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diff --git a/39383.txt b/39383.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48edb2f --- /dev/null +++ b/39383.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6916 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mademoiselle Blanche, by John David Barry + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mademoiselle Blanche + A Novel + +Author: John David Barry + +Release Date: April 5, 2012 [EBook #39383] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADEMOISELLE BLANCHE *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Ernest Schaal, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + Mademoiselle Blanche + + _A Novel_ + + BY + JOHN D. BARRY + + + [Illustration] + + + NEW YORK + STONE AND KIMBALL + MDCCCXCVI + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY + STONE AND KIMBALL + + + + + Mademoiselle Blanche + + I + + +"Andre!" + +"Yes, monsieur." + +The little waiter, with anxiety in his smooth, blond face, hurried to +the table. + +"Bring me the _Soir_." + +Andre shot away, and presently returned, paper in hand. + +"What is there good at the theatres, Andre?" + +Andre wiped his hands in his soiled apron, and looked thoughtful. + +"There's the _Folies Bergeres_, monsieur. Dumont sings to-night." + +"Oh, she tires me. Her voice is cracked." + +"There's Madame Judic at the _Varietes_," Andre suggested, tentatively. + +"I saw her in the last piece." + +Andre scratched his head, and stared at the figure at the table. + +"Monsieur likes the _Cirque_, does he not?" + +Monsieur did not look up from the paper. "What's at the _Cirque_ now, +Andre?" + +"At the _Cirque Parisien_? There's Mademoiselle Blanche, the +acrobat. They say she's a marvel, monsieur,--and beautiful,--the +most beautiful woman in Paris. She dives from the top of the +building backwards--hundreds of feet." + +"So you think it's really good, Andre?" + +Andre nodded. Monsieur dropped the paper, paid his bill, left a little +fee for the _garcon_, and took himself off. At the entrance he stopped +and surveyed the surging crowd in the _Boulevard Montmartre_. He had +just finished an excellent dinner with a glass of _chartreuse verte_; so +he felt particularly complacent. As he prodded his teeth with the easy +grace of the Frenchman who knows no shame of the toothpick, he tried to +think out a plan for the evening. Nothing better occurred to him than +Andre's suggestion. He was not in the mood for the _Casino de Paris_, +nor for any of the other concert halls, nor even for the theatres. Yes, +he would go to the Circus. He hadn't been there for ten days. + +For years Jules Le Baron had attended the _Cirque Parisien_ at least +once a fortnight; his friends used to chaff him for his fondness for it. +Those who had known him from a boy liked to remind him of his first +great ambition--to be a performer on the trapeze. Though this amused him +now, he had never lost his love for feats of daring and skill. Whenever +he felt particularly tired from his work at the wool-house, he would go +to the Circus; it refreshed him, and he fancied that it made him sleep +well afterwards. His first love had been a beautiful Roumanian, who +jumped through hoops of fire, landing on her velvet-caparisoned horse, +without even singeing her long, blond hair. He was fifteen then, and he +discovered that the lady was forty-five, though he could have sworn +there was not a difference of more than three years in their ages. Since +that time he had become enamoured of many of the glittering amazons of +the arena, who shot through the air, or through hoops, or out of the +mouths of cannons, or crossed dizzy heights on the tight-rope, or +juggled with long, villainous-looking knives falling in showers into +their hands. + +Those episodes, however, brightened Jules Le Baron's life long before he +was twenty-five. He had since had many similar experiences in the larger +arena of the world. Indeed, he gloried in his susceptibility; he used to +give people to understand that, though fairly successful in business, he +had a very keen appreciation of the sentiments, and of all the +refinements of life. To a foreigner he would have expressed this +complication by saying that he was Parisian to his finger-tips. In +America, where, at the age of twenty-six, he passed three wretched +months, he had been appalled by the lack of sentiment among the people. +Of course, as he represented there the wool-house with which he had been +connected since his sixteenth year, he met chiefly business men; but +even these ought to have displayed an interest in something outside +their commercial routine. + +It was those three months in America that gave Jules Le Baron his zest +for Paris. Of course, he had always loved it; but till he left it, his +love had not become self-conscious. America taught him what he had only +dimly known before, that for him Paris was the only city in the world +worth living in. He knew that people born away from Paris liked other +cities; secretly, however, this amused him. He believed that no one, +after living in Paris, could find any other place habitable. Indeed, any +places, any people, any customs foreign to Paris seemed to him so droll +that at the thought of some of them he often laughed aloud. America had +given him things to laugh at for the rest of his life. + +Of course, Jules was proud of having visited America; it gave him a +delightful feeling of superiority to his friends and acquaintances at +home. He always felt pleased when the English and Americans that he met +in business complimented him on his English; it enabled him to say +carelessly: "Oh, I just picked it up when I was in America." He really +had learned very little English there; nearly all he knew had been +taught him by his father, a professor of chemistry in a small school in +Paris, who had spent six months in England during the siege. He had +acquired there, however, a smattering of American slang; on his lips it +sounded delicious. His friends in Paris thought he spoke English +beautifully, and frequently referred to his talent for languages. He had +given them glowing accounts of his adventures in America, and said +nothing of his desolate loneliness there; so they looked upon him as a +born traveller,--as, altogether, a man of remarkable qualities. But for +his English and his travels, they would merely have shrugged their +shoulders at the mention of his name, and dismissed him with a "_Bon +garcon!_" + +Jules Le Baron knew that he was much more than a _bon garcon_. His +attitude toward the world expressed this; he always acted as if he felt +the world had been made exclusively for him. After losing his father at +fourteen, he promptly proceeded to link his mother in the closest bonds +of slavery. Yet he was kind to her, too, and, in his way, he loved her, +for she was made to obey, just as he had been born to command. When she +died and left him alone at the age of twenty with a small property, he +took a miniature apartment in the _rue de Lisbonne_, and adjusted +himself to his new life. His salary at the wool-house, where his English +helped to make him valuable, together with the property, gave him an +income of ten thousand francs a year. He considered himself rich, a +personage, one who ought to marry well. + +Jules had thought so much about marriage that, at thirty, it was +surprising he should have remained unwedded. Every young woman he met he +regarded as a candidate for his hand, and he spent a large part of his +leisure in rejecting these innocent suitors. Even now, as he slowly made +his way up the _Boulevard_, he fancied that the girls he passed were +looking at him admiringly and enviously. He often smiled back at them, +for he was rarely unkind and he never gratuitously wounded any one's +feelings. With his mother, it is true, he had been occasionally severe, +but merely to discipline her, to make her see things as he saw them. At +this moment he felt particularly amiable. He was in Paris, on the +_Boulevard_ that he loved, surrounded by the people that he loved, in +the atmosphere which, as he had discovered in America, was as the very +breath to his being. The spectacle was all for him! Paris, had been +created that he might enjoy it! + + + + + II + + +Saturday was the fashionable night at the _Cirque Parisien_, and the +night when Jules usually attended it. This was Tuesday, however, and +Jules decided not to be fashionable, but simply to amuse himself. As he +approached the letters of light that flashed the name of the _Cirque_ +into the eyes of the _boulevardiers_, he suddenly remembered that he had +promised to meet two of his comrades of the wool-house in the evening. +He turned into the _rue Taitbout_, and as he was walking slowly through +the long passageway leading into one of the large apartment-houses +there, he felt himself suddenly seized in the darkness by two pairs of +hands. He looked quickly around, and dimly recognized Dufresne and +Leroux, who had come up from behind him. They were both types, short and +swarthy, with oily faces, thick black moustaches, and pointed beards. + +"Why didn't you come before?" and "We've been waiting an hour," they +cried together. + +"He's been up to some adventure, I'll wager," said Leroux. + +"Answer! The truth! No lies!" Dufresne exclaimed, shaking him by one +shoulder. + +Jules pulled away with an effort. + +"I thought you were going to rob me!" he laughed. + +"You see, he doesn't answer," said Dufresne. "I told you he was up to +some adventure." + +"Up to some adventure!" Jules repeated. "I've just been taking dinner, +and I forgot I'd promised to meet you to-night. Where are you going?" + +"We're going to the _Folies Bergeres_, and then to a masked ball in +Montmartre," Leroux answered, resuming his grip. "Come along." + +Jules pulled away with a laugh. + +"Thanks. Not to-night. I don't feel like it. Besides, I'm not dressed." + +"But _we're_ not dressed," they cried together, throwing open their +coats. "You won't have to dress. Come on." + +Jules shook his head decidedly. + +"No," he insisted, "it's all very well for you young bucks. I'm too old. +It tires me out for the next day; can't do my work. I think I'll look in +at the Circus. Come along with me." + +They scoffed at the idea of going to the Circus, and tried to persuade +him to accompany them, since he had kept them waiting so long. But he +resisted, and, as he turned away from them, they clutched at him again, +but he escaped, laughing, into the street, and he saw them shaking their +fists after him. Those two "boys," as he called them, were always trying +to drag him into their escapades. They looked so much alike that at the +office they were called "the twins," and they were always getting into +scrapes and into debt together. + +Before buying his ticket for the Circus, Jules looked carefully over the +program on the posters in the long entrance. Some of the performers he +had already seen and the names of a few of them were unfamiliar to him. +One name was printed in larger letters than the others--Mademoiselle +Blanche. Jules read the paragraph printed below, announcing Mademoiselle +Blanche as the most marvellous acrobat in the world, and proclaiming +that, in addition to giving her act on the trapeze, she would plunge +backward from the top of the theatre, a height of more than seventy-five +feet, into a net below. Jules smiled, and felt a thrill of his old +boyish excitement at the prospect of seeing the feat performed. + +When he turned to buy his ticket, he noticed a large photograph on an +easel, standing near the box-office. The name of Mademoiselle Blanche, +printed under it, attracted him. The acrobat, her long sinuous limbs +encased in white tights, was suspended in mid-air, one arm bent at the +elbow, clinging to a trapeze. The tense muscles of the arm made a +curious contrast with the expression of the face, which was marked by +unusual simplicity and gentleness. The profile was clear, the curving +eyelashes were delicately outlined, and the eyes were large and dark. +Something about the lines of the small mouth attracted Jules. He studied +the picture carefully to discover what it was. The whole expression of +the face seemed to him to be concentrated in the mouth; he felt sure +that the teeth were small and very white, and the woman's voice was soft +and musical. The face differed from the ordinary types of performers he +had seen; it reminded him of the faces of some of the girls in the +convent of Beauvais, where his mother had once taken him to visit his +cousin. The woman must be clever to make herself up so attractively. He +wondered if the appearance of youth that she presented was also due to +her cleverness. She might easily pass for twenty. Her figure looked +marvellously supple; she had probably been trained for the circus from +infancy, and she might be fifty years old. + +He decided not to buy a seat, but to go into the balcony where he could +walk about and look down at the performance. If it bored him, he could +rest on one of the velvet-cushioned seats till a new "turn" began. He +found more people in the balcony than he had ever seen there before; as +a rule they made only a thin fringe around the railing; now they were +five and six deep. He established himself beside a post where he could +catch glimpses of the arena and get a support, and there he remained for +half an hour. + +To-night, however, the antics of the clown, the phenomenal intelligence +of the performing dogs, even the agility of the Schaeffer family of +acrobats, did not interest him. He was impatient to see Mademoiselle +Blanche. Her name stood last on the program; she was probably reserved +for a crowning attraction. Jules dropped on one of the velvet cushions, +and rested there for another half-hour. Then some knife-throwing +attracted him, and he slowly worked his way through the crowd to a place +where he could look down at the performers. The knife-throwing was +followed by an exhibition of trick-riding, which preceded the acrobat's +appearance. + +Before this appearance took place, however, there was a long wait caused +by the preparations made for the great plunge. A thick rope was +suspended from one of the beams that supported the roof of the building, +and under it a net was spread. Then the half-dozen trapezes that had +been tied to the walls, were loosened, and as they swung in the air and +the band played, Mademoiselle Blanche, in white silk tights, with two +long strips of white satin ribbon dangling from her throat, ran into the +ring, and bowed in response to the applause of the crowd. + +Jules Le Baron drew a long breath. The long supple limbs, the firm white +arms and throat, the pale oval face, framed in dark hair that curled +around the forehead, created a kind of beauty that seemed almost +ethereal. The glamour of youth was over her, too; she could not be, at +most, more than twenty. As she ran up the little rope ladder to the net +and climbed hand over hand along the rope to one of the trapezes, Jules +thought he had never seen such grace, such exquisite sureness of +movement and agility. After reaching the trapeze, she sat there for a +moment, smiling and rubbing her hands. Then she began to swing gently, +and a moment later she shot through the air to another trapeze several +feet away, and from that she passed on to the others with a bewildering +swiftness. + +Jules had never seen a woman perform alone on the trapeze before, and +this exhibition of skill and resource fascinated him. The feats were +nearly all new, and some of them of unusual difficulty. When the girl +had finished her performance on the trapeze she returned to the rope, +and began to pose on it, twisting it around her waist, and hanging +suspended with her arms in the air. In this way she rolled gently down +to the net. + +The event of the evening was yet to come, however. After resting for a +moment, Mademoiselle Blanche seized the rope again, and, hand over hand, +she climbed to the top of the building; there she sat on a beam, so far +from the audience that she seemed much smaller than she really was. The +ring-master, a greasy-looking Frenchman in evening dress, appeared in +the arena and commanded silence. + +"Mademoiselle Blanche must have perfect quiet," he cried, "in order to +perform her great feat. The least noise might disturb her, and cause her +death." + +Jules smiled at this speech; it was very clever, he thought. Of course, +it was made merely to impress the audience. He wondered how Mademoiselle +Blanche felt at that moment, perched up there so quietly, ready to hurl +herself into the air. He did not have time to think much about this, for +as he strained his eyes toward her, the signal for the fall was given, +the white figure plunged backward, spun to earth, landed with a +tremendous thump in the padded net, bounded into the air again, and +Mademoiselle Blanche was bowing and kissing her fingers. + +For a moment not a sound was heard. Then the audience burst into +applause, and Jules Le Baron breathed. He felt as if his heart had +stopped beating. He had never seen such a thrilling exhibition before. +All his old delight in the circus had come back to him. As he walked out +with the crowd, he congratulated himself on not having gone with +Dufresne and Leroux. He would not have missed his evening for a dozen +balls in Montmartre! + +At the door he met Roger Durand, dramatic critic of the _Jour_. He had +known Durand as a boy, and they had continued on a footing of +half-hostile friendship. + +"So you've come to see the new sensation?" said the journalist, as they +shook hands. + +"Just by chance," Jules replied. "I've never been more surprised in my +life. Who is she?" + +"That's just what I haven't been able to find out. I've been talking +about her tonight with old Reju--he's the man who makes the +engagements--but he didn't seem to know much more about her than I did. +He said he first heard of her in Bucharest. She made a hit there, too, +some time last year." + +"But she's French, isn't she? Parisian?" + +"She's French, but Reju says she isn't Parisian--comes from the +provinces somewhere. There's a woman goes about with her, her mother, I +suppose. Reju says mamma keeps her down here," the journalist added with +a smile, making a significant gesture with his thumb. "Mamma gets all +the money, and Mademoiselle does all the work." + +Jules shrugged his shoulders. "Going to your office?" he said. "You have +to turn night into day, haven't you?" + +"My dear fellow, night is the best part of life. Days were made for +sleep. We've got mixed up, that's all, and only a few of us are clever +enough to find it out. Come and have a glass of absinthe with me before +I go back." + +Jules shook his head. + +"Some other time. A glass of absinthe would spoil me for to-morrow. _Au +revoir._" + +He was glad to be alone again so that he might think over the evening. +The beautiful figure whirling through the air still haunted him. +"Mademoiselle Blanche!" The name seemed to sing in his mind. He wondered +what her real name was. So she had a mother who kept her under her +thumb! Then he wondered what she was like out of the circus--ignorant +and vulgar, probably, like the rest of them. Yet in her looks she was +certainly different from the rest. At any rate, he must go and see her +performance again. He would go several times. + + + + + III + + +When Jules arrived home he found supper on the table of his little +dining-room. Madeleine, the old woman who had served his mother for +years and remained with him after his mother's death, always left +something for him at night. Now he turned away from it in disgust. His +face was burning; he felt nervous, excited. After going to bed, he was +unable to sleep. He kept seeing Mademoiselle Blanche tumbling through +the air! He could not think of her except as in motion. He tried to +recall her as she stood in the net, just before climbing the rope to the +trapeze, but her figure was vague and shadowy. Then he tried to think +out her features as he had observed them, and he found that he had quite +forgotten her face; all that remained was an impression of sweetness, of +a ravishing smile. + +When, finally, he fell asleep, he dreamed of her, still flashing through +the air, striking with a thud the padded net, and bouncing to her feet +again. He woke several times and felt impatient with himself for not +being able to drive the thought away; yet when he sank again into sleep, +the dream came back persistently. + +At half-past seven he rose, tired from his broken rest. He went at once +to the long mirror that covered the door of his wardrobe, expecting to +be confronted with the face of an invalid. His gray eyes were slightly +inflamed and his cheeks had more than their usual color; otherwise his +appearance was normal. For several moments he surveyed himself. As a +rule he did not think much about his looks; he knew that he was +considered handsome, and this gave him a half-unconscious gratification. +When he wanted to please a woman he seldom failed. Now he had a distinct +pleasure at the sight of the aristocratic curve of his nose, the strong +outline of his chin, the full red lips under his thick brown moustache. +Jules wished that he could keep from growing fat; but after all, he +reflected philosophically, there was a difference in fatness; some men +it made gross and vulgar; his own complexion, however, was so fair that +he could never look gross. Even now there was a suggestion about him of +the sleekness of a well-kept pigeon. + +When he went out to breakfast he found Madeleine looking doleful. +Madeleine had known Jules from birth and considered herself a second +mother to him. She was short and stout, with a mouthful of very bad +teeth, some of which rattled when she spoke, as if they were about to +fall out. + +"Monsieur Jules did not eat last night," she said as she poured his +coffee and pushed his rolls into the centre of the little table. + +"No, Madeleine, I wasn't hungry." Jules took up the _Figaro_ that was +lying on the table and began to look for a reference to Mademoiselle +Blanche. + +"The coffee will grow cold, Monsieur Jules." + +Jules did not hear her. When preoccupied, he had a habit of ignoring +Madeleine. Yet, in his way, he liked her; he often wondered what he +would do without her; she was docile and attentive to his wants as his +mother had been, and she was very inexpensive. For five minutes he read; +then, when he found no reference to the acrobat, he threw down the paper +with an exclamation of impatience, and seized his cup and sipped his +coffee. + +"It's cold!" he cried. + +Madeleine's look of distress deepened. + +"Let me take that away," she said. "I'll get another cup." + +When she brought the cup and poured some of the hot coffee into it, +Jules drained it, and pushed his chair away from the table. + +"But you have eaten nothing, Monsieur Jules!" + +"I'm not hungry this morning." + +"And you didn't eat anything last night," the old woman repeated, +following him with her eyes. "Are you sick?" + +"No, no!" Jules replied, impatiently. "I don't feel like eating, that's +all. Give me my hat and coat, Madeleine; I shall be late if I don't +hurry." + +"Monsieur Jules doesn't look well," said Madeleine timidly, as she +helped him on with his coat. + +"Oh, don't worry about me." At the door Jules turned. "I shall be out +late again to-night, Madeleine. You needn't leave the light burning." + +The wool-house of Ballou, Mercier & Co., where Jules worked, was only +ten minutes' walk from the _rue de Lisbonne_. On his way there, Jules +resolved to say nothing to the twins about Mademoiselle Blanche. Of +course, Leroux would ask him about the evening, and he would say simply +that he had been rather bored. He wanted to keep Mademoiselle Blanche to +himself. He even hoped that her performance would not be noised abroad, +that she would not become one of those women whom all Paris went to see +and every one talked glibly about. But she must be well-known already; +it was evidently her performance that had crowded the Circus. + +At the office the twins had a great deal to say about the masked ball of +the previous night, but Jules hardly heard them. He was still so haunted +by the thought of Mademoiselle Blanche that he made several mistakes in +his letters; since his return from America he had been placed in charge +of all the English correspondence, and it was important that he should +be exact. The day had never seemed so long to him, nor his work, in +which he usually took pride, so dull. He was impatient for the evening. +When six o'clock came, he hurried away without bidding the twins +good-night. + +Jules walked toward the little restaurant in the _Boulevard_ where he +had dined the night before. He wanted to see Andre again, to talk over +Mademoiselle Blanche with him. He felt almost a personal affection for +Andre now. The little _garcon_ was bewildered by Jules' affability, and +overcome by the generous tip which he received as Jules left the place. +Indeed, freed from the labors of the day, Jules felt buoyant and happy. +But when he reached the Circus, his spirits sank; he had forgotten that +Mademoiselle Blanche did not appear till nearly eleven. He would have to +wait for her at least three hours! + +He felt so vexed that he turned away from the theatre and walked along +the _Boulevard_. It was late in October, and a light rain was falling, +mixed with snow. The _Boulevard_ was crowded with people, hurrying under +umbrellas. Jules turned up the collar of his overcoat, and shivered. +What was he to do till eleven? He might go to one of the theatres, but +he would not enjoy it. When he reached the _Opera_, he had not made up +his mind what to do, and he walked on as far as the Madeleine. He +entered a _cafe_ opposite the church, and called for a bock and one of +the illustrated papers. For an hour he sat there, sipping the beer and +pretending to read. The jokes, however, which he usually enjoyed, seemed +to him vulgar. He was thinking of the figure in white silk tights, +shooting through the air. A score of times he called himself a fool for +not being able to put that thought out of his mind; yet he felt nervous +and irritable, simply because he was impatient to see the spectacle +again. At last he became so uneasy that he looked for the waiter to pay +his bill and leave. Then he felt a slap on the shoulder, and Durand's +smiling face confronted him. + +There was no reason why Jules should have been displeased at seeing +Durand; yet at that moment he felt resentful. The journalist was small +and dapper, with the ends of his black moustache carefully waxed. His +little black eyes were always sparkling with humor, and when he smiled +he showed two rows of regular white teeth. Yet, in spite of the care of +himself which he seemed to take, he never looked quite clean; his thick +black hair was always dusty with dandruff, which fell on the shoulders +of his coat. He spoke in a high thin voice and with a patronizing air +that exasperated Jules. + +"I thought I recognized your back," he said, when Jules had turned his +face toward him. + +Jules grunted and pointed to a chair at the little table. He wanted to +show by his manner that he didn't like that familiar slap. Durand, +however, was unruffled. + +"What are you doing here, anyway? Why aren't you at the theatre or one +of the _cafes chantants_?" + +Jules took a puff of his cigarette, and then looked down at the little +figure. + +"I might ask you the same question." + +"Oh, I'm working. This is a busy night for me." Then Durand's face +lighted. "What do you suppose I've got to do to-night?" + +Jules knocked the ashes of his cigarette against the edge of the table. +"Now, do you mean? I can't imagine. You're always doing impossible +things." + +"I'm going to interview the little acrobat." + +Jules came very near jumping. He controlled himself, however, and +carelessly lifted the cigarette to his lips again. + +"What little acrobat?" he asked, screwing his eyes. + +"The one you saw last night--at the _Cirque_--the _Cirque Parisien_." + +"Oh, Mademoiselle--Mademoiselle--what's her name--the one who dives from +the top of the building?" + +"Yes, Mademoiselle Blanche. When I went back to the office last night, I +told old Bargy about her--cracked her up to the skies, and he swallowed +the bait, and sent me round to interview her to-night. Ah, my dear boy, +that's one of the advantages of being a newspaper man. It opens every +door to you. Whenever I want to get acquainted with a pretty actress, I +simply go and interview her." + +He sat back in his seat and smiled and hummed a popular song, rapping +the table with his fingers. The waiter came up and asked for his order. + +"Two bocks!" said Durand, looking at Jules. + +"No, no more for me. I haven't finished this yet." When the waiter went +away, Jules glanced sleepily at the journalist. "You're a very lucky +fellow, it seems to me. I should think it would be rather agreeable to +know the pretty actresses." + +Durand shrugged his shoulders. "Sometimes, yes--sometimes, no. Usually +it spoils the illusion." + +Jules stared thoughtfully at his bock. "Aren't you afraid you'll be +disillusioned by Mademoiselle Blanche?" + +"Oh, probably. They're all alike--when you come to know them. But +there's something about her that made me think she might be a little +different from the rest. At any rate, she's dev'lish pretty, isn't she?" + +"Do you think so?" Jules asked, with a deprecating lift of the eyebrows. + +"Think so! I know so! If you don't think so you must be hard to please." + +"Oh, I thought she was pretty in her circus rig. I should like to see +her out of the ring. They make up so, those women. You can't tell +whether they're really pretty or not." + +"Well, come around with me, and I'll introduce you. Then you can see for +yourself." + +Jules nearly jumped again, but his cigarette helped him to disguise the +impulse. "I'm afraid I shall be in the way," he said, after a meditative +puff. + +Durand had seized the bock left on the table by the waiter, and was +holding it over his head. When half the contents had disappeared, he +smacked his lips and wiped them with his handkerchief. "Not at all. +You'll help me draw her out. They say she does the shy-young-girl act; +so she's hard to talk with. That seems to be a favorite pose of +actresses nowadays." + +Jules' heart was throbbing. He was afraid that Durand would discover his +elation. So he tried to appear indifferent and cynical. Durand's +cynicism amused him; yet in the journalist's presence he was always +trying to imitate it. + +When he had drained his bock, Durand stood up, surveyed with a +professional eye the crowd at the tables, nodded to a few acquaintances, +and made a sign to Jules that he was ready to go. It had ceased raining, +but the sky was still leaden. The splendid portico of the Madeleine +loomed out of the darkness, and the lights in the _Boulevard des +Capucines_ were gleaming faintly in the mist. They met few people as +they walked toward the _Opera_, but there was plenty of life around the +theatres in the _Boulevard des Italiens_. When they reached the +_Cirque_, Durand had a whispered consultation with the _Control_ who sat +in self-conscious dignity and evening dress at the desk near the main +door. He referred the journalist to a short fat man with a white beard, +lounging a few feet away, and Jules stood apart while the two had an +animated talk. After a few moments, Durand made a sign to Jules to come +up, and Jules found himself presented to Reju as "my _confrere_, +Monsieur Jules Le Baron, of the Marseilles _Gazette_." Reju was very +amiable, and Jules felt angry, though he could not help being amused by +Durand's serene impudence. + +They were conducted at once into the theatre, under the great arch, +draped with French flags, where the performers made their exits and +their entrances. Then they found themselves in a large bare room, with +several passages radiating from it. + +"The dressing-rooms are here," Reju explained, pointing to the passages. +"Mademoiselle Blanche's room is number 5. I don't know whether she has +come yet or not. Her act doesn't begin till ten minutes of eleven. Wait +here, and I'll see if she can receive you." + +Durand smiled at Jules, and as soon as Reju was out of hearing, he +whispered: "I hope you didn't mind that little fairy-tale of mine. I had +to pass you off as one of the fraternity. If I hadn't they wouldn't have +let you come in. Now, don't forget your part, the Marseilles _Gazette_. +It's a good republican paper. The editor's a great friend of mine." + +"I'm afraid I sha'n't be a credit to the profession. I've never seen any +one interviewed in my life." + +"Then it'll be an education to you." Durand laughed. "Look out. Here he +comes!" + +The fat little manager approached them with a smiling face; he evidently +had in mind two free advertisements for the theatre. + +"Mademoiselle Blanche," he said impressively, "arrived five minutes ago, +and she hasn't begun to dress yet. If you'll have the kindness to follow +me, messieurs"--he concluded with a bow and a wave of the hand. + +Jules' body was tingling, and his heart beat violently. Durand, on the +contrary, seemed more debonair than ever; with an air of importance, he +strutted behind the manager, as if conferring an honor on the performer +by his call. Reju rapped on the door, and after a moment a shrill voice +piped: + +"_Entrez!_" + + + + + IV + + +Durand made a bold entrance, and Jules followed sheepishly. The room was +small and uncarpeted; on one side stood a wardrobe and a table, and on +the opposite wall hung a large mirror that reflected nearly the whole of +the apartment. The rest of the furniture consisted of two wooden chairs +and a large trunk. Jules did not realize that he had observed these +details till afterward, for his glance was bent on the face of +Mademoiselle Blanche, who stood beside the trunk, surveying her callers +with apprehension in her big eyes. On one of the chairs sat a woman of +fifty, tall and thin, with strands of flesh hanging at her neck, her +eyes bright, her lips aglow with a false bloom, and her cheeks pallid +with powder. Jules recognized her at once as the acrobat's mother, and +he had a shock of surprise and revulsion. + +The manager, after presenting the callers to Madame Perrault, and then +to her daughter, excused himself with a flourish, and left the room. +Madame Perrault was smiling and chattering at Durand, and Mademoiselle +Blanche was flushed and confused. + +"I think we must be the first of the Parisian journalists to interview +Mademoiselle," said Durand to the mother, letting his eyes turn vaguely +to the acrobat for information. + +Madame Perrault gave a little jump, and glanced hastily at her +daughter's face. + +"Yes, you are," she replied. "We did have--that is, there was a +gentleman of the press who wanted to interview Blanche, but she--she was +a little timid about it. Blanche is very timid; so we--we put it off. +But interviewers are very----Ah, you will sit down, will you not?" she +said to Jules, who had remained standing with his eyes fixed on the +girl. + +Mademoiselle Blanche had taken a seat on the trunk, and her mother sat +beside her so that Jules might occupy her chair. When they were all +adjusted, Madame Perrault resumed, turning to Jules, whose embarrassment +she had observed. + +"Monsieur Reju told me yesterday interviews were so important. They make +people interested. They----" + +"But the people are already interested in Mademoiselle Blanche," Durand +interposed, gallantly. "That's why my _confrere_ and I have come here. +The Parisians want to know all about Mademoiselle. She's the sensation +of the hour. Her name is on everybody's lips." + +He glanced at Mademoiselle Blanche with his most languishing smile, and +Jules felt a sudden desire to kick him. The acrobat tried to look +pleased, but she succeeded only in appearing more confused. Jules was +surprised to see how frail she was. Her figure, full and vigorous in the +ring, seemed so thin in her plain, tight-fitting gray dress, that he +felt sure she must have been padded for her performance. + +"I'm going to ask Mademoiselle a great many questions," Durand resumed, +still leering at the acrobat. + +"But I have nothing to tell," she replied, speaking for the first time. + +"But you must have been born, and grown up, and done a great many things +besides, that the rest of us don't do," the journalist laughed, growing +more familiar. Jules' dislike for him was rapidly developing into +hatred. + +Durand's familiarity, however, seemed to please the acrobat's mother. + +"Blanche is too modest," she said. "She's had a great many things happen +to her." + +"Have you always been in the circus, Mademoiselle?" + +"Yes, ever since she was a child," her mother answered. "Her father was +an acrobat." + +"So it's in the family. And were you in the circus too, Madame?" + +Madame Perrault shook her head, and Jules thought he saw her blush under +the powder. "No, I have never been in public life. My husband's family +lived in Boulogne, where I lived too. They were all acrobats. After my +marriage I used to travel with the circus, and when Blanche was born, +Monsieur Perrault wanted her to perform, too. When she was only five +years old, they used to appear together." + +"Then you have travelled a great deal, Mademoiselle?" Durand turned his +fascinating glance on the girl. She looked at her mother, and as she was +about to reply, Madame Perrault resumed: "Ah, my daughter has been over +nearly the whole world,--in England, in Germany, in Russia--" + +"Have you ever been in America?" Jules asked quickly. + +The acrobat shook her head. + +"But she has had such offers--such splendid--such magnificent offers to +go there," the mother cried, clasping her hands. + +"But I'm afraid," the girl murmured, glancing at Jules with her big +timid eyes. + +"Afraid of the voyage?" Jules asked. Her eyes were still fixed upon him, +and he felt as if every nerve in his body were vibrating. "That's +nothing. I have made it twice, and I wasn't sick a day." + +This was not true, for on each trip Jules had been sick for several +days; but he made the remark with such ease, that for the moment he felt +convinced himself of its truth. Mademoiselle Blanche looked at him +admiringly, and he saw that he had made an impression on the mother, +too, established himself in her regard as a travelled person, a man of +importance. + +"Then Monsieur has been in America?" said Madame Perrault. + +"Oh, yes," Jules replied, carelessly. "All over it. It's a wonderful +country." + +Mademoiselle Blanche sighed, and her mother glanced at her wistfully. + +"But it's too far," Madame resumed with a shake of the head. "We could +not go so far from the children." + +"Then you have other children?" said the journalist. "Are they in the +circus, too?" + +For the first time, the girl's face brightened. "Oh, no!" she replied, +with a suggestion of horror in her tone. + +"They are very young," the mother explained. "Jeanne is only fourteen +and Louise will be eleven next month. They are with my sister in +Boulogne." + +Durand made a little sign of impatience which indicated to Jules that he +was not getting the information he wanted. Besides, he was evidently +displeased by the failure of his leers to produce any apparent effect +upon the girl; she seemed to be unconscious of them. + +"And Monsieur Perrault," he said, "he is still performing?" + +An expression of pain appeared in the mother's face, and Mademoiselle +dropped her eyes. + +"No, he died three years ago," Madame Perrault replied. "He was killed +at Monte Carlo. He fell from the trapeze." + +There was silence for a moment, and the journalist tried to infuse into +his insipid little face a look of sympathy. Just how much sympathy he +felt was shown by his next remark. + +"I couldn't help wondering last night," he said briskly, "when I saw +Mademoiselle perform, how she felt just before she took that plunge. How +do you feel, Mademoiselle? Aren't you frightened, just a little?" + +The girl shook her head. "I have done it for so many years, I don't +think of being afraid. My father taught me never to have the least fear. +He wouldn't have been killed if the trapeze hadn't broken." + +"And we take every precaution," Madame Perrault quickly explained. + +Durand began to ask questions about the various cities Mademoiselle had +visited. Most of the replies came from Madame Perrault, who seemed to +have constituted herself her daughter's mouthpiece. Which audiences did +she like best to play to? The Germans! Durand shook his head. He +wouldn't dare to say that in a French paper. It might make Mademoiselle +unpopular with the Parisians. Ah, but Mademoiselle liked the Parisians, +too. Didn't she find them very enthusiastic? No? That was simply because +they were thrilled, overcome, silenced by her performance. Durand grew +excited in extolling the merits of Parisian audiences. For their +favorites they would do anything, and Mademoiselle was fast becoming one +of the most popular of their favorites. Of course they had their +peculiarities. When a performer vexed them, there were no limits to +their wrath. Had Mademoiselle heard of the attack on Sophie Lenoir at +the _Ambassadeurs_? The audience had thrown at her everything they could +lay hands on, and she had fainted, or pretended to faint, on the stage. + +Indeed, much of the conversation was supplied by the journalist himself. +He had apparently abandoned hope of making the acrobat talk; so he +addressed most of his speeches to the mother, whom he drew out by many +artful devices. Mademoiselle Blanche sat looking on in open-eyed +surprise, as if she did not have a share in the matters under +discussion. Occasionally she would glance appealingly at Jules; when he +looked back, she would blush and turn her head away. + +While Durand was in the middle of one of his stories, Madame Perrault +drew a small gold watch from her pocket. The journalist jumped from his +chair. + +"We are keeping Mademoiselle from dressing," he said, as Jules rose, +too. "A thousand pardons. We will go in just a moment. There's only one +more question. That is about your presents, Mademoiselle, your gifts." + +"My gifts?" the acrobat repeated vaguely. + +"Yes, from the princes, the crowned heads you've appeared before." + +"Ah!" the mother exclaimed, in a long breath, "Blanche has received so +many! There was the brooch from the Emperor of Russia, and the ring from +the Prince of Roumania, a costly diamond, monsieur, so clear and +beautiful, and the little gold watch studded with pearls from the King +of Bavaria, the 'mad King' they call him, you know--and then--then the +bracelet set with rubies from the Duchess of Merlino, when Blanche was +in Bucharest. Ah, but we have none of these here. They are all at home, +they--" + +"Here in Paris?" Durand asked, impatiently. + +"No, monsieur, in Boulogne," Madame Perrault answered, and Jules saw an +expression of wonder and pain cross her daughter's face. + +Durand was rubbing his silk hat with his glove, and regarding it +intently. + +"Then," he said, looking up quickly, "there must have been some +adventures--some admirers, that have followed Mademoiselle, perhaps, +eh?" he added, leering insinuatingly at the mother. + +Madame smiled, and the face of the acrobat turned pink. Jules wanted to +seize the little journalist by the neck, and throw him out of the door. + +"Ah, in Bucharest," cried Madame, "the young--" + +"Mamma!" + +Madame Perrault shrugged her shoulders, and smiled suggestively. +"Perhaps we'd better not speak of that. Blanche is a good girl," she +added, patting her daughter on the back. "She's good to her mother, and +she's good to her sisters. Ah, _ma chere_!" + +The girl had turned her head away. Durand offered her his hand +gallantly, and then beamed on the mother. "I will come and see you some +time, if you will give me permission," he said condescendingly. + +"Some Sunday," Madame Perrault replied. "It's the only day when Blanche +is free. And you will bring your friend, perhaps, if he is still in +Paris," she added amiably, with a quick glance and smile at the +journalist from Marseilles. Then she produced two cards and passed them +to the callers. + +Jules murmured a civil response to the invitation, and, after bowing low +to the ladies, he followed Durand and closed the door behind him. The +expression of languishing pleasure in the journalist's face had given +place to a look of hilarious merriment. + +"Did you ever see such a block? She didn't have a word to say. I don't +believe she has an idea. And she thought she was impressing me with her +modesty! And the gifts from the crowned heads--wasn't that droll? Of +course, the old lady made up every one of those stories. She's a sharp +one, with her painted lips and her powdered cheeks. Her little game is +to get a rich husband for the girl, and I'll wager a week's salary +she'll succeed." + +Jules said nothing. He knew it would be useless to argue with Durand. If +he were to give his opinion of Mademoiselle Blanche, the journalist +would laugh, and say he didn't understand women, especially actresses. +So, when Durand suddenly asked him what he thought of the girl, he +merely shrugged his shoulders. + +As they passed out they met Reju, who offered them seats if they cared +to remain for the rest of the performance. Durand explained that he must +return at once to the office, and urged Jules to accept the invitation. +When Jules found himself alone in the first row of the orchestra he +breathed with relief. He had never before realized what an odious little +creature Durand was. For the moment he forgot even to feel gratitude for +the introduction to the acrobat. + +He was unable to take an interest in the performance, and he looked at +his watch to see how long he would have to wait for the appearance of +Mademoiselle Blanche. It was just twenty minutes past ten. Suddenly it +occurred to him that he would have time to go out and buy some flowers +for her. He left his seat, and hurried to the nearest shop in the +_Boulevard_. There he bought the finest bunch of white roses he could +find, went back to the theatre, and sent them to the acrobat with his +card. When at last Mademoiselle Blanche ran into the arena, he was +thrilled with joy. She wore his flowers in her belt. + + + + + V + + +That night Jules Le Baron knew that for the first time in his life he +was really in love. He had often fancied himself in love before, and he +had enjoyed the experience; now he discovered his mistake. Love was not +the pure delight he had imagined it to be. It is true, he had moments of +ecstasy, of sublime self-congratulation, when he felt with stronger +conviction that the world was made for him and he had been created to +conquer the world; but during the next few days these were followed by +long periods of depression, of abject despair. + +At times, too, the grotesqueness of this infatuation appalled him. To be +in love with an acrobat, a woman who earned her bread by hurling herself +from the top of a building, who risked her life every day, sometimes +twice a day, that she might live! Then, at the thought of her amazing +courage, Jules would be overcome, and if alone in his room at home, he +would throw himself on the bed, bury his head in the pillow and groan. +Indeed, at this period he went through many strange and violent +performances. Madeleine became alarmed for his health, and thought of +sending for a doctor. + +He could not apply himself to his work; he made so many mistakes in his +English correspondence that Monsieur Mercier had to ask him to be more +careful. The twins noticed his condition and chaffed him, and insisted +on knowing "her name"; in secret they decided that Jules had been +investing his money badly; he had often boasted to them about his little +property. They tried to cheer him by urging him to join them in their +nocturnal expeditions, but he always replied that he was staying at home +in the evening now. As a matter of fact, he spent every night or a +portion of every night at the _Cirque Parisien_, and at each appearance +of Mademoiselle Blanche, he was gratified to see that she wore his +nightly offering of roses in her belt. He never received an +acknowledgment of these tributes, for he did not dare write his address +on the cards he sent with them. Once, as she stood in the net, just +before climbing the rope to make her great plunge, he fancied that his +eye caught hers, and she smiled at him. He decided afterward that he had +been mistaken; but the thought of that smile prevented him from sleeping +half the night. + +Jules was keeping his courage alive in the hope of seeing her at her +apartment on Sunday. His only fear was that Durand would be there. +Durand's published interview with Mademoiselle Blanche was so flippant +that it deepened the hatred Jules had already conceived for the +journalist. He resolved on Sunday to explain to Madame Perrault that he +was not what Durand had represented him to be and to appear in his own +character; he was conceited enough to believe that in his own character +he could make quite as good an impression as in any other. Besides, had +not Mademoiselle Blanche been impressed by the fact that he had visited +America? + +On Saturday night he sent his silk hat to be blocked, and his frock-coat +to be pressed, and he bought a pair of white gloves. Madeleine found him +much more agreeable on Sunday morning than he had been during the week; +but, though he seemed to be recovering his spirits, she still felt +worried. In the afternoon he presented himself before her for +inspection, asked if his coat set well, if she liked the colour of his +gloves, what she thought of the violets that he wore. She became +enraptured over his appearance, told him that he had never looked so +beautiful, and saw him go away with a radiant face. Then, as the door +closed behind him, she went into her little chamber and wept. The truth +had flashed upon her! Her Jules was in love! Some one else was going to +take his mother's place and hers. She felt all the jealousy and misery +that his own mother might have felt at the moment, combined with a +pathetic consciousness that she had no right to grieve. Jules was +everything in the world to her, she said to herself, and she was nothing +to him. She was an old broken woman, and for the rest of her days she +should have to live alone. + +Jules had become her pride and the source of her happiness. Yet she +really saw very little of him--the only meal he took at home was his +breakfast--but she really existed for the pleasure of serving him and +looking at his face in the morning. Now, in spite of her misery, she +knelt before the statue of the Blessed Virgin that stood on a little +table beside her bed, and prayed that the woman who was going to take +her place might be a good woman, and worthy of her boy. In her simple +affection for Jules she believed that he had only to show that he cared +for a woman to have her throw herself into his arms. + +It was hardly three o'clock, too early for a call, Jules thought, as he +walked toward the _rue St. Honore_; but he was so impatient to see +Mademoiselle Blanche again that he could not wait till later in the +afternoon. During the week the sun had hardly appeared, and the +succession of leaden skies had helped to depress his spirits. To-day, +however, the sky was blue and the sun shone so brightly that it seemed +almost like spring. He was in one of his buoyant moods, when he felt +sure of his ability to conquer. In his fine clothes and with his +confident manner, he looked very handsome; several pretty girls +gratified him by staring at him as he passed. If he impressed people he +didn't know, why couldn't he impress Mademoiselle Blanche? He planned a +great many things to say to her. He would be particularly amiable to the +mother, too, and tell her all about America. + +The number in the _rue St. Honore_ that Madame Perrault had given +corresponded with one of the great white stucco apartment houses +abounding in Paris. He passed under the wide vaulted entrance, and asked +the wife of the _concierge_ if Madame Perrault lived there. "_Au +sixieme_," was the shrill reply, and he started up the narrow stairs. +When he reached the _sixieme_, the top floor of the house, he panted and +waited for a moment before ringing, to catch his breath. Then he +carefully arranged his cuffs, touched with his gloved hand his silk +cravat and his flowers and, with a sigh of anticipation, he rang the +bell. + +A trim little servant of not more than fifteen opened the door. When +Jules asked for Madame Perrault, she shook her head. + +"She went out an hour ago, monsieur, and she won't be back till four." + +Jules' heart sank. Of course, mother and daughter were out together. He +was about to turn away despairingly, but he suddenly thought of +inquiring if Mademoiselle were at home. The maid nodded. + +"Shall I say that monsieur wishes to see her?" she asked, stepping back +that he might enter. + +"If you please," he replied, as he followed the girl into the little +_salon_. It was furnished wholly in Japanese fashion; the walls were +hung with Japanese draperies, and a large thick rug covered the floor. +On the mantel, prettily draped with a wide piece of flowered silk, stood +a number of photographs, one of them a duplicate of the portrait of +Mademoiselle Blanche that he had seen in the entrance of the Circus. As +Jules glanced at this, he heard a light step in the adjoining room, and +when he turned, Mademoiselle Blanche herself was looking at him out of +her dark eyes. She walked toward him, flushing a little, and extended +her hand. + +"I am sorry mamma is not here," she said. "She went out only a few +minutes ago, and she'll be back soon. But we--" + +"You didn't expect any one so early. I ought to apologize, but I was +impatient to come. Then--I--I hoped to find you alone." + +"So you have," she laughed, pointing to a chair near the grate-fire. She +wore a dress of dark silk with little white spots in it that became her +wonderfully, Jules thought. Around her neck was a piece of muslin, open +at the throat, and muslin encircled her wrists. Once again Jules was +impressed by the delicacy of her appearance; her skin had an almost +transparent whiteness, and there was no colour in her cheeks, save when +she flushed, which she did at the least cause. + +"How pleasantly you are lodged here," said Jules, looking around the +room. The apartment was as small as his own, which he had considered one +of the smallest in Paris. + +"Yes, we were fortunate to get it. And it seems so odd--it belongs to an +actress who's spending the winter in the South of France. We have taken +it furnished." + +"Then you're to be here all the winter?" said Jules, feasting his eyes +on the clear white forehead, the white neck that he could see beneath +the muslin. How beautiful she was! His surmise about the teeth had been +correct; they were small and white, with little bits of red between +them. + +"No," she replied, "I've been engaged at the _Cirque_ until the first of +January. Then I shall go to Vienna, and appear there for several +months." + +"Ah!" For a moment Jules was silent. "But you will take a rest before +you go to Vienna?" + +She shook her head. + +"No. I should like to go home for Christmas to be with my sisters. But +they will come to Paris instead." + +"But doesn't it tire you?" + +"No. It isn't hard. And I never like to stop. I must keep in practice." + +For an instant Jules was touched by a curious sympathy. There certainly +was something pathetic, even abnormal, in the thought that this frail +woman hurled herself six days in the week from the top of a building. +Then he was thrilled again by the marvel of it, by the consciousness +that he was sitting opposite the phenomenon, gazing into her eyes, +hearing her voice, receiving her smiles. He could think of nothing to +say, but he felt quite happy; he would have liked to sit there for hours +in mute admiration. Mademoiselle Blanche, however, looked confused; she +seemed to be shaping something in her mind. + +"It was very kind of you to send the flowers," she said at last. "I +would have thanked you before if I had known where you lived. They were +very lovely." + +His face shone with pleasure at the thought that she had recognized him +as the sender, and he leaned toward her. "You needn't thank me," he +said. "I felt repaid when I saw them in your belt." + +Then he told her how he had gone to the circus every night just to see +her; how he admired her performance, her grace and skill on the trapeze, +her courage in making the great plunge. As he spoke, her face kept +changing colour. She seemed to him like a bashful child, and he +marvelled at her ingenuousness, for surely she must be used to praise. +Then he recalled what Durand had said about her affectation of modesty, +and he wondered if the journalist could have been right; but when he +looked into the girl's clear eyes he saw nothing but beauty and truth. + +When he had finished speaking of her performance, he began to talk about +himself, his favourite topic with women. He told her about his visit in +the United States, and he made fun of the Americans for drinking water +instead of wine at table, and for many other customs that had amused him +because they were so unlike the ways of Parisians. He also imitated the +speech of some of the Americans he had known, and he was surprised to +find that she understood what he said. She had learned English from her +father, she explained; he had often performed in London, and she had +been there with him twice. Then he began to speak with her in English to +display his accomplishment, and he felt disappointed on discovering that +she could converse quite as fluently, and with a better accent. So he +returned to French, and told her about his life in Paris, his dear old +Madeleine who kept him so comfortable in his little apartment, his work +at the office, and about Dufresne and Leroux. She showed no surprise +when he revealed Durand's duplicity; she merely said that she hadn't +liked the journalist, and her mother had been vexed by the article. She +seemed so interested that he went back to his early days, before the +death of his father and mother, described his life at the _lycee_, his +love of sport, his passion for the circus, his boyish adventures at +Montmartre, his happy days in summer at Compiegne, his mother's goodness +and her foolish pride in him. He was so unconscious in his egotism that +it was touching to hear him; Mademoiselle Blanche seemed to be +unconscious of it, too, for she listened with a serious, absorbed +attention. While he was in the midst of an analysis of his own +qualities, the little clock on the mantel struck four and Mademoiselle +Blanche looked up quickly. + +"Mamma will be here very soon now," she said. + +Jules felt a sudden irritation. At that moment the coming of Madame +Perrault seemed like an intrusion. The reference to it had the effect of +stopping his confidences; it was as if she had already appeared in the +room. He rose from his seat, and began to examine the photographs on the +mantel. Then he took up one of them, a large photograph of a man of more +than fifty, with a white pointed beard, a shock of iron-grey hair, and +laughing eyes. + +"Is this your father, mademoiselle?" + +She shook her head. + +"That is my mother's _fiance_." + +He turned to her quickly. "Your mother's _fiance_!" + +"Yes. My mother has been engaged a long time. She would have been +married a year ago but for me." + +"Ah, then you don't like it--you don't want her to marry again?" + +"I should not care--that is, I should be glad for Jeanne and Louise. +Monsieur Berthier is very rich, and he has been kind to the girls. He +has offered to give them a home." + +Jules came near laughing. It seemed to him ridiculous that the old +powdered woman he had seen in the dressing-room of the Circus should +marry again. + +"Then how have you prevented the marriage?" he asked. + +"Because I must work," she replied simply, "and mamma cannot leave me. +If mamma married Monsieur Berthier, she would have to stay in Boulogne." + +"Ah!" A light broke on Jules. The mother would not marry until her +eldest daughter was married. So, of course, she must be anxious to find +a husband for Mademoiselle Blanche. He felt as if Providence were paving +the way toward happiness for him. For a moment he did not speak again. +Then he said: "But you will marry some day, and then your mother won't +have to travel with you." + +She flushed, and made a deprecating gesture. "I shall always stay in the +circus," she said. "It's my life. I can't think of any other." + +Then he gradually drew her out. She surprised him by telling him of the +monotony of her life. With most of the other performers she had merely a +slight acquaintance; the coarseness of the women and the vulgarity of +the men shocked her. Her only companion in her travels was her mother. +Yes, it was lonely sometimes not to know other girls of her own age, and +it was very hard to be separated from Jeanne and Louise. She worried a +great deal about Jeanne, who had shown a fondness for the circus. She +thought if her mother married, Jeanne would give up all thought of +becoming a performer. Of course, it was different with herself; she had +been bred to the circus, but she couldn't bear the thought of Jeanne's +being there, too. Jeanne was very pretty and lively; Aunt Sophie was +obliged to be strict with her. Louise was so different, so quiet and +simple, and religious, almost a _devote_. As she spoke of her sisters, +Mademoiselle Blanche grew very animated. Jules blamed himself for the +momentary doubt he had felt about her. If Durand could only hear her +now! But Durand doubted every woman. + +It was nearly five o'clock when Madame Perrault returned. When she saw +Jules, she showed no surprise, but smiled upon him broadly and extended +her hand. Mademoiselle Blanche lapsed into silence and, as her mother +talked, with a superabundance of gesture and with tireless vivacity, she +could feel Jules' eyes fixed upon her. She knew that Jules hardly heard +what was being said, and when he rose to take his departure, she made no +effort to detain him. + +"I should like to come again," he said to the girl. + +"Some afternoon, perhaps," Madame Perrault suggested amiably. "Blanche +always rests between three and four, but after that she could see you." + +"But I am at my office till six." + +"Ah, yes!" Madame Perrault exclaimed with a smile. "That wicked +journalist! You must tell him we were vexed with his article." + +"Then may I come in the evening? Perhaps you'll let me take you to the +theatre some night?" + +Madame Perrault clapped her hands. "That would be perfect!" + +Mademoiselle Blanche said nothing, but it was to her that Jules directed +his next remark. + +"Perhaps to-morrow night; I will come at eight o'clock." + +Madame Perrault displayed her gleaming teeth patched with gold, and her +daughter merely bowed and said, "Thank you." + +As Jules was putting on his overcoat in the little hall, he heard a +voice say: + +"_Il est tres gentil, ce monsieur_," but though he listened he could not +catch the reply. He was radiantly happy, however. When he reached the +street, he felt like running; with an effort he controlled himself, and +walked buoyantly home with a smile on his face. He would take Madeleine +out to dinner, as he used to take his mother when they celebrated his +holidays! + + + + + VI + + +The next night, promptly at eight o'clock, Jules appeared in the little +_salon_ in the _rue St. Honore_, bearing his offering of flowers to +Mademoiselle Blanche. Madame Perrault gave him the quiet reception of an +old friend, and he felt as if he had long been in the habit of calling +at the apartment. Madame Perrault informed him that she had just risen +from dinner, and asked him to drink a cup of coffee. Then the three +figures sat in the dimly-lighted room and talked; that is, Jules and +Madame Perrault talked, for Blanche ventured a remark only when a +question was put to her. + +A few moments later, Madame Perrault went into the next room where she +was occupied with the little maid in making a dress; so Jules was left +alone with her daughter. They had very little to say to each other, and +Jules was content to sit in silence and rapt adoration. As he looked at +her, her name kept singing in his mind: Blanche! He wondered if he +should ever dare to address her in this way. How beautiful she was as +she sat there, the soft light of the fire falling on her face and hands, +and on the folds of her gown! He was glad she was so quiet; he hated +women that talked all the time. That was the great fault with Madame +Perrault; if she said less, he would like her, in spite of her powder +and paint. Since hearing that she was engaged, and wanted to get her +daughter married, Jules' feelings toward her had softened. + +It was nearly ten o'clock before they left for the theatre. Jules called +a cab, and all three squeezed into it with a great deal of laughter on +the part of Madame Perrault. As they rattled over the rough pavement, +the noise was so great that they could not talk, and Jules gave himself +up to contemplating the serious face of Mademoiselle Blanche. The +thought that he was riding with her to the scene of her triumphs +thrilled him. He felt as if he were having a share in her performance, +as if her glory were reflected on him. Ah, if Dufresne and Leroux could +see him now! How they would be impressed, and how they would envy him! + +Before bidding his friends good-night, he asked if he might not take +them home; he would remain till the end of the performance, anyway, he +said. Instead of entering the theatre at once, he sauntered along the +_Boulevard_ toward the _place de la Bastille_. What were the other +performers to him? Without Mademoiselle Blanche the _Cirque Parisien_ +would not be worth visiting. He did not return to the theatre till it +was nearly time for her to appear. Reju was standing at the door, and +made a sign for him to pass in without paying. Jules accepted the +invitation with a twinge of conscience. He wondered what Reju would +think if he discovered Durand's imposition. + +After the performance, Jules waited at the stage-door for half an hour +till Mademoiselle Blanche appeared again. Then he asked her and her +mother to take supper with him at one of the restaurants in the +_Boulevard_. Madame Perrault consented amiably, and they entered a +little _cafe_, where a half-dozen young men and girls were sitting round +a table, playing cards. Jules wanted to order a bottle of champagne; but +Mademoiselle Blanche objected; he could scarcely keep from smiling when +she said she would much rather have beer. So he called for three bocks +and some cheese sandwiches, and over this simple repast they became very +gay. Madame Perrault was the liveliest of the three, and she amused +Jules by a description of her _fiance_, who had been in love with her, +she said, long before her marriage with Blanche's father. She seemed to +think it was very droll that he should want to marry her now; she had +told him he would do much better to marry Blanche, or to wait till +Jeanne grew up. Under the warmth of her humor, Jules' prejudices against +her disappeared, and he found himself growing fond of her. At that +moment he longed to confide in her, to tell her all about his +infatuation for her daughter, and to ask her advice about the best way +of pleasing the girl. + +When they had left the _cafe_, and Jules had taken his friends home and +dismissed the cab, he fell again into the depression of the week before. +As he walked to the _rue de Lisbonne_ in the damp night, he blamed +Durand for having introduced him to the Perraults. If he hadn't met +Mademoiselle Blanche he might have gone on living comfortably, enjoyed +his daily work, his little dinners, his visits to the theatre, his +comfortable apartment, with Madeleine to look after his wants. Now he +was upset, at sea. He hated the routine of the office; the vulgar +stories of Dufresne and Leroux disgusted him; the apartment was cold and +lonely; Madeleine was always interfering with him. He resolved not to go +to the _Cirque_ again; he would try to forget Mademoiselle Blanche and +her mother's chatter. But when he went to bed it was of her that he +thought, and he dreamed that he saw her again, in her white silk tights, +climbing hand over hand to the top of the Circus, tumbling through the +air, and bouncing with a thud to her feet on the padded net. + +The next morning he felt better, and he called himself a fool for his +misery of the night before. As he looked back on the evening, he decided +that, of course, if they hadn't liked him, they would not have allowed +him to take them to the theatre and back, and to a _cafe_ for supper. He +wondered what they would think if he called for them again that night. +Perhaps it would be better to wait for two or three days. But at the end +of the afternoon he felt so impatient to see Mademoiselle Blanche that +he determined to risk seeming intrusive. So he bought another bunch of +white roses, and at eight o'clock he reappeared in the apartment. Madame +Perrault greeted him just as she had done the night before, without a +suggestion of surprise in her manner. This made him feel so bold that he +did not apologize, as he had intended to do, but took his place by the +fire as if he had a right to be there. + +In this way, Jules Le Baron's courtship began. It seemed to him a +strange courtship. It taught him a great many things,--among others, how +little he knew about women. As he had lived in Paris all of his thirty +years, with the exception of his three memorable months in America, he +thought he understood women; now he saw his mistake. He had not led a +particularly good life, though it was so much better than the lives of +most of his acquaintances that he considered himself a man of rather +superior character. If he had studied his character more carefully, he +would have discovered that his superiority was not a matter of morals, +but of taste and temperament. Vice seemed to him vulgar, and it made him +uncomfortable; so in its grosser forms he had always avoided it. He had, +however, the Parisian's frank, ingenuous, almost innocent fondness for +the humorously indecent, and his attitude toward life was wholly French. +The mention of virtue made him laugh and shrug his shoulders. Most +women, he thought, were naturally the inferiors of men; so the better he +understood the character of Mademoiselle Blanche, the more surprised he +grew. Indeed, there were times when he felt awed in her presence and +ashamed of himself. She seemed to know the world and yet to be untainted +by it, to turn away instinctively from its evil phases. If her innocence +had been ignorant, he could not have respected it; the knowledge that +she had lived in the midst of temptation made her goodness seem almost +sublime. + +Jules fell into the habit of calling for the Perraults in the evening, +and he soon became recognized at the _Cirque_ as their escort. Reju, who +still showed respect for him as a journalist, admitted him to the +theatre every night without charge, and he was also permitted to enter +the sacred precincts beyond the stage-door, where, instead of waiting on +the sidewalk, he stood in a cold corridor, dimly lighted by sputtering +lamps. After the performance, he sometimes took his friends into the +little _cafe_ for beer and sandwiches, and occasionally Madame Perrault +would prepare a supper at home. + +Jules' equilibrium became restored again; he made fewer mistakes at the +office and he even deceived the twins, who had come to the conclusion +that he must be in love. With Madeleine, in spite of his first +confidences, he had little to say about Mademoiselle Blanche, and she +did not dare ask him questions. His silence and his improved appetite, +together with his renewed amiability, made her hope that he had +recovered from his infatuation, and she felt easier in mind. + +On the Saturday evening following his first call on Mademoiselle +Blanche, while Jules was sitting in the little apartment, he asked the +girl if they might not pass Sunday together. "We might drive through the +_Bois_ into the country," he suggested. + +She had been looking into the fire, and she glanced at him hesitatingly. +"We always go to mass on Sunday morning," she said. + +For a moment Jules appeared confused. "But can't you go to early mass?" + +Madame Perrault, who was in the next room, called out: "It's no use +trying to persuade her not to go to high mass, monsieur. She'd think +something terrible was going to happen to her if she didn't go. Now, I +go at eight o'clock; so I have the rest of the day free." + +Jules looked at Mademoiselle Blanche and smiled, and she smiled back. + +"I like to hear the music," she explained apologetically. + +"Oh, she's too religious for _this_ world," Madame Perrault laughed. "I +believe she'd go to mass every morning of her life if she didn't have to +stay up so late at night. She ought to be in a convent instead of a +circus." + +"In a convent!" Jules exclaimed, in mock alarm. + +"Don't you ever go to church?" the girl asked, turning to Jules. + +He looked confused again. "I? Well, no. To tell the truth, I haven't +been in a church for nearly ten years. Oh, yes I have. I went to a +funeral two years ago at the Trinity." + +"But weren't you--weren't you brought up to go to church?" + +"Brought up to go to church? Oh, yes; my mother went to church every +Sunday of her life. I used to go with her after my father died." + +A long silence followed. Mademoiselle Blanche turned again to the fire, +and Jules had a sensation of extreme unpleasantness. Like many +Parisians, he never thought about religion. He had been so affected by +the skepticism of his associates that he had no real belief in any +doctrine. He saw now for the first time that serious complications might +arise from his religious indifference. It was very disagreeable, he +thought, to be confronted with it in this way. Indeed, the more he +thought about it, the more annoyed he became. He felt that he must +justify himself in some way. So at last he spoke up: "I suppose you're +shocked because I don't go to church, aren't you, mademoiselle?" + +Mademoiselle Blanche looked down at her hands lying folded in her lap. + +"I'm sorry." + +"Sorry?" he repeated, trying to laugh. "Why are you sorry? I rather like +it. I never did enjoy going to church." + +"We don't go to church to enjoy it, do we?" she asked gently. + +He sank back in his seat, and looked at her. "No, I suppose not." Then, +after a moment, he suddenly leaned forward. "We can't all be good like +you, mademoiselle. Perhaps if I had known you always, I should go to +church. I'd do anything to please you." + +"But you ought not to go to please me. You ought to go for your own +good." + +"So you think it does good, then--going to church?" + +"I'm sure of it," she replied, gazing into the fire. "Sometimes,--when I +feel unhappy because I haven't seen the girls for so long, and because I +must be separated from them so much, or when Aunt Sophie complains about +Jeanne, or Jeanne has been unkind to Louise, or disobedient, then, after +I've been to church, I feel better." + +"Why do you feel better?" he asked, more to keep her talking than +because he cared for her answer. + +"Because I feel sure," she went on, holding her head down, "I feel sure +it will all come out right--if I only have faith. Jeanne is a good girl; +she's never disobedient or unkind with me." + +"Then you worry about Jeanne?" + +"Yes--sometimes." + +"But you don't worry so much after you've been at church?" + +"No." + +"And that is why you like to go to church?" + +"That's one reason. But there are others--a great many others." + +He felt like laughing at the simplicity of her reasoning, and yet he was +touched. He had a sudden desire to take her in his arms and stroke her +soft hair and tell her he loved her. Then he heard her mother's step in +the next room, and this roused him. + +"I should like to go to church with you sometimes," he said. "May I?" + +"Take him to-morrow, Blanche," cried Madame Perrault, and at that moment +Jules could have kissed her, too. "There's going to be a special service +at _St. Philippe de Roule_ at ten o'clock. The music will be good." + +That was how Jules first happened to go to church with Mademoiselle +Blanche. After mass they walked up the _Champs Elysees_ and then along +the _avenue du Bois de Boulogne_, in the midst of the multitude of +promenaders. A few of the men recognized the girl, and turned to look +after her. She seemed not to see them, but Jules did, and he felt very +proud to be her escort. She looked very pretty in her tight-fitting +black jacket and little hat tipped with fur, her cheeks scarlet with the +early frost. She was the last person in the crowd, Jules thought, who +would be taken for an acrobat. It seemed to him wonderful that she +should appear so unlike the marvel that she was, and this lack of +resemblance to herself made her the more attractive to him. + +After that day, Jules went to church with Mademoiselle Blanche every +Sunday. At first the sight of the priests in their vestments, of the +altar-boys in their white surplices, of the white altar gleaming with +candles and plate and enshrouded in incense, and the reverberation of +the organ, mingled with the voices singing the music of the mass, all +reminded him so strongly of his mother, that his old affection for her +swept over him, and brought tears to his eyes. + +His own disbelief had made him doubt even the faith of others. It had +also inspired him with the hatred for priests, so common even among +Parisians of traditions like his own. Now, as he watched them, chanting +at the altar, they seemed harmless as other men. He tried, as he went +mechanically through the service, to count the men he knew who went to +church. Nearly all of his acquaintances, he found, scoffed at it. Then +gradually the service became subtly mingled with his love for the girl +beside him, and for her sake he loved it. The organ seemed to sing her +praise exultingly. He would have liked to tell her of this fancy, but he +did not dare; he knew it would shock her. In a short time, going through +the mass with her grew to mean to him an expression of his love, a +spiritual exaltation which he offered as a tribute, not to God, but to +her. + + + + + VII + + +By the month of November, Jules had identified himself with Madame +Perrault and her daughter. He took his position as their friend and +recognized escort so quickly and so quietly that he was himself +surprised by it. There were moments when he had a fear that it was all +an illusion, that some night he should find the stage-door of the +_Cirque_ slammed in his face. + +It was while watching Mademoiselle Blanche in the ring that he found it +most difficult to realize his happiness. He actually _knew_ this +wonderful creature in white tights who darted from trapeze to trapeze, +who posed like a marble statue on the rope, who shot through the air +like a thunderbolt! He saw her every day; he loved her, and she knew +that he loved her. Sometimes he fancied that she loved him in +return--from an expression in her face, a glance of her eyes, a blush, a +tremor when his hand touched hers. He did not dare speak to her about +his love; he doubted if he should ever dare to speak; at a word he +feared his happiness might be shattered. + +Sometimes on Sunday afternoons he drove with Mademoiselle Blanche and +her mother into the country, and on Sunday nights he would dine and pass +the evening with them in the little apartment. Occasionally he had long +talks with the mother; in these he told about his family and about his +property, laying stress on the fact that even if he lost his place at +the office his income was large enough to support him. She told him, in +return, about her own family and her husband's, and gave him a humorous +account of her sister-in-law, Blanche's Aunt Sophie. + +"Blanche is a little like her," she said. "Sophie takes everything _au +grand serieux_. Then she's strict with the children, and that's a great +mistake, for Jeanne hates restraint, and Louise doesn't need it." + +She also told him amusing stories about Monsieur Berthier's devotion to +her. He had offered himself to her while she was at the convent where +she was educated, near Boulogne, and she had refused him twice. Her +family had objected to her marriage with Blanche's father, simply +because he was an acrobat. No, she hadn't fallen in love with him at the +circus. She never saw him perform till a short time before she became +engaged to him. Ah, it had been hard for her to be separated from him so +much. Sometimes she travelled with him in his long journeys; but while +the children were very young, she couldn't. Blanche had been such a +consolation to him. Madame Perrault believed that husband and wife ought +never to be separated; it was bad for both of them. If she had her life +to live over again, she would always travel with her husband, no matter +how far he went. + +Most of Jules' talk with Madame Perrault, however, consisted of a +discussion of the qualities of her daughter, whose praises she +constantly sang for him. Blanche's ambition, she said, was to provide +dowries for her sisters; she had already accumulated a few thousand +francs, and these she had set aside for the girls. She never seemed to +think that she herself needed a _dot_. Ah, sometimes Madame was very +much worried about her daughter's future. Blanche could not marry any of +the other performers; they were not worthy of her, and their coarseness +and roughness shocked her. Of course, they were good enough in their +way, but their way was not Blanche's way. + +Then, as Madame became more familiar with Jules, she also grew more +confidential. Yes, Blanche had had a great many admirers. The young +Prince of Luperto had fallen desperately in love with her in Bucharest +three years before, and he had followed her all over Europe. But she had +refused to notice any of his letters,--and oh, _mon Dieu!_ such letters! +Madame had read every one of them, and she had met the Prince the night +he tried to force himself into Blanche's dressing-room. He seemed _such_ +a gentleman, and he had the most beautiful eyes! But Blanche,--she was +so frightened. She cried and cried, and for weeks she was in terror of +her life! Then there were others,--so many, so many. One by one, Madame +Perrault unfolded their histories to Jules, and he listened in rapt +attention, with a growing appreciation of the daughter's charms and of +the mother's amiability. + +Jules often wondered why he did not hear more talk about the circus in +the little apartment. The subject was rarely mentioned. Mademoiselle +Blanche displayed no nervousness before or after her performance. She +practised a little in the morning at home, she said, to keep her muscles +limber; she had done the same things on the trapeze so often that they +had become easy to her. Once Jules met in the apartment the oily little +Frenchman who always held the rope when Mademoiselle Blanche climbed to +the top of the _Cirque_, and then he learned for the first time that +Monsieur Pelletier was Mademoiselle's agent. "And he is such a trial to +us," the mother explained when he was gone. "He makes such bad terms, +and we have to pay him such a high percentage; and then he sometimes +mixes up our dates, and we don't know what to do. Ah, if we could only +have some one to take care of our affairs that we could trust. It is so +hard for two unprotected women." + +Jules thought of this speech many times. Indeed, he fairly brooded over +it. For several weeks he had felt that his career was too limited; he +hated the thought of being tied down to his business all his life. He +was made for something better than that, for a grander, a more +conspicuous _role_. + +In his youth he had thought of the army, then of a diplomatic career; +for a time, too, of the stage. But he had been too poor to enter either +of the first two professions, and for the stage he was unfitted by +temperament. Now, in his imagination a brilliant career stretched before +him, combining both glory and love. Up to the present he had not lived; +his life was about to begin. The world seemed to open out to him! He +would travel from one end of the earth to the other in an unbroken march +of triumph. Even Paris lost attractiveness for him and seemed +uninteresting and petty; he pitied the poor _boulevardiers_ who were +bound to a wretched routine of existence, who loved it simply because +they knew of no other. He would not only visit America again--this time +not in a sordid capacity, friendless and lonely, but surrounded by a +retinue--he would go also to Russia, to India, to Australia, perhaps to +Japan and the other countries of the remote East. The night when he was +first enchanted by this vision, he could not sleep for excitement till +nearly four o'clock. Then he saw the vision realized, only to be +shattered by Madeleine's cracked voice, and her injunction that it was +time for him to get up and go to his work. + +In the evening, when he saw his friends again, he found them very +unhappy; they had just received news from Jeanne that Aunt Sophie was +very ill, threatened with pneumonia. Madame Perrault was in tears, and +Mademoiselle Blanche's eyes showed that she, too, had been crying. The +next day, they said, Jeanne had promised to write, and the next night +Jules learned that bad news had been received. The doctor pronounced the +case pneumonia, and said the patient was in great danger. Mamma must +come on, Jeanne wrote. But Madame explained to Jules with sobs that she +could not leave Blanche. + +"And my poor Jeanne, what will she do, a child of fourteen with only the +little Louise to help her." + +Then Jules became inspired. His faithful Madeleine--she would save the +situation. Madame Perrault might go to Boulogne by the first train, and +Madeleine would take her place, would be a second mother to Mademoiselle +Blanche, accompany her to the theatre, help her to dress, come back with +her, keep her from being lonely. Jules wanted to rush off at once, and +bring Madeleine to the _rue St. Honore_, for inspection and approval. + +Then the girl's quiet wisdom asserted itself. Jeanne had said there was +no immediate danger; so if Mamma took the train in the morning, that +would be in quite time enough. After their _petit dejeuner_ they might +call on Madeleine, or Monsieur Jules might tell them if she would come. +Then Jules burst into a eulogy of Madeleine's qualities: he had never +before realized what a good soul she was. He would bring her with him, +he said, in the morning, on his way to the office; he knew she would be +glad to come. + +On this occasion Jules had a chance to display his executive ability. +After leaving his friends at the Circus, he drove home furiously, found +Madeleine sound asleep in the big chair by the fireplace, woke her up, +and explained the situation. + +"Now, my dear Madeleine," he said at the end, "you are to go to that +poor girl and take her mother's place; she will love you, and you will +love her. So be good to her for my sake, Madeleine," and he leaned over, +and patted the old woman's wrinkled hand affectionately. Madeleine was +moved, chiefly, however, by Jules' unwonted tenderness. She had never +known an actress, not to speak of a performer in a circus, and she felt +alarmed at the thought of meeting one. But she felt sure that +Mademoiselle Blanche must be good. Hadn't Jules said so? Jules had not +said that he was in love with Mademoiselle; he trusted Madeleine to find +that out for herself; he also trusted Madeleine to find out a few other +things for him. Secretly he was blessing the chance that enabled him to +send Madeleine to Mademoiselle; for the moment he did not even think of +the personal discomfort it would cause himself. + +That night Jules told his friends that Madeleine had consented to come, +and he promised to bring her with him in the morning. Madeleine was +greatly agitated, and rose unusually early to make an elaborate +toilette. She rarely went out, save to the shops and to mass; so she had +not kept up with the fashions, and her best dress was made in a mode +long before discarded. She was a very grotesque figure as she walked in +her queer little bonnet with long ribbons flying from it, and her wide +skirts. When they reached the apartment in the _rue St. Honore_, Jules +thought he saw an expression of amusement in Madame Perrault's face, but +Blanche greeted Madeleine with great kindliness. Then the mother +explained that she had just received a letter from Jeanne, saying Aunt +Sophie was in no immediate danger, but begging her to come as soon as +possible. Jules saw that both his friends were pleased with Madeleine, +and it was quickly arranged that she should install herself in the +apartment that day, and at four o'clock Madame Perrault would leave for +Boulogne. He departed radiantly happy, with the promise to return at +three to take Madame to the station. He secured leave of absence from +the office, and on his return to the apartment he found Madeleine there, +helping Mademoiselle Blanche to make a new dress. + +"I'll be ready in a minute," Madame Perrault cried from the adjoining +room. + +"Are you coming with us, mademoiselle?" Jules asked. + +"No, I won't let her," her mother replied. "It's too cold, and it would +tire her. You aren't afraid to ride alone in a cab with me, are you?" + +Jules was surprised by her vivacity; he knew that she was greatly +worried about her sister, yet in the midst of her agitation she could +joke. If he had known her less he would have supposed that she was a +woman of little feeling. She presently flounced out of the room, putting +on her gloves and smiling. + +"Madeleine and Blanche have become great friends," she said. "I'm afraid +I shall be jealous of her. When I come back there won't be any place for +me." Then she took her daughter by both hands and Jules saw the glimmer +of tears in her eyes. "Good-bye, dear," she said, kissing the girl on +both cheeks. "You must write to me every day, and I'll write to you. In +a week, at least, I shall be back. I have a presentiment that Sophie +will improve as soon as I get there." + +Mademoiselle Blanche clung tightly to her mother, and kissed her again +and again. + +"There, there! Now, my child--there!" With a parting embrace, Madame +Perrault tore herself away, crying as she passed out of the door, +"Good-bye, Madeleine. Take care of the little one! And remember Monsieur +Jules is coming back to dinner. I'm going to invite him." + +This was the first time she had ever called Jules by his first name, and +on hearing it he felt a thrill of joy. She hurried before him down the +steep stairs, wiping her eyes. When they entered the cab, she had +controlled herself again, and was smiling as usual. + +The cab rattled so noisily over the pavement that during most of the +ride to the station they kept silent. They arrived there half an hour +ahead of time, and this they spent in walking up and down the platform. + +"You must be very kind to my Blanche while I'm away," said Madame +Perrault. "She will be very lonely. She hasn't been separated from me +before since her father died." + +Jules assured her that he would be a second mother to her. He would take +her and Madeleine to the _Cirque_ every night, and in the morning on his +way to the office he would call to ask if he could do her any service. +"She'll be spoiled when you come back," he concluded with a smile. + +For a moment they walked without speaking. The station was so cold that +their breaths made vapour in the air. Yet Jules felt warm enough; his +whole being seemed to glow. + +"There's something I want to tell you." + +She made a sign with her head that she was listening. + +"I'm in love with Mademoiselle Blanche," he said, impressively, finding +a delicious relief in speaking the words. + +She smiled roguishly into his face. + +"Is that all?" + +They looked into each other's eyes, and read there a mutual +understanding. + +"Then you've known all along?" + +"Of course, from the very first, from the first night you came into the +dressing-room, and pretended to be a reporter." + +"Ah, I thought you had forgiven that." + +"So I have--that is, there was nothing to forgive. You didn't deceive +me." + +"Do you mean that you knew at the time I wasn't a reporter? And +Blanche--she knew too?" + +"No, poor dear, she didn't know. Yet it was plain as daylight. Ah, my +friend, I haven't lived fifty years for nothing. Don't you suppose I +could tell from your looks and your manner, and what you said, and what +you _didn't_ say,--don't you suppose I could tell from all that, what +you had come for?" + +Jules looked into her face again. + +"How good you are!" he sighed. + +She burst out laughing. + +"Good? I am not good. Blanche taught me that years ago. There's nothing +like having a good daughter to take a mother down. She makes me feel +ashamed every day of my life." + +"That's just the way she makes me feel," Jules cried, delighted to find +that some one else shared his feeling. "Then she's so gentle and so +kind," he rhapsodized, "and she thinks so little about herself! Do +you--do you think----Oh, that's what almost drives me to despair +sometimes. I hardly dare go near her. I hardly dare to speak to her." + +Madame Perrault took a deep breath. + +"You almost make me feel young again," she said, with a smile. + +"Do you think I could make her love me?" Jules asked, marvelling at his +own humility. + +"Do you mean that you want to know whether I think she's in love with +you or not?" Madame Perrault said briskly. "Ah, my friend, I can't +answer that question. You must ask her yourself." + +"Then you give me permission to ask her? You are willing? You have no +objection?" He stopped suddenly, and looked radiantly at Madame +Perrault's face. "How _good_ you are, madame!" he repeated. + +She began to laugh again,--a peculiar, gurgling laugh that came from her +throat. + +"Why should I object? You are a good fellow. You would make Blanche a +good husband. It's time for her to get married. She needs some one to +protect her. I can't follow her about all the rest of my life. She is +twenty-two. Why shouldn't she marry?" + +Jules' ardor was cooled by this practical reasoning; it made him +practical too. He told Madame Perrault again of his little property. He +could well afford to marry, he said. He loved Mademoiselle Blanche with +all his heart; he couldn't live without her; he would give up everything +for her; he would follow her everywhere. Ah, if he only knew whether she +cared for him or not! She was so strange, so reserved. It was so hard to +tell with a girl like her. + +"You are right there, my friend. She has great reserve. With my Jeanne +or Louise, I should know everything. But with Blanche, _non!_ But I +never pry into her secrets; I have learned better. She has a great deal +of inner life; she thinks a great deal; she is not like the other +flighty women that you see in the circus. If she had not been born to +the circus, if she had been brought up as Louise has been, she would be +a _religieuse_." + +Jules would have become rhapsodical again if the whistle of the train +had not sounded, and he was obliged hurriedly to help Madame Perrault +into her compartment. He shook the hand that she offered him, received a +few last messages, and he watched the train as it pulled out of the +station. Then, with a sigh, he turned and walked back to his office. + + + + + VIII + + +After the departure of Madeleine, Jules would have found his apartment +cheerless, if he had not used it merely for sleeping. As soon as he rose +in the morning, he went to Madame Perrault's, where he breakfasted with +Mademoiselle Blanche. In spite of her duties elsewhere, Madeleine kept +his rooms in order, and his new domestic arrangements did not in the +least inconvenience him. Indeed, he liked them, and he almost dreaded +the return of Mademoiselle's mother. This would probably not take place +for several weeks, however, for the illness of her aunt Sophie proved to +be very tedious, though after the first ten days she was pronounced out +of danger. Madeleine had speedily won the affections of Mademoiselle +Blanche, and she secretly confided to Jules that the girl was an angel. + +"I knew you'd think so," Jules replied. "I've thought so ever since I +first saw her." + +"Ah, but it's wicked that she should have to do those dreadful things +every night!" Madeleine cried, rolling her eyes, and throwing up her +hands in horror. "It freezes my blood." + +"But she likes it," Jules explained. + +"Ah, it's wicked just the same, the poor child!" + +Madeleine had speedily adapted herself to her duties as dresser to +Mademoiselle Blanche, and her nightly trips to the theatre were the most +exciting experiences of her life. After seeing the plunge from the top +of the Circus, however, she had refused to look at it again. "It freezes +my blood," she would repeat, whenever Jules referred to it. "It's too +horrible!" + +"But she makes a lot of money by it," Jules insisted. + +"She would do much better to stay poor," Madeleine replied, with a +tartness that was rare with her and made Jules burst out laughing. + +"Madeleine," he said, confidentially. "Madeleine, come over here." + +Madeleine bent her head towards him with a smile on her face. + +"Madeleine, do you think there's any one--any one that she cares about +particularly--any one you know? Eh?" + +Madeleine's wrinkles deepened, as the smile spread over her face and +lighted her faded eyes. + +"Ah, Monsieur Jules, she is very fond of her sisters. She is always +talking about them, especially about _la petite_ Jeanne. Then she's very +fond of her mamma, too, of course." + +"Madeleine, you're trying to plague me now. You know I don't mean that. +I mean any--any--?" + +"Any gentleman, Monsieur Jules?" the old woman asked. + +"Yes, Madeleine, any gentleman." + +Madeleine grew thoughtful. + +"She often speaks of Monsieur Berthier, who is going to marry her +mother. She says he's very kind to her sisters." + +"And is that all, Madeleine? Doesn't she speak of any one else? Doesn't +she ever speak of--of me?" + +"Oh, yes, Monsieur Jules, she thinks you've been very good to her and +her mother. She often speaks of that." + +This was all the information that Jules could extract from Madeleine. On +several occasions he tried her again, but though she seemed amused by +his questions, she evaded them. Once he said to her: + +"Madeleine, how would you like to go away with me--to travel--a long +distance?" + +Madeleine carefully considered the question. Then she replied simply: + +"I should not like to leave Paris, Monsieur Jules, but, if you wanted me +to go, I would go." + +After that, Madeleine was less worried. She had little to say, and, like +most silent people, she observed and thought a great deal. For +Mademoiselle Blanche she had conceived a genuine affection, and she +looked forward with regret to the time when she would have to leave the +_rue St. Honore_ for Jules' lonely apartment. + +One Saturday night, on their return from the Circus, Jules asked +Mademoiselle Blanche if she were going to high mass the next day as +usual. He was surprised when she replied that she was going at eight +o'clock instead. + +"But that is too early," he said. "You won't have sleep enough." + +"I'm going to communion," she explained. + +"Oh!" + +He could not understand why this announcement should impress him as it +did. He had supposed that of course she went to communion; she had +probably gone to confession early in the afternoon before the _matinee_. +Once again he felt awed by her goodness. How strange it was that she +should be in the confessional at three o'clock, and two hours later +perform in her fleshings before a crowd of people! The very publicity of +her life seemed to exalt the simplicity and the purity of her character. + +Jules was so absorbed in thinking of these things that he did not speak +again till the cab reached the _rue St. Honore_. Then, as he helped +Mademoiselle out, he said: + +"I'll go to church with you to-morrow, if you will let me. You won't +leave before half-past seven, will you?" + +She protested that he ought not to get up so early; he needed a good +night's rest after his hard work of the week. But he laughed and waved +his hand to her in parting, and told her not to wait for him after a +quarter to eight; now that he didn't have Madeleine to call him, he +might not wake up in time. + +He was in time, however, and as he walked to church in the cold December +air with Mademoiselle by his side, he felt repaid for his sacrifice. She +wore a tight-fitting fur coat and a black cloth dress, with the little +fur-trimmed hat he had admired when he first walked with her in the +_Champs Elysees_. Her face was protected by a thick dotted veil, but +under it he could see her sparkling eyes and the color in her cheeks. + +"I'm paying you a very great compliment," he said, as they hurried along +towards _St. Philippe de Roule_. "I haven't got up so early on a Sunday +since I was a boy." + +She smiled in reply; it was too cold for her to speak. He could see her +breath steaming faintly through the veil. + +He felt a curious desire to hear her voice again; he did not realize +that her devotion to the Church made her seem more remote from him, but +he had an unpleasant consciousness that his own lack of religious faith +created a barrier between them. + +In the church he kept glancing from the priest celebrating the mass, to +her. She was absorbed in reading her prayer-book, and she did not once +look up at him. He compared her as she appeared then with her appearance +in the glamor of the circus ring. She was the same person, yet +different. She represented to him a kind of miracle. How humble she was, +how sweet and good, as she knelt there! + +When the priest began to distribute the communion and Blanche left her +seat and joined the throng approaching the altar, Jules was touched with +a tenderness he had never felt before. He buried his face in his hands, +and prayed that he might be made worthy of her. He did not dare pray for +her love; a certain sense of shame at having neglected God and church +for so many years, at having lived solely for his own gratification, +kept him from that; but if he had examined his motives, he would have +found that this was really what he was praying for. He deceived himself +so easily that he instinctively felt that he might be able to deceive +God too. + +On leaving the church, Jules proposed that they go to a restaurant for +breakfast. "We'll make a holiday of it," he said, "and drink to your +Aunt Sophie's health." + +But Blanche protested that Madeleine would expect them, and would be +worried if she were not back by half-past nine. + +"Then we'll go out at one o'clock. I'll take you over to Bertiny's, in +the _Champs Elysees_. It's very gorgeous; the twins took me there once +to celebrate Dufresne's luck when he won five hundred francs at the +races." + +Though the sun was shining, it was still very cold, and as they hurried +to the little apartment Jules could see that she was trembling. +Madeleine had prepared some hot coffee for them and some eggs, and over +these they were very gay. Jules was in a particularly good humor, and +Mademoiselle Blanche laughed at his jokes, though most of them she had +heard before. She had a very pretty laugh, he thought,--like her +mother's, though not so deep and gurgling. After breakfast her face +flushed from her walk and she looked even prettier than she appeared in +the church. + +As Madeleine cleared away the table, Blanche began to water the flowers +by the window, and Jules opened the copy of the _Petit Journal_ that he +had bought on the way from the church. He kept glancing up at +Mademoiselle, however, and each time he looked at her he had a new +sensation of pleasure. How domestic she looked in the little dress of +gray wool that she had put on after her return from mass! She seemed to +create an atmosphere of home around her. In her belt were the roses he +had given her the night before, still fresh and sparkling with drops of +water from her fingers. How good it was, he thought, that he could be +with her like this! How lonely his own apartment would be to him when +Madame Perrault came back! He almost wished that she would never return, +that she would marry Monsieur Berthier, and they might go on in this way +forever. He laughed at the thought, and just then Mademoiselle turned +her head. + +"Monsieur seems to be amused," she said. "What is he smiling at?" + +"I'm smiling because I'm so happy," Jules replied. "Don't you smile when +you're happy?" + +She took a seat by the table, where she rested one hand. + +"No, I don't think I do," she said, apparently giving the question +serious consideration. "When I am very happy I look serious. Then mamma +sometimes fancies I feel sad." + +He took a cigarette-case from his pocket and began to smoke. + +"Do you know," he said at last, "I shall be sorry when your mother +returns?" + +"Sorry?" + +"Yes, because Madeleine will come back to me then, and I shall have to +stay at home. I can't come any more as I do now." + +A look of alarm appeared in her face. "But why can't you come just the +same?" she asked, innocently. + +He burst out laughing, and he felt a sudden desire to pat her on the +cheek as he might have done to a child. What a child she was, anyway! +Yet he would not have wished her to be different; she seemed to him just +what a young girl should be. + +"When your mother comes, I can't take breakfast with you any more, and I +can't come early on Sunday mornings and stay all day. I shall have to go +back to my lonely apartment." + +"But you have Madeleine," she said, with a faint smile. + +"Madeleine, yes, and she is good enough in her way." Then he suddenly +threw his cigarette into the fireplace, and bent toward her. "Don't you +know," he whispered, in a voice so low that Madeleine, who was moving +about in the next room, could not hear him, "can't you see that it's +_you_ I shall miss? Can't you see that you've become everything in the +world to me? Without you, dear Blanche, I shouldn't care to live. Before +I met you I didn't know what life really was--I didn't know what love +was. I loved you the first time I saw you, and the more I've seen you, +the better I've known you, the dearer you've become to me. I don't think +I ever really understood what it was to be pure and good till I knew +you. You've made me ashamed of myself. Sometimes I feel as if I had no +right to go near you. But I do love you, Blanche, and they say love +helps a man to be good. I haven't dared to tell you this before; I've +been afraid to ask you if you loved me. But this morning in church, it +all came over me so--so that I must tell you. Blanche," he went on, +taking her hand, "you aren't offended with me for saying this, are you? +I love you so much--I can't help loving you. If you'll only love me a +little, dear, I'll be satisfied. Won't you tell me if you do care for me +a little--just a little?" + +He knelt by her side, and tried to look into her face; but she turned +her head away, and he saw that her neck was crimson. Her bosom kept +rising and falling convulsively. Then he pressed toward her and clasped +her in his arms and kissed her again and again,--on the face, the +forehead, the hair, even on her ears when she buried her head on his +shoulder. His lips were wet with her tears, and he felt radiantly, +exultantly happy. + +"I love you, I love you!" he kept repeating. + +For the first time he felt sure that his love was returned; but he was +not satisfied. He wanted to hear her speak out her love. His lips were +on her cheek, and she was lying motionless in his arms, as he whispered: + +"Won't you say that you love me, dear? Just three words. That isn't +much, and it will make me the happiest man that ever lived." + +Instead of speaking, she put her arms on his shoulders, as a child might +have done, and he pressed her close to his breast again. Then he heard a +noise behind him, and he saw Madeleine standing, big-eyed, in the +doorway; she seemed too startled to move. He rose quickly to his feet, +and still holding Blanche's hand, he said: + +"Madeleine, come here!" + +She came forward timidly, as if afraid she might be punished for her +intrusion. + +"Mademoiselle Blanche is going to be my wife, Madeleine." + +Madeleine held out her arms to the girl, and for a moment they stood +clasped in each other's embrace. + +"Ah, Monsieur Jules," the old woman cried, "I pray God your mother can +look down from heaven and see what a good daughter she's getting!" + + + + + IX + + +After confessing his love, Jules experienced, mingled with his +exultation, a feeling of bewildered amazement at his own boldness. This +was followed by a poignant regret that he hadn't spoken before. Now, +however, that his weeks of doubt and of intermittent misery were over, +he gave himself up to his happiness, which manifested itself in a wild +exuberance of spirits. + +In a short time he was speaking humorously of those weeks, ridiculing +himself as if he had already become different, almost another person +from what he had been then. He told Blanche about his tortures, and even +succeeded in extorting a confession from her that she had been in love +with him since the first Sunday when he had called at the apartment and +acknowledged Durand's duplicity; she, too, had had her doubts and her +fears. Then they became very confidential, and by the time the morning +was over, and they found themselves in the restaurant, they felt as if +they had known each other intimately for years. + +In spite of Blanche's protests, Jules ordered a bottle of champagne and +an elaborate luncheon. + +"I suppose I ought to have asked Madeleine to come," he said, "but I +wanted to be alone with you. Some day before your mother returns, we'll +have another _fete_, and take Madeleine with us." + +In the morning, when he spoke about a definite engagement, and she +protested that her mother must be consulted, he had told her of his talk +with Madame Perrault at the railway station. Now he went on to make +plans for their marriage. There was no reason, he argued, why they +should wait a long time; her mother had been engaged to Monsieur +Berthier for three years, but she would not marry till Blanche had a +protector. Jules liked to talk of himself in this character; it gave him +a feeling of importance. So, altogether, he went on, the sooner the +marriage took place the better. He would give up his place in the +wool-house, and devote himself to his wife's career; for, of course, +they couldn't be separated. They would be very happy travelling about, +from one end of the world to the other. + +It never occurred to either of them that Blanche might retire from the +ring after marriage. She herself seemed to regard the circus as part of +her life; she had been born in it, and she belonged to it as long as she +was able to perform. As for Jules, he could not have dissociated her +from the thought of the circus. Even now he felt as if he had himself +become wedded to it, that he had acquired a kind of proprietary interest +in it. He discussed Blanche's professional engagements as if they were +his own. Why, he asked, couldn't the marriage take place during the +weeks that intervened between her engagement at the _Cirque Parisien_ +and her appearance in Vienna? Jeanne and Louise could come up to Paris +for Christmas and the New Year, and be present at the ceremony. By that +time he would have his affairs arranged so that he could go with her to +Vienna. + +Of course, they must dismiss Pelletier after their marriage. Jules would +take charge of his wife's affairs; his capacity for business would +enable him to make good terms for her. He would plan wonderful tours; he +would write to America, perhaps, and secure engagements for her there; +artists were wonderfully well paid in America, better than in any other +country, and they would enjoy seeing the new world together. + +Blanche listened to his talk with a touching confidence; she seemed to +think it natural that he should speak as if he had authority over her. +She made no protest against any of his suggestions, though she repeated +that nothing could be decided till her mother returned to Paris. + +"But we'll write to your mother," said Jules. "We'll write to her this +very day--this afternoon when we go back." + +For a moment her face clouded. + +"What's the matter? Don't you want me to write to your mother?" + +She did not reply at once. When she did speak, she kept her eyes fixed +on her plate. + +"It will be so hard to be separated from her." + +Jules laughed, and bent toward her. + +"But you can't stay with her always," he said tenderly. "Then we'll take +Madeleine with us. That will be a capital plan. She's strong and +healthy, though she's over sixty, and she won't mind the travelling. +Besides, we shall be in Vienna three months, and we'll rent a little +apartment. It will be like being at home." + +He spoke as if their future were settled, and his tone of confidence +seemed to reassure her. + +"I should like to have Madeleine," she said simply. "She is so good." + +On their return to the apartment, they devoted themselves to writing +long letters to Madame Perrault. Jules' letter was full of rhapsodies, +of promises to be kind to the girl who had consented to be his wife, and +of his plans for the future. They read their letters to each other, or +rather Jules read all of his, and Blanche read part of hers, firmly +refusing to allow him to hear the rest. They spent a very happy +afternoon together, and in the evening Madeleine had a sumptuous dinner +for them, with an enormous bunch of fresh roses on the table. In the +evening they went to the _Comedie Francaise_, to finish what Jules +declared to be the happiest day of his life. + +Jules counted that day as the beginning of his real career. He looked +back on himself during the years he had lived before it almost with +pity. Since leaving the _lycee_, he had been merely a drudge, a piece of +mechanism in the odious machinery of business. He had been content +enough, but with the contentment of ignorance. How lonely and sordid his +existence out of the office had been! He thought of his solitary dinners +in _cafes_, surrounded by wretched beings like himself deprived of the +happiness that comes from home and from an honest love. To the twins and +his other comrades at the office he said nothing of the change that had +taken place in his life; he was afraid they would chaff him; of course, +when they heard he was going to marry an acrobat, they would make +foolish jokes and treat him with a familiar levity. He determined not to +tell them of his marriage until the eve of his departure from business; +he would have to give the firm at least a fortnight's notice; but he +would merely explain to Monsieur Mercier that he intended to devote a +few months to travel, and thought of going to America. + +Madame Perrault replied at once to Jules' letter. She made no pretence +of being surprised by the news it contained; and she expressed her +pleasure at the engagement, and gave her consent. But they must not make +any definite plans until her return to Paris. That would be in about two +weeks, for Aunt Sophie was very much better now and rapidly gaining +strength, though she had as yet been unable to leave her bed. As soon as +Sophie could go out, she was to be carried to the house of her cousin, +Angelique Magnard, who would give her the best of care. Then Madame +Perrault would be able to take Jeanne and Louise to Paris for the +holidays; the girls were wild to see their dear Blanche again and to +meet Jules. Monsieur Berthier talked of coming with them; he, too, was +eager to make the acquaintance of Blanche's future husband. + +After these preliminaries, Madame Perrault devoted herself to practical +matters. She felt it her duty to inform Monsieur Jules that Blanche had +no _dot_; she had earned a great deal of money, but most of it had been +spent in maintaining the family; since the death of her father she had +been their sole support. Of course, after marriage, her daughter's +earnings would belong to Jules; but he must distinctly understand that +he was taking a penniless bride. After her own marriage, Madame Perrault +would have no fear for the future; Monsieur Berthier had promised of his +own accord to provide for the girls; indeed, it was chiefly for their +sake that, at the age of fifty-three, she was willing to marry again. So +Blanche would no longer have her family dependent on her. + +Jules replied with an impassioned letter. He didn't care whether Blanche +had a _dot_ or not. He wanted to marry her because he loved her, because +without her his life would be unendurable: he would marry her if she +were the poorest girl in France. It took him several pages to say this, +and he read the letter with satisfaction, and then aloud to Blanche, who +laughed over it, and gave him a timid little kiss in acknowledgment of +his devotion. He thought he had done a commendable act, and he felt +convinced that every word he had written was true. + +At the office Jules grew reserved, and he resented haughtily the +familiarities of the twins. Indeed, to all of his companions in the wool +house he could not help displaying the superiority he felt. He would be +there only a few weeks longer, and he acted as if he were conferring a +favor on his employer by staying. The twins spent many hours in +discussing the change in him; but they could not discover the cause. + +"You ought to have heard him talk to old Mercier the other day," said +Leroux. "You'd think he was the President receiving a deputation." + +Early in November, Blanche received a letter from her mother, saying +Aunt Sophie was so much better that they had decided to move her the +next day, and two days later she would herself leave Boulogne with the +girls and Monsieur Berthier. Jules was both glad and sorry to hear the +news,--sorry because his long _tete-a-tetes_ with Blanche would end for +a time, and glad because he would be able to arrange definitely with her +mother for the marriage. Madeleine grieved at parting with the girl, but +was consoled when Jules explained that she would probably be needed +every night at the circus after Madame Perrault's return, for, of +course, Monsieur Berthier would want to take his _fiancee_ to the +theatres. In speaking of Monsieur Berthier, Jules had adopted a +facetious tone, which half-amused and half-pained Blanche. + +"How droll it will be," he said one day, "to have two pairs of lovers +billing and cooing together." + +"Mamma doesn't bill and coo," the girl replied, with just a suggestion +of resentment in her tone. "She's too sensible." Then Jules patted her +affectionately on the cheek, and told her she mustn't take what he said +so seriously. + +"Monsieur Berthier must be a very good man, or he wouldn't get such a +good wife," he said lightly. Then, with a comic look in his eyes, he +added as an afterthought: "What a very good person I must be!" + +The next night, when Jules appeared in the _rue St. Honore_ for dinner, +he found the little apartment crowded. Madame Perrault embraced him, and +by addressing him as "my son," seemed to receive him formally into the +family. Then she introduced the two girls, who were much larger than he +had imagined them to be. Jeanne, rosy-cheeked and black-eyed, approached +him fearlessly, and offered her hand with a smile; Louise, fair and +slight, with her light brown hair braided down her back, looked +frightened, and blushed furiously when she received her salutation. The +little fat man standing in front of the mantel, Jules recognized at once +from his pointed white beard and laughing eyes. + +"I should have known you in a crowd on the _Boulevard_," Jules said, as +he extended his hand. "You're exactly like your photograph." + +"And you are even better-looking than Mathilde said you were," Monsieur +Berthier replied. "Ah, little one," he went on, turning to Blanche, and +giving her a pinch on the arm, "you're getting a fine, handsome +husband." + +Jules tried to make friends with the girls. With Jeanne he had no +difficulty; she was quite ready to banter with him, and he found her +pert and quick-witted. Louise, however, was so shy that he could extract +only monosyllables from her. She seemed to him very like Blanche, only +less pretty. Jeanne had Blanche's beauty, more highly-colored and +exuberant; her snapping black eyes showed, too, that she had a will and +a temper of her own. Jules began to chaff her, to make her show her +spirit, but she parried his jests good-humoredly, and she retaliated +very smartly. + +"I don't see how you ever dared to fall in love with Blanche," she said. +"Aren't you afraid of her?" + +"Afraid of her?" Jules laughed. "Why should I be afraid of her?" + +"Oh, I don't know. I suppose because she's so good. I'm afraid of her +sometimes. And I'm afraid of Louise when she gets her pious look on. How +did you happen to fall in love with her? Do tell me. I'll never tell in +the world." + +"I just saw her, that's all," Jules explained with mock gravity. "Isn't +that enough?" + +"In the circus?" + +Jules nodded. + +"Then you fell in love with her because she does such wonderful things, +and looks so beautiful in the ring. Now, you wouldn't have fallen in +love if you'd just met her like any one else." + +"But it was because she wasn't like anyone else that I did fall in love +with her," Jules insisted, with the air of carrying on the joke. + +"But if she'd never been in the circus--if you'd just met her here, or +anywhere else except in the circus--do you think you would have fallen +in love with her then?" + +"Of course I should," Jules replied unhesitatingly, though he knew he +was lying. + +Jeanne shrugged her shoulders and looked skeptical. + +"I wish I could be in the circus," she said, "and get flowers, and be +admired, and earn a lot of money like Blanche. And isn't it the funniest +thing," she went on, growing more confidential, "Blanche doesn't care +about it at all." + +"About the flowers, and being admired, and all that?" + +"Yes. And she says the circus isn't a good place for a young girl. But I +say if it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me. Anyway, if +mamma doesn't let me do what Blanche does, I'm going on the stage when I +grow up." + +Jules was amused by her talk, and drew her out by deft questions. While +she was animatedly describing her life in the convent of Boulogne, where +the nuns were always holding up Louise as a model of good behavior to +her, dinner was announced, and they all went out into the dining-room, +where Jules and Blanche had passed so many hours together. This time +Jules' place was between Jeanne and Louise. Jeanne went on with her +chatter, and Louise scarcely spoke, save to Blanche, with whom she kept +exchanging affectionate smiles. + +"The girls are vexed with me," said Madame Perrault, "because I won't +let them go to the Circus to-night." + +The pale face of Louise brightened with eagerness and Jeanne turned to +her mother and cried pleadingly: + +"Oh, I think it's a shame. The first time we've been in Paris, too, and +we want to see Blanche perform again so much! Why can't we go, mamma? +Please, please let us go." + +"Oh, let the children go," said Monsieur Berthier good-naturedly. "It +would be cruel to send them to bed early their first night in Paris." + +Then Jules added his voice in the girls' behalf, but Madame Perrault +shook her head decidedly. + +"I can't have them up so late. Besides, they need to rest after their +journey. If you are good, Jeanne, and don't tease me to go to-night, +I'll take you and Louise to the _matinee_ on Saturday." + +"Oh, the _matinee_!" Jeanne pouted, turning for sympathy to Jules. "Who +cares for the _matinee_! Isn't it too bad?" she went on in a low voice, +so that her mother shouldn't hear her. "When I grow up, Monsieur Jules, +I shall go to the theatre every night--yes, every night of my life. I +don't care what happens." + +Jeanne was sullen and Louise looked sad when they were left alone with +Charlotte, the little maid. + +"I won't go to bed till twelve o'clock," Jeanne cried, as her mother, +with parting injunctions, went out, followed by the others. "I shall sit +up and cry all the evening." + +"Nine o'clock, my dear," said Madame Perrault serenely. "You know what I +said about Saturday." + +The door was slammed behind them and, as they filed downstairs, they +heard Jeanne go stamping back into the _salon_. + +"Don't you think you're severe with the child, Mathilde?" said Berthier. + +"No, Felix, not too severe, if you mean that. It's the only way to keep +her in check. She has too much spirit. I'm afraid of it sometimes." + +"That's just the way you used to be at her age," he laughed. + +"And that's just why I mean to keep her down," she replied, almost +sternly. + +"Jeanne has all the spirit of the family," said Berthier, glancing at +Jules. + +After the performance they returned to the apartment for supper. Jules +was surprised to find the table steaming with hot dishes, bright with +flowers and with wine-glasses. Madeleine, who seemed to be in the +secret, put on an apron, and proceeded to assist Charlotte. + +"We've prepared a little feast for you," Madame Perrault explained, "in +honour of Blanche's engagement. Felix has provided the champagne." + +Berthier rubbed his hands and smiled, and they took their places at the +table. They were all hungry and in good spirits. This was the happiest +time of the day for Blanche; though she never consciously worried about +her work, she always felt relieved when her performance was done, and +she was free to go home and rest. The little rosy-cheeked Charlotte +busied herself around them, passing dishes and bringing on fresh ones. + +"It's a shame to keep this poor child up so late," said Berthier, when +she had left the room for a moment. "Why not send her to bed?" + +"I'll send her as soon as she brings in the rest of the things," Madame +Perrault replied. "She and Madeleine can have something to eat together. +I sha'n't have to send Madeleine home with you to-night, Jules. We've +made a bed for her in Charlotte's room. She's a good creature, your +Madeleine." + +Charlotte came in with the rest of the dishes, and Madame Perrault told +her to eat something, and go to bed. "And tell Madeleine not to wait up +for us. You can clear the things away in the morning. Did Jeanne go to +bed at nine o'clock, Charlotte?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"And without any trouble?" + +"Yes, madame." + +"What did she do to amuse herself during the evening?" + +Charlotte's cheeks took on a deeper red. + +"She tried to imitate Mademoiselle Blanche in the circus," she +confessed. + +"Ah, that accounts for the broken chair! Good night, Charlotte." Then, +as the girl left the room, Madame Perrault sighed. "That Jeanne will be +the death of me." + +"I'll take her in hand when she comes to me," Berthier laughed. "We'll +have to find a husband for her. That will cure her of her craze for the +circus." + +"A husband for Jeanne, little Jeanne!" Madame Perrault exclaimed in +horror. "She's barely fourteen." + +"And in two years she'll be a woman. I was in love with you at fifteen. +Don't you remember? We thought of eloping." + +"_Taisez-vous!_" cried Madame Perrault, flushing, and trying not to join +in the laughter that the speech excited from Jules. "You make me a great +fool before my daughter and my new son." + +"He isn't your son yet," Berthier insisted, to tease her. + +"But he will be soon." + +"That's just what I wanted you to say!" Jules cried. "The sooner the +better. Tomorrow would suit me." + +The glasses had been filled with champagne, and Berthier lifted his +glass high in the air, crying: + +"Let us drink to the _fiances_! May their marriage be long and their +engagement short! Here's health and happiness to them!" + +They all stood up smiling and drank together. Then as they sat down +again, Berthier went on: + +"Ah, I know the folly of long engagements. Get married, get married, my +children, as soon as you can, while love is young. I once knew a young +girl--as beautiful as the morning--more beautiful, a thousand times more +beautiful. Well, this young girl loved a handsome, yes, I may say a +fairly handsome, at any rate, an honest young fellow, who fairly +worshipped her in return. But the stern parents of this beautiful young +girl----" + +"_Taisez-vous!_" Madame Perrault repeated. "No more nonsense. If your +beautiful young girl hadn't obeyed her parents, where would Blanche +Perrault be at this moment, I should like to know?" + +"Ah, my friend," said Berthier to Jules, "it's the women who forget. +Only the men are constant in this world." + +Madame Perrault rolled her eyes in mock horror. + +"Constant--the men!" she repeated scornfully. "They don't know what +constancy is. If it weren't for the constant women in the world, the men +would go straight to the devil." + +Berthier burst into hilarious laughter. He loved nothing better than to +be vanquished in an argument by Madame Perrault. Indeed, he often argued +simply in order to provoke her. He gave Jules a quick glance and a nod +which plainly said: "Isn't she a fine woman? Have you ever seen a woman +so clever?" + +The innocent pleasantries of the old lovers, however, were lost on +Jules. He wanted to discuss in all seriousness his forthcoming marriage, +and this was certainly a suitable occasion. So he determined to put the +conversation on another basis. + +"I am sure Monsieur Berthier is right about long engagements," he said, +"and there's no reason why our engagement shouldn't be short. I love +Blanche, and Blanche loves me, and we think we can make each other +happy. I can afford to marry--I have a little property--and when she +marries me Blanche will have a protector in her professional career." + +"Bravo!" cried Berthier. "That was said like a man!" + +"And the sooner I'm married, the better for you," Jules went on, fixing +his eyes on Berthier's white beard. "Then Madame Perrault won't be tied +down to Blanche, and there's no reason why you shouldn't be married, +too." + +"We might have a double marriage!" said the little man jocosely. + +"No, no, _no_!" Madame exclaimed. "When I'm married I shall be married +very quietly in Boulogne, without any fuss. These children shall be +married first. Then some day, Felix, you and I shall walk to the church +and it will be over in five minutes." + +Berthier breathed a long sigh, and laid his hand gently on Madame +Perrault's arm. + +"I've waited a great many years for those five minutes, _cherie_." + +"Blanche's engagement at the Circus ends the last day of the year," +Jules resumed, "and she begins her season in Vienna on the fifteenth of +January. Now, there's no reason in the world that I can think of to +prevent our being married between the first of January and the +fifteenth." + +Then, from every point of view, they discussed the time of the marriage. +Madame Perrault raised the question of dresses for the bride, of Jules' +inability to arrange his affairs in so short a time, but these and all +other objections were overruled. + +Blanche herself had very little to say; when her mother asked her +point-blank if she wanted the marriage to take place so early, she +replied that she was willing if Jules and the others decided it was +best. She seemed more like a passive spectator than one actively +interested in the discussion; her eyes kept roving from Jules to her +mother, and from her mother back to Jules. Berthier supported Jules +valiantly, and at two o'clock, Madame Perrault was finally won over, and +it was decided that the marriage should take place during the first week +in January. Jules kissed Blanche on the cheek, and there was general +embracing and laughter. Then the little party broke up, and Monsieur +Berthier followed Jules down the stairs. + +"Ah, my boy," he said, as they stood on the sidewalk, before saying +good-night, "I'd give all the money I've made for your youth. Youth is +the time for love. In my youth it came to me, but I lost it. Take good +care of it, my friend," he concluded, tapping Jules' hand affectionately +as they were about to go their separate ways. + + + + + X + + +Jules at once began preparations for his marriage. He gave notice of his +intention to leave the wool-house, and to move from his apartment. +Monsieur Mercier showed no regret at his departure. "I've observed that +you were no longer interested in your work," he said coldly. + +Jules turned away with a sense of disappointment and pain, feeling that +he had been badly treated. Though he said nothing to the twins about his +going, they speedily heard of it and gibed him for the reason. He +preferred to maintain an air of mystery, but one morning Leroux came +into the office, shaking a copy of the _Triomphe_ in the air. + +"Let me congratulate you!" he cried, extending his hand. "I respect a +man that can make a stroke like that. I've known you were up to some +game all along," he added insinuatingly. + +Jules looked at the paper, and in the column devoted to news of the +theatre he read of the engagement of Mademoiselle Blanche, of the +_Cirque Parisien_, to Monsieur Jules Le Baron, a young business man of +wealth. Dufresne added his congratulations, and one after another during +the day Jules' other comrades came up to shake his hand. No wonder he +had been putting on airs with them! They treated him very jocosely, +however, teased him about his reputed wealth, and tortured him with +their coarse jokes, so that he looked forward with relief to escaping +from them. + +All of Jules' leisure was passed with Blanche and her family. He made +friends with the girls and with Monsieur Berthier. The better acquainted +he became with Louise the more he liked her; Jeanne sometimes vexed him +by making fun of him, though he was careful not to betray his annoyance. +For Monsieur Berthier he felt a genuine esteem; the little man was +always in good humor, though Jules suspected that, in spite of his +success in business, his whole life had been clouded by the +disappointment of his youth. As for Madame Perrault, notwithstanding the +apparent lightness of her character, which had at first prejudiced him +against her, the effective way in which she managed her affairs made him +realize that she was a woman to be respected. Sometimes Jules wondered +what kind of man Blanche's father had been; he fancied that of the two +the mother had been by far the stronger. + +Jules passed Christmas with his friends and spent a month's salary on +gifts for Blanche and her sisters. For the girls Madame had a _fete_ in +the morning after mass, with a Christmas tree laden with presents, and +decorated with candles and trinkets and _bonbons_. She chose this time +of day, as both in the afternoon and evening Blanche gave performances. + +The next morning Madame Perrault learned through Pelletier that the +circus in Vienna where Blanche had been engaged to appear was a little +more than ninety feet high; so the plunge would be fifteen feet deeper +than it was in Paris. This news created excitement in the family. It +made Madame so nervous that she urged that the engagement be given up +and an offer that had come from Nice be accepted; but Jules laughed at +the idea. + +"What's a difference of fifteen feet to Blanche?" he said. "It's just as +easy for her to dive ninety feet as to dive seventy-five. The only thing +for Blanche to do is to go to Vienna as soon as her engagement here is +over. Then she can practise the plunge every morning for two weeks. +We'll simply have to get married a little earlier than we intended." + +Madame Perrault saw the force of the argument, and Monsieur Berthier +seconded Jules. As for Blanche, she declared that she should not be +afraid of the plunge; at Bucharest she had made a plunge of nearly +eighty-three feet. So it was agreed that the civil marriage should take +place very quietly on the third of January, and the religious ceremony +the day after. Jules and his bride could leave Paris by the afternoon +train, accompanied by Madeleine. Madame Perrault was anxious to keep any +notice out of the papers, if possible; she thought it might injure +Blanche professionally. She had been greatly vexed by the paragraph in +the _Triomphe_ and had attributed it to Durand; but Jules explained that +the _Triomphe_ was not Durand's paper; besides, the journalist had been +sent for the winter to the Riviera as correspondent. + +On the last day of the year Jules bade farewell to his associates at the +wool-house. Most of them regretted his departure, for before his sudden +accession of dignity he had been well liked among them. The next +morning, on the first day of his emancipation, when he went to the +apartment in the _rue St. Honore_, he found some pieces of silver there, +the gift of his old comrades. He knew at once that the twins had started +a subscription for him, and he felt ashamed of his treatment of them +during his last weeks among them. He soon forgot about them, however, +and was absorbed in the preparations for his new life. He had sold most +of his furniture, save a few pieces that were so intimately associated +with the memory of his mother that he could not part with them. + +For Madeleine this was a trying time; she performed her numerous duties, +involving several journeys to the _rue St. Honore_, with a look of +bewilderment in her face, as if she could not adjust herself to the +change that was about to take place in her life. + +Two days before the time chosen for their civil marriage, Jules was +sitting alone with Blanche, beside the fireplace where he had passed +most of his courtship. They had been making plans for Vienna, and Jules +felt as if he were already at the head of a household. + +"Do you know," he said, glancing at the engagement ring on her left hand +that sparkled in the firelight, "I haven't been able to make up my mind +yet what to give you for a wedding present. I wish you'd tell me what +you'd like. I want to give you something that will please you very +much." + +She looked intently into the fireplace, and did not reply. + +"Isn't there something that you want especially?" Then Jules saw her +face flush, and he went on quickly: "Ah, I know there is, but you're +afraid to tell. Now, out with it. Is it a diamond brooch, or one of +those queer little gold watches that women carry, set with jewels, or +one of those bracelets that we saw in the shop in the _rue de la Paix_ +the other day?" + +She began to laugh, and without turning her eyes toward him, she said:-- + +"You know I don't care for those things. But there--there is +something--" + +"Well, out with it." + +"It isn't a--it isn't what you think--a present or anything like that; +but it is something I should like to have you--something that would make +me very happy." + +"Then tell me what it is," said Jules, impatiently. "What are you afraid +of? Am I such an ogre?" + +For a moment she did not answer. Then she said timidly: "I wish you'd go +to confession before we're married." + +He burst into a laugh that rang through the apartment. + +"Oh, is that all? So you're afraid to marry such a wicked person as I am +till the Church has forgiven him and made him good again." + +She shook her head. + +"No, it isn't that, Jules. I don't believe you are wicked. I don't +believe you ever were; but I should be so much happier if you would go +to confession, and then before we're married in church we could go to +communion together." + +He threw himself beside her chair, seized her head in his hands, and +kissed her on the forehead. "I'm not fit to be your husband. You're too +good for me," he said softly. + +She drew away from him with a smile. + +"And will it make you very much happier if I go to confession?" he +asked. + +"Yes, Jules, very much." + +For an instant he hesitated, looking into her eyes. + +"Then I'll go," he said. + +She turned to him, and threw her arms around his neck. As he held her +closely to him, his lips pressed against her hair, he went on:-- + +"But it will be hard for me, Blanche. I haven't been to confession for +more than twelve years. Think of all the things I shall have to tell." + +"It will be over in a few minutes," she said reassuringly. "Then you'll +be glad you've done it." + +He rose to his feet and drew his chair nearer hers. + +"I've even forgotten how to make a confession. I don't even remember the +_Confiteor_." + +"Then I shall have to teach it to you. It's in my prayer-book, and you +can take it and learn it." + +"But I sha'n't know what to do. I shall appear awkward and foolish." + +"It's easy enough. You begin by examining your conscience; then you--" + +"Examining my conscience! I shall have to wake it up first. It's been +sound asleep all these years. Ah, my dear Blanche, you can't imagine how +pleasant it is to have your conscience asleep." + +She ignored his jesting, and went on: "Then you have to be sorry for +what you've done,--for the sins, I mean." + +"But if you're not sorry. They've been very pleasant, a good many of +them." + +"Of course, if you aren't sorry you can't go to confession. That's what +people go for, because they _are_ sorry, and because they intend to try +to be better." + +"But all the confessions in the world wouldn't make me better. It's only +you that can do that. I'm sorry for my sins simply because, when I think +of them, they take me so far away from you. If I hadn't met you, I +shouldn't have thought they were so bad. But when I think of you, +Blanche, and when I look at you, you seem so good--well, I--I feel +ashamed, and then I want to be good too. Why can't I confess to you?" he +went on banteringly. "You'd do me more good than all the priests in +Christendom. Only I'm afraid I should shock you. I suppose the priests +hear stories like mine every day; so one or two more or less wouldn't +make any difference to them." + +She turned her head away, and he saw that he had offended her. So he +patted her cheek and smiled into her face. + +"What a little _devote_ she is, anyway! She's vexed even when I joke +about her religion. Don't you see that it's all fun, dear? I'm going to +do everything you say, make a clean breast of it to the priest, tell him +I'm sorry, and promise to be good for the rest of my life. It won't be +hard to promise that. How can I help being good when I shall have you +with me all the time?" + +Then for an hour they talked seriously about the confession. The more he +thought of the ordeal, the more nervous Jules felt. Sins came back to +him, committed during those first few years after he left the _lycee_, +when his freedom was novel and delicious. How could he tell of those +things, how could he put them into the awful baldness of speech? He knew +that no sin could be concealed in the confessional; but he asked Blanche +if he would have to be particular, if he couldn't say in a general way +that he had broken this commandment or that. He was alarmed by her reply +that she told everything, that sometimes the priest asked probing +questions. He couldn't endure the shame of speaking out those horrors. +He was afraid, however, to acknowledge his fears to the girl; they might +make her suspect what he had done, and inspire her with a loathing for +him. + +Jules had heard that some men told the women they were going to marry of +their lapses, and he had been greatly amused. It never occurred to him +that he ought to reveal the dark passages in his life to Blanche; these +would simply shock her, give her wrong ideas about him, perhaps make her +suspicious and jealous after marriage. His sins he had always regarded +as follies of youth: they did not in any way affect his character or his +honor as a gentleman. Now, however, he was looking back on himself, not +from the point of view of the man of the world, but of a good woman. + +That night, on leaving Blanche at the theatre, instead of roaming in the +_Boulevards_, or reading the papers in the _cafes_, as he had of late +been doing till half-past ten, he took a _fiacre_ to the Madeleine, +where he spent one of the most disagreeable hours of his life. Vespers +were being sung, and the church was nearly full; he sought an obscure +corner, knelt there before a picture of Christ carrying the Cross of +Calvary, repeated an "Our Father," and a "Hail Mary," which came back to +him like an echo of his mother's voice, and then gave himself up to the +task of examining his conscience. + +The whole panorama of his manhood passed before him, the life of the +young Parisian at the close of the century,--selfish, cynical, +pleasure-loving, sense-gratifying, animal. He buried his face in his +hands. Oh, what an existence! Yet he dared to take a pure young girl for +his wife, to make her the mother of his children! He could not think of +himself or of his sins without reference to her, and the more he thought +of her and of them, the deeper his shame became, and this shame he +mistook for contrition. This then was what Blanche had meant by saying +that he must be sorry for what he had done, and must promise to fight +against temptation. From the depth of his heart he believed he was +sorry. + +Then he took from his pocket the prayer-book that she had given him, and +read several times the act of contrition and the _Confiteor_. The +repetition recalled them to his memory, and he was ready for his +confession to the priest the next day. With a sigh he rose from his +seat, feeling as if he had thrown off the burden of his past life and +received a benediction. + +The next afternoon, when Jules entered with Blanche the church of _St. +Philippe de Roule_, he found groups of people kneeling around the +confessional boxes and in front of the altars. He had resolved to +confess to Father Labiche, who, Blanche had told him, was the most +lenient of all the fathers. The names of the priests were printed on the +boxes, and the largest crowd was gathered around the box assigned to +Jules' choice. + +"I'm afraid you'll have to wait a long time," Blanche whispered. + +"Never mind," Jules replied nervously. + +He felt almost glad that he was to have a respite. The sight of the +confessional boxes and of the people whispering prayers, together with +the atmosphere of devotion that pervaded the place, had filled him with +terror. Blanche made a sign to him to go forward and join the group +awaiting Father Labiche, and she herself stopped near the group beside +it, knelt and made the sign of the cross. Jules, too, knelt before one +of the hard-wood benches, and prayed that he might have the courage and +grace to make a good confession. Then he went over again the sins that +he had to confess, and he repeated the _Confiteor_ and the act of +contrition. + +All day long these prayers, and the items of his confession, had been +surging in his mind, and now, as he sat up and waited for his turn to +come in the procession that passed in and out on either side of the +confessional, they kept repeating themselves. He looked at the wrinkled +women around him, and wondered if their feelings were like his; he could +see no nervousness, no fear in their faces; they seemed to be absorbed, +almost exalted in their devotion. Then he began to grow impatient, and +wished that the people who entered the confessional would not take so +much time. He could catch glimpses of the dark figure of the priest, +bending his head from one side to the other, and glancing out at the +people. In his line at least fifteen persons were waiting their turn +before him; it would take Father Labiche more than two hours, Jules +feared, to hear them and the fifteen others in the opposite line. His +thoughts turned to Blanche, and he wondered if she had been heard yet. +He looked around, and saw her in the crowd behind him, reading her +prayer-book; she kept apart from the others, and had evidently finished +her confession and was waiting for him. + +How gentle and good she looked; how different from her appearance in the +ring! Once again he saw her tumbling through the air in her silk tights. +He tried to drive this thought from his mind, but again and again he saw +her, climbing hand over hand to the top of the Circus, hurling herself +backward, spinning through the air, striking the padded net with a thud, +bouncing up again, and landing, with the pretty gesture of both hands, +on her feet. And in two days she would be his wife! They would go away +together, and whenever she performed in public, he would appear with +her, hold the rope while she climbed to the top of the building, make +the dramatic announcement that would awe the audience into silence, and +then scamper across the net to the platform before she fell. + +For more than an hour Jules thought of this brilliant future; then he +suddenly realized where he was, and he saw that he had moved up within +three places of the confessional. In a few moments it would be his turn +to go into that dark box, where so many ghastly secrets were told, where +he would be obliged to reveal all the vileness and the weakness of his +human nature. His nerves vibrated; he felt as if something within him +were sinking, as if his courage were leaving him. Then his lips began +again to repeat the _Confiteor_, and his mind ran nervously over his +self-accusations. + +The woman before him remained so long in the confessional that he +wondered if she would ever come out; but when she did appear he had a +sudden access of terror. He rose mechanically, however, made his way +into the box, and knelt beside the little closed slide, through which +the priest conferred with the penitents. He could hear the low murmur of +Father Labiche's voice, and the more faint responses of a woman +confessing on the other side. He tried not to listen, but he could not +help catching a few words. Suddenly the slide was opened, and he +confronted the kindly face of the old priest whose right hand was raised +in blessing. + +Blanche had seen Jules enter the confessional, and she waited for him to +appear again. The woman who had entered before him on the other side +soon came out; so Jules was now making his peace with God. She lowered +her head, and breathed a simple prayer of thankfulness. Ten, fifteen +minutes passed; still he did not come. She wondered why Father Labiche +kept him there so long. When at last he did appear, his face was white. +Poor Jules! she thought. How hard it must have been for him, and how +good he was to have gone through it so heroically. He walked forward to +the main altar, and there he knelt for several moments. When he came +back, he found her waiting. + +"Come," he said, touching her on the arm. + +They did not speak till they were in the street. + +"It was pretty tough," he said doggedly. "I thought he'd never let me +out." + +She smiled up into his face. "But it's all over now, Jules." + +"Yes, it's all over," he repeated grimly. "But I should hate to go +through it again." + +They hurried on through the nipping January air. + +"I'm afraid we shall be late for dinner, Jules. It must be after +half-past six, and then we have so many things to do to-night. My trunks +aren't all packed yet." + +"I would help you if I could," Jules replied, "but I must go back to the +church. Father Labiche gave me the Stations of the Cross for penance. He +said he thought it would do me good before I was married to reflect on +the sufferings of Christ," he explained with a smile. + +"Then you told him you were going to be married?" she laughed, her +breath steaming in the air. + +"He asked how I happened to come to confession after staying away so +long; so I had to acknowledge that I did it to please you." + +The little apartment was in commotion over Blanche's marriage and +departure two days later; the _petit salon_ was littered with dresses, +and the two girls were greatly excited over their new frocks. Jules saw +that he was in the way, and soon after dinner he left his friends, +saying that he would have the carriages ready for them at half-past +seven in the morning; Blanche, her mother, and Monsieur Berthier would +ride with him in one, and in the other the girls would go with Madeleine +and Pelletier, who had been invited on account of his long business +association with the family. + +That night at church Jules did his best to put himself into a religious +frame of mind and to feel a proper pity for the sufferings of Christ. As +he passed from station to station in the Way of the Cross, he reflected +seriously on the significance of each, and he said his prayers devoutly. +But his mind was constantly distracted by the thought of the girl he +loved and of his marriage the next day. At the most inopportune moments +visions of Blanche would haunt him as she looked in the ring, climbing +the rope and whirling through the air. + +When his prayers were said he felt radiantly happy. He had done his +duty, and he felt that he deserved to be rewarded. It was only nine +o'clock, but he hurried home at once to go on with his packing. When he +went to bed that night, he dreamed that he was making his first +appearance in the circus at Vienna, holding the rope for his wife, and +speaking the thrilling words of warning to the audience. + +In the morning Jules and Blanche received communion at early mass, and +later they went with Madame Perrault and Monsieur Berthier to the +Mayor's office, where the civil marriage ceremony was performed. This +Jules regarded merely as a formality, though it made him feel that she +was at last his, his forever! No one could take her away from him now! +The next morning was clear and cold, and the sun shone as he looked out +of his window in the dismantled apartment. He smiled as he thought that +his lonely days as a bachelor were over. At ten o'clock he drove to the +_rue St. Honore_ with Madeleine, who looked a dozen years younger in her +simple black silk with a piece of white lace at her throat, the gift of +Madame Perrault. Blanche, in her white satin dress with the bunch of +white roses he had sent to her in her hand, had never seemed to him so +beautiful. It was after eleven o'clock when they reached _St. Philippe_, +and a crowd of idlers hung about the door and followed them into the +church. + +To Jules the mass that preceded the marriage ceremony seemed +interminable; he kept glancing at Blanche's flushed face and downcast +eyes, and plucking at his gloves. Then, when he found himself standing +before the priest, holding Blanche's hand, and listening to the solemn +words of the service, he came near bursting into tears. He thought +afterward how ridiculous he would have been if he hadn't been able to +control himself. He was relieved when the service was ended, and as he +walked to the vestry with his wife on his arm, he could have laughed +aloud for joy. + +When the register had been signed and they had shaken hands with the +priest, they drove at once to the _cafe_ in the _avenue de l'Opera_, +where Jules had ordered a sumptuous breakfast. There they remained till +four o'clock. Monsieur Berthier was the gayest of them all, and he was +seconded by Jeanne, who pretended to flirt desperately with Jules and +made pert speeches to Pelletier. Then they all returned to the _rue St. +Honore_, where Blanche changed her wedding finery for a travelling +dress. + +During the farewell between Blanche and her family, Jules suffered; he +never could bear the sight of women in tears. He was greatly relieved +when he put his almost hysterical wife and Madeleine into the carriage, +and slammed the door behind him. + + + + + XI + + +They went straight to Vienna, arriving fatigued from their long journey. +After three days, spent at a little French hotel, Jules found near the +_Ringstrasse_ a furnished apartment that suited him, and they took +possession at the end of the week. + +Blanche soon felt at home, but Madeleine, though she had become deeply +attached to her new mistress, and now had more companionship than she +had known since the death of Jules' mother, secretly grieved for her +beloved Paris, and looked and acted as if utterly bewildered. + +The day of his arrival in Vienna, Jules proceeded to the Circus and had +a long talk with Herr Prevost, the manager, with regard to his wife's +engagement. He explained the difference in the plunge Blanche would be +obliged to take there from her usual one, and persuaded Prevost to make +this a feature in his advertisements; he also secured permission for +Blanche to practise in the ring every morning till her engagement began. + +So he went back to the hotel elated, and explained to Blanche that, +after all, in the theatrical life good management was half the battle. +Now that she had shaken off that worthless Pelletier and he himself had +taken charge of her affairs, she would undoubtedly be recognized in a +very few years as the greatest acrobat in the world. + +She must sit at once, in costume, for some new photographs, and he would +send them to the leading managers of Europe and America. If they could +only arrange to go to America under good auspices, their fortune would +be made. Instead of receiving, as they were doing in Vienna, five +hundred francs a week, they would be paid as much as twice that amount +in New York, if not more. Indeed, Jules had so much to say about +America, he seemed to have it on the brain. + +Blanche experienced no difficulty in making her plunge in the new +amphitheatre, and after her first trial there, declared that she had no +fear for the public performances. Jules, however, insisted on her +practising every morning; she must keep her muscles limber, he said; +besides, if she didn't practise, she might lose confidence. + +He found himself treating her as her mother had done, directing her +movements like those of a child, and she obeyed him as if she considered +his attitude toward her eminently natural and right. Even Madeleine +adopted a motherly tone with her, chose the dresses she should wear each +day, and instructed her in a thousand feminine details. + +Blanche, Jules was surprised and secretly annoyed to discover, could +speak German, and in the mornings she sometimes gave him lessons. He +also picked up a good deal of German slang in the _cafes_ that he +frequented during the day, where he drank coffee and read whatever +French and English papers he could find. + +After his wife's performances began, he found himself falling into a +routine of life. In spite of his distaste for his duties at the +wool-house, he had expected to miss them at first; but he quickly became +accustomed to his leisure. He really considered himself a busy person, +for in addition to his nightly appearance in the arena, momentary but +intensely dramatic, he spent considerable time in fraternizing with the +Viennese journalists, to secure newspaper puffs for his wife, in +conferring with Prevost, and in corresponding with managers for future +engagements. After his first month in Vienna, he felt as if he had been +connected with the circus for years. + +Blanche heard constantly from home, from either her mother or one of the +two girls,--more often from Louise than from Jeanne, who hated to write +letters. Six weeks after her departure from Paris, her mother became +Madame Berthier, without, as she had said, "any fuss," and was now +installed with the children in the big house where Felix had passed so +many lonely years as a bachelor. Jules and Blanche wrote a joint letter +of congratulation, and after that Blanche seemed even happier than she +had been; it was so good, she said, to think that the girls were +provided for. + +In the afternoons Jules took walks or drives with his wife, and on +Sundays he accompanied her to early mass in the little church that they +had discovered near their apartment. Blanche would have liked to go to +high mass, but to this Jules strenuously objected; it was too long, and +he couldn't understand the sermon, and altogether it made him sleepy. +Sometimes on Sundays they would go to one of the _cafes_ for _dejeuner_ +or dinner, and over this they used to be very happy, for it recalled the +first months of their love. + +After a time, however, these walks grew less frequent. Jules stayed at +home more, and Madeleine became solicitous for Blanche's health. Jules +had long talks with Prevost; Blanche had been engaged at the Circus for +three months, and Prevost wished to reengage her for the spring season; +but Jules explained that he had already received several offers for the +spring, and had refused them all; his wife needed a long rest, and from +Vienna they would go to Boulogne for a few months, to be with her +people. + +The reference to the engagements was not exactly true; Jules had one +offer only for the summer; that was from Trouville. For the autumn he +had a fairly generous offer from South America, and a better one from +the Hippodrome in London, to begin on the first of December. He had +practically decided to accept the offer from London; but before giving a +definite answer, he resolved to consult Blanche about it. + +"It will just fit in with our plans," he said. "On the first of May +we'll take a good long rest. We'll go to your mother's old house. It +hasn't been let yet, you know, and no one will want it before then. So +you and Madeleine and I will live there together, and we'll pass the +days out of doors, and take long walks by the sea, and forget all about +the circus. Then, when you are well and strong again, we'll go to +London, and astonish the English, who think there's nothing good in +France. What do you say, dear? Don't you think that's a good plan?" + +"Yes," she said slowly. "It will be very nice, Jules, if--" + +"If? If what?" + +"If I'm alive," she answered softly, turning her head away. + +He took her in his arms and pressed his cheek against hers. "What a +foolish little girl it is to talk like that! Of course you'll be alive, +and you'll be even better and stronger and happier than you are now. And +then think of all the good times you'll have this summer with Jeanne and +Louise and your mother and Monsieur Berthier. We'll have _fetes_ for the +girls at our house, and every day we'll go to see your mother. You don't +think she'll be too proud to receive us, do you, now that she's rich and +important? I suppose she's the queen of Boulogne, with her carriages and +her horses and her servants. She'll soon be getting a husband for +Jeanne, some fine young fellow with a lot of money. And won't Jeanne put +him through his paces? She's a high-stepper, that Jeanne, and I should +pity the man who got her and didn't understand her. Think of trying to +keep Jeanne down!" + +In her moments of depression he always spoke to her like that, and for +the time it cheered her; but when the spring came, she drooped visibly, +and Jules became alarmed; sometimes she would have attacks of convulsive +weeping, and these would be followed by hours of profound sadness, +during which she spoke scarcely a word. There were other days when she +would be full of courage and hope, gayer than she had ever been; then +they would drive into the country and she would take deep draughts of +the fresh spring air, and her eyes would brighten and her cheeks flush. + +In spite of his anxiety, these days were very happy for Jules; the +thought that he might lose her made her dearer to him. Sometimes he +would take her hand and tell her that without her he couldn't live; she +had made him realize how wretched his existence had been before +marriage; he could not go back to that again. Then she would rest her +head on his shoulder and whisper that she would try to be brave. Her +sufferings seemed to be wholly in her mind; the doctor Jules consulted +said that, bodily, she was perfectly strong, and could easily fill her +engagement at the circus; her work in the ring had given her a +remarkable development of the muscles and the chest; if she stopped the +work now, and ceased to practise, she would suffer from the inaction. + +Jules, however, felt relieved when the fifteenth of April came, and they +were able to leave Vienna for Paris. There they remained only a day, for +they were eager to reach Boulogne and the little home that Madame +Berthier had arranged for them, in the house where Blanche had been +born, and had passed the few weeks in each year when she was not +travelling. + +When they arrived, early in the afternoon, Madame Berthier and the +girls, together with Berthier, were at the station to meet them, and +they received a rapturous greeting, the girls clinging to their sister +with frantic embraces. + +"We had _dejeuner_ prepared for you at your house," said Madame, when +the first greetings were over. "I knew you'd want to go there the first +thing. Then to-night you are to come and dine with us. I feel as if I +hadn't seen you for years." + +"But we've never met Madame Berthier before," Jules replied, making a +feeble attempt to be gay, for he saw that Blanche's meeting with her +mother threatened to upset her. + +Madame blushed like a young girl, and turning, led the way to the +carriages. + +"One of these is for you and Jules," she said. "I don't mean just for +now, but for all the time you are here. Felix chose the horse for you, +dear, and she's so gentle you can drive her alone if you want to." + +"I'm going to put the three girls and their mother in the big carriage," +Berthier said to Jules, "and you and Madeleine and I will follow them." +The arrival of his stepdaughter seemed to have given him as much +pleasure as any of the others, and his good-natured face was radiant. +"Jump in, girls," he cried, holding out his hand to Blanche. "We'll have +to turn those lilies of yours into roses this summer, my dear. Here, +Jeanne, stop flirting with Jules, or we won't let you come with us. You +wouldn't have known our little Louise, Blanche, if you hadn't expected +to find her here, would you? She's grown an inch in four months. It's +the most wonderful thing I've ever known in my life. And would you +believe it?--she's become a perfect chatterbox--she's worse than Jeanne. +Sometimes I have to run out of the room to read my paper in peace and +have a quiet smoke." + +The whole family seemed to have agreed to assume toward Blanche the +bantering tone that Jules had adopted. When they reached the house they +continued their gayety, though Blanche, tired from her journey, sank +weakly on the couch in the _salon_. + +She looked around, however, and saw that the room had been redecorated, +probably by Monsieur Berthier, and when she felt rested she went all +over the house and observed many new pieces of furniture, and many +touches here and there that made the place more attractive and homelike. +"Ah, it is so good to be at home," she said to her mother when they were +alone; and then Madame Berthier took her in her arms and kissed her on +the forehead and told her she must have courage for Jules' sake. + +After the excitement of Paris and Vienna, Jules found it hard to +accustom himself to the dull life at Boulogne. He bought a small yacht, +and found amusement in sailing with his new acquaintances, and +sometimes, when the weather was fine, he took Blanche and the girls with +him. He also occupied himself with the little garden around his cottage; +but this soon bored him, and he gave it over to Monsieur Berthier's +gardener, who came every few days to look after it. In the afternoons he +drove with Blanche far into the country, and sometimes they stopped at a +little _cafe_ by the roadside and had an early dinner, and then hurried +home before the damp night should close around them. + +On these occasions they had many earnest talks, and Jules was surprised +by the seriousness and depth of his wife's mind; at any rate, she +impressed him as being wonderfully profound. The longer he knew her, the +more she awed and puzzled him; there were moments when she seemed to +dwell in another world, a world that made her almost a stranger to him. + +Since her return to Boulogne she had grown much more cheerful than she +had been during those last weeks in Vienna; but a thousand little things +she said showed him that beneath the surface of her thought there still +lurked a strange melancholy, an unchangeable conviction that life was +slipping away from her. He spoke of this once to her mother, and she +explained mysteriously that he must expect that; it was very natural +with one of Blanche's temperament. She had known many cases like it +before. + +As the summer passed, Jules said little to his wife about the circus; +indeed, her work was scarcely mentioned between them, though every +morning she practised her exercises. Jules, however, had decided that +they should go to London late in November and, the first week of the +following month, appear at the Hippodrome, which had been established +with great success the year before, at a short distance from the Houses +of Parliament. The contract had not been signed, for Jules had written +to Marshall, the manager, that he could not bind himself to an +engagement until early in the autumn; but he explained that his word was +as good as any contract. + +When September came, Blanche seemed much better for her months of rest; +her eyes were brighter, and her cheeks were shot with color. Sometimes +Jules wished that she were not quite so religious; she went to early +mass every morning now, and rather than let her go alone, he went with +her, for Madeleine had assumed the duties of the household. Their +evenings, which during the summer had been spent chiefly on the porch of +Monsieur Berthier's house, were now passed in their _salon_, bright with +flowers, sometimes with a wood-fire crackling on the old-fashioned +hearth. Blanche's fingers were always busy with soft, fleecy garments, +which Jules used sometimes to take in his hands and rub affectionately +against his face. Then he often noticed a light in her eyes that he had +never seen before; it reminded him of pictures of the Madonna. Sometimes +he was so touched when he looked at her that he would take her in his +arms and hold her close for a long while. Their evenings together became +very dear to him; yet they said little to each other: he was content to +sit and watch her, with the curtains drawn to shut out the rest of the +world. + +Occasionally Father Dumeny would come in for an hour's chat. He was a +large-framed, heavy man, with deep gray eyes shaded by enormous eyebrows +that moved up and down as he spoke. He spoke as he walked, slowly and +lumberingly, and he had a quaint humor that used to delight Blanche and +puzzle Jules. When he appeared, she always brightened, and she liked to +hear his doleful accounts of his rheumatism. He seemed to find humor in +everything, even in his arduous duties and his ailments. + +"Ah, my children," he would say, "why should any one go to the theatre +for pleasure? This life is nothing but a comedy, if you only look at it +in the right way." + +From Blanche he derived a great deal of amusement; that she should +perform in a circus always seemed a joke to him, and he was continually +making fun over it. He had never been at a circus; so, though he had +baptized Blanche and had met her during her visits in Boulogne, he had +never seen her perform. Once when Jules showed him a photograph of +Blanche as she appeared while posing on the rope, he rolled his eyes and +pretended to be much shocked, and they all laughed together. + +"I suppose you two people will be leaving this nest of yours before +winter comes," he said one night. "You've made your plans already, +haven't you?" + +Jules looked down at Blanche, but she avoided his eyes. + +"We haven't decided definitely," Jules replied, "but we think of going +to London." + +Blanche sighed, and Father Dumeny glanced at her quickly and then smiled +up at Jules. + +"She has a notion that she isn't going to live," Jules added, nodding at +his wife. "Ridiculous, isn't it?" + +Father Dumeny put his hands to his sides, and for a moment his great +body shook with laughter. + +"Why, I expect to baptize at least half a dozen of your children! In a +few years we shall see them trotting around here in Boulogne and coming +to my Sunday-school to be prepared for their first communion. We need +all the good Catholics we can have, in these days, to fight against the +infidelity that's ruining the country. Ah, my dear child," he said, +patting Blanche's hand, "when you're a grandmother with a troop of +children around you, you'll look back and smile at these foolish little +fears." + +After that night he came oftener, and kept Blanche laughing with his +gayety. + +"When you go to London," he said one evening, "I shall give you letters +to some dear English friends of mine,--Mr. and Mrs. Tate. I met the +Tates when I was in Paris visiting Father Bremont more than ten years +ago. Mr. Tate represented the banking-house of Welling Brothers, of +London, there, and now he's in London as a member of the firm, I +believe. You'll like Mrs. Tate, my dear. She's a good soul, and she +speaks French almost as well as English. I shall expect to hear that +you've become great friends." + +"But we aren't sure of going to England yet," Blanche replied with a +weary smile. + +"Perhaps we shall go to America," Jules laughed. "I want Blanche to see +the country." + +Toward the end of September Blanche drooped again, and her mother was +with her nearly every moment of the day, remaining sometimes till late +at night. The girls had gone back to the convent, but they were allowed +to come home twice a week, and most of their freedom they devoted to +their sister, whom they treated with a protecting tenderness that used +to afford Jules secret amusement. Madame Berthier maintained a cheerful +composure in her daughter's presence, but when alone with Jules she +became so serious that for the first time he grew nervous. Then as his +anxiety deepened he began to resent it, as he did any long-continued +annoyance. Why should they be kept in idleness and suspense so long? How +stupid to be buried in a wretched provincial town when they might be +earning thousands of francs in Vienna, or Bucharest, or Paris! + +Then one night he was suddenly aroused from his sleep, and he felt a +sensation of mingled horror and awe. He dressed himself quickly, his +whole being wrung by the groans he heard from the next room, and tore +out of the house to Doctor Brutiniere's, five minutes away. After +delivering his message, he ran breathlessly to summon Madame Berthier. +It took her scarcely five minutes to dress, and then they were in the +street together. Madame Berthier went at once to Blanche's room, and +Jules paced up and down in the half-lighted _salon_. + +That was the ghastliest night of Jules Le Baron's life. He was +overwhelmed by the knowledge that Blanche was in agony, that she was +battling for life, that at any moment he might hear she was dead. Why +should the burden of suffering fall on her? Oh, how cruel Nature was, +how pitiless to women! The poor child, the poor little one, to be +tortured so! Several times he listened for a sound, and the silence +terrified him. Suddenly he heard a shriek, loud and piercing, that only +the most exquisite pain could have wrung, and he clenched his hands in +impotent horror and misery. + +The stillness that followed made him fear that she was dead, and he +could hardly keep from rushing up the stairs and learning the truth. +After a few moments, as he stood at the door, he heard another cry, +small, timorous, peevish, that changed to a wail and then died away. He +turned into the room, clapsed his face in his hands, and cried, "Thank +God, thank God! And mercy for her, my God, mercy for my poor little +Blanche!" + +After what seemed to him a long time, during which he was tortured with +suspense, a door opened and shut, and he heard a rustling on the stairs. +He stepped out into the hall and saw Madame Berthier descending. She +stopped, smiled, and put her hand to her lips; he could see traces of +tears in her eyes. + +"Come up," she whispered. "It's all over. It's a girl, and Blanche has +her in her arms." + +Jules bounded up the stairs. "Only a minute, you know," she said softly, +"and you must be very quiet." + +When she opened the door he almost pushed her aside in his eagerness to +enter. The Doctor and Madeleine were standing beside the bed, where +Blanche, white but bright-eyed and smiling, was lying with the babe +nestling close to her. Jules flung himself by her side, and kissed her +passionately, murmuring incoherent words of love and thankfulness. + + + + + XII + + +The weeks of convalescence that followed were the happiest Blanche had +ever known. She felt wrapped in the devotion of her husband and her +family, and exalted by her love for her child. At moments she feared +that she could not live through such happiness. Sometimes she would +fancy that all her sufferings had been only a dream, and then she would +turn and find with a thrill of joy the babe lying beside her. Jules +would sit by the bed holding her hand, and making jokes about their +daughter's future. They had decided that she should be called Jeanne, +and no one but Father Dumeny should baptize her. + +One morning, when Blanche was sitting up in bed for the first time, +Jules entered the room with a letter in his hand and in his face a look +of exultation. + +"It's from Marshall," he said, "from the Hippodrome in London, you know. +He wants me to make a contract for six months, from the first of +January. I was afraid he might back out because we held off so long. But +this makes it all right. You'll have more than a month to get strong +again and to practise in." + +Jules was so excited by the prospect that he did not notice the look of +alarm that had appeared in his wife's eyes. She lay still, with one arm +extended on the coverlet, her head leaning to one side, and her dark +hair making a background for her white face. + +"'We want you to open on the first,'" Jules read aloud. "'Let us hear +from you as soon as possible and we will send on the contract for your +signature.' Of course," he went on, folding the note, "we must jump at +it. What do you say?" + +For a moment she looked at him without speaking. Then she replied +weakly, "Do what you think best, Jules." + +"Good!" he said, jumping up. "I'll write now. We've lost a lot of time, +you know, and we must make up for it when we get back to work." + +"Do you--do you think I'll be strong enough?" she went on, as if she +hadn't heard him. + +"Strong enough!" he laughed. "Of course you'll be strong enough in seven +weeks more. You're nearly your old self now," he added affectionately. +"Don't you worry about that." + +When he had closed the door and left her alone, she felt as if her body +were sinking into the bed from weakness. The circus again! That ghastly +plunge! Since the birth of her child she had hardly thought of it. Now +the thought horrified her! How could she leave her babe and risk her +life night after night? Perhaps some night--oh! it was too horrible. She +couldn't, she couldn't! She lifted her hands to her face as if to shut +out the horror of the thought. Then she turned to the little Jeanne who +was sleeping beside her, and drew her close to her bosom. + +She had lost courage! It would never come back to her. When Jules +returned she would tell him, and she would beg him, for Jeanne's sake, +to give up that engagement in London till she felt well again. Oh, if +they could only leave the circus forever! If she could only do as other +women did, devote her life to her child. The circus was no place for a +mother. + +Then it suddenly flashed upon her that if she said these things to Jules +he would urge her to place Jeanne in her mother's care while they were +in England; but to that she would never consent, never. She would rather +give up performing altogether. Yes, when Jules came back she would speak +of this. He loved the circus, but for Jeanne's sake he would give it up, +she knew he would. + +But when Jules did return, he was so enthusiastic about the engagement +in London that she did not dare oppose it. "Think of the sensation we'll +make there!" he said. "How those stupid English will open their eyes! +And then we'll surely have big offers from other places. After a London +success we can make a fortune in America. They say the Americans are +crazy over everything that makes a hit in London. Oh," he went on, +stretching his arms and yawning, "it will be a relief to get out of this +dull old town. Think of the months we've wasted here. I feel rusty +already." + +Something in his tone as well as his words frightened her, and a feeling +of helplessness came over her when he put his hand on her forehead and +said gently: "You must try to get strong as soon as possible, dear. +Think of all the practising you'll have to do for your plunge." + +She turned her head away, and he observed nothing strange in her manner. +She wanted to speak of taking Jeanne with them, but a fear that he might +object restrained her. + +Two days later, when her mother and Jules were in the room together, +Madame Berthier, with apparent carelessness, asked what they were going +to do with the little one while they were travelling. "Of course you +can't carry her about with you. So you'd better leave her with me. I'll +take the best of care of her." + +She was startled by the light that flashed into her daughter's eyes. +"No, no!" Blanche cried. "We shall keep her with us always. I couldn't +bear to leave her here. I couldn't--I couldn't go away without her." + +Madame Berthier and Jules exchanged glances, and Blanche saw that her +intuition was correct. They had been discussing the project of leaving +the child in Boulogne. She felt as if they were conspiring against her. + +"Don't you think it would be better if your mother--" Jules began, but +Blanche cut him short. + +"We shall have Madeleine. She will help me to take care of Jeanne. I +couldn't go without her," she repeated, with tears in her voice. + +"There, there!" said Madame Berthier, becoming alarmed. "Have your own +way. Perhaps it's better that you should keep the child with you." + +Blanche read annoyance in her husband's face, but she said nothing. A +few moments later, Madame Berthier left the room and Jules followed. She +knew they had gone to discuss the little scene that had just taken +place. But she resolved that she would not give up the child! Rather +than do that she would stay in Boulogne. + +The fear of being separated from Jeanne, made her decide not to refer in +any way to her terror of the plunge. That might strengthen Jules' belief +that the presence of the child disturbed her, and he might insist on a +separation. Besides, she tried to convince herself that as she grew +stronger her nervousness would disappear. It must of course be due +solely to her weak condition. Once restored to health, the plunge would +be, as it always had been, merely part of her daily routine. + +But in spite of her rapidly increasing strength, Blanche found that +after three weeks she was still depressed by the thought of her season +in London. Jules complained that she was devoting herself too much to +Jeanne; she must drive out more, and walk with the girls, and give more +time to her exercises. Her mother, too, grew severe with her. "One would +think there never was another child in the world," she said, and then +Blanche suspected that Jules had been complaining of her. "The little +one is a dear, and I love her," Madame Berthier continued, "but you have +your work to do, and you must think of that too. No wonder Jules is +growing impatient." + +Jules had already received the contract for the engagement at the +Hippodrome, and on signing it at his request, Blanche had had a horrible +fancy that she was putting her signature to a warrant for her own doom. +Once she thought of confiding her fear to her mother, but her mother +would be sure to repeat what she said to Jules. At any cost, she felt +she must hide it from him. Then she determined to tell Father Dumeny, +but when the moment came she had not courage to put her feeling into +words, and she was ashamed of it as a superstition. So she decided that +she would keep the miserable secret to herself, finding no relief save +in gusts of weeping when she was alone with the child. + +Once Jules found her with traces of tears in her eyes. "What's the +matter?" he asked gently, taking her hand. + +She turned her head away. "I don't feel well," she said. + +He looked at her closely. "You'll be well when you get back to your +work. That's what the matter is. You aren't used to being idle. The best +thing for us to do is to leave here the day after Christmas. That will +give you nearly a week for practice in London, and we'll have time to +look about for rooms there. Since we are going to have Jeanne with us, +we'll want to take an apartment in some quiet street." + +When he went away she sat for a long time without speaking. In a week +they would be far away from this place, among strangers. She wondered +why she had not suffered so on leaving home before. Until now she had +regarded the circus as part of her life; she had not hoped for any other +kind of life. How strange it was that Jules should love it so! Sometimes +it seemed----But it was right that she should go on with her work, for +she must earn money for the little Jeanne now. Perhaps in a few years +she would make a fortune, and then Jules could not object to her leaving +the circus. But before a few years passed she would be obliged to go +through her performance more than a thousand times. At this thought her +heart seemed to stop beating, and then it thumped against her side. + +Their Christmas in Boulogne at Monsieur Berthier's house reminded them +of their _fete_ in Paris of the year before. Berthier himself led in the +gayety, and the girls were in the wildest spirits. Blanche sat among +them with the child in her arms, looking, as Jules said, as if she were +posing for a Madonna. In the evening Father Dumeny came to bid his +friends good-bye. He pretended to pinch the little Jeanne on the cheek, +and he made jokes with Blanche about her terror before the child's +birth. "She's the healthiest baby I've ever baptized," he said. "You +should have heard her roar when I poured the water on her head. That's a +good sign. I suppose you'll make a great performer of her too," he +continued, smiling into the face of the mother, but growing serious when +he saw the effect of the question. + +"Never!" exclaimed Blanche. + +"We're going to earn a fortune for her," said Jules with a smile. "So +she won't have to work at all. We'll settle down in Paris and make a +fine lady of her, and marry her into the nobility." + +Blanche did not speak again for a long time. They knew she was depressed +at the thought of leaving home the next day. When Father Dumeny rose, he +took a letter from the pocket of his long black coat. + +"I almost forgot about this. Here's the introduction I promised you to +my friends in London. You will like Mrs. Tate, my dear," he said to +Blanche, "and she'll make a great pet of the little one. She hasn't any +children of her own, poor woman. Be sure to go to see them," he +concluded, "and present my compliments to them." + +When he was gone, Jules shrugged his shoulders and turned to his wife. +"What do we want to meet those people for?" he said. "What will they +care about us?" + +The next day they left Boulogne, after many farewell injunctions from +the Berthiers, and much weeping on the part of Blanche and her sisters. +Blanche stood for a long time with Madeleine, who held the little Jeanne +in her arms, waving farewell to her kindred on the wharf, and watching +the shores of France recede from her gaze. When the last vestige of land +disappeared in the wintry fog and she found herself shut in by the +shoreless sea, she turned away with a feeling of hopeless weariness. She +had a morbid presentiment that she was leaving home forever. + + + + + XIII + + +Mrs. Tate ran her eyes over the pile of letters at her plate on the +breakfast-table. She was a large, florid woman of forty, verging on +stoutness, with an abundance of reddish-brown hair. + +"What a lot of mail!" she said to her husband, who was absorbed in +reading the "Daily Telegraph,"--a small man, with black hair and +moustache tinged with gray, and small black eyes finely wrinkled at the +corners. "Here's a letter from Amy dated at Cannes. They must have left +Paris sooner than they intended; and here's something from Fanny +Mayo,--an invitation to dinner, I suppose. Fanny told me she wanted us +to meet the Presbreys next week,--some people she knew in Bournemouth." + +"Fanny's always taking up new people," said Tate from behind his paper, +"and dropping them in a month." + +"And here's something else with a French stamp on it. Let me see. From +Boulogne? It must be from Father Dumeny. Yes, I recognize the +handwriting." + +"Another subscription, I suppose," her husband grunted. + +"He hasn't written for nearly a year. I wonder what started him this +time. What a dear old soul he is! Do you remember the night we took him +out to a restaurant in Paris and he was so afraid of being seen? I +always laugh when I think of that." + +"What's he got to say?" + +With her knife, Mrs. Tate cut one end of the letter open, and her eye +wandered slowly down the page. + +"He's been ill, he says, but he's able to be about now. He came near +running over here last summer, but he couldn't get away." For a few +moments Mrs. Tate was absorbed in reading; then she exclaimed with a +curious little laugh: "How funny! Listen to this, will you? He's left +what he really wrote for till the end,--like a woman. He wants us to +look after a _protegee_ of his, a girl that he baptized, the daughter of +an acrobat. Did you ever hear of such a thing? She's in the circus +herself, and she's going to appear at the Hippodrome next week. She +performs on the trapeze, and then she dives backward from the roof of +the building--backward, mind you! Could anything be more terrible?" + +"I should think she'd be right in your line," Tate replied without +lifting his eyes from his paper. "She'll be something new. You can make +a lion of her." + +"Don't be impertinent, Percy. This is a very serious matter. It seems +the girl's married and had a child about two months ago. She's going to +resume her performances. She doesn't know a soul in London; so she'll be +all alone." + +"I thought you said she had a husband." + +"So I did. He's given them a letter to us, but he doesn't think they'll +present it. I suppose those theatrical people live in a world of their +own. But of course I shall go to see her. Perhaps I can do something for +her. Anyway, it'll be interesting to meet an acrobat. I've never known +one in my life." + +"As I said," her husband remarked, turning to his bacon and eggs, "you +can introduce her into society. People must be tired of meeting artists +and actors and musicians. She'll be a novelty." + +"You're very disagreeable to-day, Percy," Mrs. Tate responded amiably, +after sipping the coffee that had been steaming beside her plate. "You +are always attributing the meanest motives to everything I do." + +He gave a short laugh. "But you must acknowledge that you do some pretty +queer things, my dear." + +She ignored the remark, and a moment later she went on briskly: "I must +go and see this acrobat woman--whoever she is. If I don't--" + +"What's her name?" Tate asked, turning to his paper and searching for +the theatrical columns. + +"Madame Jules Le Baron, Father Dumeny calls her. But I suppose she must +have a stage name. Most of them have." + +"I don't see that name in 'Under the Clock!' The Hippodrome? No, it +isn't there. I wonder if this can be the one: 'On Monday evening next, +Mademoiselle Blanche, the celebrated French acrobat, will give her +remarkable performance on the trapeze and her great dive from the top of +the Hippodrome.'" + +Mrs. Tate sighed. + +"Yes, it must be. Mademoiselle Blanche! How stagey it sounds! I wonder +what she's like." + +"We might go to see her first and then we could tell whether she's +possible or not." + +"Go to the Hippodrome!" + +"Yes, why not? It's perfectly respectable. Only it doesn't happen to be +fashionable. In Paris, you know, it's the thing to attend the circus. +Don't you remember the La Marches took us one night?" + +"Yes, and I remember there was a dreadful creature--she must have +weighed three hundred pounds--who walked the tight-rope and nearly +frightened me to death. I thought she'd come down on my head." + +"Then it's understood that we're to go on Monday? If we go at all we +might as well be there the first night. It'll be more interesting." + +Mrs. Percy Tate was a personage in London. For several years before her +marriage, at the age of twenty-five, she had been known as an heiress +and a belle. Even then she had a reputation for independence of +character, and for an indefatigable zeal for reforming the world. Her +name stood at the head of several charitable societies, and she was also +a member of many clubs for the improvement of the physical and spiritual +condition of the human race. Since her marriage she had grown somewhat +milder; her friends used to say that Percy Tate had "trained" her. They +also said that she had "made" him; without her money he would never have +become a member of the rich firm of Welling and Company. + +Percy Tate's business associates, however, knew the fallacy of this +uncharitable opinion. With his dogged determination and his keen insight +into the intricacies of finance, Tate was sure of forging ahead in time, +with or without backing. His association with Welling and Company gave +the house even greater strength than it had had before; for in addition +to his reputation as a financier, he had made his name a synonym for +stanch integrity. He had passed sixteen happy years with his wife, +wisely directed her charities, wholesomely ridiculed her enthusiasms, +followed her into the Catholic Church, where he was quite as sincere if +a much less ardent worshipper; and in all the serious things of life he +treated her, not as an inferior to be patronized, but as an equal that +he respected, with no display of sentiment, but with sincere devotion. +She, on her part, was amused by his humor and guided by his advice, +though she often pretended to ignore it; and she never allowed any of +her numerous undertakings to interfere with her regard for his comfort +or the happiness of her home. + +The manager of the Hippodrome had extensively advertised the appearance +of Mademoiselle Blanche, and on Monday night the amphitheatre was +crowded. The Tates arrived early in order to see the whole performance; +as they had never been at the Hippodrome before, the evening promised to +be amusing for them. Tate, however, became so interested in the +menagerie through which they passed before entering the portion of the +vast building devoted to the exhibitions in the ring that they remained +there more than an hour. The interval between their taking seats and the +appearance of the acrobat rather bored them. + +"I wish they'd hurry up and let her come out," said Mrs. Tate. "And yet +I almost dread seeing her make that horrible plunge. This must be the +first time she's done it since the birth of her baby. Isn't it really +shocking?" + +"Oh, I suppose these people are as much entitled to babies as any other +people." + +She cast a reproachful glance at him, and did not reply for a moment. +Then she said: "But what must her feelings be now--just as she's getting +ready?" + +"I dare say she's glad to get back to her work and earn her salary +again. Her husband probably doesn't earn anything. Those fellows never +do." + +"She must be frightened nearly to death." + +Tate laughed softly. "You'll die from worrying about other people." + +"What are they doing now?" Mrs. Tate asked, turning her eyes to the +ring. "I suppose that rope they're letting down is for her to climb up +on, and that's the net she'll fall into. How gracefully that trapeze +swings! I feel quite excited. Every one else is too. Can't you see it in +their faces? There must be thousands of people here. How strange they +look! Such coarse faces." + +"It's the great British middle class. This is just the kind of thing +they like." + +"It reminds me of pictures of the Colosseum. I can almost fancy their +turning their thumbs down. Here she comes. How light she is on her feet! +And isn't she pretty! But she looks awfully thin and delicate, and she's +as pale as a ghost." + +"You'll attract all the people round us. Of course she's pale. She's +probably powdered up to the eyes, like the women we used to see in +Paris." + +"How lightly she goes up that rope," Mrs. Tate whispered, "and what +wonderful arms she has! Just like a man's. They look as if they didn't +belong to her body." + +Silently and dexterously Blanche reached the main trapeze, and for a +moment she sat there, with her arms crooked against the rope on either +side, and rubbing her hands. For the first time during her career she +was terrified in the ring. She had hoped that as soon as she resumed her +work the terror she had felt since Jeanne's birth would pass away. Now, +however, it made her so weak that she feared she was going to fall. + +She was thinking of the child as she had seen her crowing in the crib. +If anything should happen to her she might never see Jeanne again. She +was vaguely conscious of the vast mass of people below her, waiting for +her to move. She took a long breath and nerved herself for the start, +before making her spring to the trapeze below; she must have courage for +the sake of the little Jeanne, she said to herself. Mechanically she +began to sway forward and backward; then she shot into the air, and with +a sensation of surprise and delight she continued her performance. + +Mrs. Tate watched her with an expression of mingled fear, interest, and +pleasure in her face. + +"Isn't she the most wonderful creature you ever saw, Percy?" she cried, +clutching her husband's arm. "It's horrible, yet I can't help looking. +Suppose she should fall!" + +"She'd merely drop into the net. There's nothing very dangerous about +what she's doing now. Keep still." + +"I never saw anything more graceful. She _is_ grace itself, isn't she? +See how her hair flies; I should think it would get into her eyes and +blind her. I shall speak to her about that when I see her. I shall +certainly _go_ to see her." + +In a round of applause, Blanche finished her performance on the trapeze +and then began her posing on the rope, whirling slowly, with a rhythmic +succession of motions to the net. Then Jules, in evening dress, with a +large diamond gleaming in his shirt-front, stepped out on the net, and +for an instant they conferred together. Suddenly she clapped her hands, +bounded on the rope again, and while Jules held it to steady her motion, +she climbed hand over hand to the top of the building. There she sat, +looking in the distance like a white bird ready to take flight, her dark +hair streaming around her head. + +"I feel as if I were going to faint," Mrs. Tate whispered. + +Her husband glanced at her quickly. "Yes, you'd better--in this crowd. A +fine panic you'd create! Want to go out?" + +She seemed to pull herself together. "No, I think I shall be able to +bear it. If I can't, I'll look away. What's that he's saying? What +horrible English he speaks! I can't understand a word. _Oh!_" she +gasped, clutching her husband by one arm and holding him firmly as +Blanche dropped backward and whirled through the air; and this +exclamation she repeated in a tone of horrified relief when the girl +struck the net, bounded into the air again, and landed on her feet. + +They rose with the applauding crowd and started to leave the place. "In +my opinion," said Mrs. Tate, clinging to her husband's arm and drawing +her wrap closely around her, "in my opinion such exhibitions are +outrageous. There ought to be a law against them. Think of that poor +little creature going through that every night. Of course she'll be +killed sometime. I wonder if she's afraid. I should think she'd expect +every night to be her last." + +"What nonsense you're talking. Of course those people don't feel like +that. If they did they'd never go into the business. It's second nature +to them." + +"But they're _human_ just like the rest of us, and that woman is a +mother," Mrs. Tate insisted. "Don't you suppose she thinks of her baby +before she makes that terrible dive? It's a shame that her husband +should allow her to do it." + +"There you are, trying to regulate the affairs of the world again. Why +don't you let people alone? They'd be a good deal happier, and so would +you. Her husband probably likes to have her do it." + +"Well, I shall go to see her anyway," Mrs. Tate cried with +determination. "Then I can find out all about her for myself." + +For the next three weeks Mrs. Tate was absorbed by various duties in +connection with her charitable societies. One morning, however, she +suddenly realized that she had neglected to comply with Father Dumeny's +request, and she resolved to put off her other engagements for the +afternoon and call at once on the acrobat; if she didn't go then, there +was no knowing when she could go. At four o'clock she found herself +stepping into a hansom in front of her house in Cavendish Square. + +The address that Father Dumeny had sent led her to a little French hotel +with a narrow, dark entrance, dimly lighted by an odorous lamp. She +poked about in the place for a moment, wondering how she was to find any +one; then a door which she had not observed was thrown open, and she was +confronted by a little man with a very waxed moustache, who smiled and +asked in broken English what Madame wanted. She stammered that she was +looking for Madame Le Baron, and the little man at once called a +_garcon_ in a greasy apron, who led the way up the narrow stairs. When +they had reached the second landing the boy rapped on the door, and Mrs. +Tate stood panting behind him. For several moments there was no answer; +then heavy steps could be heard approaching, and a moment later +Madeleine's broad figure, silhouetted by the light from the windows from +behind, stood before them. Mrs. Tate saw at a glance that she was +French, and addressed her in her own language. + +"_Mais oui_," Madeleine replied. "Madame is at home. Will Madame have +the goodness to enter?" + +"Say that I'm Father Dumeny's friend, please," said Mrs. Tate as she +gave Madeleine a card. Then she glanced at one corner of the room, where +a large cradle, covered with a lace canopy, had caught her eye. "Is the +baby here?" she asked quickly, going toward it. + +"Ah, no--not now. She sometimes sleeps here in the morning; but she is +with her mother in the other room now." + +Madeleine disappeared, and Mrs. Tate's eyes roved around the room. She +recognized it at once as the typical English lodging-house drawing-room; +she had seen many rooms just like it before, when she had called on +American friends living for a time in London. It was large and oblong, +facing the tall houses on the opposite side of the street that cut off +much of the light; the wall paper was ugly and sombre, and the carpet, +with its large flowery pattern, together with the lounge and chairs, +completed an effect of utter dreariness. + +Mrs. Tate wondered how people could live in such places; she should +simply go mad if she had to stay in a room like this. Then she wondered +why Madame Le Baron hadn't brightened up the apartment a bit; the +photographs on the mantel, in front of the large French mirror, together +with the cradle in the corner, were the only signs it gave of being +really inhabited. How vulgar those prints on the wall were! They and the +mirror were the only French touches visible, and they contrasted oddly +with their surroundings. While Mrs. Tate was comfortably meditating on +the vast superiority of England to France, the door leading to the next +room opened and Blanche entered the room. She looked so domestic in her +simple dress of blue serge that for an instant her caller did not +recognize her. + +She held out her hand timidly. "Father Dumeny has spoken to me about +you," she said. + +"Father Dumeny must think I am an extremely rude person. I meant to come +weeks ago," Mrs. Tate replied, clasping the hand and looking down +steadily into the pale face. "But I've been busy--so busy, I've had +hardly a minute to myself. However, I did go to see you perform." + +"Ah, at the Hippodrome?" + +"Yes, the very first night. Mr. Tate and I went together. We were +both--er--wonderfully impressed. I don't think I ever saw anything more +wonderful in my life than that plunge of yours." + +Mrs. Tate adjusted herself in the chair near the window, and Blanche +took the opposite seat. "I'm glad you liked it," she said with a sigh. + +"Liked it. I can't really say I did like it. I must confess it rather +horrified me." + +"It does some people. My mother never likes to see me do it--though I've +done it for a great many years now." + +"But doesn't it--doesn't it make you nervous sometimes?" + +"I never used to think of it--before my baby was born." + +"Ah, the baby! May I see her? Just a peep." + +"She was asleep when I left," Blanche replied, unconsciously lowering +her voice as if the child in the next room might know she was being +talked about; "but she will wake up soon. She always wakes about this +time. Madeleine is with her now, and she'll dress her and bring her in." + +For a quarter of an hour they talked about the little Jeanne, and +Blanche, inspired by Mrs. Tate's vivid interest and sympathy, grew +animated in describing the baby's qualities; when she was born she +weighed nearly nine pounds, and she had not been sick a day. Then she +had grown so! You could hardly believe it was the same child. She very +rarely cried,--almost never at night. Mrs. Tate had heard mothers talk +like that before, but Blanche's _naivete_ lent a new charm to the +narration; she kept in mind, however, their first topic, and at the next +opportunity she returned to it. + +"Then what do you do with the child at night?" she asked. "I suppose +your servant goes to the circus with you, doesn't she? Of course you +can't leave the baby alone." + +"Ah, no," Blanche replied. "We have a little girl to stay with her." + +Mrs. Tate was surprised. So these circus people lived as other people +did, with servants to wait on them, with a nurse for the child. She had +instinctively thought of them as vagabonds. On discovering that they +were well cared for, she had a sensation very like disappointment; they +seemed to be in no need of help of any sort. She was curious to know +more of the life of this girl, who seemed so _naive_ and had such a +curious look of sadness in her eyes. Mrs. Tate deftly led Blanche to +talk about her husband, and in a few minutes, by her questions and her +quick intelligence, she fancied that she understood the condition of +this extraordinary _menage_. + +Percy had been right; the wife supported the family and the husband was +a mere hanger-on; but it was evident from the way he was mentioned that +the romance still lasted. Then Blanche made a reference to Jules which +led her visitor to make inquiries with regard to him, and these changed +her view of the situation. So, before marriage, Monsieur had been in +business, and he had probably given it up to follow his wife in her +wanderings. She surmised that they were not absolutely dependent on the +circus for their daily bread; perhaps this accounted for their +comfortable way of living. + +While apparently absorbed in conversation Mrs. Tate continued this train +of thought. She had never known any one connected with the circus +before, she explained with a smile; people who lived in London all the +time were apt to be so very narrow and ignorant; but she wanted to hear +all about it, and Madame must tell her. Blanche was able to tell very +little, for she was not used to discussing her work. By adroit +questioning, however, Mrs. Tate led her on to an account of her early +career from her first appearance as a child with her father to her +development into a "star" performer. + +The narrative seemed to her wildly interesting. How fascinating it would +be if she could persuade the girl to relate her story in a drawing-room! +It would be the sensation of the winter. But this poor child never could +talk in public, even in her own tongue. + +"But do tell me," said Mrs. Tate, when Blanche had described the months +her father had spent in teaching her to make the great plunge. "Doesn't +it hurt your back? I should think that striking with full force day +after day on that padded net would destroy the nervous system of a +giant." + +Blanche smiled and shook her head. "It never used to hurt. I've only +felt it lately, since the baby was born," she said. + +"Then it does hurt now?" Mrs. Tate cried eagerly. + +"Sometimes. I feel so tired in the morning now. I never used to; and +sometimes when I wake up my back aches very much. But I try not to think +of it." + +"But, my dear child, you ought to think of it. You mustn't allow +yourself to be injured--perhaps for life." + +Blanche turned pale. "Do you think it can be serious?" she asked +timidly. + +Mrs. Tate saw that she had made a false step. "Of course not--not +_serious_. It's probably nothing at all. I haven't a doubt a physician +could stop it easily. Have you spoken to any one about it?" + +"No; not even to my husband. I shouldn't like to tell him. It would make +him unhappy." + +Mrs. Tate became thoughtful. "I wonder if Dr. Broughton couldn't do +something for you. He's our physician, and he's the kindest soul in the +world. I'm always sending him to people. Suppose I should ask him to +come and call on you some day. Perhaps he'll tell you there's nothing +the matter, and then you won't be worried any more." She glanced into +the pale face and was startled by the look she saw there. "Oh, you +needn't be afraid," she laughed. "He won't hurt you. But, of course, if +you don't want him to come, I won't send him." + +Blanche clasped her hands and dropped her eyes. "I think I should like +to have him come if--if--my husband----" + +"But he needn't know anything about it," said Mrs. Tate, with feminine +delight at the prospect of secrecy. "We won't tell him anything. If he +meets Monsieur Le Baron here you can just say I sent him to call on you. +Besides, he can come some time when your husband isn't here," she added +with a smile. + +"Jules generally goes out in the afternoon," Blanche replied, feeling +guilty at the thought of concealing anything from him. "He likes to read +the French papers in a _cafe_ in the Strand." + +"Then I'll tell Dr. Broughton to come some afternoon. He'll be +delighted. I don't believe _he's_ ever known an acrobat either," she +laughed. + +They talked more of Blanche's symptoms, and Mrs. Tate speedily +discovered that since the birth of the baby Blanche had not been free +from terror of her work; every night she feared might be her last. She +did not confess this directly, but Mrs. Tate gathered it from several +intimations and from her own observations. She felt elated. What an +interesting case! She had never heard of anything like it before. This +poor child was haunted with a horrible terror! This accounted for the +pitiful look of distress in her eyes. Then Mrs. Tate's generous heart +fairly yearned with sympathy; but this she was careful to conceal. She +saw that by displaying it she would do far more harm than good; so she +pretended to be amused at the possibility of Blanche's injuring herself +in making the plunge. + +"It must have become second nature to you," she said, "after all these +years. You're probably a little tired and nervous. Dr. Broughton will +give you a tonic that will restore your old confidence. Meantime," she +added enthusiastically, "I'm going to take care of you. I'm coming to +see you very often, and I shall expect you to come to see me. Let me +think; this is Thursday. On Sunday night you and Monsieur Le Baron must +come and dine with us at seven o'clock. We'll be all alone. I sha'n't +ask any one. But wait a minute. Why wouldn't that be a good way for your +husband to meet Dr. Broughton? I'll ask him to come, too. He often looks +in on Sundays. That will be delightful." + +She rose to her feet and shook out her skirts. "I suppose I must go +without seeing the baby. But I shall----" She looked quickly around at +the clicking sound that seemed to come from the door. Then the door +opened, and Jules, in a heavy fur-trimmed coat and silk hat, stood +before her. She recognized him at once, and as he bowed hesitatingly, +she extended her hand and relieved the awkwardness of the situation. "I +won't wait for Madame to introduce me," she said, just as Blanche was +murmuring her name. + +"Then you are the lady Father Dumeny spoke to us about!" Jules said with +a smile. + +"Yes; and your wife and I have become the best of friends already." + +"And you've made friends with the baby too, I hope," Jules replied, +removing his coat and throwing it over a chair. She liked his face more +than she had done at the Hippodrome; he had a good eye, and, for a +Frenchman, a remarkably clear complexion. + +"No; she's asleep," Blanche replied. "I asked Madeleine to bring her in +if she woke up." + +"But you must see her," Jules insisted. "I'll go and take a peep at +her." + +He went to the door leading to the next room, opened it softly, and +glanced in. Then he made a sign that the others were to follow, and he +tiptoed toward the bed where Jeanne lay sleeping, her face rosy with +health, and her little hands tightly closed. Madeleine, who had been +sitting beside the bed, rose as they approached and showed her mouthful +of teeth. + +For a few moments they stood around the child, smiling at one another +and without speaking. Then they tiptoed out of the room, and closed the +door behind them. + +"I shall come again soon some morning," Mrs. Tate whispered, as if still +afraid of disturbing the child, "when the baby's awake." Then she went +on in a louder tone: "She's a dear. I know I shall become very fond of +her. And you're coming to us next Sunday night," she added, as she bade +Jules good-bye. "Your wife has promised. I shall expect you both. +Perhaps I shall come before then; I want to get acquainted with Jeanne." + +She kissed Blanche on both cheeks, after the French fashion. "I sha'n't +forget, you know. We have great secrets together already," she laughed, +turning to Jules as she passed out of the door. + + + + + XIV + + +As soon as Percy Tate confronted his wife at the table that night he saw +that something was on her mind. + +"You've been to see those circus people," he said. + +"How did you know that?" + +"Oh, clairvoyance,--my subtle insight into the workings of your brain!" + +"I suppose Hawkins told you. Well, I _have_ been to see them." + +Tate began to pick at the bread beside his plate. He often became +preoccupied when he knew his wife wanted him to ask questions; this was +his favorite way of teasing her. + +"It's the strangest _menage_ I ever saw in my life," Mrs. Tate exclaimed +at last, unable to keep back the news any longer. "And it's just as I +thought it would be. That poor little creature simply lives in terror of +being killed." + +Tate rolled his eyes. "'In the midst of life we are in death,'" he said +solemnly. + +"It's altogether too serious a matter to be made a joke of, Percy. If +you could have heard--" + +"Now, my dear, you know what I told you. You went to see that woman with +the deliberate expectation of finding her a person to be sympathized +with, and I can see that you've imagined a lot of nonsense about her. +Why in the world don't you let such people alone? You belong in your +place and she belongs in hers, and the world is big enough to hold you +both without obliging you to come together. You can't understand her +feelings any more than she can understand yours. You wonder how you'd +feel if you were in her place; you can't realize that if you _were_ in +her place you'd be an altogether different person. If you had to go +through her performances, of course you'd be scared to death; but you +forget she's been brought up to do those things; it's her business, her +life. I knew you'd go there and work up a lot of ridiculous sympathy, +and badger that woman for nothing!" + +At the beginning of this speech Mrs. Tate had sat back in her chair with +an expression of patient resignation in her face. When her husband +finished she breathed a long sigh. "I hope you've said it all, Percy. +You're so tiresome when you make those long harangues. Besides, you've +only succeeded in showing that you don't understand the case at all." + +Then, as they finished their soup, Mrs. Tate gave an account of her call +of the afternoon, ending with a graphic repetition of the talk with +Blanche about the pains in her back. + +"I shall certainly tell Dr. Broughton about it," she cried. "That poor +child--she really _is_ nothing _but_ a child--she's just killing herself +by inches, and her husband is worse than a brute to let the thing go +on." + +"So you want to stop it and take away their only means of support." + +"It isn't their only means of support. It seems the husband has money. +That makes it all the worse." + +"Now, let me say right here, my dear, I wash my hands of this affair. If +you want to rush in and upset those people's lives, go ahead, but I'll +have nothing to do with it." + +"I wish you wouldn't scold me so, Percy. It seems to me I usually bear +the consequences of what I do. And I don't see what harm there can be in +consulting Dr. Broughton. You're always cracking him up yourself." + +Tate burst into a loud laugh. "If that isn't just like a woman! Turning +it onto poor old Broughton." + +"Oh, sometimes you're so _aggravating_, Percy!" + +Two days later, in spite of her husband's opposition, Mrs. Tate +consulted Dr. Broughton, and he promised, as soon as he could, to call +some morning at the little hotel in Albemarle Street. Before he appeared +there Mrs. Tate ingratiated herself into the affections of the family. +As Blanche grew more familiar with her, she confided to her many details +of her life, and Mrs. Tate speedily possessed the chief facts in +connection with it. These facts did not increase her esteem for Jules, +whose days, in spite of his duties as his wife's manager, were spent in +what she regarded as wholly unpardonable idleness. She also suspected +that Jules disliked her; it must have been he who sent word that they +would be unable to accept her invitation for dinner on Sunday evening. +This, however, did not prevent their being invited for the following +Sunday. Mrs. Tate was determined to secure her husband's opinion of her +new _proteges_. + +Before Sunday came Dr. Broughton unexpectedly made his appearance in the +Tates' drawing-room one evening. + +"I've seen your acrobat," he said to the figure in yellow silk and lace, +reading beside the lamp. "Don't get up. Been out? I hardly thought I'd +find you in; you're such a pair of worldlings." + +"We came away early. I had a headache," said Tate, shading his eyes with +one hand and offering the other to the visitor. "Or, rather, I pretended +I had." + +The Doctor, a short, stout man of fifty, with grayish brown hair, and +little red whiskers jutting out from either side of his face, and with +enormous eyebrows shading his keen eyes, gathered his coat-tails in his +hand, and took a seat on the couch. + +"It's late for a call--must be after ten. But I knew this lady of yours +would want to hear about her acrobat. Nice little creature, isn't she? +Seems ridiculous she should belong to a circus." + +"She doesn't belong there," Mrs. Tate replied, briskly inserting a +paper-knife in her book and laying the book on the little table beside +her. "I've never seen any one so utterly misplaced. Did you have a talk +with her?" + +"Yes--a talk. That was all; but that was enough. Her husband was out." + +"O, you conspirators!" Tate exclaimed. + +"Then you've satisfied yourself about her?" said his wife, ignoring him. + +"Yes. She has a very common complaint, a form of meningitis; slumbering +meningitis, it's often called. Many people have it without knowing it; +and she might have had it even if she hadn't taken to thumping her spine +half a dozen times a week. The trouble's located in the spine." + +"There, I told you so!" exclaimed Mrs. Tate; and "What a lovely habit +women have of never gloating over anything!" her husband added amiably. + +"Percy, I wish you'd keep quiet! Do you really think it's serious, +Doctor?" + +The Doctor held up his hands meditatively, the ends of the fingers +touching, and slowly lifted his shoulders. "In itself it may be serious +or it may not. Sometimes trouble of that sort is quiescent for years, +and the patient dies of something else. Sometimes it resists treatment, +and leads to very serious complications,--physical and mental. I've had +cases where it has affected the brain and others where it has led to +paralysis. In this case it is likely to be aggravated." + +"By the diving, you mean?" said Mrs. Tate. + +"Exactly. That has probably been the cause of the trouble lately--if it +wasn't the first cause. It may go on getting worse, or it may remain as +it is for years, or it may disappear for a time, or possibly, +altogether." + +Mrs. Tate breathed what sounded like a sigh of disappointment. "Then it +isn't so bad as I thought," she said. + +For a moment the Doctor hesitated. Then he replied: "Yes, it's worse. +The mere physical pain that it causes Madame Le Baron is of +comparatively little account. I think we may be able to stop that. The +peculiarity of the case is the nervousness, the curious fear that seems +to haunt her." + +In her excitement Mrs. Tate almost bounced from her seat. "That is +_exactly_ what I said. The poor child hasn't a moment's peace. It's the +most terrible thing I ever heard of. And to think that that man--her +husband----" + +"It's always the husband," Tate laughed. "Broughton, why don't you stand +up for your sex?" + +"Percy wants to turn the whole thing into ridicule. I think it's a +shame. I can't tell you how it has worried me. I feel so----" + +"For Heaven's sake, Broughton, I wish you'd give my wife something to +keep her from feeling for other people. If you don't, she'll go mad, and +I shall too. She wants to regulate the whole universe. I have a horrible +fear that she's going to get round to me soon." + +The Doctor smiled, and bent his bushy eyes on the husband and then on +the wife. + +"It's a peculiar case," he repeated thoughtfully, when they had sat in +silence for several moments. "It couldn't be treated in the ordinary +way." + +"How in the world did you get so much out of her?" Mrs. Tate asked. +"She's the shyest little creature." + +"I had to work on her sympathies. I got her to crying,--and then, of +course, the whole story came out. As you said, she's haunted by the fear +of being killed." + +"But that's the baby," said Mrs. Tate quickly. "She told me she never +had the least fear till her baby was born." + +The Doctor lifted his eyebrows. "It's several things," he replied dryly, +refusing to take any but the professional view. + +Then they discussed the case in all its aspects. The haunting fear Dr. +Broughton regarded as the worst feature. "She says when she goes into +the ring, that usually leaves her; but if it came back just before she +took her plunge it would kill her. The least miscalculation would be +likely to make her land on her head in the net, and that would mean a +broken neck. It's terrible work,--that. The law ought to put a stop to +it." + +"The law ought to put a stop to a good many things that it doesn't," +Mrs. Tate snapped. "To think that in this age of civilization----" + +"There she goes, reforming the world again!" her husband interrupted. + +"But if the law doesn't stop it in this case," she went on, "_I_ will." + +For a time they turned from the subject of Blanche and her ills to other +themes; but when, about midnight, Dr. Broughton rose to leave, Mrs. Tate +went back to it. "We're going to have the Le Barons here for dinner next +Sunday," she said. "I wish you'd come in if you can. I want Percy to see +what they're like." + +"She relies on my judgment after all," said Tate, following the guest to +the door. As they stood together in the hall, "You think the case is +serious then?" he asked quietly. + +The Doctor whispered something in his ear, and Tate nodded thoughtfully. +"And how do you think it'll end if she doesn't stop it?" + +Dr. Broughton tapped his forehead with his hand. "This is what I'm +most afraid of." He seized his stick and thrust it under his arm. +"But giving up her performance, I'm afraid, would be like giving up +her life. She was practically born in the circus, you know, and I +suspect from what your wife has told me that her husband fell in love +with her in the circus. Outside of that she seems to have no interest +in anything,--except, of course, her family and her baby. But to take +her out of the circus would be like pulling up a tree by the roots." + +Dr. Broughton was so used to making hurried exits from patients' houses +that he lost no time in getting away from Tate. As he went down the +steps his host stood with one hand on the knob of the front door, +thinking. The Doctor had unconsciously given him a most fascinating +suggestion. Around this his mind played as he walked back to the +drawing-room, where his wife was yawning, and gathering, some books to +take upstairs. He said nothing to her about it; before expressing his +fancy, he decided to wait until he saw those curious people. + + + + + XV + + +Mrs. Tate was right in surmising that Jules had conceived a dislike for +her. The first day he saw her he decided that she was a tiresome, +interfering Englishwoman, and he watched with annoyance her growing +intimacy with Blanche, whom he wished to keep wholly to himself. Of his +wife's success at the Hippodrome he felt as proud as if it were his own; +he loved to read the notices of it in the papers, and while Blanche was +performing, to walk about in the audience and hear her praises. He had +come to look upon her as part of himself, as his property; and this +sense of proprietorship added to the fascination that her performance +had for him. + +Though his first ardor of devotion had passed, he was still tender with +her; but his tenderness always had reference more to her work than to +herself. He watched her as the owner of a performing animal might have +watched his precious charge. Sometimes he used to lose patience with her +for her devotion to the little Jeanne; if Jeanne cried at night she +would want to leave the bed to soothe her. In order to prevent this, +Jules had the child's crib moved into Madeleine's room, to the secret +grief of the mother, who, however, did not think of resisting his +commands. In his way Jules was fond of Jeanne; but he could not help +thinking that before she came Blanche had given all her love to him. +However, there was some excuse for that; but there was no reason why a +stranger like Mrs. Tate should come in and take possession of them, act +like a member of the family, and put a lot of silly ideas into his +wife's head. + +The mere fact that Mrs. Tate was English would have been enough to +prejudice Jules against her even if he had not objected to her personal +qualities. He hated the English, and he hated England, especially +London. Even Blanche, who was blind to his faults, speedily discovered +that his boast of being a born traveller had no foundation in fact. On +arriving in London he had gone straight to a French hotel, where he was +served to French cooking by a _garcon_ trained in the _cafes_ of the +_Boulevards_. Since then he had associated only with the few French +people he could find in the city; if he hadn't been eager to read +everything printed about Blanche, he would never have looked at any but +French papers. At home he spent a large part of his time in ridiculing +the English, just as on his return from America he had ridiculed the +Americans. Now, at the thought of being obliged to dine with a lot of +those _betes d'Anglais_ he felt enraged. He had already refused one +invitation. Why wasn't that enough for them? The second he would have +refused too, if Blanche had not insisted that another refusal would be a +discourtesy to Father Dumeny's friends. Ah, Father Dumeny, a fine box he +had got them into, the tiresome old woman that he was, with his foolish +jokes and his rheumatism! + +Jules never forgot that dinner. In the first place, he was awed by the +magnificence of the Tates' house; it surpassed anything of the kind he +had ever seen in France or in America; it had never occurred to him that +the English could have such good taste. Then, too, in spite of the +efforts of his hosts to make him comfortable, he felt awkward, ill at +ease, out of place. As soon as he entered the drawing-room, Blanche was +taken upstairs by Mrs. Tate, and Jules was left with the husband and +with Dr. Broughton. + +A moment later the Doctor disappeared, and for the next half-hour Jules +tried to maintain a conversation in English. Tate turned the +conversation to life in Paris as compared with the life of London, but +Jules had so much difficulty in speaking English that they fell at last +into French. + +Meanwhile, Blanche sat in the library with Mrs. Tate and Dr. Broughton, +whom she had not seen since the day of his call upon her. The Doctor had +at once won her confidence, and since her talk with him she had felt +better, and she fancied that the tonic he gave her had already benefited +her. But she still had that pain in her back, she said, and that +terrible fear; every night when she kissed the little Jeanne before +going to the Hippodrome, she felt as if she should never see the child +again. If she didn't stop feeling like that, she didn't know what would +happen. + +"If you could give up the plunge for a while," the Doctor suggested, +"you'd be very much better for the rest. Then you might go back to it, +you know." + +"But I'm engaged for the season," Blanche replied in French, which the +Doctor readily understood, but refused to speak. "I can't break my +contract." + +"Perhaps you could make a compromise," Mrs. Tate suggested. "You could +go on with your trapeze performance,--with everything except the dive." + +"I was really engaged for that," said Blanche, a look of dismay +appearing in her face. "There are many others that perform on the +trapeze." + +"But you might try to make some arrangement," Mrs. Tate insisted. "Your +husband could talk it over with the managers." + +"Ah, but he would not like it," Blanche replied with evident distress. +"It would make him so unhappy if he--if he knew." + +"If he knew you were being made ill by your work!" Mrs. Tate +interrupted. "Of course it would make him unhappy, and it would be very +strange if it didn't. But it's much better to have him know it than for +you to go on risking your life every night." + +Dr. Broughton gave his hostess a glance that made her quail. A moment +later, however, she gathered herself together. + +"I didn't mean to say that, dear, but now that I _have_ said it, there's +no use mincing matters. The Doctor has told me plainly that if you go on +making that plunge every night in your present state of nervousness it +will certainly result in your death--in one way or another. So the only +thing for you to do, for the sake of your baby, and your husband, and +for your own sake too,--the only thing for you to do is to stop it, at +least for a time. If you were to break your neck it would simply be +murder,--yes, murder," she repeated, glancing at the Doctor, who was +looking at her with an expression that showed he thought she was going +too far. + +Tears had begun to trickle down Blanche's cheeks, and now they turned to +sobs. For a few moments she lost control of herself, and her frail +figure was shaken with grief. Dr. Broughton said nothing, and he looked +angry. Mrs. Tate paid no attention to him; she went over to Blanche, +took her in her arms, and began to soothe her. In a few moments the +sobbing ceased, and Mrs. Tate went on:-- + +"It's best that you should know this, dear, though perhaps I've been +cruel in telling it to you so bluntly. We must tell your husband about +it, too. I'm sure he'll be distressed to hear how much you've suffered, +and he'll be glad to do anything that will help you. So now we'll send +the Doctor away, and bathe your face with hot water, and go down to +dinner and try to forget about our troubles for a while." + +If Jules had not been absorbed in his own embarrassment at the +dinner-table he might have discovered traces of agitation in his wife's +face. He was secretly execrating the luck that had brought him among +these people, and he resolved when he returned home to tell Blanche that +he would have nothing more to do with them. If she was willing to have +that prying Englishwoman about her all the time, she could, but she +mustn't expect him to be more than civil to her. The conversation had +turned on English politics, and as Jules had nothing to offer on the +subject, his enforced silence increased his discomfort. Mrs. Tate was +devoting herself to Blanche, who sat beside her, relating in French +stories of her life in Paris. Jules felt resentful; no one paid +attention to him; when he dined out in Paris he was always one of the +leaders in the talk. He wanted to justify himself, to show these people +that he was no fool, that he was worthy of being the husband of a +celebrity. + +By a fortunate chance, the talk drifted to American politics, and Jules, +seeing his opportunity, seized it. A few moments later he was launched +on an account of his travels in the United States. Tate, relieved at +having at last found a topic his guest could discuss, gave Jules full +play, and listened to him with a light in his eyes that showed his wife +he was secretly amused. Indeed, Jules' criticisms of America and his +descriptions of the peculiarities of Americans greatly entertained them. + +The dinner closed in animated talk, much to the relief of Mrs. Tate, who +feared it would be a great failure; it made her realize, however, that +as show people the Le Barons were quite useless. She was afraid Blanche +had been bored; she had been sitting almost speechless during the meal, +sighing heavily now and then, as if thinking that in a few hours her +respite would be over, and she would have to return to her horrible +work. + +Mrs. Tate was quite ready to make any sacrifice to rescue Blanche from +the terrors of her circus life; in the enthusiasm of the moment she said +to herself, that rather than let her continue making that plunge, she +would offer to _pay_ her husband what she earned, in order to take his +wife out of the ring altogether. At the thought of persuading him to do +this, Mrs. Tate felt that at last she had a definite task to perform; it +was almost like a mission, and the harder it proved to be, the more +exalted she would feel. + +After their return to the drawing-room, Mrs. Tate, with a delightful +feeling that she was engaged in a conspiracy, made a mysterious sign to +Dr. Broughton to come to her. + +"I suppose Percy's been whispering to you not to have anything to do +with this scheme of mine, but don't pay any attention to him. Do you +know, I think the best way would be to take the husband into the library +and have it out there. He must _be_ told, you know. He hasn't a +suspicion of it,--not a suspicion. You wait a few minutes, and as soon +as I get a chance, I'll ask him to follow me out." + +The Doctor smiled and shrugged his shoulders. + +"You must take the responsibility," he said carelessly. "I shall merely +do my professional duty. Mr. Tate has just been telling me about a +curious idea----" + +"Don't pay any attention to his ideas. Percy thinks everything ought to +be left to regulate itself. A fine world it would be if every one +thought as he does. Now you go back to him, and follow me when I tell +you. No, I have a better plan. You go into the library with Percy. I'll +come in there in a few minutes." + +A quarter of an hour later, when Mrs. Tate entered the library with +Jules, she found her husband and the Doctor there, half-hidden in a +cloud of smoke. + +"This poor man, too, has been dying for another cigar," she said; "but +he's too polite to say so. So while he's smoking we can have our talk. +We'll take our coffee in here, too. Percy, you go and see that Madame Le +Baron is properly served. I've had to leave her there alone for a +minute, but I said I'd send you in. Dr. Broughton and I are going to +have a secret conference with Monsieur Le Baron." + +"Secret conferences are always dangerous," Tate replied, rising to leave +the room. "Look out for them!" he added with a smile to Jules, as he +hesitated at the door. When he had closed the door behind him, he stood +in the hall a moment, thinking. + +Tate was a man of sense, of "horse-sense," one of his friends used to +say of him, and not given to forebodings. Now, however, he had a +distinct regret that his wife was interfering in this matter, and fear +of the consequences. She often did things that he disapproved, and he +made no objection, for he believed that she had as much right to +independence as himself; but in this case he would have liked to +interfere. He had spoken to Dr. Broughton about his feeling in the +matter, and the Doctor had merely laughed. Well, the Doctor knew better +than he did; perhaps, after all, his own theory was absurd. At any rate, +he could not be held accountable for any trouble that might result from +his wife's meddling. This thought, however, gave him little consolation. +He usually suffered for her mistakes much more than she did herself. + +When he went back to the drawing-room, he had difficulty in sustaining a +conversation with Blanche; he kept thinking of the conference in the +next room, wondering what the result would be. He was prepared to see +Jules enter with a pale face and set lips and with wrath in his eyes. + +When Jules finally entered between his hostess and the Doctor, Tate +scanned his face narrowly; it was not white, and the lips were not set, +but the whole expression had changed to a look of dogged determination +and ill-concealed rage. He sat near his wife, staring at her as if he +had never seen her before. + +For a few moments the conversation was resumed, but the atmosphere +seemed chilled. Then the Doctor rose to say good-night, explaining that +he had promised to call on a patient in Curzon Street before going home. +This seemed to be the signal for the breaking-up, and all of the guests +left at the same moment, Mrs. Tate calling out to Blanche at the door of +the drawing-room that she would look in on her the next day if she were +not too busy. + +When the front door had closed, Tate turned to his wife. + +"Well, you had a stormy time of it, didn't you?" + +She walked toward the centre of the drawing-room and stood under the +chandelier, keeping her eyes fixed on her husband's face, which seemed +to be much more serious than usual. + +"What makes you think so?" she asked, removing a bracelet from her arm +and nervously twirling it. + +"I could tell from the expression in his eyes, and from the way you and +the Doctor acted. He was furious, wasn't he?" + +"Furious? Le Baron? Hardly; though I could see he didn't believe a word +we said. He was almost too startled to understand it at first. The +little goose hadn't said a word to him about it." + +"And what did he say when you told him she ought to give up her +performance? How did he like that?" + +"He didn't like it at all, apparently. But I didn't expect him to like +it. It means money out of his pocket." + +"No, it means more than that, if I'm not mistaken." + +"What else can it mean?" she said, lifting her eyebrows questioningly. + +"It means the end of whatever affection he has for his wife. Of course +he never had much. A man of his sort doesn't." + +She looked at him with curiosity in her face. "What difference does her +performing make in his affection for her?" + +"Can't you see that he didn't fall in love with _her_? He fell in love +with her performance." + +Mrs. Tate put one finger to her lips and hesitated for a moment. Then +she said slowly:-- + +"How ridiculous you are, Percy! As if any one ever heard of such a +thing!" + + + + + XVI + + +On the way home in the hansom that he had called, Jules scarcely spoke. +Blanche kept glancing at him covertly; she had never before seen that +look in his face, and it alarmed her; he seemed to be trying to keep +back the anger that showed itself in his half-closed eyes and his +firm-set chin. When they reached the lodgings, Blanche found Madeleine +sound asleep by the fireplace, and without waking her, she started to go +into the next room to see if Jeanne were comfortable. When she reached +the door, Jules said in a low voice:-- + +"Wait here a minute. I have something to say to you." + +At the sound of the words, Madeleine's eyes opened slowly, and she +blinked at Jules, who was glancing angrily at her. + +"This is a pretty way you take care of Jeanne. She might have had a +dozen convulsions without your knowing anything about them." + +In spite of Jules' command, the reference to the convulsions, which had +nearly cost Jeanne her life a few weeks after birth, sent Blanche +agitatedly into the nursery. Madeleine lumbered behind her, and both +were relieved to find the child sleeping contentedly in her cradle, her +cheeks flushed, and her chubby hands clenched at her breast. Blanche +would have liked to pass several moments there in rapt adoration, but +Jules appeared at the door and made a sign to her to come to him. + +"Madeleine will look out for her," he said, pointing to the cradle. "Go +to bed, Madeleine." + +Blanche tiptoed out of the room, removed her wraps, and, with the +overcoat Jules had thrown on the couch, hung them in the little closet +beside the big mirror. Jules, who had taken a seat in front of the +fire-place, watched her impatiently, and then motioned her to sit in the +chair opposite him. + +"Now perhaps you'll be kind enough to tell me what all this means. I +knew that Englishwoman would be up to some mischief. What does it mean?" +he said sternly. + +Blanche looked timidly into his face; the expression of anger that she +had noticed on their way home was still there. She did not know what to +say, and tears of misery filled her eyes and rolled slowly down her +cheeks. Then weakened by her previous outburst, she covered her face +with her hands, and began to sob, giving expression to all the torture +that had come from the horror of her performance, from her incessant +terror of being killed and separated from Jeanne. Jules was at first +touched, and then alarmed, by the unexpected display of grief. + +He waited, thinking that it would soon expend itself; then when the sobs +continued, he went over to her, and taking her gently in his arms, tried +to soothe her by stroking her hair and calling her by the endearing +names he had used during the first weeks of their marriage, and begging +her to control herself for his sake, it hurt him so. After this last +appeal, Blanche put her arms round his neck, and buried her head on his +breast, and for a few moments they sat together without speaking, her +body shaken now and then from the violence of her grief. Then Jules +began to question her quietly, and the whole story of her sufferings +since Jeanne's birth came out so pathetically that, in spite of his +anger, he was touched, and convinced that, after all, the Englishwoman +had been right. + +In his remorse that Blanche had suffered in silence, and he had not +found it out, had done nothing to help her, he declared he would have +the diving stopped at once, no matter what the cost might be. Rather +than see her unhappy, he would make her give up performing altogether, +if that were necessary. At any rate, he would go to Marshall the next +day and see what could be done about taking her name off the bills. They +would leave this disgusting London, perhaps for the south of France, +where Blanche could have a long rest, and gather strength for her visit +to America the next year. For a long time they talked over the plan, and +then Jules made Blanche go to bed. + +"You'll not be able to do your work tomorrow," he said, "if you sit up +much longer. Of course, you can't stop it at once. Marshall wouldn't +listen to that. You're his best attraction, and he'll have to advertise +your last appearances." + +For more than an hour after Blanche left him, Jules walked up and down +the little drawing-room, smoking cigarettes. The revelation of his +wife's trouble had so upset him that he felt unable to sleep. But it was +of himself, not of her, that he was chiefly thinking. Dr. Broughton had +told him that a long rest might cure Blanche of her nervous terror and +relieve her of the pains in the back, but it was probable that she would +be affected again as soon as she resumed her performance. + +If this proved true, his own career would be ruined; there would be no +more travelling, no more triumphs! Blanche would sink into obscurity, +would become a mere nonentity, devoted to her child and house-keeping, +like scores of other wives and mothers that he knew and despised in +Paris. Out of the circus, she was utterly commonplace, Jules said to +himself, and the fact came to him with the force of a revelation! But +for that he would never have married her; the brilliancy of her talent +had dazzled him! And now, if she had to leave the circus, how +beautifully he would have been tricked! He would be tied down to her and +her child! The expense of maintaining them would oblige him to live +meanly, in a way that he had never been used to, that he loathed. + +What a fine trap he had got himself into! There was absolutely no +escape, unless Blanche recovered from her ridiculous cowardice. And all +on account of that infant, who had come into the world without being +wanted, and had spoiled his life! For the moment Jules hated Jeanne. He +wished she had never been born, or had died at birth; then all this +trouble wouldn't have occurred. But for Jeanne, Blanche might have +accepted that offer for a summer season at Trouville. Then he wouldn't +have been bored at Boulogne, and Father Dumeny wouldn't have given him +that letter to those beasts of English. + +Then Jules' wrath turned from Jeanne to Father Dumeny, and on him he +poured all his old bitterness against priests. They were always +interfering, those black-coated, oily-tongued hypocrites. Oh, if he had +Father Dumeny there! He would have liked to choke him! + +The more Jules thought, the more convinced he became that his wife's +nervousness was due to imagination rather than to any physical cause. +Then, too, Blanche had been homesick after her long stay in Boulogne, +where she saw her mother and her sisters every day. What a fool he had +been to allow her to go there! He hated the whole pack of them--Father +Dumeny, Madame Berthier, her tiresome old husband, all! What right did +they have to interfere with Blanche? She was his wife, she belonged to +him alone. When he reached this point Jules had worked himself into a +fine indignation; but he had exhausted his cigarettes, and it was now +nearly twelve o'clock. Instead of going to bed, however, he threw +himself on the couch in the corner of the room, where a few hours later +Blanche found him, sleeping soundly. + +Jules woke in an irritable mood, cross with Madeleine, indifferent to +Jeanne, with whom he usually liked to gambol after breakfast, and silent +with his wife. For a time he said nothing to Blanche about their talk of +the night before, and the expression of his face prevented her from +touching upon it. Till eleven o'clock he was busily engaged in writing +letters; when he had finished these, he turned to Blanche, who was +sitting alone by the table, making a dress for Jeanne. + +"I've just written to Hicks in New York," he said, "the man who made me +that fine offer for next September. I told him we couldn't sign the +contract yet. That'll probably make him offer us more money, and it'll +give you time to find out whether you can go on with your work again." + +"But I shall surely go on with it," said Blanche, hardly daring to look +into his face. "I shall be well again after a rest. I know I shall. The +Doctor said--" + +"Never mind what the Doctor said. I don't believe he knows anything +about it. You're just a little nervous, that's all. You worry about +little things too much, about Jeanne especially. Why can't you let +Madeleine take care of Jeanne? She knows a good deal more about children +than you do. That's what we pay her for. The child costs us enough, +Heaven knows, and if your salary's going to be cut off, we'll have to be +pretty economical." + +For a moment Blanche said nothing; her lips quivered, but she controlled +herself. Jules looked at her narrowly, and said to himself that she was +not half so pretty as she had been; she was growing thinner, and there +were little lines in her face that ought not to be in the face of one so +young as her mother said she was. How weak, how helpless she seemed! +Once the thought of her weakness and ingenuousness had given him +pleasure; now it only made him realize his own superiority. + +"Perhaps," she suggested hesitatingly,--"perhaps Mr. Marshall might be +willing to make a new contract. Perhaps he would let me go on with my +performance on the trapeze and the rope--without the dive." + +"I've thought of that," Jules replied, rising and going to the closet +for his overcoat. "But it isn't at all likely. He's been advertising +your dive all over London, and it's been his best feature. He'll be +pretty mad when I tell him you're going to give it up. He'll probably +try to make me pay a forfeit for breach of contract." + +"For breach of contract!" she repeated blankly. "I--" + +"Oh, don't worry about it," said Jules, with a pang of regret for the +pain he had caused her. "I think I can make that all right. I suppose +that old Doctor would write a certificate if I asked him." + +He drew on the fur-lined coat, and as he took his gloves from his pocket +he started for the door, without kissing Blanche. Then, at the door, +glancing back, and seeing her standing in the middle of the room with a +look of helpless pain in her face, he turned and walked towards her, and +bent his face to hers. + +"There, there, dear, don't worry," he said. "You'll be all right again +in a little while!" At the door he added: "I shall be back in an hour or +two, and tell you what Marshall says." + +The hour or two proved to be three hours, and these Blanche passed +chiefly in walking up and down the apartment. She could not keep still; +she felt convinced that something dreadful was going to happen. She +hardly dared even to talk to Jeanne, as if she fancied the child might +divine her misery. She feared that she would be unable to give up her +performance, and she feared she would have to go on with it. If she did +give it up, she had a presentiment that she would pay dear for the +release; if she did not, she knew it would result in her death. + +Ever since coming to London, she had prepared herself for the +catastrophe. No one, not even kind-hearted Mrs. Tate, could imagine the +agony of mind she had endured. And it was all for Jeanne! Her very +sufferings had fed her love for the child. If she and Jules could go +away with Jeanne, far away, where they would never hear or think of +performances again, how happy they would be! But she must go on with her +work; she ought to fight against her weakness. Jules had said she would +grow strong again; she had always believed what he said, and perhaps he +was right now. Perhaps after a rest she would want to go back to the +ring. But she was afraid, she was afraid! Poor little Jeanne! Every few +moments she ran into the room where Jeanne was taking her mid-day sleep. +She wanted to clasp the child to her breast and walk up and down the +room with her. But for several weeks she had not dared to hold her in +her arms for fear of dropping her from nervousness. + +Instead of going directly to the Hippodrome, Jules turned into +Piccadilly, where he had seen the sign of a French physician. He had +suddenly decided to seek further medical advice before speaking to +Marshall, and he did not propose to trust Blanche's case to another +Englishman. He was obliged to wait in Dr. Viaud's outer office for more +than an hour. The Doctor received him with what seemed to Jules an +almost suspicious courtesy; but this disappeared as soon as he explained +that he was French. + +Jules was gratified by the interest paid to his repetition of Blanche's +confession of the night before. The Doctor did not interrupt till Jules +had mentioned the advice given by the English physician. + +"Broughton!" he exclaimed, repeating the name after Jules. "You couldn't +have consulted a better man. He's at the head of his profession here in +London." + +When he had questioned Jules about Blanche's symptoms, he said +thoughtfully: "I cannot add anything to the advice Dr. Broughton has +given,--that is, of course, with my present knowledge of the case. But I +have absolute confidence in his judgment. The pains in the back I do not +fear so much as the terrible apprehension that you say haunts your wife. +In itself that is, of course, great suffering; and the consequences may +be fatal. Your wife's dive requires iron nerve, and that is being +constantly weakened by her continual worrying. I agree with Dr. +Broughton that she at least needs a rest as soon as possible. There +can't be two opinions about that. But I should not like to interfere +with Dr. Broughton's--" + +Jules understood at once, and rose from his seat. + +"I merely wanted to see what you thought. If you had disagreed--" + +"Ah, but Dr. Broughton is very reliable!" said the Frenchman, with a +smile and a shrug, as if afraid of even a suggestion of professional +discourtesy. + +Jules left him feeling bitterly disappointed. There was no hope then! He +had surmised that the shrewd-eyed Englishman knew his business. There +was nothing to do but to go to Marshall and explain the situation. + +When he returned from the Hippodrome to the apartment Blanche met him at +the door. His face was darkened with a scowl. + +"What did he say?" she asked nervously, as he entered and threw his +overcoat on a chair. "Was he--was he angry?" + +"Angry? No; he was altogether too cool. If he'd been angry I shouldn't +have cared. I'd have liked that a good deal better." + +"Then we sha'n't have to pay a forfeit?" said Blanche, glancing up into +his face. + +He turned away and threw himself wearily on the couch. "No, you won't +have to pay a forfeit, but you'll have to go on with the engagement." + +"With the diving?" she said, her face growing white. + +"No, with the other work--on the trapeze and the rope. He said you'd +have to elaborate that, and he'd pay you half what you're getting now +till you were ready to do the diving again. He wants to keep you on +account of your name. He's advertised you all over the city, and even +out in the country places near London." + +"But he--he doesn't object to my giving up the plunge?" Blanche +repeated, in a tone which suggested that her professional pride was +hurt. + +"He didn't when I told him the Doctor had forbidden your going on with +it for a while. Besides, he had another reason for not objecting." + +"What was that?" + +"He showed me a letter he'd just had from that woman who made such a +sensation in Bucharest while we were in Vienna. Don't you remember? I +showed you some of her notices. She does a swimming act, and dives from +a platform into a tank. She's been playing in the English provinces, and +now she wants to come to London." + +"So he's going to engage her in my place?" Blanche gasped. + +"In your place?" Jules repeated irritably. "How can he engage her in +your place when he's going to keep you? We've got to live, and it won't +hurt you to go on with your work on the trapeze and the rope. He knows +your name will be an attraction, and if he engages that Englishwoman, +she'll be another card for him--a big one. He says she's been drawing +crowds in Manchester for six weeks." + +"What's her name?" + +"King--Lottie King--or something like that." + +"Is she pretty? Did he show you her pictures?" + +"Yes; her manager sent him a whole box of them. She's _petite_, with +wicked little eyes." + +"Dark?" + +"No, blonde." + +"And what is her dive?" + +"What?" + +"How high is it?" + +"Fifty feet, Marshall said; but one of the circus hands told me it +wasn't much more, than forty." + +"Oh!" There was a suggestion of a sneer in her tone, and Jules looked up +in surprise. + +"Of course, it's nothing compared with yours," he said, to console her. + +"When is she going to begin?" she asked, after a moment. + +"Going to begin? Do you mean here in London? Marshall hasn't signed with +her yet. She's engaged in Manchester for three weeks longer." + +"Then I shall have to go on with my dive till she comes?" + +"I suppose so," Jules replied coldly. + +She saw that he did not wish to continue the conversation; so she went +into the nursery, leaving him lying on the couch, where he often took an +afternoon nap; since coming to London he had grown very lazy, and had +gained flesh. Blanche found Jeanne wide awake and crowing in Madeleine's +arms. She sat beside the cradle, and taking the child in her lap, sent +Madeleine out of the room. Jeanne snatched at the brooch she wore at her +throat, and laughed into her face. Blanche tried to smile in reply, but +the tears welled into her eyes again, and fell in big drops on her +cheeks. + + + + + XVII + + +Three days after Jules' talk with Marshall, the forthcoming engagement +at the Hippodrome of Miss Lottie King was announced in the London +newspapers. Blanche signed a new contract, by which she agreed to +perform for several weeks longer on the trapeze and on the rope at half +the salary she had been receiving. Marshall said that no mention of the +plunge would be made in the papers; her name would continue to "draw," +and the public would be satisfied with Miss King's great dive into the +tank. This remark made Jules very angry, and it also depressed Blanche, +who felt as if she had already been deposed from her supremacy as the +chief attraction at the Hippodrome. Indeed, as the time drew near when +she was to cease making the plunge, instead of feeling happier, she grew +more despondent; she had already elaborated her performance on the +trapeze by introducing several new feats that she and Jules had planned +together, but with these she was not satisfied; she felt like an actor +obliged to play small parts after winning success in leading characters. + +As for Jules, he did not try to hide his discontent at the change in his +wife's work. In the first place, it made his brief but dramatic public +appearance unnecessary; in future he would be obliged to conduct Blanche +to the circus, and live again like any mere hanger-on to the skirts of a +public performer. The _role_ was ignoble, unworthy of him. Then, too, he +chafed at the thought of his wife's decline in importance at the +Hippodrome; he fancied that when her inability to go on with the plunge +had become known to the other performers they would lose respect for her +and for himself. + +He secretly doubted if the public would accept Blanche merely for her +performance on the trapeze and on the rope. Almost any one could do +that; but in the plunge she was without a rival. He hoped that, as a +compensation for his vexation, the performance of Miss King would be a +failure. Forty feet! What did that amount to in comparison with the +magnificent plunge of more than ninety feet that Blanche had made at +Vienna? + +Already Jules had begun to think of his wife in the past tense chiefly, +as if she lived in the triumphs she had made by her nightly flight +through the air. Indeed, she seemed to him almost another person now. +Instead of looking on her almost with reverence, as he had done, he felt +sorry for her, as if she were his inferior; and though he continued to +treat her with kindness, there was a suggestion of pity, almost of +contempt, in his manner toward her. She sought consolation in her child, +who, she thought, grew stronger and more beautiful every day. For +Jeanne's sake she tried to be glad the time was so near when she should +give up risking her life; but the nearer it grew, the more depressed she +became, and the more she thought about that woman who was to take her +place. + +Mrs. Tate, who had definitely taken Blanche under her protection, and +called at the little hotel several times each week, had been delighted +at what she considered the fortunate solution of a shocking difficulty. +Now that Blanche was to stop making that horrible dive, there was no +reason why she shouldn't be the happiest woman in the world. With her +keen instinct, however, she observed that Blanche was not happy; she +wondered, too, at the frequent absence of the husband from this +_menage_. Jules couldn't be very devoted, she thought, for a man who had +been married little more than a year. Perhaps, however, he avoided her; +for, in spite of his French politeness, he had not been able to conceal +his dislike for her. For this reason she did not ask him to dinner +again. She often took Blanche and Jeanne to drive in the afternoon, and +pointed out the celebrities that they passed in the Park. + +"My husband says I take you to drive just to show you off," she said +jokingly one day. "He thinks I have a mania for celebrities." + +"Ah, but I'm not a celebrity!" Blanche replied, with a smile that was +almost sad. + +"Not a celebrity? Of course you are. I haven't a doubt that half the +people we meet recognize you. You know, it's been quite the fashion to +go to the Hippodrome this year." + +"But I sha'n't be a celebrity much longer," said Blanche, glancing at +the bare boughs of the trees, and wondering if any other place could be +as desolate as London in winter. + +"Why not? You don't think of retiring into private life altogether, do +you?" Mrs. Tate laughed. + +"No, but I shall only be an ordinary performer after this week." + +"But I'd rather be an ordinary performer and keep my neck whole than be +an _ex_traordinary one and risk my life every night," Mrs. Tate retorted +sharply. She was vexed with Blanche for not appreciating her +emancipation. + +They rode on in silence for a few moments. Then Blanche said,-- + +"There's some one going to take my place, you know." + +"Some one that's going to make that dreadful plunge?" Mrs. Tate cried in +horror. + +"No, not that. She jumps into a tank of water--from a platform--only +about forty feet. My jump is more than seventy-five feet," Blanche added +with a touch of pride. + +Mrs. Tate rested her hands in her lap and burst out laughing. "What a +ridiculous thing! I beg your pardon, dear, but I can't help being +amused. Of course it doesn't seem funny to you. You're used to it; but +it does to me." + +Then she questioned Blanche about the new performer, and Blanche +repeated what Jules had told her and what she had since heard of the +woman at the Hippodrome. Mrs. Tate was greatly interested, and laughed +immoderately; afterward, however, when she had returned home and thought +over the conversation, she regarded it more seriously. + +"What do you think, Percy?" she said at the dinner table that night. +"Those Hippodrome people have engaged a creature to dive into a tank of +water from a platform. Of course, that's to take the place of Madame Le +Baron's plunge. Could anything be more absurd? The worst of it is that +the poor little woman is frightfully jealous already. I could see that +from the way she talked. What a dreadful world it is, isn't it? They're +all like that, aren't they, even the best of them? Do you remember that +poor Madame Gardini who sang here one night? She told me if she had her +life to live over again she'd never dream of going on the stage. She +said opera-singers were the unhappiest people in the world,--just +poisoned with jealousy. And these circus people are exactly like them!" + +"What makes you think she's jealous? What was it she said?" + +"It wasn't _what_ she said, it was the _way_ she talked about the woman. +Her husband says she's a great beauty." + +"Ah, the husband says so, does he?" Tate remarked dryly. A moment later +he added: "I wish you hadn't had anything to do with those people!" + +"You've said that a dozen times, Percy, and I wish you'd stop. For my +part, I'm very glad I've met them. If I hadn't, that poor little +creature would be in her grave before the end of a year." + +"Perhaps she'll wish that she _were_ in her grave before the end of the +year." + +"What do you mean by that?" + +"Nothing, dear, nothing. Don't catch at everything I say. How is she +now--any better? I suppose she's easier in mind now that she's going to +stop that diving?" + +"That's the strangest thing about it," Mrs. Tate answered, with a change +of tone. "I thought she would be, too, but she isn't. I really believe +she's sorry she's giving it up. But perhaps that's because she's been +doing it all her life. She'll miss it at first--even if it did worry her +nearly to death!" + +"Has Dr. Broughton been to see her lately?" + +"No; he said it wouldn't be necessary. He's going to wait to see what +effect the rest from the diving will have on her." + +For a few moments Tate looked thoughtfully at his wife. "Upon my word," +he said, "I half suspect that you _want_ something to happen to that +little woman. It would just be romantic enough to suit you." + +"Percy, how can you talk so? You're simply brutal." + +"She might at least break a leg to please you," her husband laughed, +"before giving up that plunge." + +Blanche made her last dive without the accident that Tate had regarded +as indispensable to dramatic effect. Indeed, since knowing that she was +to give it up, she seemed to have lost much of her terror of the plunge; +she thought of it now chiefly with regret. That night, as she rode home +with Jules and Madeleine, she seemed depressed; Jules, too, was even +more sullen than he had been for the past two weeks. When they had +entered the lodgings and were eating their midnight meal, she said:-- + +"If to-morrow is pleasant we might take Jeanne for a drive in the +country. The air would do her good." + +"I can't go," he replied indifferently. "I have something else to do. +Besides, it would cost too much. We shall have to be economical now that +you're going to be on half-salary." + +The next morning Jules left the hotel at eleven o'clock, saying that he +shouldn't be back for luncheon. He did not explain where he was going, +and Blanche did not question him. She busied herself with Jeanne, and +this distracted her till Jeanne fell sound asleep. Then she became a +prey to her old melancholy, and for an hour she walked up and down the +room, to the bewilderment of Madeleine, who could not understand what +the matter was. + +"Is Madame suffering with the pain in her back?" Madeleine asked at +last. + +No, Madame was not suffering. She had not been troubled by the pain for +several days; she hoped it would leave her for good now that she had +stopped taking the plunge. + +"Ah, God be praised that you do that no longer!" Madeleine cried, +lifting her withered hands to heaven and rolling her eyes. "It was too +terrible. Since that first night in Paris, when I went with you and +Monsieur Jules, I never dared to look. It was _affreux_!" + +"But Jules loved it," said Blanche, throwing herself into a chair beside +the old woman. + +Ah, yes, Madeleine acknowledged. He used to rave about it in the little +flat in the _rue de Lisbonne_. Once Madeleine heard him talking in his +sleep about the circus and the wonderful dive; he always slept with his +door wide-open, and she often heard him talking away like one +wide-awake. He had told her that it was the most wonderful thing he had +ever seen, and no other woman in the world would have dared to do it. +Madeleine was always delighted to have a chance to talk about Jules, and +she babbled on, never suspecting that her words were making Blanche +suffer. + +"Do you think," Blanche said at last, "do you think he would have loved +me if I hadn't done that--if I hadn't done that plunge, I mean--in the +Circus?" + +Madeleine glanced at her quickly; she was unable to grasp the +significance of the question. "But he did see you in the Circus," she +replied. "If he hadn't seen you there, _cherie_, he wouldn't have seen +you at all." + +"Yes, yes, that's true." Blanche realized that it would be useless to +try to explain what she meant. Then, after a moment, she added, "And now +that I've given up the dive,--perhaps I shall never be able to do it +again; the Doctor said I might not,--now that I've given it up, do you +think he'll love me just the same?" + +Madeleine's faded eyes turned to Blanche and examined her closely. "If +he'll love you just the same?" she repeated. "What has put such a +strange idea into your head, child? Of course he'll love you just the +same." + +Then Madeleine was launched on a flood of eulogy. Jules was so good, so +faithful, so affectionate. There was not another like him. He had always +been so tender with his mother; and oh, how his poor mother had +worshipped him! Madeleine's praises had the effect of soothing Blanche +for a time; they also made her ashamed of the half-conscious suspicion +which had arisen in her mind, and which she would not have dared to +formulate even to herself. She only permitted herself to acknowledge +that his present manner toward her was different from his old one. She +was also disturbed by his refusal for the past three Sundays to go to +church with her. + +The next afternoon Jules came home in a rage. "I've been down to see +Marshall," he said. "What do you suppose the old fool's gone and done? +He had the door of your dressing-room opened this morning and all your +things turned out into Miss Van Pelt's old room,--the little hole next +door, you know. It's hardly big enough to breathe in. He said you +weren't the star any longer, and he must give the room to Miss King. It +seems she's a kicker and he's afraid of a row." + +Blanche had nothing to say in reply; this seemed to her only another +indignity added to those she had already suffered. The worst was to come +in the evening, when her rival would share the applause that used to be +hers. A few moments later she asked,-- + +"Was she there--that woman?" + +"No; she hasn't appeared yet, and Marshall was a little nervous. She was +to come up from Manchester in a train that got in during the afternoon." + +"But suppose she doesn't come." + +"Oh, she'll come fast enough. Marshall had a telegram saying she'd +started. Her big iron tub arrived this morning. They were putting it in +the ground and laying the pipes for the water when I was there. They +keep it covered till her act begins." + +"What does she do besides her jump?" + +"Oh, Marshall says she goes through a lot of antics, stays under the +water till she nearly dies of suffocation, and cooks a meal, and--" + +"Under water?" Blanche gasped. + +"No, of course not, you ninny," Jules cried impatiently. His wife's +simplicity had long before ceased to amuse him. "She does it while she's +floating. Then one of the circus boys falls into the tank, and she shows +how she used to rescue people out in California." + +"Then she's an American." + +"She's lived in America all her life, but her father was an Englishman, +and she was born in England. Her father kept a swimming school out in +San Francisco; that's how she got into the business. They say she's got +a lot of medals for saving lives." + +As Jules walked into the next room to change his clothes for the +evening, he said to himself that his wife was growing very stupid and +tiresome. + +Blanche sat alone for a few moments, feeling cold and forlorn. She could +not keep from thinking and wondering about that woman; she was anxious +and yet afraid to see her. She could not account for the dislike and +terror with which the mere thought of the woman inspired her. She had +never before regarded the other performers in the circus as her rivals; +so, for the first time in her life, she knew the bitterness of jealousy. + +Before preparing for the evening she went into the nursery, and for +several moments sat beside the cradle where Jeanne was peacefully +sleeping, her little face rosy with health. The poor child, she thought, +could never know the sacrifice she had made for her. She was glad she +had made it; she had done her duty; but it was hard, it was so hard! +Then she bent over and kissed Jeanne on the cheek; the child drew her +head away, and buried her face impatiently in the pillow. Blanche turned +her gently in the crib, adjusted the lace covering, and stole out of the +room. + +Jules met her as she was closing the door softly behind her. "What have +you been doing in there?" he cried petulantly. "Why can't you let Jeanne +alone when she's asleep? Every time she takes a nap you go in and wake +her up. No wonder--" + +"I haven't waked her," Blanche replied apologetically. "I only went in +to see if she needed anything, and I sat beside her a moment." + +"Well, you'll spoil her if you keep on. From the way you act one would +imagine that Jeanne was the only creature in the world worth thinking +about!" + +They both took their places at the table which Madeleine had prepared, +and proceeded silently with their dinner. Madeleine, who hovered about +them, wondered what the matter was; she had never seen Monsieur Jules +like this before; he usually had a great deal to say. When she had left +the room for a few minutes, Jules looked up from his plate. + +"I've been wondering whether we ought to keep Madeleine or not. She's a +great expense. We could get along just as well without her. The _garcon_ +could serve our meals. We have to pay for the service whether we get it +or not." + +When he had spoken he was startled by the look in his wife's face. Not +keep Madeleine! The mere thought of parting with the old woman, whom she +had come to regard almost as a second mother, shocked her so much that +for a moment she could not formulate a reply. + +"But we couldn't get along without her!" she said. "Think of all she +does for me and for Jeanne!" + +"Oh, Jeanne! It's always Jeanne, Jeanne. I'm sick of hearing her name. +If Jeanne hadn't been born we shouldn't be in the pretty box we're in +now, and you'd be going on with your work like a sensible woman. I tell +you we must economize. We're under heavy expenses here, and we're going +to lose a lot of money by this imaginary sickness of yours." + +"I can't let Madeleine go," Blanche replied. "I should die without her. +I should die of loneliness. And she loves you so, as much as if you were +her son, and she loved your mother. She has often talked to me about +her. I can't, I can't let her go. I'd rather--" + +"Very well, then. Don't say anything more about it. We'll have to +economize in some other way. Here she comes now. So keep quiet, or +she'll want to find out what we've been talking about." + + + + + XVIII + + +The Hippodrome was crowded on the night of Miss King's first appearance. +Jules, in evening dress as usual, leaned against the railing behind the +highest tier of seats. At this moment he felt that he had been duped by +fate, and he wanted to revenge himself on the crowd that had come to +rejoice over his disappointment; for their presence seemed like a +personal insult to him. But for the machinations of that crazy +Englishwoman, Blanche would now be going on with her work; by this time +they might have made arrangements for her visit to America in the early +summer. However, the mischief was done, and there was no knowing when it +would be undone. Blanche might have recovered in a few weeks from her +terror of the plunge; but after once yielding to it, she would probably +never get over it. + +Jules believed in presentiments, and he had a strong presentiment that +Blanche had taken her plunge for the last time. He tried to console +himself, however, with the hope that Lottie King would make a failure. +The extensive advertising that Marshall had given her made Jules hate +the girl; her name had been posted in places all over London where his +wife's alone had been. To Jules this was the most cruel evidence of his +own decadence. + +Half an hour before it was time for Blanche to appear Jules sauntered +toward her dressing-room. When he reached the door, he stopped in +surprise; he could hear an unfamiliar voice speaking English. Some one +must be in there with Blanche and Madeleine. When he entered, he saw a +plump, pretty young woman, with a shock of yellow hair and big blue +eyes, dressed in a tight-fitting bathing-suit of blue flannel and in +blue silk stockings. He recognized her at once from her photographs. + +"Hello!" she cried, glancing at Jules familiarly. "Is this him? +Introduce me, won't you?" + +For a moment Blanche, whose face had been made up and whose figure, +dressed in white silk tights, was covered with the cloak she threw off +as she entered the ring, looked confused. Then she presented Jules to +Miss King, who beamed upon him with extravagant pleasure. + +"Your wife's been telling me about you," she said. "I've been making +friends with her. I wanted to see what she was like, and I supposed +she'd want to see what I was like. So we've agreed not to scratch each +other's eyes out. You speak English too, don't you?" + +This gave Jules an opportunity to reiterate his story about having +learned English in America. + +"So you've been to America!" Miss King cried, her eyes bigger than ever, +and her open mouth showing her white, square teeth. "Were you with a +troupe there?" + +Jules shook his head. "I wasn't married then." + +"Ah!" The diver glanced sharply at Blanche, and then back at Jules, as +if making a rapid calculation of their ages. "Been married long?" she +asked. + +"A little over a year," Blanche replied. + +"Too bad your wife had to give her dive up, ain't it?" the girl said to +Jules. "I hear it was great. But I suppose you'll do it again, won't +you, when you're better?" + +Blanche flushed. "I don't know," she said, with a half-frightened look +at Jules. + +"Well, I would if I was you. It's sensational things like that that +ketches 'em. My act's kind of sensational, but it ain't in it with yours +for cold nerve an' grit. When you do it again you'd oughter go to +America. You can make a good deal more there than you do here. I came +over just for the reputation. It helps you a lot over there if you've +made a hit in Europe." + +"But you are English, aren't you?" Jules asked. + +"Oh, yes, I s'pose I am, in a sort of way. I was born over here, but my +father took me to America when I was about six, an' I'm American to the +backbone." + +"Have you been in the ring long?" Blanche asked. + +"No, I only took to giving performances about five years ago; but I've +been in the swimming business all my life. My Dad had a swimming school +out in 'Frisco; but there's more money in this business. But I guess I'm +keeping you folks. It must be most time for your act. Good-bye. P'raps +I'll see you later. I'm mighty glad you can speak English," she laughed, +with a glance at Jules. "I travelled with a troupe once with a lot of +Italians in it, and my, what a time I had tryin' to talk with 'em!" + +She hurried out, leaving Jules with a vision of tousled yellow hair, a +roguish smile, and gleaming white teeth, and with the sound of a rich +contralto voice in his ears. As soon as the door closed, he turned to +Blanche. + +"How did she happen to come in here?" + +"She wanted me to help her with one of her slippers that was torn. +Madeleine sewed it up for her." + +"Hasn't she got any maid?" + +"She left her behind in Manchester. She was sick. She's coming on when +she gets better." + +Jules merely grunted and walked out of the room. The sound of the +contralto voice was still in his ears. What a sweet voice it was! She +seemed to him just like an American in spite of her birth, and Jules +preferred the Americans to the English. He wondered what her performance +was like, and he waited impatiently for Blanche to finish her act on the +trapeze and the rope. As his eyes followed Blanche, he kept seeing the +tousled hair and the broad smile revealing the white teeth. + +It took several moments for the tank to be arranged for the crowning +performance. The audience waited in good-natured patience, however, and +when finally the plump little figure in blue flannel ran out, there was +a round of applause. Lottie King had added a touch of rouge to either +cheek, and she looked very pretty as she ran up the flight of steps +leading to the edge of the tank, poised there for a moment with the +fingers of both hands touching high in the air, and then dived in a +graceful curve into the water. She speedily reappeared, shaking her head +and laughing, and struck out for the rope that hung from the platform. +This she climbed hand over hand, the water dripping from her figure, and +glistening on her face. + +Jules, whose eyes had been eagerly following her, was surprised to see +that she was going to begin her act with the dive, instead of keeping it +for the climax. She seemed to take it very coolly, he thought, as she +stood on the swaying platform, rubbing her face with a handkerchief and +rearranging one of the sleeves of her costume. Then she steadied the +platform, and, an instant later, she was cutting, feet foremost, through +the air, her arms by her side and her body rigid. When she reached the +water, there was very little splashing, and she speedily reappeared, +shaking her head again and displaying her white teeth. + +Jules had watched the dive breathlessly, Just as he had watched +Blanche's on the night when he first saw her in the _Cirque Parisien_, +and now he followed her feats of skill and strength with wonder and +fascination. When she remained beneath the surface for more than three +minutes he felt as if he himself were stifling, and when she reappeared, +calm and smiling, he took a long breath. + +He supposed that the rescue of one of the circus hands who fell +opportunely into the tank would end the performance; but instead of +leaving the ring, Lottie King climbed again to the platform. Surely, +Jules thought, she would make a mistake if she repeated that plunge. +Instead, however, she swung on the edge, leaped backward into the air, +and after several swift turns, fell with a crash into the water. As she +swam to the ladder, the band burst into triumphant music, and the +audience cheered, and began to climb down from the circular seats and to +rush to the spot where she was to make her exit. + +Then Jules roused himself. He felt as if he had been in a dream. He had +difficulty in reaching Blanche's dressing-room, for the crowd had +gathered at the entrance to the ring in order to catch another glimpse +of the dripping figure of the diver. When finally he succeeded in making +his way there, he found Blanche sitting motionless, her arms resting on +the table. He at once divined the cause of her dejection. + +"You see what you've brought on yourself," he said. "A lot you'll amount +to now! You might as well give up the business." + +Madeleine looked at him with mild reproach in her eyes. He paid no +attention to her, however. He walked back to the door, and turning, he +added: "But you can't stay here all night. I thought you'd be dressed by +this time. I'll wait out here for you." + +Jules looked anxiously up and down the corridor, but he saw no one. He +could hear the noise of the crowd slowly wending out of the Hippodrome, +and from the dressing-rooms on either side the buzz of voices. Miss King +must have succeeded in making her escape to her room. + + + + + XIX + + +If Jules had tried, he would have been unable to explain the fascination +that Lottie King's performance had for him. In daring it was greatly +inferior to his wife's plunge; but the fact that Blanche had lost +courage lent her rival's serene indifference to danger an added +attractiveness for him. + +Every night he watched her with more delight. Besides being plucky and +skilful, she was so pretty and so amusing! Jules liked to talk with her +in the evening before she made her appearance, and she used to convulse +him with laughter by her sallies. She soon fell into the habit of +running into Blanche's room to ask Madeleine to do services for her, and +toward Blanche she adopted a manner of half-amused patronage. By the end +of the first week, Blanche had conceived a great dislike for her. This +might have been at least partly due to her discovery of the pleasure +which Jules took in the diver's society. + +Mrs. Tate had expected that, after ceasing to make her plunge, Blanche +would improve in health; but she speedily saw that she was mistaken. One +afternoon she called at the hotel in Albemarle Street and found Blanche +alone with the little Jeanne; Madeleine had just gone out to do some +errands. They had a long talk, during which Blanche was obliged to +confess that the pain in her back troubled her just as much as ever, and +that she was very unhappy. When Mrs. Tate tried to find out why she was +unhappy, she could elicit no satisfactory explanation. As soon as she +arrived home that night, she repeated the conversation to her husband. + +"Do you suppose the little creature can be mercenary, Percy?" she said. +"Do you think she can be sorry she isn't risking her neck every day? I +wanted to tell her this morning she ought to be ashamed of herself--she +ought to think of her child. Suppose she had been killed! What would +have become of the child, _I'd_ like to know!" + +"That other person has made a hit, I see. They're booming her in the +papers. Did she speak of her?" + +"Not a word!" + +"H'm!" + +"What do you mean by that, Percy?" + +"Oh, nothing." + +"I suppose you think she's jealous of her." + +"Jealous?" Tate repeated, lifting his eyes. "You told me yourself that +she was jealous before she even saw the other performer." + +"Yes, and now she's jealous of her success." + +"Oh, _professional_ jealousy," he said, throwing back his head. A moment +later he added: "There are worse kinds of jealousy than that in the +world." + +Mrs. Tate looked at him closely, but his eyes were fixed on his plate. +For a few moments they did not speak; she was pondering his last remark. +They understood each other so well that they often divined each other's +thoughts. Now she saw that he did not care to discuss the subject, and +she let it drop. She continued to think about it so much, however, that +she determined to go to the Hippodrome alone some day, to a _matinee_, +and see for herself what Blanche's successor as a star performer was +like. + +She returned home with a sickly feeling of regret and torturing +anticipation; she had not only seen Lottie King, but she had also +studied the face of Jules Le Baron, who, unconscious of her gaze, stood +within a few yards of her seat. What she had observed in his expression, +however, she did not communicate to her husband. + +Her visit at the Hippodrome made her resolve to be even kinder to +Blanche than she had been; she would take her and the child to drive in +the Park two or three times a week,--oftener if she could. Mrs. Tate +tried to shake off her forebodings, but for the rest of the day they +clung to her, and the next morning she woke with them fresh in mind. So +she resolved to drive at once to Albemarle Street. The weather was too +dull to take the child out, and she would pass the morning with Blanche +and try to cheer her up. + +When she reached the hotel she felt relieved to find Blanche in a much +better frame of mind than she had been on the occasion of her last call. +The pain had left her for a few days, Blanche explained, and she had +been greatly encouraged; even Jules had spoken of her improvement; he +had been so patient with her, and now she felt ashamed of having been so +dispirited. Mrs. Tate went away with a feeling that she had been a fool, +that her forebodings were ridiculous. + +One night at the end of the week, Tate returned home with the +announcement that he was to start for Berlin the next day, to confer +with the heads of a banking-house there with regard to the floating of a +great loan. He gave her the choice of staying at home or of starting +with him after only a few hours of preparation. She chose to start, and +for two months she did not see London again; for, once away from the +routine of his work, Tate took advantage of the opportunity to run for a +holiday from Berlin down to Dresden, and thence over to Paris. During +this time Mrs. Tate forgot her self-imposed cares, and gave herself up +to the pleasures of travelling. + +When she returned home, she was surprised to hear that Madame Le Baron +had called several times, and had left word that she was anxious to see +her as soon as she came back. This news sent her with a throbbing heart +to Albemarle Street; she felt sure that something terrible had happened, +something she might have prevented by staying in London. She was always +assuming responsibilities and then dropping them! How often her husband +had told her that! She had been more than culpable, she kept saying to +herself, in going away without even bidding Blanche good-bye, without +even leaving an address. + +When she arrived at the hotel, at the close of a cold, foggy afternoon, +she was surprised to be told by the _garcon_ that Madame Le Baron had +left, and had gone to an apartment in Upper Bedford Place. "It was too +expensive for them here," the _garcon_ explained with a contemptuous +grin. "So they went to a private house." + +Mrs. Tate drove at once to the number the boy gave her, and a few +moments later she was climbing the stairs to Blanche's apartment. She +was out of breath when she rapped on the door, and still breathing hard +when Madeleine admitted her into the shabby drawing-room. A moment +later, as Blanche appeared from the next room, she uttered an +exclamation. + +"Good Heavens, child, what has happened to you! You're whiter than ever, +and so _thin_! What have you been doing to yourself? Have you had an +illness?" + +Blanche shook her head. "No, I haven't been ill," she replied, but her +looks and her manner seemed to belie her words. The gray cloth dress +which had once fitted her tightly now hung loosely about her; her face +was drawn and of a chalklike pallor, and under the eyes were two black +lines betraying weeks of suffering and sleeplessness. + +"You were thin enough before I went away," said Mrs. Tate, "but now +you're a perfect spectre." + +Then she went on to explain how she had happened to desert her friends +for so long a time. "I know you have something to tell me," she said, +starting from her seat, "but before you begin I want to see Jeanne. How +is she? But first tell me how you happened to come way up here. Isn't it +a long distance for you to climb after your performance every night?" + +"Jules chose these rooms because they were so much cheaper than the +hotel," Blanche replied simply. "We prepare our own meals, too, and we +save in that way. You know my salary is so much smaller than it used to +be." + +Mrs. Tate made no comment, and they went into the other room, where +Jeanne was sleeping in the crib. + +"She sleeps nearly all the time," said Blanche, with a faint smile that +seemed to exaggerate the expression of pain and weariness in her face. + +"How big she's growing!" Mrs. Tate whispered. "There's certainly nothing +the matter with _her_, the dear little thing, with her fat rosy cheeks. +I'd just like to take her in my arms and hug her." + +For several minutes they stood talking about the child; then they left +her with Madeleine and went back to the drawing-room, which Mrs. Tate's +keen eyes discovered was used also as a bedroom. "They must be +economizing with a vengeance," she thought. Blanche closed the door, and +took a seat behind her visitor on the couch. + +"Now I want to hear all about it," Mrs. Tate cried. "Something has +happened. What is it?" She took both of Blanche's hands and looked into +her eyes. "What is it?" she repeated. + +For a moment they sat looking at each other. Then Blanche bent forward, +buried her head on Mrs. Tate's lap, and burst into tears. Mrs. Tate said +nothing, and allowed the paroxysm to spend itself. Then, gradually, the +story came out. + +Jules didn't love her any more, Blanche moaned. He had been cruel to +her, oh, so cruel; he had said such dreadful things! And then there had +been days and days when he scarcely spoke to her or to the little Jeanne +or to Madeleine, and he had grown so strict with them all; he hardly +allowed Madeleine enough to buy the things they needed. And once, he had +said such dreadful things about Jeanne. He didn't love even Jeanne any +more,--poor little Jeanne! He said they would have been better off if +she had never been born. Oh, that had nearly killed her, that he should +have spoken so about Jeanne. She didn't care so much about herself, +though sometimes she wanted to die. One night she had prayed that God +would take her and Jeanne together. Jules had always been so good to her +until--until that woman came, that woman who had taken her place in the +circus. It was that woman who had come between them, with her white +teeth and her mocking laugh. She was making a fool of Jules; she did not +care for him, but she pretended that she did, just to amuse herself. +Jules followed her about everywhere; he even talked of going to America, +because she was to go in a few weeks, when her engagement at the +Hippodrome was over. But Blanche would die; she would throw herself into +the river with Jeanne in her arms rather than go there now. Ah, it had +been so hard for her, alone in a strange country, with no one but +Madeleine to confide in. Madeleine had been so good; but she, too, had +grown afraid of Jules in these last weeks. They scarcely dared to speak +when he was at home, now. + +From broken utterances, Mrs. Tate pieced together the whole miserable +story. For the moment, her pity was lost in admiration for her husband's +perspicacity. He had foreseen this! Now, for the first time, she +realized what she had vaguely surmised before, the full meaning of his +mysterious remark about Blanche and Jules. Then she turned her attention +to the prostrate figure before her, offering sympathy and counsel. She +knew that she was speaking in platitudes, but they were all she could +offer then; and, after all, it was Blanche's own outburst that would do +the poor pent-up creature the most good, the consciousness that she had +some one to confide in. + +Mrs. Tate stayed in the little apartment a long time, and when she went +away, Blanche seemed to feel more hopeful. "Act as if he were just as +kind to you as ever," was her parting injunction, "and I know everything +will come out all right. He'll find out that that dreadful woman is only +making a fool of him, and then he'll care more for you than ever." + +In her heart, however, Mrs. Tate knew that what she said was not true. +Jules had probably grown tired of his wife. The more she thought of the +case, the more she pitied Blanche,--the more she realized what a tragedy +in the poor little woman's life it meant. And she really had been to +blame, she kept saying to herself. But for her interference, Blanche +would have gone on with her diving, that other performer would not have +come to the Hippodrome, and all of Blanche's agony of jealousy and +neglect would have been avoided. + +Oh, what a lesson it taught her! Never, _never_ would she interfere in a +family again! She would have done much better to let Blanche go to her +death, rather than to drive her to despair, perhaps to a worse form of +death by her meddling. + +On reaching home, she was in a fever of remorse and sympathy, and she +passed a miserable hour waiting for her husband to return. When at last +he did appear, she met him in the hall. + +"Percy," she cried dramatically, "you're a prophet!" + +"Am I, indeed?" he said, putting his umbrella in the rack. "Do you mean +to say this is the first time you've found it out?" + +"I'll never doubt your word again, Percy," she went on, stifling a sob. +Her appeal to her husband for sympathy threatened to make her +hysterical, but she controlled herself and gasped out: "Don't you +remember what you said about that man, Le Baron,--you know, the night he +dined here, about his falling in love with his wife's performance! Well, +that's just what he did do. He didn't fall in love with _her_; he's +never _been_ in love with her, poor thing. Fortunately she doesn't know +that. It's only her _performance_, that horrible plunge she used to +make, that he's been in love with all along." + +"I don't see anything very prophetic about that," he said, walking into +the drawing-room, where she followed him, clutching at the lace +handkerchief in her hand. "It was as plain as daylight to any one that +heard him talk and saw what kind of man he was." + +"I don't mean your seeing merely that. I could tell from what you said +that you saw a great deal more. Don't you remember what you said about +_professional_ jealousy not being the worst kind of jealousy in the +world? That was the first thing that opened my eyes. I went to the next +_matinee_ to see for myself if it could be true, and if I hadn't been an +idiot I should have realized it all then. But the next day, just before +we left for Berlin, I called on that poor woman, and she seemed so much +easier in mind, I thought I must have misunderstood what you meant and +been mistaken about that look." + +"My dear, I don't quite follow you. Aren't you just a little bit +illogical?" + +"No, I'm not. I'm perfectly logical. I never was more logical in my +life." + +"I suppose you mean that the fellow has got tired of his wife, now that +she's given up her dive, and he's fallen in love with the other woman." + +Mrs. Tate rose tragically from her chair and made a sweeping gesture +with her right hand. "With the other woman's _performance_." + +Tate looked at her for a moment, with smiling incredulity. "How +ridiculous!" he said. + +"That's exactly what I said when you told me he had fallen in love with +his _wife's_ performance. I said it was the most ridiculous thing I'd +ever heard in my _life_. I couldn't have believed it if I hadn't +observed it with my own eyes. But that afternoon I saw him--he stood +near me, leaning against the railing--and I wish you could have seen the +expression in his face while that woman was exhibiting herself, +especially when she made her horrible dives." + +For a moment Tate stood without speaking. Then he said:-- + +"I'm afraid you're putting a romantic interpretation on a very simple +sequence of events. That fellow probably did fall in love with his +wife's performance, and incidentally he liked the money that went with +it. When she stopped her diving and became an ordinary performer, like +thousands of others, she ceased to interest him. Then he looked around +for some one else to be interested in, and when the other acrobatic +person appeared he was just in the condition to be caught." + +"I don't believe it. It's a----" + +"There's one way, of course, of proving whether you're right or not," +Tate interrupted, with a quizzical smile. + +"What's that?" + +"If your theory is correct, the only thing for Madame Le Baron to do is +to go back to her performance. Then she'll meet her rival on her own +ground. From what I've read about that other performer, Madame Le +Baron's dive must be twice as difficult and twice as thrilling as hers." + +Mrs. Tate turned to her husband with a look of admiration, her breath +coming and going in quick gasps. "Percy, that's the wisest thing you've +ever said in your life." A moment later she added, with a change of +tone: "But isn't the whole thing _too_ absurd?" + +He started to go upstairs. "You know we're due at the Bigelows in an +hour?" + +"Wait a minute," said Mrs. Tate. "I want to think over what you said. +You can't imagine how this thing has worried me. It's all due to my +meddling. Oh, I know that; you needn't say anything to me about it. But +I'm determined to help that poor woman if I can. Oh, if I had only +followed your advice, and let them alone!" she moaned. + +"There's no use worrying now. The mischief's done. He would probably +have got tired of her anyway." + +"If something isn't done to bring him back to her," she went on without +heeding his remark, "it will kill her. I'm sure of that. If you could +only see her. She looks like a ghost, and her hands tremble so! I don't +believe she's slept a wink for weeks. I don't see how she gets through +her performances. A clinging creature like her just _lives_ on +affection. Before she was married she always had her mother to take care +of her. To think that that man should treat her so! Oh, it's a shame, +it's a shame!" + +Tate was standing at the door. "If she's going to kill herself over that +fellow, she might as well have gone on with her diving and killed +herself that way. You ask her if she doesn't want to go back to it," he +added, with the quizzical smile, "and see if she won't jump at the +chance." + +"Do you suppose that she can suspect for an instant that her husband +fell in love with her performance?" she said, her eyes following her +husband up the stairs. + +"She probably hasn't reasoned it out, but I haven't a doubt she feels it +intuitively," he replied, continuing his ascent. "You just ask her if +she doesn't want to make the plunge again and see what she'll say," he +concluded, smiling down at her from the floor above. + + + + + XX + + +Mrs. Tate tried, by an almost impassioned kindness, to atone for her +neglect of Blanche during her absence from London. She sent her flowers +from her conservatory, she bought gifts for the little Jeanne, she +called at the apartment in Upper Bedford Place nearly every morning. +During these visits she did not once meet Jules; Blanche told her that +he always went away soon after breakfast, and seldom returned before +dinner. Sometimes he did not accompany her to the Hippodrome, but he +never failed to appear there during the evening. The management had +offered to reengage Miss King as soon as her contract expired, and the +diver thought of postponing her return to America; but they had not as +yet come to terms, as the girl wanted a much larger salary than she had +been receiving. + +It was this information that reminded Mrs. Tate to ask Blanche if she +were sorry she had given up her plunge and if she ever wished to resume +it. Though she had at first been impressed by the solution of Blanche's +troubles suggested by her husband, she had on sober second thought +dismissed it as ridiculously romantic; such things might happen in +novels, but they never could occur in real life. Her belief was shaken, +however, when she saw the pale face light up at her question. + +"Oh, yes," Blanche cried, "I have thought of it. Sometimes--sometimes I +think it would be better if I hadn't given it up. Then--then that woman +wouldn't have come." Her eyes filled with tears, but she controlled +herself and, a moment later, she went on:-- + +"But I--I thought it was wrong for me to risk my life, and it made me so +unhappy for Jeanne's sake. But sometimes I think I might have stopped +being afraid. Before Jeanne was born I never had the least thought of +fear, even after father was killed, because I knew that was because the +trapeze was weak. Oh, I'm sure," she went on piteously,--"I'm _sure_ I +shouldn't be afraid any more!" + +"But Dr. Broughton, you remember what he said, don't you?" + +"He said that when I stopped making the plunge I should be better," +Blanche replied simply. "But I'm not better; I feel worse,--oh, so much +worse! I know I should be better if I tried it again. And I sha'n't be +afraid any more," she repeated,--"even for Jeanne. It would be so much +better for us all!" + +This speech made Mrs. Tate wonder if, as her husband had suggested, +Blanche had divined that Jules had cared for her performance rather than +for herself, and fancied she could win him back by resuming it. Her +interest increased when she learned that Jules and Miss King had not +spoken to each other for two evenings. Miss King's maid, who had at last +come from Manchester, and who knew a little Canadian French, had told +Madeleine about it. Jules had urged Miss King to accept Marshall's +terms, and was vexed with her because she refused and threatened to go +back to America. This had made him even more disagreeable at home than +he had been before; for the past few days he had not spoken one pleasant +word to them, and he had not even noticed Jeanne. + +It was this information that rang in Mrs. Tate's consciousness when she +had left the apartment. Jules and that woman had quarrelled! Of course, +they would make it up again,--perhaps in a few days, perhaps that very +day; but if they did not, the quarrel might be one of the means of +winning him back to his wife. At any rate, she would speak to her +husband about it. When, on her return home, she did speak, he burst out +laughing. + +"I don't see how you can find anything funny in that!" she said +resentfully. "It's a very serious matter." + +"But it threatens to spoil my beautiful little romance!" + +"Your beautiful romance? What do you mean?" + +"If you had persuaded her to go back to her diving, and if she drove the +other woman out of the field in that way, it would be a proof of my +theory that he's fallen in love with the _performance_ and not with the +_performer_. But if his wife gets him back again now, it will be merely +because the other woman has broken with him. There's nothing for him to +do _except_ to go back to his wife and be forgiven." + +"Well, I don't care what the reason is--if she only _gets_ him back. +She'll certainly die of jealousy and misery if she doesn't,--that's +plain enough. In my opinion, Dr. Broughton was entirely wrong in his +diagnosis of the case. She says herself that she misses her diving and +she wants to take it up again. Her rest hasn't done her a particle of +good. Anyway, I'll speak to the Doctor about it to-morrow. I'll write a +note, and ask him to come in for tea if he can." + +"And hold another council of war," her husband suggested. + +"A council of _peace_," she retorted smartly. "Oh, I know what you're +thinking of! But I'm determined to undo the harm I've done. There's no +time to be lost. If I can get that poor little woman to resume her +plunge while the husband's still quarrelling with the other performer, I +feel sure everything will come out all right. He'll be interested in her +again. Don't you remember how he used to brag about her? I suppose you +don't, but he did; and I could tell that he was as proud of her as if +she were the most wonderful creature in the world." + +"I don't see what she wants him for," Tate said carelessly. + +"Well, you're not a woman, and you can't understand how women feel about +men. I sometimes think the worse men are, the more their wives adore +them." + +Tate smiled, but he made no reply; he was much more interested in the +case than he would allow himself to appear to be. Indeed, he was so +interested that he left his office the next day earlier than usual, in +order to take part in the conference. He found his wife in earnest talk +with the Doctor. Before coming to the house, Dr. Broughton, at Mrs. +Tate's suggestion, had made a call on Madame Le Baron, and he expressed +his alarm at having found her so thin and weak. + +"Do you remember what I said the night we had our first talk about her?" +he asked, glancing at Tate. "I was afraid then that if she gave up her +work it might upset her, though I didn't see how she could go on with +the diving and keep whatever health she had. Now she's a great deal +worse off than she was when I last saw her." + +Then they discussed the case in all its aspects. The Doctor laughed when +Mrs. Tate declared she believed the poor woman's happiness depended on +her resuming her plunge. "Oh, it may seem absurd to you!" she cried, +growing more earnest under ridicule; "but Percy believes it, though he +may pretend to you that he doesn't. He was the one who first suggested +it to me." + +"I really think the diving wouldn't hurt her health so much as her +worrying about her husband does," the Doctor admitted. "Besides, she +believes she won't be afraid of it any more. She says her rest from it +has taken all her fear away." + +"Then you think the best thing for her to do would be to resume the +plunge?" said Mrs. Tate. + +For a moment the Doctor stroked his chin. "Under the circumstances I +should say it might," he replied slowly. "At any rate, it would be worth +trying. Of course, if that haunting fear returned she'd have to stop it +again." + +A look of triumph flashed from the face of Mrs. Tate; and when she +glanced at her husband she saw that he was trying to dissemble his +interest in the decision. "I shall tell her that to-morrow!" she cried. +"It'll be the best news the poor thing has had for a long time. She's +crazy to begin that plunge again." + +"I hope you are ready to take the consequences of your interference in +this business," said Tate, dryly. + + + + + XXI + + +The next morning, in a long and secret talk, Mrs. Tate communicated the +Doctor's judgment to Blanche. She learned that Jules was still sullen +and depressed. That, of course, was a sign that his quarrel with the +diver had not as yet been made up. Blanche said that she would speak to +him at once about resuming the plunge; so far as she knew, no one had as +yet been engaged to take Miss King's place, and perhaps Mr. Marshall +would make a new contract with her on the old terms. Mrs. Tate hurried +away in a state of feverish excitement, dreading, yet hoping, that she +might meet Jules on the stairs, in order to reveal the great news. She +would have liked to return to the apartment that very afternoon, to +learn the effect of the announcement upon him; but she controlled her +impatience. + +Jules did not return till late in the afternoon. From his manner Blanche +saw at once that he was in a surly mood. He flung his coat and hat on a +chair and threw himself on the couch. For a long time she did not dare +to speak to him. She thought he was going to sleep, but she suddenly saw +him staring at her with a look that frightened her. + +"Jules!" she said. + +He had closed his eyes again, and he seemed not to hear. + +"Jules." + +He opened his eyes, and once more she met that look. "What is it?" he +grunted. Her plaintive manner vexed him; it seemed like a reflection on +himself. + +"There's something I want to say to you," she went on apologetically, +and with a suggestion of tearfulness in her voice, as if she felt +disappointed at his manner of receiving her news. + +As he did not reply, she said: "It's about--about my plunge. I have been +thinking that I'm--I'm so much better now--I mean I'm not so +nervous--perhaps I can begin it again." + +He sat up on the couch, a light coming into his eyes. For a moment he +was too surprised to speak. Then he said: "Well, I'm glad you're coming +to your senses!" + +Encouraged by the change in his manner, she repeated what Dr. Broughton +had said to Mrs. Tate. At the mention of the names, Jules' face +darkened; since that night at the Tates' he had felt a personal +resentment against the Doctor, almost as strong as his hatred of the +Englishwoman. + +"So that woman's been here again today, has she?" he said bitterly. +After a brief silence, he added more gently: "If you feel able to do the +plunge again, the sooner you begin the better. I know that Marshall will +be glad enough to renew the old contract. It will just fit in with his +plans," he continued, with a grim thought of the diver's discomfiture on +being superseded by Blanche. "I'll speak to him this very night." + +Blanche tried to smile, but the effort ended in a sigh. She had thought +that Jules would show more enthusiasm. + +"But we can't have any more nonsense," he said, glancing at her +again,--this time, however, without the bitterness she had before +observed in his face. "If you allow yourself to be afraid of the plunge +again, it will simply ruin you as an attraction. It'll make the managers +think you're unreliable, and they won't engage you." + +In spite of his apparent indifference, Jules was secretly delighted at +the thought of his wife's resuming her great dive. For the past few days +he had never felt so keenly the humiliation of his own position. A +petulant remark of Lottie King's the day of their quarrel had kept +ringing in his ears: "What do _you_ amount to anyway?" Now he thought +triumphantly of the restoration of his own dignity. With Blanche as the +star attraction of the Hippodrome, earning a large salary, and with a +choice of offers from all over the world, he would become a personage +again! But he must guard her more carefully. He must in future keep her +out of the way of interfering foreigners like Mrs. Tate, who would put a +lot of nonsense into her head! + +That night, when Jules consulted Marshall, he learned what he had +already surmised, that the manager was much upset by Miss King's refusal +to extend her engagement on any but exorbitant terms, and though it +would be completed in two weeks, he had not as yet found a sufficiently +strong attraction to take her place; so he was not only willing, but +glad, to renew with Blanche the contract she had at first made with him. +Jules felt the more elated on being told that Miss King had not been +nearly so good an attraction as his wife while giving the sensational +plunge. He was in high spirits when he entered Blanche's dressing-room +and told her the news. Blanche flushed with pleasure, not merely at the +news, but at his affectionate manner as well; Madeleine, however, though +she said nothing, seemed depressed. She had hoped that the poor child +would never make that horrible dive again. + +After that night Blanche was so happy that she seemed like another +creature from the thin, white-faced little woman of the past few weeks. +Her eyes were bright, her cheeks flushed. Jules had been so different +with her, she said to Mrs. Tate, since she had told him she would go on +with the plunge. The night before he had taken her to the Hippodrome, +and after the performance they had gone with Madeleine to a _cafe_; it +reminded them of the days of their courtship in Paris. + +The two weeks that followed were the happiest Blanche had known since +those first days after the birth of her child. Jules' devotion extended +not only to her, but to little Jeanne and to Madeleine as well. For +several days the gloom that had wrapped the city during most of the +winter lifted; the sun shone, and the feeling of spring was in the air. +In the afternoons Blanche took walks with Jules in the park, and on +Sunday they went to mass together and then drove out to Richmond and +dined there. They agreed to pretend that they were still in their days +of courtship, and Jules delighted Blanche by repeating some of the +foolish speeches he had made to her in the first weeks of their love. + +Then, too, they made great plans for the future. The negotiations with +Hicks in New York had been broken off, but Jules had heard of an +Australian manager who was in London looking for performers to appear +during the following winter in Melbourne. How fine it would be if they +could go out there and give performances in the chief Australian cities! +Blanche, however, showed so little enthusiasm for this plan that Jules +abandoned it for a time. Besides, he himself liked better the plan she +suggested of returning to the _Cirque Parisien_. They might make an +engagement there that would enable them to pass the winter in Paris. How +good it would be to be back there again! Perhaps they could secure the +little apartment in the _rue de Lisbonne_. Jules became so enthusiastic +that he wrote to the manager in Paris, proposing terms. After a winter +there they might think of going to Australia, where they would be much +better paid than in Paris. + +The thought of returning to France added to Blanche's happiness. Oh, to +see her mother and Jeanne and Louise again! How good it would be! There +had been times during the past few weeks when she felt as if she could +not bear to be separated from them any longer. But in Paris they could +come to see her; perhaps Monsieur Berthier would let her mother and the +girls pass a few weeks with her. Of course, she would be with them in +Boulogne for the summer. When she spoke of this to Jules, however, he +said nothing. He had in mind other plans, a possible engagement at one +of the French watering places; but he thought it best not to refer to +this at present. He realized the importance of making as much money as +possible and as quickly as possible. There was no knowing how long his +wife's nerve would last. If she only held out for a few years longer, +they could make a fortune in Australia and America. Then they could +retire, and live comfortably in Paris for the rest of their lives. He +expected to earn a great deal of money in America; but he had reasons +for not speaking of that country at all for the present. + +The two weeks during which Blanche was enjoying her new happiness were +an exciting time for Mrs. Tate, who felt as if she were responsible for +the success of her _protegee's_ return to her former place in the +Hippodrome. Every day she repaired to Upper Bedford Place and held long +conferences with Blanche. Everything promised well, she thought. Jules +showed no signs of returning to the thraldom of Lottie King. How +providential, Mrs. Tate thought, the quarrel between them had been! She +did not know that, even before his break with her, Jules had begun to +tire of the diver's domineering manner and of her habit of ridiculing +him; moreover, he had at last perceived that she was only playing with +him. This had helped to prejudice him against her performance, and as +the novelty of the performance wore off, he saw that it was far inferior +in daring and skill to his wife's magnificent plunge. This had never +lost its fascination for him, and now, as he assisted Blanche in her +daily exercises he felt the old thrill at its brilliancy and his own +sense of importance in having a part in it. + +On the afternoon of the day when her plunge was to be resumed, Blanche +took a long rest. She was awakened by the crowing of Jeanne in the next +room. She raised her hands to her head; at the thought of the ordeal of +the evening, a sudden dizziness came upon her. It was more than three +months since she had made the dive, and she wondered if she should be +equal to it. How horrible if at the last moment she should lose her +nerve! She arose quickly, hardly daring to allow herself to think, and +she hurried to the child. How strong and beautiful Jeanne was! Blanche +took her in her arms and pressed her closely. When Madeleine turned and +lumbered out of the room, leaving them alone together, Blanche began to +kiss the child passionately, and tears welled over on her cheeks. Then +she bathed her face, for fear that Jules would see that she had been +crying. + +That night at dinner, Jules was in high spirits. "Marshall expects a big +house," he said. "He's spent a lot of money advertising your dive. He +thinks of getting a big poster made of you flying through the air." + +During the whole of the meal Blanche was very quiet. Madeleine noticed +that her eyes were shining. When it was time to go to the Hippodrome, +Jules, wrapping his wife in her cloak, put his arms around her, and +kissed her on the ear, as he had often done in the days of their +engagement. She drew away and started for Jeanne's room. + +"Where are you going?" he said. + +"I want to kiss the little one good-night." + +"But she's asleep!" he cried impatiently. "You mustn't wake her up." + +In spite of his protest, she silently made her way into the room where +the child lay, closing the door behind her. Jules listened, thinking +that Jeanne would cry on being disturbed; but there was no sound. Then +he knew that she was praying by the crib, and this angered him. It was +about time to put a stop to her notions, he said to himself. When, a +moment later, she came out, her face was covered with a thick veil, and, +after glancing at her sharply, he said nothing. + +On arriving at the Hippodrome, they found Mrs. Tate in the star +dressing-room, which had been assigned to Blanche again. + +"I have been waiting for you," Mrs. Tate said nervously. "I suppose I +have no right to be here, but I felt that I _must_ see you, and I made +my husband bring me. Are you quite well?" + +She had observed the look of disgust given her by Jules, but this did +not disturb her nearly so much as the white face that Blanche presented. +Moreover, she did not feel reassured when Blanche smiled and said she +felt perfectly well. + +"Of course everything will be splendid. There's a tremendous crowd," +Mrs. Tate added. "You'll have a great success." + +Jules, after bowing coldly, had turned from the room. As soon as the +door closed behind him, Mrs. Tate seized Blanche by both hands and +kissed her affectionately. "I mustn't keep you from dressing," she said +with a smile. "Perhaps I'll come in and congratulate you when it's all +over." + +Blanche grew a shade paler, and Mrs. Tate hesitated at the door. "What +is it?" she said. + +"Nothing." + +Mrs. Tate walked toward her. "Nothing?" + +Blanche turned her head away. "If anything should happen," she said +quietly, "the--the little one--I should like my mother to take her." + +Mrs. Tate began to breathe hard; but she burst out laughing. "You silly +child! Of course; I shall look after Jeanne anyway. Don't you worry +about _her_. Now I must hurry out to that husband of mine. He'll be +furious with me for keeping him waiting so long." + +A few moments before Blanche appeared in the ring, Jules returned to the +dressing-room, resplendent in his evening clothes, with three diamonds +gleaming on his shirt-front, and carrying a bouquet of white roses. + +"These are just like the roses I bought for you the night I met you. I +selected them this afternoon, and they've just come. You must wear them +in your belt, as you did then," he said, as she flushed with pleasure +and thanked him. "I remember how tickled I was when I saw them; and oh, +how I hated Pelletier when you took them out and gave them to him to +hold, while you were going through your act." + +Then, as she adjusted the flowers in her belt, he went on: "It's the +biggest house of the season! Marshall says you're the best attraction he +ever had. Ready?" he asked, surveying Blanche as she stood in her white +silk tights. "You look just as you did when I first saw you," he added, +putting one hand on her cheek and kissing her lightly on the other. +"Come along." + +Then he threw over her the robe she always wore on her way to the ring, +and they hurried from the room. As Blanche ran out on the net and heard +the applause of the vast audience, she felt a thrill of joy and an +intoxicating sense of her own power. All fear seemed to leave her, and +she laughed as she climbed hand over hand to the trapeze. From trapeze +to trapeze she shot with delight; she had never felt so sure of herself, +so exultant. When she returned to the net, Jules, who had taken his +place at the rope, whispered to her: "You're in great form to-night. +Keep it up." + +She was smiling as she started on her long climb to the top of the +building. But when she had taken her place on the beam from which she +was to make her plunge and looked down at the black mass in the +distance, her strength seemed suddenly to leave her. Her fingers +tightened on the beam, as if she felt afraid of losing her balance. Then +she heard her husband's voice ring through the place, crying the +familiar warning. She knew the moment had come for making the plunge; +but she continued motionless. She felt as if her will had become +suddenly paralyzed, and a moment later, as if her body were frozen. + +The black mass below seemed to dance before her, then to beckon to her, +and in her ears she kept hearing the voice of little Jeanne and the +sound of her laughter. Oh, she had known that this moment would come +some time; she had known it ever since Jeanne was born. But she could +not sit there forever; the crowd below was waiting to see her fall. If +she did not make an effort she should lose her self-control and go +plunging into the blackness. She must lift her hands and gather herself +together, and hurl herself out as she had always done. But she had no +strength; she could only lift her arms weakly. Then she tried to give +her body the necessary impetus, and she plunged wildly into the air. + +There was a cry of horror from the crowd, and a moment later the white +figure lay motionless in the net. The people rose from their seats and +rushed toward the ring. The police tried to drive them back as Jules +leaped into the net and seized the prostrate body in his arms. + +"Keep them back," he cried frantically, not realizing that he was +speaking French. "She must have air." Then, turning, he said: "Blanche! +Blanche! Can't you speak? Open your eyes so I may know you aren't dead." + +He was terrified by the way her head fell back from her shoulders. "We +must get her out of this," he said desperately, to two of the circus men +who had followed him on the net, as he glanced down at the struggling +mass beneath him. "Bring her to her dressing-room. Make those people get +out of the way." + +With difficulty they bore her through the crowd. Some one threw her +cloak over her as she passed. She gave no sign of life, but the +expression in Jules' face showed that he still hoped. When they reached +her room, they placed her on the floor, and Jules closed the door to +keep out the crowd. Madeleine, who had been ringing her hands and +moaning, quickly loosened the tight bodice. Then the door was forced +open again, and Marshall entered with a physician, who quickly bent over +the prostrate figure and listened for the heart-beat. + +"She's dead," he said quietly. + +Jules threw himself on the body in a paroxysm of despair. + + + THE END. + + + + + PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, + IN CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS, + FOR STONE AND KIMBALL, PUBLISHERS, + NEW YORK, M DCCC XCVI + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the +speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +On page 18, "were" was replaced with "was". + +On page 103, "Champs Elysees" was replaced with "Champs Elysees". + +On page 118, "wool house" was replaced with "wool-house". + +On page 192, "aimably" was replaced with "amiably". + +On page 222, "is" was replaced with "it". + +On page 294, "palor" was replaced with "pallor". + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mademoiselle Blanche, by John David Barry + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADEMOISELLE BLANCHE *** + +***** This file should be named 39383.txt or 39383.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/9/3/8/39383/ + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Ernest Schaal, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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