+done since the French world began.</p>
+<p>And now it was the evening before Adolphe&rsquo;s expected
+arrival.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re Bauche was discussing the matter
+with the capitaine over the usual cup of coffee.&nbsp; Madame
+Bauche had of late become rather nervous on the matter, thinking
+that they had been somewhat rash in acceding so much to
+Marie.&nbsp; It seemed to her that it was absolutely now left to
+the two young lovers to say whether or no they would have each
+other or not.&nbsp; Now nothing on earth could be further from
+Madame Bauche&rsquo;s intention than this.&nbsp; Her decree and
+resolve was to heap down blessings on all persons
+concerned&mdash;provided always that she could have her own way;
+but, provided she did not have her own way, to heap
+down,&mdash;anything but blessings.&nbsp; She had her code of
+morality in this matter.&nbsp; She would do good if possible to
+everybody around her.&nbsp; But she would not on any score be
+induced to consent that Adolphe should marry Marie Clavert.&nbsp;
+Should that be in the wind she would rid the house of Marie, of
+the capitaine, and even of Adolphe himself.</p>
+<p>She had become therefore somewhat querulous, and
+self-opinionated in her discussions with her friend.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know,&rdquo; she said on the evening in
+question; &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know.&nbsp; It may be all right;
+but if Adolphe turns against me, what are we to do
+then?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;M&egrave;re Bauche,&rdquo; said the capitaine, sipping
+his coffee and puffing out the smoke of his cigar, &ldquo;Adolphe
+will not turn against us.&rdquo;&nbsp; It had been somewhat
+remarked by many that the capitaine was more at home in the
+house, and somewhat freer in his manner of talking with Madame
+Bauche, since this matrimonial alliance had been on the tapis
+than he had ever been before.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re herself
+observed it, and did not quite like it; but how could she prevent
+it now?&nbsp; When the capitaine was once married she would make
+him know his place, in spite of all her promises to Marie.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But if he says he likes the girl?&rdquo; continued
+Madame Bauche.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;My friend, you may be sure that he will say nothing of
+the kind.&nbsp; He has not been away two years without seeing
+girls as pretty as Marie.&nbsp; And then you have his
+letter.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;That is nothing, capitaine; he would eat his letter as
+quick as you would eat an omelet aux fines herbes.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Now the capitaine was especially quick over an omelet aux
+fines herbes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And, M&egrave;re Bauche, you also have the purse; he
+will know that he cannot eat that, except with your good
+will.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; exclaimed Madame Bauche, &ldquo;poor
+lad!&nbsp; He has not a sous in the world unless I give it to
+him.&rdquo;&nbsp; But it did not seem that this reflection was in
+itself displeasing to her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Adolphe will now be a man of the world,&rdquo;
+continued the capitaine.&nbsp; &ldquo;He will know that it does
+not do to throw away everything for a pair of red lips.&nbsp;
+That is the folly of a boy, and Adolphe will be no longer a
+boy.&nbsp; Believe me, M&egrave;re Bauche, things will be right
+enough.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And then we shall have Marie sick and ill and half
+dying on our hands,&rdquo; said Madame Bauche.</p>
+<p>This was not flattering to the capitaine, and so he felt
+it.&nbsp; &ldquo;Perhaps so, perhaps not,&rdquo; he said.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;But at any rate she will get over it.&nbsp; It is a malady
+which rarely kills young women&mdash;especially when another
+alliance awaits them.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Bah!&rdquo; said Madame Bauche; and in saying that word
+she avenged herself for the too great liberty which the capitaine
+had lately taken.&nbsp; He shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch
+of snuff and uninvited helped himself to a teaspoonful of
+cognac.&nbsp; Then the conference ended, and on the next morning
+before breakfast Adolphe Bauche arrived.</p>
+<p>On that morning poor Marie hardly knew how to bear
+herself.&nbsp; A month or two back, and even up to the last day
+or two, she had felt a sort of confidence that Adolphe would be
+true to her; but the nearer came that fatal day the less strong
+was the confidence of the poor girl.&nbsp; She knew that those
+two long-headed, aged counsellors were plotting against her
+happiness, and she felt that she could hardly dare hope for
+success with such terrible foes opposed to her.&nbsp; On the
+evening before the day Madame Bauche had met her in the passages,
+and kissed her as she wished her good night.&nbsp; Marie knew
+little about sacrifices, but she felt that it was a sacrificial
+kiss.</p>
+<p>In those days a sort of diligence with the mails for Olette
+passed through Prades early in the morning, and a conveyance was
+sent from Vernet to bring Adolphe to the baths.&nbsp; Never was
+prince or princess expected with more anxiety.&nbsp; Madame
+Bauche was up and dressed long before the hour, and was heard to
+say five several times that she was sure he would not come.&nbsp;
+The capitaine was out and on the high road, moving about with his
+wooden leg, as perpendicular as a lamp-post and almost as
+black.&nbsp; Marie also was up, but nobody had seen her.&nbsp;
+She was up and had been out about the place before any of them
+were stirring; but now that the world was on the move she lay
+hidden like a hare in its form.</p>
+<p>And then the old char-&agrave;-banc clattered up to the door,
+and Adolphe jumped out of it into his mother&rsquo;s arms.&nbsp;
+He was fatter and fairer than she had last seen him, had a larger
+beard, was more fashionably clothed, and certainly looked more
+like a man.&nbsp; Marie also saw him out of her little window,
+and she thought that he looked like a god.&nbsp; Was it probable,
+she said to herself, that one so godlike would still care for
+her?</p>
+<p>The mother was delighted with her son, who rattled away quite
+at his ease.&nbsp; He shook hands very cordially with the
+capitaine&mdash;of whose intended alliance with his own
+sweetheart he had been informed, and then as he entered the house
+with his hand under his mother&rsquo;s arm, he asked one question
+about her.&nbsp; &ldquo;And where is Marie?&rdquo; said he.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Marie! oh upstairs; you shall see her after
+breakfast,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re Bauche.&nbsp; And so they
+entered the house, and went in to breakfast among the
+guests.&nbsp; Everybody had heard something of the story, and
+they were all on the alert to see the young man whose love or
+want of love was considered to be of so much importance.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You will see that it will be all right,&rdquo; said the
+capitaine, carrying his head very high.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I think so, I think so,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re
+Bauche, who, now that the capitaine was right, no longer desired
+to contradict him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I know that it will be all right,&rdquo; said the
+capitaine.&nbsp; &ldquo;I told you that Adolphe would return a
+man; and he is a man.&nbsp; Look at him; he does not care this
+for Marie Clavert;&rdquo; and the capitaine, with much eloquence
+in his motion, pitched over a neighbouring wall a small stone
+which he held in his hand.</p>
+<p>And then they all went to breakfast with many signs of outward
+joy.&nbsp; And not without some inward joy; for Madame Bauche
+thought she saw that her son was cured of his love.&nbsp; In the
+mean time Marie sat up stairs still afraid to show herself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He has come,&rdquo; said a young girl, a servant in the
+house, running up to the door of Marie&rsquo;s room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Marie; &ldquo;I could see that he has
+come.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And, oh, how beautiful he is!&rdquo; said the girl,
+putting her hands together and looking up to the ceiling.&nbsp;
+Marie in her heart of hearts wished that he was not half so
+beautiful, as then her chance of having him might be greater.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And the company are all talking to him as though he
+were the pr&eacute;fet,&rdquo; said the girl.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never mind who is talking to him,&rdquo; said Marie;
+&ldquo;go away, and leave me&mdash;you are wanted for your
+work.&rdquo;&nbsp; Why before this was he not talking to
+her?&nbsp; Why not, if he were really true to her?&nbsp; Alas, it
+began to fall upon her mind that he would be false!&nbsp; And
+what then?&nbsp; What should she do then?&nbsp; She sat still
+gloomily, thinking of that other spouse that had been promised to
+her.</p>
+<p>As speedily after breakfast as was possible Adolphe was
+invited to a conference in his mother&rsquo;s private room.&nbsp;
+She had much debated in her own mind whether the capitaine should
+be invited to this conference or no.&nbsp; For many reasons she
+would have wished to exclude him.&nbsp; She did not like to teach
+her son that she was unable to manage her own affairs, and she
+would have been well pleased to make the capitaine understand
+that his assistance was not absolutely necessary to her.&nbsp;
+But then she had an inward fear that her green spectacles would
+not now be as efficacious on Adolphe, as they had once been, in
+old days, before he had seen the world and become a man.&nbsp; It
+might be necessary that her son, being a man, should be opposed
+by a man.&nbsp; So the capitaine was invited to the
+conference.</p>
+<p>What took place there need not be described at length.&nbsp;
+The three were closeted for two hours, at the end of which time
+they came forth together.&nbsp; The countenance of Madame Bauche
+was serene and comfortable; her hopes of ultimate success ran
+higher than ever.&nbsp; The face of the capitaine was masked, as
+are always the faces of great diplomatists; he walked placid and
+upright, raising his wooden leg with an ease and skill that was
+absolutely marvellous.&nbsp; But poor Adolphe&rsquo;s brow was
+clouded.&nbsp; Yes, poor Adolphe! for he was poor in spirit, he
+had pledged himself to give up Marie, and to accept the liberal
+allowance which his mother tendered him; but it remained for him
+now to communicate these tidings to Marie herself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Could not you tell her?&rdquo; he had said to his
+mother, with very little of that manliness in his face on which
+his mother now so prided herself.&nbsp; But La M&egrave;re Bauche
+explained to him that it was a part of the general agreement that
+Marie was to hear his decision from his own mouth.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But you need not regard it,&rdquo; said the capitaine,
+with the most indifferent air in the world.&nbsp; &ldquo;The girl
+expects it.&nbsp; Only she has some childish idea that she is
+bound till you yourself release her.&nbsp; I don&rsquo;t think
+she will be troublesome.&rdquo;&nbsp; Adolphe at that moment did
+feel that he should have liked to kick the capitaine out of his
+mother&rsquo;s house.</p>
+<p>And where should the meeting take place?&nbsp; In the hall of
+the bath-house, suggested Madame Bauche; because, as she
+observed, they could walk round and round, and nobody ever went
+there at that time of day.&nbsp; But to this Adolphe objected; it
+would be so cold and dismal and melancholy.</p>
+<p>The capitaine thought that M&egrave;re Bauche&rsquo;s little
+parlour was the place; but La M&egrave;re herself did not like
+this.&nbsp; They might be overheard, as she well knew; and she
+guessed that the meeting would not conclude without some sobs
+that would certainly be bitter and might perhaps be loud.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Send her up to the grotto, and I will follow
+her,&rdquo; said Adolphe.&nbsp; On this therefore they
+agreed.&nbsp; Now the grotto was a natural excavation in a high
+rock, which stood precipitously upright over the establishment of
+the baths.&nbsp; A steep zigzag path with almost never-ending
+steps had been made along the face of the rock from a little
+flower garden attached to the house which lay immediately under
+the mountain.&nbsp; Close along the front of the hotel ran a
+little brawling river, leaving barely room for a road between it
+and the door; over this there was a wooden bridge leading to the
+garden, and some two or three hundred yards from the bridge began
+the steps by which the ascent was made to the grotto.</p>
+<p>When the season was full and the weather perfectly warm the
+place was much frequented.&nbsp; There was a green table in it,
+and four or five deal chairs; a green garden seat also was there,
+which however had been removed into the innermost back corner of
+the excavation, as its hinder legs were somewhat at fault.&nbsp;
+A wall about two feet high ran along the face of it, guarding its
+occupants from the precipice.&nbsp; In fact it was no grotto, but
+a little chasm in the rock, such as we often see up above our
+heads in rocky valleys, and which by means of these steep steps
+had been turned into a source of exercise and amusement for the
+visitors at the hotel.</p>
+<p>Standing at the wall one could look down into the garden, and
+down also upon the shining slate roof of Madame Bauche&rsquo;s
+house; and to the left might be seen the sombre, silent,
+snow-capped top of stern old Canigou, king of mountains among
+those Eastern Pyrenees.</p>
+<p>And so Madame Bauche undertook to send Marie up to the grotto,
+and Adolphe undertook to follow her thither.&nbsp; It was now
+spring; and though the winds had fallen and the snow was no
+longer lying on the lower peaks, still the air was fresh and
+cold, and there was no danger that any of the few guests at the
+establishment would visit the place.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Make her put on her cloak, M&egrave;re Bauche,&rdquo;
+said the capitaine, who did not wish that his bride should have a
+cold in her head on their wedding-day.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re
+Bauche pished and pshawed, as though she were not minded to pay
+any attention to recommendations on such subjects from the
+capitaine.&nbsp; But nevertheless when Marie was seen slowly to
+creep across the little bridge about fifteen minutes after this
+time, she had a handkerchief on her head, and was closely wrapped
+in a dark brown cloak.</p>
+<p>Poor Marie herself little heeded the cold fresh air, but she
+was glad to avail herself of any means by which she might hide
+her face.&nbsp; When Madame Bauche sought her out in her own
+little room, and with a smiling face and kind kiss bade her go to
+the grotto, she knew, or fancied that she knew that it was all
+over.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He will tell you all the truth,&mdash;how it all
+is,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re.&nbsp; &ldquo;We will do all we
+can, you know, to make you happy, Marie.&nbsp; But you must
+remember what Monsieur le Cur&eacute; told us the other
+day.&nbsp; In this vale of tears we cannot have everything; as we
+shall have some day, when our poor wicked souls have been purged
+of all their wickedness.&nbsp; Now go, dear, and take your
+cloak.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, maman.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And Adolphe will come to you.&nbsp; And try and behave
+well, like a sensible girl.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes, maman,&rdquo;&mdash;and so she went, bearing on
+her brow another sacrificial kiss&mdash;and bearing in her heart
+such an unutterable load of woe!</p>
+<p>Adolphe had gone out of the house before her; but standing in
+the stable yard, well within the gate so that she should not see
+him, he watched her slowly crossing the bridge and mounting the
+first flight of the steps.&nbsp; He had often seen her tripping
+up those stairs, and had, almost as often, followed her with his
+quicker feet.&nbsp; And she, when she would hear him, would run;
+and then he would catch her breathless at the top, and steal
+kisses from her when all power of refusing them had been robbed
+from her by her efforts at escape.&nbsp; There was no such
+running now, no such following, no thought of such kisses.</p>
+<p>As for him, he would fain have skulked off and shirked the
+interview had he dared.&nbsp; But he did not dare; so he waited
+there, out of heart, for some ten minutes, speaking a word now
+and then to the bath-man, who was standing by, just to show that
+he was at his ease.&nbsp; But the bath-man knew that he was not
+at his ease.&nbsp; Such would-be lies as those rarely achieve
+deception;&mdash;are rarely believed.&nbsp; And then, at the end
+of the ten minutes, with steps as slow as Marie&rsquo;s had been,
+he also ascended to the grotto.</p>
+<p>Marie had watched him from the top, but so that she herself
+should not be seen.&nbsp; He however had not once lifted up his
+head to look for her; but with eyes turned to the ground had
+plodded his way up to the cave.&nbsp; When he entered she was
+standing in the middle, with her eyes downcast and her hands
+clasped before her.&nbsp; She had retired some way from the wall,
+so that no eyes might possibly see her but those of her false
+lover.&nbsp; There she stood when he entered, striving to stand
+motionless, but trembling like a leaf in every limb.</p>
+<p>It was only when he reached the top step that he made up his
+mind how he would behave.&nbsp; Perhaps after all, the capitaine
+was right; perhaps she would not mind it.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Marie,&rdquo; said he, with a voice that attempted to
+be cheerful; &ldquo;this is an odd place to meet in after such a
+long absence,&rdquo; and he held out his hand to her.&nbsp; But
+only his hand!&nbsp; He offered her no salute.&nbsp; He did not
+even kiss her cheek as a brother would have done!&nbsp; Of the
+rules of the outside world it must be remembered that poor Marie
+knew but little.&nbsp; He had been a brother to her before he had
+become her lover.</p>
+<p>But Marie took his hand saying, &ldquo;Yes, it has been very
+long.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And now that I have come back,&rdquo; he went on to
+say, &ldquo;it seems that we are all in a confusion
+together.&nbsp; I never knew such a piece of work.&nbsp; However,
+it is all for the best, I suppose.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Perhaps so,&rdquo; said Marie, still trembling
+violently, and still looking upon the ground.&nbsp; And then
+there was silence between them for a minute or so.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I tell you what it is, Marie,&rdquo; said Adolphe at
+last, dropping her hand and making a great effort to get through
+the work before him.&nbsp; &ldquo;I am afraid we two have been
+very foolish.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you think we have now?&nbsp; It
+seems quite clear that we can never get ourselves married.&nbsp;
+Don&rsquo;t you see it in that light?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Marie&rsquo;s head turned round and round with her, but she
+was not of the fainting order.&nbsp; She took three steps
+backwards and leant against the wall of the cave.&nbsp; She also
+was trying to think how she might best fight her battle.&nbsp;
+Was there no chance for her?&nbsp; Could no eloquence, no love
+prevail?&nbsp; On her own beauty she counted but little; but
+might not prayers do something, and a reference to those old vows
+which had been so frequent, so eager, so solemnly pledged between
+them?</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Never get ourselves married!&rdquo; she said, repeating
+his words.&nbsp; &ldquo;Never, Adolphe?&nbsp; Can we never be
+married?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my word, my dear girl, I fear not.&nbsp; You see
+my mother is so dead against it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But we could wait; could we not?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ah, but that&rsquo;s just it, Marie.&nbsp; We cannot
+wait.&nbsp; We must decide now,&mdash;to-day.&nbsp; You see I can
+do nothing without money from her&mdash;and as for you, you see
+she won&rsquo;t even let you stay in the house unless you marry
+old Campan at once.&nbsp; He&rsquo;s a very good sort of fellow
+though, old as he is.&nbsp; And if you do marry him, why you see
+you&rsquo;ll stay here, and have it all your own way in
+everything.&nbsp; As for me, I shall come and see you all from
+time to time, and shall be able to push my way as I ought to
+do.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then, Adolphe, you wish me to marry the
+capitaine?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon my honour I think it is the best thing you can do;
+I do indeed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, Adolphe!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What can I do for you, you know?&nbsp; Suppose I was to
+go down to my mother and tell her that I had decided to keep you
+myself; what would come of it?&nbsp; Look at it in that light,
+Marie.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She could not turn you out&mdash;you her own
+son!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But she would turn you out; and deuced quick, too, I
+can assure you of that; I can, upon my honour.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I should not care that,&rdquo; and she made a motion
+with her hand to show how indifferent she would be to such
+treatment as regarded herself.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not that&mdash;; if I
+still had the promise of your love.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But what would you do?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I would work.&nbsp; There are other houses beside that
+one,&rdquo; and she pointed to the slate roof of the Bauche
+establishment.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And for me&mdash;I should not have a penny in the
+world,&rdquo; said the young man.</p>
+<p>She came up to him and took his right hand between both of
+hers and pressed it warmly, oh, so warmly.&nbsp; &ldquo;You would
+have my love,&rdquo; said she; &ldquo;my deepest, warmest best
+heart&rsquo;s love should want nothing more, nothing on earth, if
+I could still have yours.&rdquo;&nbsp; And she leaned against his
+shoulder and looked with all her eyes into his face.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But, Marie, that&rsquo;s nonsense, you know.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;No, Adolphe, it is not nonsense.&nbsp; Do not let them
+teach you so.&nbsp; What does love mean, if it does not mean
+that?&nbsp; Oh, Adolphe, you do love me, you do love me, you do
+love me?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Yes;&mdash;I love you,&rdquo; he said slowly;&mdash;as
+though he would not have said it, if he could have helped
+it.&nbsp; And then his arm crept slowly round her waist, as
+though in that also he could not help himself.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And do not I love you?&rdquo; said the passionate
+girl.&nbsp; &ldquo;Oh, I do, so dearly; with all my heart, with
+all my soul.&nbsp; Adolphe, I so love you, that I cannot give you
+up.&nbsp; Have I not sworn to be yours; sworn, sworn a thousand
+times?&nbsp; How can I marry that man!&nbsp; Oh Adolphe how can
+you wish that I should marry him?&rdquo;&nbsp; And she clung to
+him, and looked at him, and besought him with her eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I shouldn&rsquo;t wish it;&mdash;only&mdash;&rdquo; and
+then he paused.&nbsp; It was hard to tell her that he was willing
+to sacrifice her to the old man because he wanted money from his
+mother.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Only what!&nbsp; But Adolphe, do not wish it at
+all!&nbsp; Have you not sworn that I should be your wife?&nbsp;
+Look here, look at this;&rdquo; and she brought out from her
+bosom a little charm that he had given her in return for that
+cross.&nbsp; &ldquo;Did you not kiss that when you swore before
+the figure of the Virgin that I should be your wife?&nbsp; And do
+you not remember that I feared to swear too, because your mother
+was so angry; and then you made me?&nbsp; After that,
+Adolphe!&nbsp; Oh, Adolphe!&nbsp; Tell me that I may have some
+hope.&nbsp; I will wait; oh, I will wait so patiently.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He turned himself away from her and walked backwards and
+forwards uneasily through the grotto.&nbsp; He did love
+her;&mdash;love her as such men do love sweet, pretty
+girls.&nbsp; The warmth of her hand, the affection of her touch,
+the pure bright passion of her tear-laden eye had re-awakened
+what power of love there was within him.&nbsp; But what was he to
+do?&nbsp; Even if he were willing to give up the immediate golden
+hopes which his mother held out to him, how was he to begin, and
+then how carry out this work of self-devotion?&nbsp; Marie would
+be turned away, and he would be left a victim in the hands of his
+mother, and of that stiff, wooden-legged militaire;&mdash;a
+penniless victim, left to mope about the place without a grain of
+influence or a morsel of pleasure.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But what can we do?&rdquo; he exclaimed again, as he
+once more met Marie&rsquo;s searching eye.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We can be true and honest, and we can wait,&rdquo; she
+said, coming close up to him and taking hold of his arm.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;I do not fear it; and she is not my mother, Adolphe.&nbsp;
+You need not fear your own mother.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Fear! no, of course I don&rsquo;t fear.&nbsp; But I
+don&rsquo;t see how the very devil we can manage it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Will you let me tell her that I will not marry the
+capitaine; that I will not give up your promises; and then I am
+ready to leave the house?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It would do no good.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It would do every good, Adolphe, if I had your promised
+word once more; if I could hear from your own voice one more tone
+of love.&nbsp; Do you not remember this place?&nbsp; It was here
+that you forced me to say that I loved you.&nbsp; It is here also
+that you will tell me that I have been deceived.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is not I that would deceive you,&rdquo; he
+said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I wonder that you should be so hard upon
+me.&nbsp; God knows that I have trouble enough.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, if I am a trouble to you, be it so.&nbsp; Be it
+as you wish,&rdquo; and she leaned back against the wall of the
+rock, and crossing her arms upon her breast looked away from him
+and fixed her eyes upon the sharp granite peaks of Canigou.</p>
+<p>He again betook himself to walk backwards and forwards through
+the cave.&nbsp; He had quite enough of love for her to make him
+wish to marry her; quite enough now, at this moment, to make the
+idea of her marriage with the capitaine very distasteful to him;
+enough probably to make him become a decently good husband to
+her, should fate enable him to marry her; but not enough to
+enable him to support all the punishment which would be the sure
+effects of his mother&rsquo;s displeasure.&nbsp; Besides, he had
+promised his mother that he would give up Marie;&mdash;had
+entirely given in his adhesion to that plan of the marriage with
+the capitaine.&nbsp; He had owned that the path of life as marked
+out for him by his mother was the one which it behoved him, as a
+man, to follow.&nbsp; It was this view of his duties as a man
+which had I been specially urged on him with all the
+capitaine&rsquo;s eloquence.&nbsp; And old Campan had entirely
+succeeded.&nbsp; It is so easy to get the assent of such young
+men, so weak in mind and so weak in pocket, when the arguments
+are backed by a promise of two thousand francs a year.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ll tell you what I&rsquo;ll do,&rdquo; at last
+he said.&nbsp; &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll get my mother by herself, and
+will ask her to let the matter remain as it is for the
+present.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not if it be a trouble, M. Adolphe;&rdquo; and the
+proud girl still held her hands upon her bosom, and still looked
+towards the mountain.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You know what I mean, Marie.&nbsp; You can understand
+how she and the capitaine are worrying me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But tell me, Adolphe, do you love me?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;You know I love you, only.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you will not give me up?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will ask my mother.&nbsp; I will try and make her
+yield.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Marie could not feel that she received much confidence from
+her lover&rsquo;s promise; but still, even that, weak and
+unsteady as it was, even that was better than absolute fixed
+rejection.&nbsp; So she thanked him, promised him with tears in
+her eyes that she would always, always be faithful to him, and
+then bade him go down to the house.&nbsp; She would follow, she
+said, as soon as his passing had ceased to be observed.</p>
+<p>Then she looked at him as though she expected some sign of
+renewed love.&nbsp; But no such sign was vouchsafed to her.&nbsp;
+Now that she thirsted for the touch of his lip upon her check, it
+was denied to her.&nbsp; He did as she bade him; he went down,
+slowly loitering, by himself; and in about half an hour she
+followed him, and unobserved crept to her chamber.</p>
+<p>Again we will pass over what took place between the mother and
+the son; but late in that evening, after the guests had gone to
+bed, Marie received a message, desiring her to wait on Madame
+Bauche in a small salon which looked out from one end of the
+house.&nbsp; It was intended as a private sitting-room should any
+special stranger arrive who required such accommodation, and
+therefore was but seldom used.&nbsp; Here she found La
+M&egrave;re Bauche sitting in an arm-chair behind a small table
+on which stood two candles; and on a sofa against the wall sat
+Adolphe.&nbsp; The capitaine was not in the room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Shut the door, Marie, and come in and sit down,&rdquo;
+said Madame Bauche.&nbsp; It was easy to understand from the tone
+of her voice that she was angry and stern, in an unbending mood,
+and resolved to carry out to the very letter all the threats
+conveyed by those terrible spectacles.</p>
+<p>Marie did as she was bid.&nbsp; She closed the door and sat
+down on the chair that was nearest to her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Marie,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re Bauche&mdash;and the
+voice sounded fierce in the poor girl&rsquo;s ears, and an angry
+fire glimmered through the green glasses&mdash;&ldquo;what is all
+this about that I hear?&nbsp; Do you dare to say that you hold my
+son bound to marry you?&rdquo;&nbsp; And then the august mother
+paused for an answer.</p>
+<p>But Marie had no answer to give.&nbsp; See looked suppliantly
+towards her lover, as though beseeching him to carry on the fight
+for her.&nbsp; But if she could not do battle for herself,
+certainly he could not do it for her.&nbsp; What little amount of
+fighting he had had in him, had been thoroughly vanquished before
+her arrival.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;I will have an answer, and that immediately,&rdquo;
+said Madame Bauche.&nbsp; &ldquo;I am not going to be betrayed
+into ignominy and disgrace by the object of my own charity.&nbsp;
+Who picked you out of the gutter, miss, and brought you up and
+fed you, when you would otherwise have gone to the
+foundling?&nbsp; And this is your gratitude for it all?&nbsp; You
+are not satisfied with being fed and clothed and cherished by me,
+but you must rob me of my son!&nbsp; Know this then, Adolphe
+shall never marry a child of charity such as you are.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Marie sat still, stunned by the harshness of these
+words.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re Bauche had often scolded her; indeed,
+she was given to much scolding; but she had scolded her as a
+mother may scold a child.&nbsp; And when this story of
+Marie&rsquo;s love first reached her ears, she had been very
+angry; but her anger had never brought her to such a pass as
+this.&nbsp; Indeed, Marie had not hitherto been taught to look at
+the matter in this light.&nbsp; No one had heretofore twitted her
+with eating the bread of charity.&nbsp; It had not occurred to
+her that on this account she was unfit to be Adolphe&rsquo;s
+wife.&nbsp; There, in that valley, they were all so nearly equal,
+that no idea of her own inferiority had ever pressed itself upon
+her mind.&nbsp; But now&mdash;!</p>
+<p>When the voice ceased she again looked at him; but it was no
+longer a beseeching look.&nbsp; Did he also altogether scorn
+her?&nbsp; That was now the inquiry which her eyes were called
+upon to make.&nbsp; No; she could not say that he did.&nbsp; It
+seemed to her that his energies were chiefly occupied in pulling
+to pieces the tassel on the sofa cushion.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And now, miss, let me know at once whether this
+nonsense is to be over or not,&rdquo; continued La M&egrave;re
+Bauche; &ldquo;and I will tell you at once, I am not going to
+maintain you here, in my house, to plot against our welfare and
+happiness.&nbsp; As Marie Clavert you shall not stay here.&nbsp;
+Capitaine Campan is willing to marry you; and as his wife I will
+keep my word to you, though you little deserve it.&nbsp; If you
+refuse to marry him, you must go.&nbsp; As to my son, he is
+there; and he will tell you now, in my presence, that he
+altogether declines the honour you propose for him.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And then she ceased, waiting for an answer, drumming the table
+with a wafer stamp which happened to be ready to her hand; but
+Marie said nothing.&nbsp; Adolphe had been appealed to; but
+Adolphe had not yet spoken.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, miss?&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re Bauche</p>
+<p>Then Marie rose from her seat, and walking round she touched
+Adolphe lightly on the shoulder.&nbsp; &ldquo;Adolphe,&rdquo; she
+said, &ldquo;it is for you to speak now.&nbsp; I will do as you
+bid me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He gave a long sigh, looked first at Marie and then at his
+mother, shook himself slightly, and then spoke: &ldquo;Upon my
+word, Marie, I think mother is right.&nbsp; It would never do for
+us to marry; it would not indeed.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then it is decided,&rdquo; said Marie, returning to her
+chair.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you will marry the capitaine?&rdquo; said La
+M&egrave;re Bauche.</p>
+<p>Marie merely bowed her head in token of acquiescence.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Then we are friends again.&nbsp; Come here, Marie, and
+kiss me.&nbsp; You must know that it is my duty to take care of
+my own son.&nbsp; But I don&rsquo;t want to be angry with you if
+I can help it; I don&rsquo;t indeed.&nbsp; When once you are
+Madame Campan, you shall be my own child; and you shall have any
+room in the house you like to choose&mdash;there!&rdquo;&nbsp;
+And she once more imprinted a kiss on Marie&rsquo;s cold
+forehead.</p>
+<p>How they all got out of the room, and off to their own
+chambers, I can hardly tell.&nbsp; But in five minutes from the
+time of this last kiss they were divided.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re
+Bauche had patted Marie, and smiled on her, and called her her
+dear good little Madame Campan, her young little Mistress of the
+H&ocirc;tel Bauche; and had then got herself into her own room,
+satisfied with her own victory.</p>
+<p>Nor must my readers be too severe on Madame Bauche.&nbsp; She
+had already done much for Marie Clavert; and when she found
+herself once more by her own bedside, she prayed to be forgiven
+for the cruelty which she felt that she had shown to the
+orphan.&nbsp; But in making this prayer, with her favourite
+crucifix in her hand and the little image of the Virgin before
+her, she pleaded her duty to her son.&nbsp; Was it not right, she
+asked the Virgin, that she should save her son from a bad
+marriage?&nbsp; And then she promised ever so much of recompense,
+both to the Virgin and to Marie; a new trousseau for each, with
+candles to the Virgin, with a gold watch and chain for Marie, as
+soon as she should be Marie Campan.&nbsp; She had been cruel; she
+acknowledged it.&nbsp; But at such a crisis was it not
+defensible?&nbsp; And then the recompense should be so full!</p>
+<p>But there was one other meeting that night, very short indeed,
+but not the less significant.&nbsp; Not long after they had all
+separated, just so long as to allow of the house being quiet,
+Adolphe, still sitting in his room, meditating on what the day
+had done for him, heard a low tap at his door.&nbsp; &ldquo;Come
+in,&rdquo; he said, as men always do say; and Marie opening the
+door, stood just within the verge of his chamber.&nbsp; She had
+on her countenance neither the soft look of entreating love which
+she had worn up there in the grotto, nor did she appear crushed
+and subdued as she had done before his mother.&nbsp; She carried
+her head somewhat more erect than usual, and looked boldly out at
+him from under her soft eyelashes.&nbsp; There might still be
+love there, but it was love proudly resolving to quell
+itself.&nbsp; Adolphe, as he looked at her, felt that he was
+afraid of her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;It is all over then between us, M. Adolphe?&rdquo; she
+said.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Well, yes.&nbsp; Don&rsquo;t you think it had better be
+so, eh, Marie?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And this is the meaning of oaths and vows, sworn to
+each other so sacredly?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But, Marie, you heard what my mother said.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Oh, sir!&nbsp; I have not come to ask you again to love
+me.&nbsp; Oh no!&nbsp; I am not thinking of that.&nbsp; But this,
+this would be a lie if I kept it now; it would choke me if I wore
+it as that man&rsquo;s wife.&nbsp; Take it back;&rdquo; and she
+tendered to him the little charm which she had always worn round
+her neck since he had given it to her.&nbsp; He took it
+abstractedly, without thinking what he did, and placed it on his
+dressing-table.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And you,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;can you still
+keep that cross?&nbsp; Oh, no! you must give me back that.&nbsp;
+It would remind you too often of vows that were
+untrue.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Marie,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;do not be so harsh to
+me.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Harsh!&rdquo; said she, &ldquo;no; there has been
+enough of harshness.&nbsp; I would not be harsh to you,
+Adolphe.&nbsp; But give me the cross; it would prove a curse to
+you if you kept it.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He then opened a little box which stood upon the table, and
+taking out the cross gave it to her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;And now good-bye,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;We
+shall have but little more to say to each other.&nbsp; I know
+this now, that I was wrong ever to have loved you.&nbsp; I should
+have been to you as one of the other poor girls in the
+house.&nbsp; But, oh! how was I to help it?&rdquo;&nbsp; To this
+he made no answer, and she, closing the door softly, went back to
+her chamber.&nbsp; And thus ended the first day of Adolphe
+Bauche&rsquo;s return to his own house.</p>
+<p>On the next morning the capitaine and Marie were formally
+betrothed.&nbsp; This was done with some little ceremony, in the
+presence of all the guests who were staying at the establishment,
+and with all manner of gracious acknowledgments of Marie&rsquo;s
+virtues.&nbsp; It seemed as though La M&egrave;re Bauche could
+not be courteous enough to her.&nbsp; There was no more talk of
+her being a child of charity; no more allusion now to the
+gutter.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re Bauche with her own hand brought her
+cake with a glass of wine after her betrothal was over, and
+patted her on the cheek, and called her her dear little Marie
+Campan.&nbsp; And then the capitaine was made up of infinite
+politeness, and the guests all wished her joy, and the servants
+of the house began to perceive that she was a person entitled to
+respect.&nbsp; How different was all this from that harsh attack
+that was made on her the preceding evening!&nbsp; Only
+Adolphe,&mdash;he alone kept aloof.&nbsp; Though he was present
+there he said nothing.&nbsp; He, and he only, offered no
+congratulations.</p>
+<p>In the midst of all these gala doings Marie herself said
+little or nothing.&nbsp; La M&egrave;re Bauche perceived this,
+but she forgave it.&nbsp; Angrily as she had expressed herself at
+the idea of Marie&rsquo;s daring to love her son, she had still
+acknowledged within her own heart that such love had been
+natural.&nbsp; She could feel no pity for Marie as long as
+Adolphe was in danger; but now she knew how to pity her.&nbsp; So
+Marie was still petted and still encouraged, though she went
+through the day&rsquo;s work sullenly and in silence.</p>
+<p>As to the capitaine it was all one to him.&nbsp; He was a man
+of the world.&nbsp; He did not expect that he should really be
+preferred, con amore, to a young fellow like Adolphe.&nbsp; But
+he did expect that Marie, like other girls, would do as she was
+bid; and that in a few days she would regain her temper and be
+reconciled to her life.</p>
+<p>And then the marriage was fixed for a very early day; for as
+La M&egrave;re said, &ldquo;What was the use of waiting?&nbsp;
+All their minds were made up now, and therefore the sooner the
+two were married the better.&nbsp; Did not the capitaine think
+so?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The capitaine said that he did think so.</p>
+<p>And then Marie was asked.&nbsp; It was all one to her, she
+said.&nbsp; Whatever Maman Bauche liked, that she would do; only
+she would not name a day herself.&nbsp; Indeed she would neither
+do nor say anything herself which tended in any way to a
+furtherance of these matrimonials.&nbsp; But then she acquiesced,
+quietly enough if not readily, in what other people did and said;
+and so the marriage was fixed for the day week after
+Adolphe&rsquo;s return.</p>
+<p>The whole of that week passed much in the same way.&nbsp; The
+servants about the place spoke among themselves of Marie&rsquo;s
+perverseness, obstinacy, and ingratitude, because she would not
+look pleased, or answer Madame Bauche&rsquo;s courtesies with
+gratitude; but La M&egrave;re herself showed no signs of
+anger.&nbsp; Marie had yielded to her, and she required no
+more.&nbsp; And she remembered also the harsh words she had used
+to gain her purpose; and she reflected on all that Marie had
+lost.&nbsp; On these accounts she was forbearing and exacted
+nothing&mdash;nothing but that one sacrifice which was to be made
+in accordance to her wishes.</p>
+<p>And it was made.&nbsp; They were married in the great salon,
+the dining-room, immediately after breakfast.&nbsp; Madame Bauche
+was dressed in a new puce silk dress, and looked very magnificent
+on the occasion.&nbsp; She simpered and smiled, and looked gay
+even in spite of her spectacles; and as the ceremony was being
+performed, she held fast clutched in her hand the gold watch and
+chain which were intended for Marie as soon as ever the marriage
+should be completed.</p>
+<p>The capitaine was dressed exactly as usual, only that all his
+clothes were new.&nbsp; Madame Bauche had endeavoured to persuade
+him to wear a blue coat; but he answered that such a change would
+not, he was sure, be to Marie&rsquo;s taste.&nbsp; To tell the
+truth, Marie would hardly have known the difference had he
+presented himself in scarlet vestments.</p>
+<p>Adolphe, however, was dressed very finely, but he did not make
+himself prominent on the occasion.&nbsp; Marie watched him
+closely, though none saw that she did so; and of his garments she
+could have given an account with much accuracy&mdash;of his
+garments, ay! and of every look.&nbsp; &ldquo;Is he a man,&rdquo;
+she said at last to herself, &ldquo;that he can stand by and see
+all this?&rdquo;</p>
+<p>She too was dressed in silk.&nbsp; They had put on her what
+they pleased, and she bore the burden of her wedding finery
+without complaint and without pride.&nbsp; There was no blush on
+her face as she walked up to the table at which the priest stood,
+nor hesitation in her low voice as she made the necessary
+answers.&nbsp; She put her hand into that of the capitaine when
+required to do so; and when the ring was put on her finger she
+shuddered, but ever so slightly.&nbsp; No one observed it but La
+M&egrave;re Bauche.&nbsp; &ldquo;In one week she will be used to
+it, and then we shall all be happy,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re to
+herself.&nbsp; &ldquo;And I,&mdash;I will be so kind to
+her!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And so the marriage was completed, and the watch was at once
+given to Marie.&nbsp; &ldquo;Thank you, maman,&rdquo; said she,
+as the trinket was fastened to her girdle.&nbsp; Had it been a
+pincushion that had cost three sous, it would have affected her
+as much.</p>
+<p>And then there was cake and wine and sweetmeats; and after a
+few minutes Marie disappeared.&nbsp; For an hour or so the
+capitaine was taken up with the congratulating of his friends,
+and with the efforts necessary to the wearing of his new honours
+with an air of ease; but after that time he began to be uneasy
+because his wife did not come to him.&nbsp; At two or three in
+the afternoon he went to La M&egrave;re Bauche to complain.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;This lackadaisical nonsense is no good,&rdquo; he
+said.&nbsp; &ldquo;At any rate it is too late now.&nbsp; Marie
+had better come down among us and show herself satisfied with her
+husband.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>But Madame Bauche took Marie&rsquo;s part.&nbsp; &ldquo;You
+must not be too hard on Marie,&rdquo; she said.&nbsp; &ldquo;She
+has gone through a good deal this week past, and is very young;
+whereas, capitaine, you are not very young.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The capitaine merely shrugged his shoulders.&nbsp; In the mean
+time M&egrave;re Bauche went up to visit her
+prot&eacute;g&eacute;e in her own room, and came down with a
+report that she was suffering from a headache.&nbsp; She could
+not appear at dinner, Madame Bauche said; but would make one at
+the little party which was to be given in the evening.&nbsp; With
+this the capitaine was forced to be content.</p>
+<p>The dinner therefore went on quietly without her, much as it
+did on other ordinary days.&nbsp; And then there was a little
+time for vacancy, during which the gentlemen drank their coffee
+and smoked their cigars at the caf&eacute;, talking over the
+event that had taken place that morning, and the ladies brushed
+their hair and added some ribbon or some brooch to their usual
+apparel.&nbsp; Twice during this time did Madame Bauche go up to
+Marie&rsquo;s room with offers to assist her.&nbsp; &ldquo;Not
+yet, maman; not quite yet,&rdquo; said Marie piteously through
+her tears, and then twice did the green spectacles leave the
+room, covering eyes which also were not dry.&nbsp; Ah! what had
+she done?&nbsp; What had she dared to take upon herself to
+do?&nbsp; She could not undo it now.</p>
+<p>And then it became quite dark in the passages and out of
+doors, and the guests assembled in the salon.&nbsp; La
+M&egrave;re came in and out three or four times, uneasy in her
+gait and unpleasant in her aspect, and everybody began to see
+that things were wrong.&nbsp; &ldquo;She is ill, I am
+afraid,&rdquo; said one.&nbsp; &ldquo;The excitement has been too
+much,&rdquo; said a second; &ldquo;and he is so old,&rdquo;
+whispered a third.&nbsp; And the capitaine stalked about erect on
+his wooden leg, taking snuff, and striving to look indifferent;
+but he also was uneasy in his mind.</p>
+<p>Presently La M&egrave;re came in again, with a quicker step
+than before, and whispered something, first to Adolphe and then
+to the capitaine, whereupon they both followed her out of the
+room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Not in her chamber,&rdquo; said Adolphe.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Then she must be in yours,&rdquo; said the
+capitaine.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;She is in neither,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re Bauche,
+with her sternest voice; &ldquo;nor is she in the
+house!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>And now there was no longer an affectation of indifference on
+the part of any of them.&nbsp; They were anything but
+indifferent.&nbsp; The capitaine was eager in his demands that
+the matter should still be kept secret from the guests.&nbsp; She
+had always been romantic, he said, and had now gone out to walk
+by the river side.&nbsp; They three and the old bath-man would go
+out and look for her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But it is pitch dark,&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re
+Bauche.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;We will take lanterns,&rdquo; said the capitaine.&nbsp;
+And so they sallied forth with creeping steps over the gravel, so
+that they might not be heard by those within, and proceeded to
+search for the young wife.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Marie!&nbsp; Marie!&rdquo; said La M&egrave;re Bauche,
+in piteous accents; &ldquo;do come to me; pray do!&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hush!&rdquo; said the capitaine.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;They&rsquo;ll hear you if you call.&rdquo;&nbsp; He could
+not endure that the world should learn that a marriage with him
+had been so distasteful to Marie Clavert.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Marie, dear Marie!&rdquo; called Madame Bauche, louder
+than before, quite regardless of the capitaine&rsquo;s feelings;
+but no Marie answered.&nbsp; In her innermost heart now did La
+M&egrave;re Bauche wish that this cruel marriage had been left
+undone.</p>
+<p>Adolphe was foremost with his lamp, but he hardly dared to
+look in the spot where he felt that it was most likely that she
+should have taken refuge.&nbsp; How could he meet her again,
+alone, in that grotto?&nbsp; Yet he alone of the four was
+young.&nbsp; It was clearly for him to ascend.&nbsp;
+&ldquo;Marie,&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;are you there?&rdquo; as
+he slowly began the long ascent of the steps.</p>
+<p>But he had hardly begun to mount when a whirring sound struck
+his ear, and he felt that the air near him was moved; and then
+there was a crash upon the lower platform of rock, and a moan,
+repeated twice, but so faintly, and a rustle of silk, and a
+slight struggle somewhere as he knew within twenty paces of him;
+and then all was again quiet and still in the night air.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;What was that?&rdquo; asked the capitaine in a hoarse
+voice.&nbsp; He made his way half across the little garden, and
+he also was within forty or fifty yards of the flat rock.&nbsp;
+But Adolphe was unable to answer him.&nbsp; He had fainted and
+the lamp had fallen from his hands and rolled to the bottom of
+the steps.</p>
+<p>But the capitaine, though even his heart was all but quenched
+within him, had still strength enough to make his way up to the
+rock; and there, holding the lantern above his eyes, he saw all
+that was left for him to see of his bride.</p>
+<p>As for La M&egrave;re Bauche, she never again sat at the head
+of that table,&mdash;never again dictated to guests,&mdash;never
+again laid down laws for the management of any one.&nbsp; A poor
+bedridden old woman, she lay there in her house at Vernet for
+some seven tedious years, and then was gathered to her
+fathers.</p>
+<p>As for the capitaine&mdash;but what matters?&nbsp; He was made
+of sterner stuff.&nbsp; What matters either the fate of such a
+one as Adolphe Bauche?</p>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LA MERE BAUCHE***</p>
+<pre>
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of La Mere Bauche, by Anthony Trollope
+#12 in our series by Anthony Trollope
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+Title: La Mere Bauche from Tales of All Countries
+
+Author: Anthony Trollope
+
+Release Date: November, 2002  [Etext #3550]
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+
+LA MERE BAUCHE
+from "Tales from All Countries"
+
+
+
+
+The Pyreneean valley in which the baths of Vernet are situated is not
+much known to English, or indeed to any travellers.  Tourists in
+search of good hotels and picturesque beauty combined, do not
+generally extend their journeys to the Eastern Pyrenees.  They rarely
+get beyond Luchon; and in this they are right, as they thus end their
+peregrinations at the most lovely spot among these mountains, and are
+as a rule so deceived, imposed on, and bewildered by guides,
+innkeepers, and horse-owners, at this otherwise delightful place, as
+to become undesirous of further travel.  Nor do invalids from distant
+parts frequent Vernet.  People of fashion go to the Eaux Bonnes and
+to Luchon, and people who are really ill to Bareges and Cauterets.
+It is at these places that one meets crowds of Parisians, and the
+daughters and wives of rich merchants from Bordeaux, with an
+admixture, now by no means inconsiderable, of Englishmen and
+Englishwomen.  But the Eastern Pyrenees are still unfrequented.  And
+probably they will remain so; for though there are among them lovely
+valleys--and of all such the valley of Vernet is perhaps the most
+lovely--they cannot compete with the mountain scenery of other
+tourists-loved regions in Europe.  At the Port de Venasquez and the
+Breche de Roland in the Western Pyrenees, or rather, to speak more
+truly, at spots in the close vicinity of these famous mountain
+entrances from France into Spain, one can make comparisons with
+Switzerland, Northern Italy, the Tyrol, and Ireland, which will not
+be injurious to the scenes then under view.  But among the eastern
+mountains this can rarely be done.  The hills do not stand thickly
+together so as to group themselves; the passes from one valley to
+another, though not wanting in altitude, are not close pressed
+together with overhanging rocks, and are deficient in grandeur as
+well as loveliness.  And then, as a natural consequence of all this,
+the hotels--are not quite as good as they should be.
+
+But there is one mountain among them which can claim to rank with the
+Pic du Midi or the Maledetta.  No one can pooh-pooh the stern old
+Canigou, standing high and solitary, solemn and grand, between the
+two roads which run from Perpignan into Spain, the one by Prades and
+the other by Le Boulon.  Under the Canigou, towards the west, lie the
+hot baths of Vernet, in a close secluded valley, which, as I have
+said before, is, as far as I know, the sweetest spot in these Eastern
+Pyrenees.
+
+The frequenters of these baths were a few years back gathered almost
+entirely from towns not very far distant, from Perpignan, Narbonne,
+Carcassonne, and Bezieres, and the baths were not therefore famous,
+expensive, or luxurious; but those who believed in them believed with
+great faith; and it was certainly the fact that men and women who
+went thither worn with toil, sick with excesses, and nervous through
+over-care, came back fresh and strong, fit once more to attack the
+world with all its woes.  Their character in latter days does not
+seem to have changed, though their circle of admirers may perhaps be
+somewhat extended.
+
+In those days, by far the most noted and illustrious person in the
+village of Vernet was La Mere Bauche.  That there had once been a
+Pere Bauche was known to the world, for there was a Fils Bauche who
+lived with his mother; but no one seemed to remember more of him than
+that he had once existed.  At Vernet he had never been known.  La
+Mere Bauche was a native of the village, but her married life had
+been passed away from it, and she had returned in her early widowhood
+to become proprietress and manager, or, as one may say, the heart and
+soul of the Hotel Bauche at Vernet.
+
+This hotel was a large and somewhat rough establishment, intended for
+the accommodation of invalids who came to Vernet for their health.
+It was built immediately over one of the thermal springs, so that the
+water flowed from the bowels of the earth directly into the baths.
+There was accommodation for seventy people, and during the summer and
+autumn months the place was always full.  Not a few also were to be
+found there during the winter and spring, for the charges of Madame
+Bauche were low, and the accommodation reasonably good.
+
+And in this respect, as indeed in all others, Madame Bauche had the
+reputation of being an honest woman.  She had a certain price, from
+which no earthly consideration would induce her to depart; and there
+were certain returns for this price in the shape of dejeuners and
+dinners, baths and beds, which she never failed to give in accordance
+with the dictates of a strict conscience.  These were traits in the
+character of an hotel-keeper which cannot be praised too highly, and
+which had met their due reward in the custom of the public.  But
+nevertheless there were those who thought that there was occasionally
+ground for complaint in the conduct even of Madame Bauche.
+
+In the first place she was deficient in that pleasant smiling
+softness which should belong to any keeper of a house of public
+entertainment.  In her general mode of life she was stern and silent
+with her guests, autocratic, authoritative and sometimes
+contradictory in her house, and altogether irrational and
+unconciliatory when any change even for a day was proposed to her, or
+when any shadow of a complaint reached her ears.
+
+Indeed of complaint, as made against the establishment, she was
+altogether intolerant.  To such she had but one answer.  He or she
+who complained might leave the place at a moment's notice if it so
+pleased them.  There were always others ready to take their places.
+The power of making this answer came to her from the lowness of her
+prices; and it was a power which was very dear to her.
+
+The baths were taken at different hours according to medical advice,
+but the usual time was from five to seven in the morning.  The
+dejeuner or early meal was at nine o'clock, the dinner was at four.
+After that, no eating or drinking was allowed in the Hotel Bauche.
+There was a cafe in the village, at which ladies and gentlemen could
+get a cup of coffee or a glass of eau sucre; but no such
+accommodation was to be had in the establishment.  Not by any
+possible bribery or persuasion could any meal be procured at any
+other than the authorised hours.  A visitor who should enter the
+salle a manger more than ten minutes after the last bell would be
+looked at very sourly by Madame Bauche, who on all occasions sat at
+the top of her own table.  Should any one appear as much as half an
+hour late, he would receive only his share of what had not been
+handed round.  But after the last dish had been so handed, it was
+utterly useless for any one to enter the room at all.
+
+Her appearance at the period of our tale was perhaps not altogether
+in her favour.  She was about sixty years of age and was very stout
+and short in the neck.  She wore her own gray hair, which at dinner
+was always tidy enough; but during the 'whole day previous to that
+hour she might be seen with it escaping from under her cap in extreme
+disorder.  Her eyebrows were large and bushy, but those alone would
+not have given to her face that look of indomitable sternness which
+it possessed.  Her eyebrows were serious in their effect, but not so
+serious as the pair of green spectacles which she always wore under
+them.  It was thought by those who had analysed the subject that the
+great secret of Madame Bauche's power lay in her green spectacles.
+
+Her custom was to move about and through the whole establishment
+every day from breakfast till the period came for her to dress for
+dinner.  She would visit every chamber and every bath, walk once or
+twice round the salle a manger, and very repeatedly round the
+kitchen; she would go into every hole and corner, and peer into
+everything through her green spectacles:  and in these walks it was
+not always thought pleasant to meet her.  Her custom was to move very
+slowly, with her hands generally clasped behind her back:  she rarely
+spoke to the guests unless she was spoken to, and on such occasions
+she would not often diverge into general conversation.  If any one
+had aught to say connected with the business of the establishment,
+she would listen, and then she would make her answers,--often not
+pleasant in the hearing.
+
+And thus she walked her path through the world, a stern, hard, solemn
+old woman, not without gusts of passionate explosion; but honest
+withal, and not without some inward benevolence and true tenderness
+of heart.  Children she had had many, some seven or eight.  One or
+two had died, others had been married; she had sons settled far away
+from home, and at the time of which we are now speaking but one was
+left in any way subject to maternal authority.
+
+Adolphe Bauche was the only one of her children of whom much was
+remembered by the present denizens and hangers-on of the hotel, he
+was the youngest of the number, and having been born only very
+shortly before the return of Madame Bauche to Vernet, had been
+altogether reared there.  It was thought by the world of those parts,
+and rightly thought, that he was his mother's darling--more so than
+had been any of his brothers and sisters,--the very apple of her eye
+and gem of her life.  At this time he was about twenty-five years of
+age, and for the last two years had been absent from Vernet--for
+reasons which will shortly be made to appear.  He had been sent to
+Paris to see something of the world, and learn to talk French instead
+of the patois of his valley; and having left Paris had come down
+south into Languedoc, and remained there picking up some agricultural
+lore which it was thought might prove useful in the valley farms of
+Vernet.  He was now expected home again very speedily, much to his
+mother's delight.
+
+That she was kind and gracious to her favourite child does not
+perhaps give much proof of her benevolence; but she had also been
+kind and gracious to the orphan child of a neighbour; nay, to the
+orphan child of a rival innkeeper.  At Vernet there had been more
+than one water establishment, but the proprietor of the second had
+died some few years after Madame Bauche had settled herself at the
+place.  His house had not thrived, and his only child, a little girl,
+was left altogether without provision.
+
+This little girl, Marie Clavert, La Mere Bauche had taken into her
+own house immediately after the father's death, although she had most
+cordially hated that father.  Marie was then an infant, and Madame
+Bauche had accepted the charge without much thought, perhaps, as to
+what might be the child's ultimate destiny.  But since then she had
+thoroughly done the duty of a mother by the little girl, who had
+become the pet of the whole establishment, the favourite plaything of
+Adolphe Bauche, and at last of course his early sweetheart.
+
+And then and therefore there had come troubles at Vernet.  Of course
+all the world of the valley had seen what was taking place and what
+was likely to take place, long before Madame Bauche knew anything
+about it.  But at last it broke upon her senses that her son, Adolphe
+Bauche, the heir to all her virtues and all her riches, the first
+young man in that or any neighbouring valley, was absolutely
+contemplating the idea of marrying that poor little orphan, Marie
+Clavert!
+
+That any one should ever fall in love with Marie Clavert had never
+occurred to Madame Bauche.  She had always regarded the child as a
+child, as the object of her charity, and as a little thing to be
+looked on as poor Marie by all the world.  She, looking through her
+green spectacles, had never seen that Marie Clavert was a beautiful
+creature, full of ripening charms, such as young men love to look on.
+Marie was of infinite daily use to Madame Bauche in a hundred little
+things about the house, and the old lady thoroughly recognised and
+appreciated her ability.  But for this very reason she had never
+taught herself to regard Marie otherwise than as a useful drudge.
+She was very fond of her protegee--so much so that she would listen
+to her in affairs about the house when she would listen to no one
+else;--but Marie's prettiness and grace and sweetness as a girl had
+all been thrown away upon Maman Bauche, as Marie used to call her.
+
+But unluckily it had not been thrown away upon Adolphe.  He had
+appreciated, as it was natural that he should do, all that had been
+so utterly indifferent to his mother; and consequently had fallen in
+love.  Consequently also he had told his love; and consequently also
+Marie had returned his love.
+
+Adolphe had been hitherto contradicted but in few things, and thought
+that all difficulty would be prevented by his informing his mother
+that he wished to marry Marie Clavert.  But Marie, with a woman's
+instinct, had known better.  She had trembled and almost crouched
+with fear when she confessed her love; and had absolutely hid herself
+from sight when Adolphe went forth, prepared to ask his mother's
+consent to his marriage.
+
+The indignation and passionate wrath of Madame Bauche were past and
+gone two years before the date of this story, and I need not
+therefore much enlarge upon that subject.  She was at first abusive
+and bitter, which was bad for Marie; and afterwards bitter and
+silent, which was worse.  It was of course determined that poor Marie
+should be sent away to some asylum for orphans or penniless paupers--
+in short anywhere out of the way.  What mattered her outlook into the
+world, her happiness, or indeed her very existence?  The outlook and
+happiness of Adolphe Bauche,--was not that to be considered as
+everything at Vernet?
+
+But this terrible sharp aspect of affairs did not last very long.  In
+the first place La Mere Bauche had under those green spectacles a
+heart that in truth was tender and affectionate, and after the first
+two days of anger she admitted that something must be done for Marie
+Clavert; and after the fourth day she acknowledged that the world of
+the hotel, her world, would not go as well without Marie Clavert as
+it would with her.  And in the next place Madame Bauche had a friend
+whose advice in grave matters she would sometimes take.  This friend
+had told her that it would be much better to send away Adolphe, since
+it was so necessary that there should be a sending away of some one;
+that he would be much benefited by passing some months of his life
+away from his native valley; and that an absence of a year or two
+would teach him to forget Marie, even if it did not teach Marie to
+forget him.
+
+And we must say a word or two about this friend.  At Vernet he was
+usually called M. le Capitaine, though in fact he had never reached
+that rank.  He had been in the army, and having been wounded in the
+leg while still a sous-lieutenant, had been pensioned, and had thus
+been interdicted from treading any further the thorny path that leads
+to glory.  For the last fifteen years he had resided under the roof
+of Madame Bauche, at first as a casual visitor, going and coming, but
+now for many years as constant there as she was herself.
+
+He was so constantly called Le Capitaine that his real name was
+seldom heard.  It may however as well be known to us that this was
+Theodore Campan.  He was a tall, well-looking man; always dressed in
+black garments, of a coarse description certainly, but scrupulously
+clean and well brushed; of perhaps fifty years of age, and
+conspicuous for the rigid uprightness of his back--and for a black
+wooden leg.
+
+This wooden leg was perhaps the most remarkable trait in his
+character.  It was always jet black, being painted, or polished, or
+japanned, as occasion might require, by the hands of the capitaine
+himself.  It was longer than ordinary wooden legs, as indeed the
+capitaine was longer than ordinary men; but nevertheless it never
+seemed in any way to impede the rigid punctilious propriety of his
+movements.  It was never in his way as wooden legs usually are in the
+way of their wearers.  And then to render it more illustrious it had
+round its middle, round the calf of the leg we may so say, a band of
+bright brass which shone like burnished gold.
+
+It had been the capitaine's custom, now for some years past, to
+retire every evening at about seven o'clock into the sanctum
+sanctorum of Madame Bauche's habitation, the dark little private
+sitting-room in which she made out her bills and calculated her
+profits, and there regale himself in her presence--and indeed at her
+expense, for the items never appeared in the bill--with coffee and
+cognac.  I have said that there was never eating or drinking at the
+establishment after the regular dinner-hours; but in so saying I
+spoke of the world at large.  Nothing further was allowed in the way
+of trade; but in the way of friendship so much was now-a-days always
+allowed to the capitaine.
+
+It was at these moments that Madame Bauche discussed her private
+affairs, and asked for and received advice.  For even Madame Bauche
+was mortal; nor could her green spectacles without other aid carry
+her through all the troubles of life.  It was now five years since
+the world of Vernet discovered that La Mere Bauche was going to marry
+the capitaine; and for eighteen months the world of Vernet had been
+full of this matter:  but any amount of patience is at last
+exhausted, and as no further steps in that direction were ever taken
+beyond the daily cup of coffee, that subject died away--very much
+unheeded by La Mere Bauche.
+
+But she, though she thought of no matrimony for herself, thought much
+of matrimony for other people; and over most of those cups of evening
+coffee and cognac a matrimonial project was discussed in these latter
+days.  It has been seen that the capitaine pleaded in Marie's favour
+when the fury of Madame Bauche's indignation broke forth; and that
+ultimately Marie was kept at home, and Adolphe sent away by his
+advice.
+
+"But Adolphe cannot always stay away," Madame Bauche had pleaded in
+her difficulty.  The truth of this the capitaine had admitted; but
+Marie, he said, might be married to some one else before two years
+were over.  And so the matter had commenced.
+
+But to whom should she be married?  To this question the capitaine
+had answered in perfect innocence of heart, that La Mere Bauche would
+be much better able to make such a choice than himself.  He did not
+know how Marie might stand with regard to money.  If madame would
+give some little "dot," the affair, the capitaine thought, would be
+more easily arranged.
+
+All these things took months to say, during which period Marie went
+on with her work in melancholy listlessness.  One comfort she had.
+Adolphe, before he went, had promised to her, holding in his hand as
+he did so a little cross which she had given him, that no earthly
+consideration should sever them;--that sooner or later he would
+certainly be her husband.  Marie felt that her limbs could not work
+nor her tongue speak were it not for this one drop of water in her
+cup.
+
+And then, deeply meditating, La Mere Bauche hit upon a plan, and
+herself communicated it to the capitaine over a second cup of coffee
+into which she poured a full teaspoonful more than the usual
+allowance of cognac.  Why should not he, the capitaine himself, be
+the man to marry Marie Clavert?
+
+It was a very startling proposal, the idea of matrimony for himself
+never having as yet entered into the capitaine's head at any period
+of his life; but La Mere Bauche did contrive to make it not
+altogether unacceptable.  As to that matter of dowry she was prepared
+to be more than generous.  She did love Marie well, and could find it
+in her heart to give her anything--any thing except her son, her own
+Adolphe.  What she proposed was this.  Adolphe, himself, would never
+keep the baths.  If the capitaine would take Marie for his wife,
+Marie, Madame Bauche declared, should be the mistress after her
+death; subject of course to certain settlements as to Adolphe's
+pecuniary interests.
+
+The plan was discussed a thousand times, and at last so far brought
+to bear that Marie was made acquainted with it--having been called in
+to sit in presence with La Mere Bauche and her future proposed
+husband.  The poor girl manifested no disgust to the stiff ungainly
+lover whom they assigned to her,--who through his whole frame was in
+appearance almost as wooden as his own leg.  On the whole, indeed,
+Marie liked the capitaine, and felt that he was her friend; and in
+her country such marriages were not uncommon.  The capitaine was
+perhaps a little beyond the age at which a man might usually be
+thought justified in demanding the services of a young girl as his
+nurse and wife, but then Marie of herself had so little to give--
+except her youth, and beauty, and goodness.
+
+But yet she could not absolutely consent; for was she not absolutely
+pledged to her own Adolphe?  And therefore, when the great pecuniary
+advantages were, one by one, displayed before her, and when La Mere
+Bauche, as a last argument, informed her that as wife of the
+capitaine she would be regarded as second mistress in the
+establishment and not as a servant, she could only burst out into
+tears, and say that she did not know.
+
+"I will be very kind to you," said the capitaine; "as kind as a man
+can be."
+
+Marie took his hard withered hand and kissed it; and then looked up
+into his face with beseeching eyes which were not without avail upon
+his heart.
+
+"We will not press her now," said the capitaine.  "There is time
+enough."
+
+But let his heart be touched ever so much, one thing was certain.  It
+could not be permitted that she should marry Adolphe.  To that view
+of the matter he had given in his unrestricted adhesion; nor could he
+by any means withdraw it without losing altogether his position in
+the establishment of Madame Bauche.  Nor indeed did his conscience
+tell him that such a marriage should be permitted.  That would be too
+much.  If every pretty girl were allowed to marry the first young man
+that might fall in love with her, what would the world come to?
+
+And it soon appeared that there was not time enough--that the time
+was growing very scant.  In three months Adolphe would be back.  And
+if everything was not arranged by that time, matters might still go
+astray.
+
+And then Madame Bauche asked her final question:  "You do not think,
+do you, that you can ever marry Adolphe?"  And as she asked it the
+accustomed terror of her green spectacles magnified itself tenfold.
+Marie could only answer by another burst of tears.
+
+The affair was at last settled among them.  Marie said that she would
+consent to marry the capitaine when she should hear from Adolphe's
+own mouth that he, Adolphe, loved her no longer.  She declared with
+many tears that her vows and pledges prevented her from promising
+more than this.  It was not her fault, at any rate not now, that she
+loved her lover.  It was not her fault--not now at least--that she
+was bound by these pledges.  When she heard from his own mouth that
+he had discarded her, then she would marry the capitaine--or indeed
+sacrifice herself in any other way that La Mere Bauche might desire.
+What would anything signify then?
+
+Madame Bauche's spectacles remained unmoved; but not her heart.
+Marie, she told the capitaine, should be equal to herself in the
+establishment, when once she was entitled to be called Madame Campan,
+and she should be to her quite as a daughter.  She should have her
+cup of coffee every evening, and dine at the big table, and wear a
+silk gown at church, and the servants should all call her Madame; a
+great career should be open to her, if she would only give up her
+foolish girlish childish love for Adolphe.  And all these great
+promises were repeated to Marie by the capitaine.
+
+But nevertheless there was but one thing in the world which in
+Marie's eyes was of any value; and that one thing was the heart of
+Adolphe Bauche.  Without that she would be nothing; with that,--with
+that assured, she could wait patiently till doomsday.
+
+Letters were written to Adolphe during all these eventful doings; and
+a letter came from him saying that he greatly valued Marie's love,
+but that as it had been clearly proved to him that their marriage
+would be neither for her advantage, nor for his, he was willing to
+give it up.  He consented to her marriage with the capitaine, and
+expressed his gratitude to his mother for the pecuniary advantages
+which she had held out to him.  Oh, Adolphe, Adolphe!  But, alas,
+alas! is not such the way of most men's hearts--and of the hearts of
+some women?
+
+This letter was read to Marie, but it had no more effect upon her
+than would have had some dry legal document.  In those days and in
+those places men and women did not depend much upon letters; nor when
+they were written, was there expressed in them much of heart or of
+feeling.  Marie would understand, as she was well aware, the glance
+of Adolphe's eye and the tone of Adolphe's voice; she would perceive
+at once from them what her lover really meant, what he wished, what
+in the innermost corner of his heart he really desired that she
+should do.  But from that stiff constrained written document she
+could understand nothing.
+
+It was agreed therefore that Adolphe should return, and that she
+would accept her fate from his mouth.  The capitaine, who knew more
+of human nature than poor Marie, felt tolerably sure of his bride.
+Adolphe, who had seen something of the world, would not care very
+much for the girl of his own valley.  Money and pleasure, and some
+little position in the world, would soon wean him from his love; and
+then Marie would accept her destiny--as other girls in the same
+position had done since the French world began.
+
+And now it was the evening before Adolphe's expected arrival.  La
+Mere Bauche was discussing the matter with the capitaine over the
+usual cup of coffee.  Madame Bauche had of late become rather nervous
+on the matter, thinking that they had been somewhat rash in acceding
+so much to Marie.  It seemed to her that it was absolutely now left
+to the two young lovers to say whether or no they would have each
+other or not.  Now nothing on earth could be further from Madame
+Bauche's intention than this.  Her decree and resolve was to heap
+down blessings on all persons concerned--provided always that she
+could have her own way; but, provided she did not have her own way,
+to heap down,--anything but blessings.  She had her code of morality
+in this matter.  She would do good if possible to everybody around
+her.  But she would not on any score be induced to consent that
+Adolphe should marry Marie Clavert.  Should that be in the wind she
+would rid the house of Marie, of the capitaine, and even of Adolphe
+himself.
+
+She had become therefore somewhat querulous, and self-opinionated in
+her discussions with her friend.
+
+"I don't know," she said on the evening in question; "I don't know.
+It may be all right; but if Adolphe turns against me, what are we to
+do then?"
+
+"Mere Bauche," said the capitaine, sipping his coffee and puffing out
+the smoke of his cigar, "Adolphe will not turn against us."  It had
+been somewhat remarked by many that the capitaine was more at home in
+the house, and somewhat freer in his manner of talking with Madame
+Bauche, since this matrimonial alliance had been on the tapis than he
+had ever been before.  La Mere herself observed it, and did not quite
+like it; but how could she prevent it now?  When the capitaine was
+once married she would make him know his place, in spite of all her
+promises to Marie.
+
+"But if he says he likes the girl?" continued Madame Bauche.
+
+"My friend, you may be sure that he will say nothing of the kind.  He
+has not been away two years without seeing girls as pretty as Marie.
+And then you have his letter."
+
+"That is nothing, capitaine; he would eat his letter as quick as you
+would eat an omelet aux fines herbes."
+
+Now the capitaine was especially quick over an omelet aux fines
+herbes.
+
+"And, Mere Bauche, you also have the purse; he will know that he
+cannot eat that, except with your good will."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Madame Bauche, "poor lad!  He has not a sous in the
+world unless I give it to him."  But it did not seem that this
+reflection was in itself displeasing to her.
+
+"Adolphe will now be a man of the world," continued the capitaine.
+"He will know that it does not do to throw away everything for a pair
+of red lips.  That is the folly of a boy, and Adolphe will be no
+longer a boy.  Believe me, Mere Bauche, things will be right enough."
+
+"And then we shall have Marie sick and ill and half dying on our
+hands," said Madame Bauche.
+
+This was not flattering to the capitaine, and so he felt it.
+"Perhaps so, perhaps not," he said.  "But at any rate she will get
+over it.  It is a malady which rarely kills young women--especially
+when another alliance awaits them."
+
+"Bah!" said Madame Bauche; and in saying that word she avenged
+herself for the too great liberty which the capitaine had lately
+taken.  He shrugged his shoulders, took a pinch of snuff and
+uninvited helped himself to a teaspoonful of cognac.  Then the
+conference ended, and on the next morning before breakfast Adolphe
+Bauche arrived.
+
+On that morning poor Marie hardly knew how to bear herself.  A month
+or two back, and even up to the last day or two, she had felt a sort
+of confidence that Adolphe would be true to her; but the nearer came
+that fatal day the less strong was the confidence of the poor girl.
+She knew that those two long-headed, aged counsellors were plotting
+against her happiness, and she felt that she could hardly dare hope
+for success with such terrible foes opposed to her.  On the evening
+before the day Madame Bauche had met her in the passages, and kissed
+her as she wished her good night.  Marie knew little about
+sacrifices, but she felt that it was a sacrificial kiss.
+
+In those days a sort of diligence with the mails for Olette passed
+through Prades early in the morning, and a conveyance was sent from
+Vernet to bring Adolphe to the baths.  Never was prince or princess
+expected with more anxiety.  Madame Bauche was up and dressed long
+before the hour, and was heard to say five several times that she was
+sure he would not come.  The capitaine was out and on the high road,
+moving about with his wooden leg, as perpendicular as a lamp-post and
+almost as black.  Marie also was up, but nobody had seen her.  She
+was up and had been out about the place before any of them were
+stirring; but now that the world was on the move she lay hidden like
+a hare in its form.
+
+And then the old char-a-banc clattered up to the door, and Adolphe
+jumped out of it into his mother's arms.  He was fatter and fairer
+than she had last seen him, had a larger beard, was more fashionably
+clothed, and certainly looked more like a man.  Marie also saw him
+out of her little window, and she thought that he looked like a god.
+Was it probable, she said to herself, that one so godlike would still
+care for her?
+
+The mother was delighted with her son, who rattled away quite at his
+ease.  He shook hands very cordially with the capitaine--of whose
+intended alliance with his own sweetheart he had been informed, and
+then as he entered the house with his hand under his mother's arm, he
+asked one question about her.  "And where is Marie?" said he.
+"Marie! oh upstairs; you shall see her after breakfast," said La Mere
+Bauche.  And so they entered the house, and went in to breakfast
+among the guests.  Everybody had heard something of the story, and
+they were all on the alert to see the young man whose love or want of
+love was considered to be of so much importance.
+
+"You will see that it will be all right," said the capitaine,
+carrying his head very high.
+
+"I think so, I think so," said La Mere Bauche, who, now that the
+capitaine was right, no longer desired to contradict him.
+
+"I know that it will be all right," said the capitaine.  "I told you
+that Adolphe would return a man; and he is a man.  Look at him; he
+does not care this for Marie Clavert;" and the capitaine, with much
+eloquence in his motion, pitched over a neighbouring wall a small
+stone which he held in his hand.
+
+And then they all went to breakfast with many signs of outward joy.
+And not without some inward joy; for Madame Bauche thought she saw
+that her son was cured of his love.  In the mean time Marie sat up
+stairs still afraid to show herself.
+
+"He has come," said a young girl, a servant in the house, running up
+to the door of Marie's room.
+
+"Yes," said Marie; "I could see that he has come."
+
+"And, oh, how beautiful he is!" said the girl, putting her hands
+together and looking up to the ceiling.  Marie in her heart of hearts
+wished that he was not half so beautiful, as then her chance of
+having him might be greater.
+
+"And the company are all talking to him as though he were the
+prefet," said the girl.
+
+"Never mind who is talking to him," said Marie; "go away, and leave
+me--you are wanted for your work."  Why before this was he not
+talking to her?  Why not, if he were really true to her?  Alas, it
+began to fall upon her mind that he would be false!  And what then?
+What should she do then?  She sat still gloomily, thinking of that
+other spouse that had been promised to her.
+
+As speedily after breakfast as was possible Adolphe was invited to a
+conference in his mother's private room.  She had much debated in her
+own mind whether the capitaine should be invited to this conference
+or no.  For many reasons she would have wished to exclude him.  She
+did not like to teach her son that she was unable to manage her own
+affairs, and she would have been well pleased to make the capitaine
+understand that his assistance was not absolutely necessary to her.
+But then she had an inward fear that her green spectacles would not
+now be as efficacious on Adolphe, as they had once been, in old days,
+before he had seen the world and become a man.  It might be necessary
+that her son, being a man, should be opposed by a man.  So the
+capitaine was invited to the conference.
+
+What took place there need not be described at length.  The three
+were closeted for two hours, at the end of which time they came forth
+together.  The countenance of Madame Bauche was serene and
+comfortable; her hopes of ultimate success ran higher than ever.  The
+face of the capitaine was masked, as are always the faces of great
+diplomatists; he walked placid and upright, raising his wooden leg
+with an ease and skill that was absolutely marvellous.  But poor
+Adolphe's brow was clouded.  Yes, poor Adolphe! for he was poor in
+spirit, he had pledged himself to give up Marie, and to accept the
+liberal allowance which his mother tendered him; but it remained for
+him now to communicate these tidings to Marie herself.
+
+"Could not you tell her?" he had said to his mother, with very little
+of that manliness in his face on which his mother now so prided
+herself.  But La Mere Bauche explained to him that it was a part of
+the general agreement that Marie was to hear his decision from his
+own mouth.
+
+"But you need not regard it," said the capitaine, with the most
+indifferent air in the world.  "The girl expects it.  Only she has
+some childish idea that she is bound till you yourself release her.
+I don't think she will be troublesome."  Adolphe at that moment did
+feel that he should have liked to kick the capitaine out of his
+mother's house.
+
+And where should the meeting take place?  In the hall of the bath-
+house, suggested Madame Bauche; because, as she observed, they could
+walk round and round, and nobody ever went there at that time of day.
+But to this Adolphe objected; it would be so cold and dismal and
+melancholy.
+
+The capitaine thought that Mere Bauche's little parlour was the
+place; but La Mere herself did not like this.  They might be
+overheard, as she well knew; and she guessed that the meeting would
+not conclude without some sobs that would certainly be bitter and
+might perhaps be loud.
+
+"Send her up to the grotto, and I will follow her," said Adolphe.  On
+this therefore they agreed.  Now the grotto was a natural excavation
+in a high rock, which stood precipitously upright over the
+establishment of the baths.  A steep zigzag path with almost never-
+ending steps had been made along the face of the rock from a little
+flower garden attached to the house which lay immediately under the
+mountain.  Close along the front of the hotel ran a little brawling
+river, leaving barely room for a road between it and the door; over
+this there was a wooden bridge leading to the garden, and some two or
+three hundred yards from the bridge began the steps by which the
+ascent was made to the grotto.
+
+When the season was full and the weather perfectly warm the place was
+much frequented.  There was a green table in it, and four or five
+deal chairs; a green garden seat also was there, which however had
+been removed into the innermost back corner of the excavation, as its
+hinder legs were somewhat at fault.  A wall about two feet high ran
+along the face of it, guarding its occupants from the precipice.  In
+fact it was no grotto, but a little chasm in the rock, such as we
+often see up above our heads in rocky valleys, and which by means of
+these steep steps had been turned into a source of exercise and
+amusement for the visitors at the hotel.
+
+Standing at the wall one could look down into the garden, and down
+also upon the shining slate roof of Madame Bauche's house; and to the
+left might be seen the sombre, silent, snow-capped top of stern old
+Canigou, king of mountains among those Eastern Pyrenees.
+
+And so Madame Bauche undertook to send Marie up to the grotto, and
+Adolphe undertook to follow her thither.  It was now spring; and
+though the winds had fallen and the snow was no longer lying on the
+lower peaks, still the air was fresh and cold, and there was no
+danger that any of the few guests at the establishment would visit
+the place.
+
+"Make her put on her cloak, Mere Bauche," said the capitaine, who did
+not wish that his bride should have a cold in her head on their
+wedding-day.  La Mere Bauche pished and pshawed, as though she were
+not minded to pay any attention to recommendations on such subjects
+from the capitaine.  But nevertheless when Marie was seen slowly to
+creep across the little bridge about fifteen minutes after this time,
+she had a handkerchief on her head, and was closely wrapped in a dark
+brown cloak.
+
+Poor Marie herself little heeded the cold fresh air, but she was glad
+to avail herself of any means by which she might hide her face.  When
+Madame Bauche sought her out in her own little room, and with a
+smiling face and kind kiss bade her go to the grotto, she knew, or
+fancied that she knew that it was all over.
+
+"He will tell you all the truth,--how it all is," said La Mere.  "We
+will do all we can, you know, to make you happy, Marie.  But you must
+remember what Monsieur le Cure told us the other day.  In this vale
+of tears we cannot have everything; as we shall have some day, when
+our poor wicked souls have been purged of all their wickedness.  Now
+go, dear, and take your cloak."
+
+"Yes, maman."
+
+"And Adolphe will come to you.  And try and behave well, like a
+sensible girl."
+
+"Yes, maman,"--and so she went, bearing on her brow another
+sacrificial kiss--and bearing in her heart such an unutterable load
+of woe!
+
+Adolphe had gone out of the house before her; but standing in the
+stable yard, well within the gate so that she should not see him, he
+watched her slowly crossing the bridge and mounting the first flight
+of the steps.  He had often seen her tripping up those stairs, and
+had, almost as often, followed her with his quicker feet.  And she,
+when she would hear him, would run; and then he would catch her
+breathless at the top, and steal kisses from her when all power of
+refusing them had been robbed from her by her efforts at escape.
+There was no such running now, no such following, no thought of such
+kisses.
+
+As for him, he would fain have skulked off and shirked the interview
+had he dared.  But he did not dare; so he waited there, out of heart,
+for some ten minutes, speaking a word now and then to the bath-man,
+who was standing by, just to show that he was at his ease.  But the
+bath-man knew that he was not at his ease.  Such would-be lies as
+those rarely achieve deception;--are rarely believed.  And then, at
+the end of the ten minutes, with steps as slow as Marie's had been,
+he also ascended to the grotto.
+
+Marie had watched him from the top, but so that she herself should
+not be seen.  He however had not once lifted up his head to look for
+her; but with eyes turned to the ground had plodded his way up to the
+cave.  When he entered she was standing in the middle, with her eyes
+downcast and her hands clasped before her.  She had retired some way
+from the wall, so that no eyes might possibly see her but those of
+her false lover.  There she stood when he entered, striving to stand
+motionless, but trembling like a leaf in every limb.
+
+It was only when he reached the top step that he made up his mind how
+he would behave.  Perhaps after all, the capitaine was right; perhaps
+she would not mind it.
+
+"Marie," said he, with a voice that attempted to be cheerful; "this
+is an odd place to meet in after such a long absence," and he held
+out his hand to her.  But only his hand!  He offered her no salute.
+He did not even kiss her cheek as a brother would have done!  Of the
+rules of the outside world it must be remembered that poor Marie knew
+but little.  He had been a brother to her before he had become her
+lover.
+
+But Marie took his hand saying, "Yes, it has been very long."
+
+"And now that I have come back," he went on to say, "it seems that we
+are all in a confusion together.  I never knew such a piece of work.
+However, it is all for the best, I suppose."
+
+"Perhaps so," said Marie, still trembling violently, and still
+looking upon the ground.  And then there was silence between them for
+a minute or so.
+
+"I tell you what it is, Marie," said Adolphe at last, dropping her
+hand and making a great effort to get through the work before him.
+"I am afraid we two have been very foolish.  Don't you think we have
+now?  It seems quite clear that we can never get ourselves married.
+Don't you see it in that light?"
+
+Marie's head turned round and round with her, but she was not of the
+fainting order.  She took three steps backwards and leant against the
+wall of the cave.  She also was trying to think how she might best
+fight her battle.  Was there no chance for her?  Could no eloquence,
+no love prevail?  On her own beauty she counted but little; but might
+not prayers do something, and a reference to those old vows which had
+been so frequent, so eager, so solemnly pledged between them?
+
+"Never get ourselves married!" she said, repeating his words.
+"Never, Adolphe?  Can we never be married?"
+
+"Upon my word, my dear girl, I fear not.  You see my mother is so
+dead against it."
+
+"But we could wait; could we not?"
+
+"Ah, but that's just it, Marie.  We cannot wait.  We must decide
+now,--to-day.  You see I can do nothing without money from her--and
+as for you, you see she won't even let you stay in the house unless
+you marry old Campan at once.  He's a very good sort of fellow
+though, old as he is.  And if you do marry him, why you see you'll
+stay here, and have it all your own way in everything.  As for me, I
+shall come and see you all from time to time, and shall be able to
+push my way as I ought to do."
+
+"Then, Adolphe, you wish me to marry the capitaine?"
+
+"Upon my honour I think it is the best thing you can do; I do
+indeed."
+
+"Oh, Adolphe!"
+
+"What can I do for you, you know?  Suppose I was to go down to my
+mother and tell her that I had decided to keep you myself; what would
+come of it?  Look at it in that light, Marie."
+
+"She could not turn you out--you her own son!"
+
+"But she would turn you out; and deuced quick, too, I can assure you
+of that; I can, upon my honour."
+
+"I should not care that," and she made a motion with her hand to show
+how indifferent she would be to such treatment as regarded herself.
+"Not that--; if I still had the promise of your love."
+
+"But what would you do?"
+
+"I would work.  There are other houses beside that one," and she
+pointed to the slate roof of the Bauche establishment.
+
+"And for me--I should not have a penny in the world," said the young
+man.
+
+She came up to him and took his right hand between both of hers and
+pressed it warmly, oh, so warmly.  "You would have my love," said
+she; "my deepest, warmest best heart's love should want nothing more,
+nothing on earth, if I could still have yours."  And she leaned
+against his shoulder and looked with all her eyes into his face.
+
+"But, Marie, that's nonsense, you know."
+
+"No, Adolphe, it is not nonsense.  Do not let them teach you so.
+What does love mean, if it does not mean that?  Oh, Adolphe, you do
+love me, you do love me, you do love me?"
+
+"Yes;--I love you," he said slowly;--as though he would not have said
+it, if he could have helped it.  And then his arm crept slowly round
+her waist, as though in that also he could not help himself.
+
+"And do not I love you?" said the passionate girl.  "Oh, I do, so
+dearly; with all my heart, with all my soul.  Adolphe, I so love you,
+that I cannot give you up.  Have I not sworn to be yours; sworn,
+sworn a thousand times?  How can I marry that man!  Oh Adolphe how
+can you wish that I should marry him?"  And she clung to him, and
+looked at him, and besought him with her eyes.
+
+"I shouldn't wish it;--only--" and then he paused.  It was hard to
+tell her that he was willing to sacrifice her to the old man because
+he wanted money from his mother.
+
+ "Only what!  But Adolphe, do not wish it at all!  Have you not sworn
+that I should be your wife?  Look here, look at this;" and she
+brought out from her bosom a little charm that he had given her in
+return for that cross.  "Did you not kiss that when you swore before
+the figure of the Virgin that I should be your wife?  And do you not
+remember that I feared to swear too, because your mother was so
+angry; and then you made me?  After that, Adolphe!  Oh, Adolphe!
+Tell me that I may have some hope.  I will wait; oh, I will wait so
+patiently."
+
+He turned himself away from her and walked backwards and forwards
+uneasily through the grotto.  He did love her;--love her as such men
+do love sweet, pretty girls.  The warmth of her hand, the affection
+of her touch, the pure bright passion of her tear-laden eye had re-
+awakened what power of love there was within him.  But what was he to
+do?  Even if he were willing to give up the immediate golden hopes
+which his mother held out to him, how was he to begin, and then how
+carry out this work of self-devotion?  Marie would be turned away,
+and he would be left a victim in the hands of his mother, and of that
+stiff, wooden-legged militaire;--a penniless victim, left to mope
+about the place without a grain of influence or a morsel of pleasure.
+
+"But what can we do?" he exclaimed again, as he once more met Marie's
+searching eye.
+
+"We can be true and honest, and we can wait," she said, coming close
+up to him and taking hold of his arm.  "I do not fear it; and she is
+not my mother, Adolphe.  You need not fear your own mother."
+
+"Fear! no, of course I don't fear.  But I don't see how the very
+devil we can manage it."
+
+"Will you let me tell her that I will not marry the capitaine; that I
+will not give up your promises; and then I am ready to leave the
+house?"
+
+"It would do no good."
+
+"It would do every good, Adolphe, if I had your promised word once
+more; if I could hear from your own voice one more tone of love.  Do
+you not remember this place?  It was here that you forced me to say
+that I loved you.  It is here also that you will tell me that I have
+been deceived."
+
+"It is not I that would deceive you," he said.  "I wonder that you
+should be so hard upon me.  God knows that I have trouble enough."
+
+"Well, if I am a trouble to you, be it so.  Be it as you wish," and
+she leaned back against the wall of the rock, and crossing her arms
+upon her breast looked away from him and fixed her eyes upon the
+sharp granite peaks of Canigou.
+
+He again betook himself to walk backwards and forwards through the
+cave.  He had quite enough of love for her to make him wish to marry
+her; quite enough now, at this moment, to make the idea of her
+marriage with the capitaine very distasteful to him; enough probably
+to make him become a decently good husband to her, should fate enable
+him to marry her; but not enough to enable him to support all the
+punishment which would be the sure effects of his mother's
+displeasure.  Besides, he had promised his mother that he would give
+up Marie;--had entirely given in his adhesion to that plan of the
+marriage with the capitaine.  He had owned that the path of life as
+marked out for him by his mother was the one which it behoved him, as
+a man, to follow.  It was this view of his duties as a man which had
+I been specially urged on him with all the capitaine's eloquence.
+And old Campan had entirely succeeded.  It is so easy to get the
+assent of such young men, so weak in mind and so weak in pocket, when
+the arguments are backed by a promise of two thousand francs a year.
+
+"I'll tell you what I'll do," at last he said.  "I'll get my mother
+by herself, and will ask her to let the matter remain as it is for
+the present."
+
+"Not if it be a trouble, M. Adolphe;" and the proud girl still held
+her hands upon her bosom, and still looked towards the mountain.
+
+"You know what I mean, Marie.  You can understand how she and the
+capitaine are worrying me."
+
+"But tell me, Adolphe, do you love me?"
+
+"You know I love you, only."
+
+"And you will not give me up?"
+
+"I will ask my mother.  I will try and make her yield."
+
+Marie could not feel that she received much confidence from her
+lover's promise; but still, even that, weak and unsteady as it was,
+even that was better than absolute fixed rejection.  So she thanked
+him, promised him with tears in her eyes that she would always,
+always be faithful to him, and then bade him go down to the house.
+She would follow, she said, as soon as his passing had ceased to be
+observed.
+
+Then she looked at him as though she expected some sign of renewed
+love.  But no such sign was vouchsafed to her.  Now that she thirsted
+for the touch of his lip upon her check, it was denied to her.  He
+did as she bade him; he went down, slowly loitering, by himself; and
+in about half an hour she followed him, and unobserved crept to her
+chamber.
+
+Again we will pass over what took place between the mother and the
+son; but late in that evening, after the guests had gone to bed,
+Marie received a message, desiring her to wait on Madame Bauche in a
+small salon which looked out from one end of the house.  It was
+intended as a private sitting-room should any special stranger arrive
+who required such accommodation, and therefore was but seldom used.
+Here she found La Mere Bauche sitting in an arm-chair behind a small
+table on which stood two candles; and on a sofa against the wall sat
+Adolphe.  The capitaine was not in the room.
+
+"Shut the door, Marie, and come in and sit down," said Madame Bauche.
+It was easy to understand from the tone of her voice that she was
+angry and stern, in an unbending mood, and resolved to carry out to
+the very letter all the threats conveyed by those terrible
+spectacles.
+
+Marie did as she was bid.  She closed the door and sat down on the
+chair that was nearest to her.
+
+"Marie," said La Mere Bauche--and the voice sounded fierce in the
+poor girl's ears, and an angry fire glimmered through the green
+glasses--"what is all this about that I hear?  Do you dare to say
+that you hold my son bound to marry you?"  And then the august mother
+paused for an answer.
+
+But Marie had no answer to give.  See looked suppliantly towards her
+lover, as though beseeching him to carry on the fight for her.  But
+if she could not do battle for herself, certainly he could not do it
+for her.  What little amount of fighting he had had in him, had been
+thoroughly vanquished before her arrival.
+
+"I will have an answer, and that immediately," said Madame Bauche.
+"I am not going to be betrayed into ignominy and disgrace by the
+object of my own charity.  Who picked you out of the gutter, miss,
+and brought you up and fed you, when you would otherwise have gone to
+the foundling?  And this is your gratitude for it all?  You are not
+satisfied with being fed and clothed and cherished by me, but you
+must rob me of my son!  Know this then, Adolphe shall never marry a
+child of charity such as you are."
+
+Marie sat still, stunned by the harshness of these words.  La Mere
+Bauche had often scolded her; indeed, she was given to much scolding;
+but she had scolded her as a mother may scold a child.  And when this
+story of Marie's love first reached her ears, she had been very
+angry; but her anger had never brought her to such a pass as this.
+Indeed, Marie had not hitherto been taught to look at the matter in
+this light.  No one had heretofore twitted her with eating the bread
+of charity.  It had not occurred to her that on this account she was
+unfit to be Adolphe's wife.  There, in that valley, they were all so
+nearly equal, that no idea of her own inferiority had ever pressed
+itself upon her mind.  But now--!
+
+When the voice ceased she again looked at him; but it was no longer a
+beseeching look.  Did he also altogether scorn her?  That was now the
+inquiry which her eyes were called upon to make.  No; she could not
+say that he did.  It seemed to her that his energies were chiefly
+occupied in pulling to pieces the tassel on the sofa cushion.
+
+"And now, miss, let me know at once whether this nonsense is to be
+over or not," continued La Mere Bauche; "and I will tell you at once,
+I am not going to maintain you here, in my house, to plot against our
+welfare and happiness.  As Marie Clavert you shall not stay here.
+Capitaine Campan is willing to marry you; and as his wife I will keep
+my word to you, though you little deserve it.  If you refuse to marry
+him, you must go.  As to my son, he is there; and he will tell you
+now, in my presence, that he altogether declines the honour you
+propose for him."
+
+And then she ceased, waiting for an answer, drumming the table with a
+wafer stamp which happened to be ready to her hand; but Marie said
+nothing.  Adolphe had been appealed to; but Adolphe had not yet
+spoken.
+
+"Well, miss?" said La Mere Bauche
+
+Then Marie rose from her seat, and walking round she touched Adolphe
+lightly on the shoulder.  "Adolphe," she said, "it is for you to
+speak now.  I will do as you bid me."
+
+He gave a long sigh, looked first at Marie and then at his mother,
+shook himself slightly, and then spoke:  "Upon my word, Marie, I
+think mother is right.  It would never do for us to marry; it would
+not indeed."
+
+"Then it is decided," said Marie, returning to her chair.
+
+"And you will marry the capitaine?" said La Mere Bauche.
+
+Marie merely bowed her head in token of acquiescence.  "Then we are
+friends again.  Come here, Marie, and kiss me.  You must know that it
+is my duty to take care of my own son.  But I don't want to be angry
+with you if I can help it; I don't indeed.  When once you are Madame
+Campan, you shall be my own child; and you shall have any room in the
+house you like to choose--there!"  And she once more imprinted a kiss
+on Marie's cold forehead.
+
+How they all got out of the room, and off to their own chambers, I
+can hardly tell.  But in five minutes from the time of this last kiss
+they were divided.  La Mere Bauche had patted Marie, and smiled on
+her, and called her her dear good little Madame Campan, her young
+little Mistress of the Hotel Bauche; and had then got herself into
+her own room, satisfied with her own victory.
+
+Nor must my readers be too severe on Madame Bauche.  She had already
+done much for Marie Clavert; and when she found herself once more by
+her own bedside, she prayed to be forgiven for the cruelty which she
+felt that she had shown to the orphan.  But in making this prayer,
+with her favourite crucifix in her hand and the little image of the
+Virgin before her, she pleaded her duty to her son.  Was it not
+right, she asked the Virgin, that she should save her son from a bad
+marriage?  And then she promised ever so much of recompense, both to
+the Virgin and to Marie; a new trousseau for each, with candles to
+the Virgin, with a gold watch and chain for Marie, as soon as she
+should be Marie Campan.  She had been cruel; she acknowledged it.
+But at such a crisis was it not defensible?  And then the recompense
+should be so full!
+
+But there was one other meeting that night, very short indeed, but
+not the less significant.  Not long after they had all separated,
+just so long as to allow of the house being quiet, Adolphe, still
+sitting in his room, meditating on what the day had done for him,
+heard a low tap at his door.  "Come in," he said, as men always do
+say; and Marie opening the door, stood just within the verge of his
+chamber.  She had on her countenance neither the soft look of
+entreating love which she had worn up there in the grotto, nor did
+she appear crushed and subdued as she had done before his mother.
+She carried her head somewhat more erect than usual, and looked
+boldly out at him from under her soft eyelashes.  There might still
+be love there, but it was love proudly resolving to quell itself.
+Adolphe, as he looked at her, felt that he was afraid of her.
+
+"It is all over then between us, M. Adolphe?" she said.
+
+"Well, yes.  Don't you think it had better be so, eh, Marie?"
+
+"And this is the meaning of oaths and vows, sworn to each other so
+sacredly?"
+
+"But, Marie, you heard what my mother said."
+
+"Oh, sir!  I have not come to ask you again to love me.  Oh no!  I am
+not thinking of that.  But this, this would be a lie if I kept it
+now; it would choke me if I wore it as that man's wife.  Take it
+back;" and she tendered to him the little charm which she had always
+worn round her neck since he had given it to her.  He took it
+abstractedly, without thinking what he did, and placed it on his
+dressing-table.
+
+"And you," she continued, "can you still keep that cross?  Oh, no!
+you must give me back that.  It would remind you too often of vows
+that were untrue."
+
+"Marie," he said, "do not be so harsh to me."
+
+"Harsh!" said she, "no; there has been enough of harshness.  I would
+not be harsh to you, Adolphe.  But give me the cross; it would prove
+a curse to you if you kept it."
+
+He then opened a little box which stood upon the table, and taking
+out the cross gave it to her.
+
+"And now good-bye," she said.  "We shall have but little more to say
+to each other.  I know this now, that I was wrong ever to have loved
+you.  I should have been to you as one of the other poor girls in the
+house.  But, oh! how was I to help it?"  To this he made no answer,
+and she, closing the door softly, went back to her chamber.  And thus
+ended the first day of Adolphe Bauche's return to his own house.
+
+On the next morning the capitaine and Marie were formally betrothed.
+This was done with some little ceremony, in the presence of all the
+guests who were staying at the establishment, and with all manner of
+gracious acknowledgments of Marie's virtues.  It seemed as though La
+Mere Bauche could not be courteous enough to her.  There was no more
+talk of her being a child of charity; no more allusion now to the
+gutter.  La Mere Bauche with her own hand brought her cake with a
+glass of wine after her betrothal was over, and patted her on the
+cheek, and called her her dear little Marie Campan.  And then the
+capitaine was made up of infinite politeness, and the guests all
+wished her joy, and the servants of the house began to perceive that
+she was a person entitled to respect.  How different was all this
+from that harsh attack that was made on her the preceding evening!
+Only Adolphe,--he alone kept aloof.  Though he was present there he
+said nothing.  He, and he only, offered no congratulations.
+
+In the midst of all these gala doings Marie herself said little or
+nothing.  La Mere Bauche perceived this, but she forgave it.  Angrily
+as she had expressed herself at the idea of Marie's daring to love
+her son, she had still acknowledged within her own heart that such
+love had been natural.  She could feel no pity for Marie as long as
+Adolphe was in danger; but now she knew how to pity her.  So Marie
+was still petted and still encouraged, though she went through the
+day's work sullenly and in silence.
+
+As to the capitaine it was all one to him.  He was a man of the
+world.  He did not expect that he should really be preferred, con
+amore, to a young fellow like Adolphe.  But he did expect that Marie,
+like other girls, would do as she was bid; and that in a few days she
+would regain her temper and be reconciled to her life.
+
+And then the marriage was fixed for a very early day; for as La Mere
+said, "What was the use of waiting?  All their minds were made up
+now, and therefore the sooner the two were married the better.  Did
+not the capitaine think so?"
+
+The capitaine said that he did think so.
+
+And then Marie was asked.  It was all one to her, she said.  Whatever
+Maman Bauche liked, that she would do; only she would not name a day
+herself.  Indeed she would neither do nor say anything herself which
+tended in any way to a furtherance of these matrimonials.  But then
+she acquiesced, quietly enough if not readily, in what other people
+did and said; and so the marriage was fixed for the day week after
+Adolphe's return.
+
+The whole of that week passed much in the same way.  The servants
+about the place spoke among themselves of Marie's perverseness,
+obstinacy, and ingratitude, because she would not look pleased, or
+answer Madame Bauche's courtesies with gratitude; but La Mere herself
+showed no signs of anger.  Marie had yielded to her, and she required
+no more.  And she remembered also the harsh words she had used to
+gain her purpose; and she reflected on all that Marie had lost.  On
+these accounts she was forbearing and exacted nothing--nothing but
+that one sacrifice which was to be made in accordance to her wishes.
+
+And it was made.  They were married in the great salon, the dining-
+room, immediately after breakfast.  Madame Bauche was dressed in a
+new puce silk dress, and looked very magnificent on the occasion.
+She simpered and smiled, and looked gay even in spite of her
+spectacles; and as the ceremony was being performed, she held fast
+clutched in her hand the gold watch and chain which were intended for
+Marie as soon as ever the marriage should be completed.
+
+The capitaine was dressed exactly as usual, only that all his clothes
+were new.  Madame Bauche had endeavoured to persuade him to wear a
+blue coat; but he answered that such a change would not, he was sure,
+be to Marie's taste.  To tell the truth, Marie would hardly have
+known the difference had he presented himself in scarlet vestments.
+
+Adolphe, however, was dressed very finely, but he did not make
+himself prominent on the occasion.  Marie watched him closely, though
+none saw that she did so; and of his garments she could have given an
+account with much accuracy--of his garments, ay! and of every look.
+"Is he a man," she said at last to herself, "that he can stand by and
+see all this?"
+
+She too was dressed in silk.  They had put on her what they pleased,
+and she bore the burden of her wedding finery without complaint and
+without pride.  There was no blush on her face as she walked up to
+the table at which the priest stood, nor hesitation in her low voice
+as she made the necessary answers.  She put her hand into that of the
+capitaine when required to do so; and when the ring was put on her
+finger she shuddered, but ever so slightly.  No one observed it but
+La Mere Bauche.  "In one week she will be used to it, and then we
+shall all be happy," said La Mere to herself.  "And I,--I will be so
+kind to her!"
+
+And so the marriage was completed, and the watch was at once given to
+Marie.  "Thank you, maman," said she, as the trinket was fastened to
+her girdle.  Had it been a pincushion that had cost three sous, it
+would have affected her as much.
+
+And then there was cake and wine and sweetmeats; and after a few
+minutes Marie disappeared.  For an hour or so the capitaine was taken
+up with the congratulating of his friends, and with the efforts
+necessary to the wearing of his new honours with an air of ease; but
+after that time he began to be uneasy because his wife did not come
+to him.  At two or three in the afternoon he went to La Mere Bauche
+to complain.  "This lackadaisical nonsense is no good," he said.  "At
+any rate it is too late now.  Marie had better come down among us and
+show herself satisfied with her husband."
+
+But Madame Bauche took Marie's part.  "You must not be too hard on
+Marie," she said.  "She has gone through a good deal this week past,
+and is very young; whereas, capitaine, you are not very young."
+
+The capitaine merely shrugged his shoulders.  In the mean time Mere
+Bauche went up to visit her protegee in her own room, and came down
+with a report that she was suffering from a headache.  She could not
+appear at dinner, Madame Bauche said; but would make one at the
+little party which was to be given in the evening.  With this the
+capitaine was forced to be content.
+
+The dinner therefore went on quietly without her, much as it did on
+other ordinary days.  And then there was a little time for vacancy,
+during which the gentlemen drank their coffee and smoked their cigars
+at the cafe, talking over the event that had taken place that
+morning, and the ladies brushed their hair and added some ribbon or
+some brooch to their usual apparel.  Twice during this time did
+Madame Bauche go up to Marie's room with offers to assist her.  "Not
+yet, maman; not quite yet," said Marie piteously through her tears,
+and then twice did the green spectacles leave the room, covering eyes
+which also were not dry.  Ah! what had she done?  What had she dared
+to take upon herself to do?  She could not undo it now.
+
+And then it became quite dark in the passages and out of doors, and
+the guests assembled in the salon.  La Mere came in and out three or
+four times, uneasy in her gait and unpleasant in her aspect, and
+everybody began to see that things were wrong.  "She is ill, I am
+afraid," said one.  "The excitement has been too much," said a
+second; "and he is so old," whispered a third.  And the capitaine
+stalked about erect on his wooden leg, taking snuff, and striving to
+look indifferent; but he also was uneasy in his mind.
+
+Presently La Mere came in again, with a quicker step than before, and
+whispered something, first to Adolphe and then to the capitaine,
+whereupon they both followed her out of the room.
+
+"Not in her chamber," said Adolphe.
+
+"Then she must be in yours," said the capitaine.
+
+"She is in neither," said La Mere Bauche, with her sternest voice;
+"nor is she in the house!"
+
+And now there was no longer an affectation of indifference on the
+part of any of them.  They were anything but indifferent.  The
+capitaine was eager in his demands that the matter should still be
+kept secret from the guests.  She had always been romantic, he said,
+and had now gone out to walk by the river side.  They three and the
+old bath-man would go out and look for her.
+
+"But it is pitch dark," said La Mere Bauche.
+
+"We will take lanterns," said the capitaine.  And so they sallied
+forth with creeping steps over the gravel, so that they might not be
+heard by those within, and proceeded to search for the young wife.
+
+"Marie!  Marie!" said La Mere Bauche, in piteous accents; "do come to
+me; pray do!"
+
+"Hush!" said the capitaine.  "They'll hear you if you call."  He
+could not endure that the world should learn that a marriage with him
+had been so distasteful to Marie Clavert.
+
+"Marie, dear Marie!" called Madame Bauche, louder than before, quite
+regardless of the capitaine' s feelings; but no Marie answered.  In
+her innermost heart now did La Mere Bauche wish that this cruel
+marriage had been left undone.
+
+Adolphe was foremost with his lamp, but he hardly dared to look in
+the spot where he felt that it was most likely that she should have
+taken refuge.  How could he meet her again, alone, in that grotto?
+Yet he alone of the four was young.  It was clearly for him to
+ascend.  "Marie," he shouted, "are you there?" as he slowly began the
+long ascent of the steps.
+
+But he had hardly begun to mount when a whirring sound struck his
+ear, and he felt that the air near him was moved; and then there was
+a crash upon the lower platform of rock, and a moan, repeated twice,
+but so faintly, and a rustle of silk, and a slight struggle somewhere
+as he knew within twenty paces of him; and then all was again quiet
+and still in the night air.
+
+"What was that?" asked the capitaine in a hoarse voice.  He made his
+way half across the little garden, and he also was within forty or
+fifty yards of the flat rock.  But Adolphe was unable to answer him.
+He had fainted and the lamp had fallen from his hands and rolled to
+the bottom of the steps.
+
+But the capitaine, though even his heart was all but quenched within
+him, had still strength enough to make his way up to the rock; and
+there, holding the lantern above his eyes, he saw all that was left
+for him to see of his bride.
+
+As for La Mere Bauche, she never again sat at the head of that
+table,--never again dictated to guests,--never again laid down laws
+for the management of any one.  A poor bedridden old woman, she lay
+there in her house at Vernet for some seven tedious years, and then
+was gathered to her fathers.
+
+As for the capitaine--but what matters?  He was made of sterner
+stuff.  What matters either the fate of such a one as Adolphe Bauche?
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of La Mere Bauche, by Anthony Trollope
+
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