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From this moment, and during the +months that followed, the young wife kept up an active correspondence +with her mother; and we here transcribe some of the letters, which will +make us more intimately acquainted with the character of the young woman. + + + Madame de Camors to Madame de Tecle. + "October. + + "Am I happy? No, my dearest mother! No--not happy! I have only + wings and soar to heaven like a bird! I feel the sunshine in my + head, in my eyes, in my heart. + + "It blinds me, it enchants me, it causes me to shed delicious tears! + Happy? No, my tender mother; that is not possible, when I think + that I am his wife! The wife--understand me--of him who has reigned + in my poor thoughts since I was able to think--of him whom I should + have chosen out of the whole universe! When I remember that I am + his wife, that we are united forever, how I love life! how I love + you! how I love God! + + "The Bois and the lake are within a few steps of us, as you know. + We ride thither nearly every morning, my husband and I!--I repeat, + I and my husband! We go there, my husband and I--I and my husband! + + "I know not how it is, but it is always delicious weather to me, + even when it rains--as it does furiously to-day; for we have just + come in, driven home by the storm. + + "During our ride to-day, I took occasion to question him quietly as + to some points of our history which puzzled me. First, why had he + married me? + + "'Because you pleased me apparently, Miss Mary.' He likes to give me + this name, which recalls to him I know not what episode of my + untamed youth--untamed still to him. + + "'If I pleased you, why did I see you so seldom?' + + "'Because I did not wish to court you until I had decided on + marrying.' + + "'How could I have pleased you, not being at all beautiful?' + + "'You are not beautiful, it is true,' replies this cruel young man, + 'but you are very pretty; and above all you are grace itself, like + your mother.' + + "All these obscure points being cleared up to the complete + satisfaction of Miss Mary, Miss Mary took to fast galloping; not + because it was raining, but because she became suddenly--we do not + know the reason why--as red as a poppy. + + "Oh, beloved mother! how sweet it is to be loved by him we adore, + and to be loved precisely as we wish--as we have dreamed--according + to the exact programme of our young, romantic hearts! + + "Did you ever believe I had ideas on such a delicate subject? Yes, + dear mother, I had them. Thus, it seemed to me there were many + different styles of loving--some vulgar, some pretentious, some + foolish, and others, again, excessively comic. None of these seemed + suited to the Prince, our neighbor. I ever felt he should love, + like the Prince he is, with grace and dignity; with serious + tenderness, a little stern perhaps; with amiability, but almost with + condescension--as a lover, but as a master, too--in fine, like my + husband! + + "Dear angel, who art my mother! be happy in my happiness, which was + your sole work. I kiss your hands--I kiss your wings! + + "I thank you! I bless you! I adore you! + + "If you were near me, it would be too much happiness! I should die, + I think. Nevertheless, come to us very soon. Your chamber awaits + you. It is as blue as the heavens in which I float. I have already + told you this, but I repeat it. + + "Good-by, mother of the happiest woman in the world! + + "MISS MARY, + + "Comtesse de Camors." + + ............................... + + "November. + + "MY MOTHER: + + "You made me weep--I who await you every morning. I will say + nothing to you, however; I will not beg you. If the health of my + grandfather seems to you so feeble as to demand your presence, I + know no prayer would take you away from your duty. Nor would I make + the prayer, my angel mother! + + "But exaggerate nothing, I pray you, and think your little Marie can + not pass by the blue chamber without feeling a swelling of the + heart. Apart from this grief which you cause her, she continues to + be as happy as even you could wish. + + "Her charming Prince is ever charming and ever her Prince! He takes + her to see the monuments, the museums, the theatres, like the poor + little provincial that she is. Is it not touching on the part of so + great a personage? + + "He is amused at my ecstasies--for I have ecstasies. Do not breathe + it to my Uncle Des Rameures, but Paris is superb! The days here + count double our own for thought and life. + + "My husband took me to Versailles yesterday. I suspect that this, + in the eyes of the people here, is rather a ridiculous episode; for + I notice the Count did not boast of it. Versailles corresponds + entirely with the impressions you had given me of it; for there is + not the slightest change since you visited it with my grandfather. + + "It is grand, solemn, and cold. There is, though, a new and very + curious museum in the upper story of the palace, consisting chiefly + of original portraits of the famous men of history. Nothing pleases + me more than to see these heroes of my memory passing before me in + grand procession--from Charles the Bold to George Washington. Those + faces my imagination has so often tried to evoke, that it seems to + me we are in the Elysian Fields, and hold converse with the dead: + + "You must know, my mother, I was familiar with many things that + surprised M. de Camors very much. He was greatly struck by my + knowledge of science and my genius. I did no more, as you may + imagine, than respond to his questions; but it seemed to astonish + him that I could respond at all. + + "Why should he ask me these things? If he did not know how to + distinguish the different Princesses of Conti, the answer is simple. + + "But I knew, because my mother taught me. That is simple enough + too. + + "We dined afterward, at my suggestion, at a restaurant. Oh, my + mother! this was the happiest moment of my life! To dine at a + restaurant with my husband was the most delightful of all + dissipations! + + "I have said he seemed astonished at my learning. I ought to add in + general, he seemed astonished whenever I opened my lips. Did he + imagine me a mute? I speak little, I acknowledge, however, for he + inspires me with a ceaseless fear: I am afraid of displeasing him, + of appearing silly before him, or pretentious, or pedantic. The day + when I shall be at ease with him, and when I can show him my good + sense and gratitude--if that day ever comes--I shall be relieved of + a great weight on my mind, for truly I sometimes fear he looks on me + as a child. + + "The other day I stopped before a toy-shop on the Boulevard. What a + blunder! And as he saw my eye fixed on a magnificent squadron of + dolls-- + + "'Do you wish one, Miss Mary?' he said. + + "Was not this horrible, my mother--from him who knows everything + except the Princesses of Conti? He explained everything to me; but + briefly in a word, as if to a person he despaired of ever making + understand him. And I understand so well all the time, my poor + little mother! + + "But so much the better, say I; for if he loves me while thinking me + silly, what will it be later! + + "With fond love, your + + "MARIE." + + ............................. + + "December. + + "All Paris has returned once more, my dear mother, and for fifteen + days I have been occupied with visits. The men here do not usually + visit; but my husband is obliged to present me for the first time to + the persons I ought to know. He accompanies me there, which is much + more agreeable to me than to him, I believe. + + "He is more serious than usual. Is not this the only form in which + amiable men show their bad humor? The people we visit look on me + with a certain interest. The woman whom this great lord has honored + with his choice is evidently an object of great curiosity. This + flatters and intimidates me; I blush and feel constrained; I appear + awkward. When they find me awkward and insignificant, they stare. + They believe he married me for my fortune: then I wish to cry. We + reenter the carriage, he smiles upon me, and I am in heaven! Such + are our visits. + + "You must know, my mother, that to me Madame Campvallon is divine. + She often takes me to her box at the Italiens, as mine will not be + vacant until January. Yesterday she gave a little fete for me in + her beautiful salon: the General opened the ball with me. + + "Oh! my mother, what a wonderfully clever man the General is! And I + admire him because he admires you! + + "The Marquise presented to me all the best dancers. They were young + gentlemen, with their necks so uncovered it almost gave me a chill. + I never before had seen men bare-necked and the fashion is not + becoming. It was very evident, however, that they considered + themselves indispensable and charming. Their deportment was + insolent and self-sufficient; their eyes were disdainful and all- + conquering. + + "Their mouths ever open to breathe freer, their coat-tails flapping + like wings, they take one by the waist--as one takes his own + property. Informing you by a look that they are about to do you the + honor of removing you, they whirl you away; then, panting for + breath, inform you by another look that they will do themselves the + pleasure of stopping--and they stop. Then they rest a moment, + panting, laughing, showing their teeth; another look--and they + repeat the same performance. They are wonderful! + + "Louis waltzed with me and seemed satisfied. I saw him for the + first time waltz with the Marquise. Oh, my mother, it was the dance + of the stars! + + "One thing which struck me this evening, as always, was the manifest + idolatry with which the women regard my husband. This, my tender + mother, terrifies me. Why--I ask myself--why did he choose me? + How can I please him? How can I succeed? + + "Behold the result of all my meditations! A folly perhaps, but of + which the effect is to reassure me: + + "Portrait of the Comtesse de Camors, drawn by herself. + + "The Comtesse de Camors, formerly Marie de Tecle, is a personage + who, having reached her twentieth year, looks older. She is not + beautiful, as her husband is the first person to confess. He says + she is pretty; but she doubts even this. Let us see. She has very + long limbs, a fault which she shares with Diana, the Huntress, and + which probably gives to the gait of the Countess a lightness it + might not otherwise possess. Her body is naturally short, and on + horseback appears to best advantage. She is plump without being + gross. + + "Her features are irregular; the mouth being too large and the lips + too thick, with--alas! the shade of a moustache; white teeth, a + little too small; a commonplace nose, a slightly pug; and her + mother's eyes--her best feature. She has the eyebrows of her Uncle + Des Rameures, which gives an air of severity to the face and + neutralizes the good-natured expression-a reflex from the softness + of her heart. + + "She has the dark complexion of her mother, which is more becoming + to her mother than to her. Add to all this, blue-black hair in + great silky masses. On the whole, one knows not what to pronounce + her. + + "There, my mother, is my portrait! Intended to reassure me, it has + hardly done so; for it seems to me to be that of an ugly little + woman! + + "I wish to be the most lively of women; I wish to be one of the most + distinguished. I wish to be one of the most captivating! But, oh, + my mother! if I please him I am still more enchanted! On the + whole, thank God! he finds me perhaps much better than I am: for + men have not the same taste in these matters that we have. + + "But what I really can not comprehend, is why he has so little + admiration for the Marquise de Campvallon. His manner is very cold + to her. Were I a man, I should be wildly in love with that superb + woman! Good-night, most beloved of mothers! + + .......................... + + "January. + + "You complain of me, my cherished one! The tone of my letters + wounds you! You can not comprehend how this matter of my personal + appearance haunts me. I scrutinize it; I compare it with that of + others. There is something of levity in that which hurts you? You + ask how can I think a man attaches himself to these things, while + the merits of mind and soul go for nothing? + + "But, my dearest mother, how will these merits of mind and of soul + --supposing your daughter to possess them--serve her, unless she + possesses the courage or has the opportunity to display them? And + when I summon up the courage, it seems to me the occasion never + comes. + + "For I must confess to you that this delicious Paris is not perfect; + and I discover, little by little, the spots upon the sun. + + "Paris is the most charming place! The only pity is that it has + inhabitants! Not but that they are agreeable, for they are only too + much so; only they are also very careless, and appear to my view to + live and die without reflecting much on what they are doing. It is + not their fault; they have no time. + + "Without leaving Paris, they are incessant travellers, eternally + distracted by motion and novelty. Other travellers, when they have + visited some distant corner--forgetting for a while their families, + their duties, and their homes--return and settle down again. But + these Parisians never do. Their life is an endless voyage; they + have no home. That which elsewhere is the great aim of life is + secondary here. One has here, as elsewhere, an establishment--a + house, a private chamber. One must have. Here one is wife or + mother, husband or father, just as elsewhere; but, my poor mother, + they are these things just as little as possible. The whole + interest centres not in the homes; but in the streets, the museums, + the salons, the theatres, and the clubs. It radiates to the immense + outside life, which in all its forms night and day agitates Paris, + attracts, excites, and enervates you; steals your time, your mind, + your soul--and devours them all! + + "Paris is the most delicious of places to visit--the worst of places + to live in. + + "Understand well, my mother, that in seeking by what qualifies I can + best attract my husband--who is the best of men, doubtless, but of + Parisian men nevertheless--I have continually reflected on merits + which may be seen at once, which do not require time to be + appreciated. + + "Finally, I do not deny that all this is miserable cynicism, + unworthy of you and of myself; for you know I am not at heart a bad + little woman. Certainly, if I could keep Monsieur de Camors for a + year or two at an old chateau in the midst of a solitary wood, I + should like it much. I could then see him more frequently, I could + then become familiar with his august person, and could develop my + little talents under his charmed eyes. But then this might weary + him and would be too easy. Life and happiness, I know, are not so + easily managed. All is difficulty, peril, and conflict. + + "What joy, then, to conquer! And I swear to you, my mother, that I + will conquer! I will force him to know me as you know me; to love + me, not as he now does, but as you do, for many good reasons of + which he does not yet dream. + + "Not that he believes me absolutely a fool; I think he has abandoned + that idea for at least two days past. + + "How he came thus to think, my next letter shall explain. + + "Your own + "MARIE." + + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE REPTILE STRIVES TO CLIMB + + "March. + + "You will remember, my mother, that the Count has as secretary a man + named Vautrot. The name is a bad one; but the man himself is a good + enough creature, except that I somewhat dislike his catlike style of + looking at one. + + "Well, Monsieur de Vautrot lives in the house with us. He comes + early in the morning, breakfasts at some neighboring cafe, passes + the day in the Count's study, and often remains to dine with us, if + he has work to finish in the evening. + + "He is an educated man, and knows a little of everything; and he has + undertaken many occupations before he accepted the subordinate + though lucrative post he now occupies with my husband. He loves + literature; but not that of his time and of his country, perhaps + because he himself has failed in this. He prefers foreign writers + and poets, whom he quotes with some taste, though with too much + declamation. + + "Most probably his early education was defective; for on all + occasions, when speaking with us, he says, 'Yes, Monsieur le Comte!' + or 'Certainly, Madame la Comtesse!' as if he were a servant. Yet + withal, he has a peculiar pride, or perhaps I should say + insufferable vanity. But his great fault, in my eyes, is the + scoffing tone he adopts, when the subject is religion or morals. + + "Two days ago, while we were dining, Vautrot allowed himself to + indulge in a rather violent tirade of this description. It was + certainly contrary to all good taste. + + "'My dear Vautrot,' my husband said quietly to him, 'to me these + pleasantries of yours are indifferent; but pray remember, that while + you are a strong-minded man, my wife is a weak-minded woman; and + strength, you know, should respect weakness.' + + "Monsieur Vautrot first grew white, then red, and finally green. He + rose, bowed awkwardly, and immediately afterward left the table. + Since that time I have remarked his manner has been more reserved. + The moment I was alone with Louis, I said: + + "'You may think me indiscreet, but pray let me ask you a question. + How can you confide all your affairs and all your secrets to a man + who professes to have no principles?' + + "Monsieur de Camors laughed. + + "'Oh, he talks thus out of bravado,' he answered. 'He thinks to + make himself more interesting in your eyes by these Mephistophelian + airs. At bottom he is a good fellow.' + + "'But,' I answered, 'he has faith in nothing.' + + "'Not in much, I believe. Yet he has never deceived me. He is an + honorable man.' + + "I opened my eyes wide at this. + + "'Well,' he said, with an amused look, 'what is the matter, Miss + Mary?' + + "'What is this honor you speak of?' + + "'Let me ask your definition of it, Miss Mary,' he replied. + + "'Mon Dieu!' I cried, blushing deeply, 'I know but little of it, but + it seems to me that honor separated from morality is no great thing; + and morality without religion is nothing. They all constitute a + chain. Honor hangs to the last link, like a flower; but if the + chain be broken, honor falls with the rest.' He looked at me with + strange eyes, as if he were not only confounded but disquieted by my + philosophy. Then he gave a deep sigh, and rising said: + + "'Very neat, that definition-very neat.' + + "That night, at the opera, he plied me with bonbons and orange ices. + Madame de Campvallon accompanied us; and at parting, I begged her to + call for me next day on her way to the Bois, for she is my idol. + She is so lovely and so distinguished--and she I knows it well. I + love to be with her. On our return home, Louis remained silent, + contrary to his custom. Suddenly he said, brusquely: + + "'Marie, do you go with the Marquise to the Bois to-morrow?' + + "'Yes.' + + "'But you see her often, it seems to me-morning and evening. You + are always with her.' + + "'Heavens! I do it to be agreeable to you. Is not Madame de + Campvallon a good associate?' + + "'Excellent; only in general I do not admire female friendships. + But I did wrong to speak to you on this subject. You have wit and + discretion enough to preserve the proper limits.' + + "This, my mother, was what he said to me. I embrace you. + + Ever your + "MARIE." + + ............................ + + "March. + + "I hope, my own mother, not to bore you this year with a catalogue + of fetes and festivals, lamps and girandoles; for Lent is coming. + To-day is Ash-Wednesday. Well, we dance to-morrow evening at Madame + d'Oilly's. I had hoped not to go, but I saw Louis was disappointed, + and I feared to offend Madame d'Oilly, who has acted a mother's part + to my husband. Lent here is only an empty name. I sigh to myself: + 'Will they never stop! Great heavens! will they never cease + amusing themselves?' + + "I must confess to you, my darling mother, I amuse myself too much + to be happy. I depended on Lent for some time to myself, and see + how they efface the calendar! + + "This dear Lent! What a sweet, honest, pious invention it is, + notwithstanding. How sensible is our religion! How well it + understands human weakness and folly! How far-seeing in its + regulations! How indulgent also! for to limit pleasure is to + pardon it. + + "I also love pleasure--the beautiful toilets that make us resemble + flowers, the lighted salons, the music, the gay voices and the + dance. Yes, I love all these things; I experience their charming + confusion; I palpitate, I inhale their intoxication. But always-- + always! at Paris in the winter--at the springs in summer--ever this + crowd, ever this whirl, this intoxication of pleasure! All become + like savages, like negroes, and--dare I say so?--bestial! Alas for + Lent! + + "HE foresaw it. HE told us, as the priest told me this morning: + 'Remember you have a soul: Remember you have duties!--a husband + --a child--a mother--a God!' + + "Then, my mother, we should retire within ourselves; should pass the + time in grave thought between the church and our homes; should + converse on solemn and serious subjects; and should dwell in the + moral world to gain a foothold in heaven! This season is intended + as a wholesome interval to prevent our running frivolity into + dissipation, and pleasure into convulsion; to prevent our winter's + mask from becoming our permanent visage. This is entirely the + opinion of Madame Jaubert. + + "Who is this Madame Jaubert? you will ask. She is a little + Parisian angel whom my mother would dearly love! I met her almost + everywhere--but chiefly at St. Phillipe de Roule--for several months + without being aware that she is our neighbor, that her hotel adjoins + ours. Such is Paris! + + "She is a graceful person, with a soft and tender, but decided air. + We sat near each other at church; we gave each other side-glances; + we pushed our chairs to let each other pass; and in our softest + voices would say, 'Excuse me, Madame!' 'Oh, Madame!' My glove would + fall, she would pick it up; I would offer her the holy water, and + receive a sweet smile, with 'Dear Madame!' Once at a concert at the + Tuileries we observed each other at a distance, and smiled + recognition; when any part of the music pleased us particularly we + glanced smilingly at each other. Judge of my surprise next morning + when I saw my affinity enter the little Italian house next ours--and + enter it, too, as if it were her home. On inquiry I found she was + Madame Jaubert, the wife of a tall, fair young man who is a civil + engineer. + + "I was seized with a desire to call upon my neighbor. I spoke of it + to Louis, blushing slightly, for I remembered he did not approve of + intimacies between women. But above all, he loves me! + + "Notwithstanding he slightly shrugged his shoulders--'Permit me at + least, Miss Mary, to make some inquiries about these people.' + + "A few days afterward he had made them, for he said: 'Miss Mary, you + may visit Madame Jaubert; she is a perfectly proper person.' + + "I first flew to my husband's neck, and thence went to call upon + Madame Jaubert. + + "'It is I, Madame!' + + "'Oh, Madame, permit me!' + + "And we embraced each other and were good friends immediately. + + "Her husband is a civil engineer, as I have said. He was once + occupied with great inventions and with great industrial works; but + that was only for a short time. Having inherited a large estate, he + abandoned his studies and did nothing--at least nothing but + mischief. When he married to increase his fortune, his pretty + little wife had a sad surprise. He was never seen at home; always + at the club--always behind the scenes at the opera--always going to + the devil! He gambled, he had mistresses and shameful affairs. But + worse than all, he drank--he came to his wife drunk. One incident, + which my pen almost refuses to write, will give you an idea. Think + of it! He conceived the idea of sleeping in his boots! There, my + mother, is the pretty fellow my sweet little friend transformed, + little by little, into a decent man, a man of merit, and an + excellent husband! + + "And she did it all by gentleness, firmness, and sagacity. Now is + not this encouraging?--for, God knows, my task is less difficult. + + "Their household charms me; for it proves that one may build for + one's self, even in the midst of this Paris, a little nest such as + one dreams of. These dear neighbors are inhabitants of Paris--not + its prey. They have their fireside; they own it, and it belongs to + them. Paris is at their door--so much the better. They have ever a + relish for refined amusement; 'they drink at the fountain,' but do + not drown themselves in it. Their habits are the same, passing + their evenings in conversation, reading, or music; stirring the fire + and listening to the wind and rain without, as if they were in a + forest. + + "Life slips gently through their fingers, thread by thread, as in + our dear old country evenings. + + "My mother, they are happy! + + "Here, then, is my dream--here is my plan. + + "My husband has no vices, as Monsieur Jaubert had. He has only the + habits of all the brilliant men of his Paris-world. It is + necessary, my own mother, gradually to reform him; to suggest + insensibly to him the new idea that one may pass one evening at home + in company with a beloved and loving wife, without dying suddenly of + consumption. + + "The rest will follow. + + "What is this rest? It is the taste for a quiet life, for the + serious sweetness of the domestic hearth--the family taste--the idea + of seclusion--the recovered soul! + + "Is it not so, my good angel? Then trust me. I am more than ever + full of ardor, courage, and confidence. For he loves me with all + his heart, with more levity, perhaps, than I deserve; but still--he + loves me! + + "He loves me; he spoils me; he heaps presents upon me. There is no + pleasure he does not offer me, except, be it understood, the + pleasure of passing one evening at home together. + + "But he loves me! That is the great point--he loves me! + + "Now, dearest mother, let me whisper one final word-a word that + makes me laugh and cry at the same time. It seems to me that for + some time past I have had two hearts--a large one of my own, and-- + another--smaller! + + "Oh, my mother! I see you in tears. But it is a great mystery + this. It is a dream of heaven; but perhaps only a dream, which I + have not yet told even to my husband--only to my adorable mother! + Do not weep, for it is not yet quite certain. + + "Your naughty + Miss MARY." + + +In reply to this letter Madame de Camors received one three mornings +after, announcing to her the death of her grandfather. The Comte de +Tecle had died of apoplexy, of which his state of health had long given +warning. Madame de Tecle foresaw that the first impulse of her daughter +would be to join her to share her sad bereavement. She advised her +strongly against undertaking the fatigue of the journey, and promised to +visit her in Paris, as soon as she conveniently could. The mourning in +the family heightened in the heart of the Countess the uneasy feeling and +vague sadness her last letters had indicated. + +She was much less happy than she told her mother; for the first +enthusiasm and first illusions of marriage could not long deceive a +spirit so quick and acute as hers. + +A young girl who marries is easily deceived by the show of an affection +of which she is the object. It is rare that she does not adore her +husband and believe she is adored by him, simply because he has married +her. + +The young heart opens spontaneously and diffuses its delicate perfume of +love and its songs of tenderness; and enveloped in this heavenly cloud +all seems love around it. But, little by little, it frees itself; and, +too often, recognizes that this delicious harmony and intoxicating +atmosphere which charmed it came only from itself. + +Thus was it with the Countess; so far as the pen can render the shadows +of a feminine soul. Such were the impressions which, day by day, +penetrated the very soul of our poor "Miss Mary." + +It was nothing more than this; but this was everything to her! + +The idea of being betrayed by her husband--and that, too, with cruel +premeditation--never had arisen to torture her soul. But, beyond those +delicate attentions to her which she never exaggerated in her letters to +her mother, she felt herself disdained and slighted. Marriage had not +changed Camors's habits: he dined at home, instead of at his club, that +was all. She believed herself loved, however, but with a lightness that +was almost offensive. Yet, though she was sometimes sad and nearly in +tears, she did not despair; this valiant little heart attached itself +with intrepid confidence to all the happy chances the future might have +in store for it. + +M. de Camors continued very indifferent--as one may readily comprehend-- +to the agitation which tormented this young heart, but which never +occurred to him for a moment. For himself, strange as it may appear, +he was happy enough. This marriage had been a painful step to take; +but, once confirmed in his sin, he became reconciled to it. But his +conscience, seared as it was, had some living fibres in it; and he would +not have failed in the duty he thought he owed to his wife. These +sentiments were composed of a sort of indifference, blended with pity. +He was vaguely sorry for this child, whose existence was absorbed and +destroyed between those of two beings of nature superior to her own; +and he hoped she would always remain ignorant of the fate to which she +was condemned. He resolved never to neglect anything that might +extenuate its rigor; but he belonged, nevertheless, more than ever solely +to the passion which was the supreme crime of his life. For his intrigue +with Madame de Campvallon, continually excited by mystery and danger--and +conducted with profound address by a woman whose cunning was equal to her +beauty--continued as strong, after years of enjoyment, as at first. + +The gracious courtesy of M. de Camors, on which he piqued himself, as +regarded his wife, had its limits; as the young Countess perceived +whenever she attempted to abuse it. Thus, on several occasions she +declined receiving guests on the ground of indisposition, hoping her +husband would not abandon her to her solitude. She was in error. + +The Count gave her in reality, under these circumstances, a tete-a-tete +of a few minutes after dinner; but near nine o'clock he would leave her +with perfect tranquillity. Perhaps an hour later she would receive a +little packet of bonbons, or a pretty basket of choice fruit, that would +permit her to pass the evening as she might. These little gifts she +sometimes divided with her neighbor, Madame Jaubert; sometimes with +M. de Vautrot, secretary to her husband. + +This M. de Vautrot, for whom she had at first conceived an aversion, was +gradually getting into her good graces. In the absence of her husband +she always found him at hand; and referred to him for many little +details, such as addresses, invitations, the selection of books and the +purchase of furniture. From this came a certain familiarity; she began +to call him Vautrot, or "My good Vautrot," while he zealously performed +all her little commissions. He manifested for her a great deal of +respectful attention, and even refrained from indulging in the sceptical +sneers which he knew displeased her. Happy to witness this reform and to +testify her gratitude, she invited him to remain on two or three evenings +when he came to take his leave, and talked with him of books and the +theatres. + +When her mourning kept her at home, M. de Camors passed the two first +evenings with her until ten o'clock. But this effort fatigued him, and +the poor young woman, who had already erected an edifice for the future +on this frail basis, had the mortification of observing that on the third +evening he had resumed his bachelor habits. + +This was a great blow to her, and her sadness became greater than it had +been up to that time; so much so in fact, that solitude was almost +unbearable. She had hardly been long enough in Paris to form intimacies. +Madame Jaubert came to her friend as often as she could; but in the +intervals the Countess adopted the habit of retaining Vautrot, or even of +sending for him. Camors himself, three fourths of the time, would bring +him in before going out in the evening. + +"I bring you Vautrot, my dear," he would say, "and Shakespeare. You can +read him together." + +Vautrot read well; and though his heavy declamatory style frequently +annoyed the Countess, she thus managed to kill many a long evening, while +waiting the expected visit of Madame de Tecle. But Vautrot, whenever he +looked at her, wore such a sympathetic air and seemed so mortified when +she did not invite him to stay, that, even when wearied of him, she +frequently did so. + +About the end of the month of April, M. Vautrot was alone with the +Countess de Camors about ten o'clock in the evening. They were reading +Goethe's Faust, which she had never before heard. This reading seemed to +interest the young woman more than usual, and with her eyes fixed on the +reader, she listened to it with rapt attention. She was not alone +fascinated by the work, but--as is frequently the case-she traced her own +thoughts and her own history in the fiction of the poet. + +We all know with what strange clairvoyance a mind possessed with a fixed +idea discovers resemblances and allusions in accidental description. +Madame de Camors perceived without doubt some remote connection between +her husband and Faust--between herself and Marguerite; for she could not +help showing that she was strangely agitated. She could not restrain the +violence of her emotion, when Marguerite in prison cries out, in her +agony and madness: + + Marguerite. + +Who has given you, headsman, this power over me? You come to me while it +is yet midnight. Be merciful and let me live. + +Is not to-morrow morning soon enough? + +I am yet so young--so young! and am to die already! I was fair, too; +that was my undoing. My true love was near, now he is far away. + +Torn lies my garland; scattered the flowers. Don't take hold of me so +roughly! spare me! spare me. What have I done to you? Let me not +implore you in vain! I never saw you before in all my life; you know. + + + Faust. + +Can I endure this misery? + + + Marguerite. + +I am now entirely in thy power. Only let me give suck to the child. +I pressed it this whole night to my heart. They took it away to vex me, +and now say I killed it, and I shall never be happy again. They sing +songs upon me! It is wicked of the people. An old tale ends so--who +bids them apply it? + + + Faust. + +A lover lies at thy feet, to unloose the bonds of wickedness. + + +What a blending of confused sentiments, of powerful sympathies, of vague +apprehensions, suddenly seized on the breast of the young Countess! One +can hardly imagine their force--to the very verge of distracting her. +She turned on her fauteuil and closed her beautiful eyes, as if to keep +back the tears which rolled under the fringe of the long lashes. + +At this moment Vautrot ceased to read, dropped his book, sighed +profoundly, and stared a moment. + +Then he knelt at the feet of the Comtesse de Camors! He took her hand; +he said, with a tragic sigh, "Poor angel!" + +It will be difficult to understand this incident and the unfortunately +grave results that followed it, without having the moral and physical +portrait of its principal actor. + +M. Hippolyte Vautrot was a handsome man and knew it perfectly. He even +flattered himself on a certain resemblance to his patron, the Comte de +Camors. Partly from nature and partly from continual imitation, this +idea had some foundation; for he resembled the Count as much as a vulgar +man can resemble one of the highest polish. + +He was the son of a small confectioner in the provinces; had received +from his father an honestly acquired fortune, and had dissipated it in +the varied enterprises of his adventurous life. The influence of his +college, however, obtained for him a place in the Seminary. He left it +to come to Paris and study law; placed himself with an attorney; +attempted literature without success; gambled on the Bourse and lost +there. + +He had successively knocked with feverish hand at all the doors of +Fortune, and none had opened to him, because, though his ambition was +great, his capacity was limited. Subordinate positions, for which alone +he was fit, he did not want. He would have made a good tutor: he sighed +to be a poet. He would have been a respectable cure in the country: he +pined to be a bishop. Fitted for an excellent secretary, he aspired to +be a minister. In fine, he wished to be a great man, and consequently +was a failure as a little one. + +But he made himself a hypocrite; and that he found much easier. He +supported himself on the one hand by the philosophic society to be met at +Madame d'Oilly's; on the other, by the orthodox reunions of Madame de la +Roche-Jugan. + +By these influences he contrived to secure the secretaryship to the Comte +de Camors, who, in his general contempt of the human species, judged +Vautrot to be as good as any other. Now, familiarity with M. de Camors +was, morally, fearfully prejudicial to the secretary. It had, it is +true, the effect of stripping off his devout mask, which he seldom put on +before his patron; but it terribly increased in venom the depravity which +disappointment and wounded pride had secreted in his ulcerated heart. + +Of course no one will imagine that M. de Camors had the bad taste to +undertake deliberately the demoralization of his secretary; but contact, +intimacy, and example sufficed fully to do this. A secretary is always +more or less a confidant. He divines that which is not revealed to him; +and Vautrot could not be long in discovering that his patron's success +did not arise, morally, from too much principle--in politics, from excess +of conviction--in business, from a mania for scruples! The intellectual +superiority of Camors, refined and insolent as it was, aided to blind +Vautrot, showing him evil which was not only prosperous, but was also +radiant in grace and prestige. For these reasons he most profoundly +admired his master--admired, imitated, and execrated him! + +Camors professed for him and for his solemn airs an utter contempt, which +he did not always take the trouble to conceal; and Vautrot trembled when +some burning sarcasm fell from such a height on the old wound of his +vanity--that wound which was ever sore within him. What he hated most in +Camors was his easy and insolent triumph--his rapid and unmerited +fortune--all those enjoyments which life yielded him without pain, +without toil, without conscience--peacefully tasted! But what he hated +above all, was that this man had thus obtained these things while he had +vainly striven for them. + +Assuredly, in this Vautrot was not an exception. The same example +presented to a healthier mind would not have been much more salutary, +for we must tell those who, like M. de Camors, trample under foot all +principles of right, and nevertheless imagine that their secretaries, +their servants, their wives and their children, may remain virtuous-- +we must tell these that while they wrong others they deceive themselves! +And this was the case with Hippolyte Vautrot. + +He was about forty years of age--a period of life when men often become +very vicious, even when they have been passably virtuous up to that time. +He affected an austere and puritanical air; was the great man of the cafe +he frequented; and there passed judgment on his contemporaries and +pronounced them all inferior. He was difficult to please--in point of +virtue demanding heroism; in talent, genius; in art, perfection. + +His political opinions were those of Erostratus, with this difference-- +always in favor of the ancient--that Vautrot, after setting fire to the +temple, would have robbed it also. In short, he was a fool, but a +vicious fool as well. + +If M. de Camors, at the moment of leaving his luxurious study that +evening, had had the bad taste to turn and apply his eye to the keyhole, +he would have seen something greatly to astonish even him. + +He would have seen this "honorable man" approach a beautiful Italian +cabinet inlaid with ivory, turn over the papers in the drawers, and +finally open in the most natural manner a very complicated lock, the +key of which the Count at that moment had in his pocket. + +It was after this search that M. Vautrot repaired with his volume of +Faust to the boudoir of the young Countess, at whose feet we have already +left him too long. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +LIGHTNING FROM A CLEAR SKY + +Madame de Camors had closed her eyes to conceal her tears. She opened +them at the instant Vautrot seized her hand and called her "Poor angel!" + +Seeing the man on his knees, she could not comprehend it, and only +exclaimed, simply: + +"Are you mad, Vautrot?" + +"Yes, I am mad!" Vautrot threw his hair back with a romantic gesture +common to him, and, as he believed, to the poets-"Yes, I am mad with love +and with pity, for I see your sufferings, pure and noble victim!" + +The Countess only stared in blank astonishment. + +"Repose yourself with confidence," he continued, "on a heart that will be +devoted to you until death--a heart into which your tears now penetrate +to its most sacred depths!" + +The Countess did not wish her tears to penetrate to such a distance, so +she dried them. + +A man on his knees before a woman he adores must appear to her either +sublime or ridiculous. Unfortunately, the attitude of Vautrot, at once +theatrical and awkward, did not seem sublime to the Countess. To her +lively imagination it was irresistibly ludicrous. A bright gleam of +amusement illumined her charming countenance; she bit her lip to conceal +it, but it shone out of her eyes nevertheless. + +A man never should kneel unless sure of rising a conqueror. Otherwise, +like Vautrot, he exposes himself to be laughed at. + +"Rise, my good Vautrot," the Countess said, gravely. "This book has +evidently bewildered you. Go and take some rest and we will forget this; +only you must never forget yourself again in this manner." + +Vautrot rose. He was livid. + +"Madame la Comtesse," he said, bitterly, "the love of a great heart never +can be an offence. Mine at least would have been sincere; mine would +have been faithful: mine would not have been an infamous snare!" + +The emphasis of these words displayed so evident an intention, the +countenance of the young woman changed immediately. She moved uneasily +on her fauteuil. + +"What do you mean, Monsieur Vautrot?" + +"Nothing, Madame, which you do not know, I think," he replied, meaningly. + +She rose. + +"You shall explain your meaning immediately to me, Monsieur!" she +exclaimed; "or later, to my husband." + +"But your sadness, your tears," cried the secretary, in a tone of +admirable sincerity--"these made me sure you were not ignorant of it!" + +"Of what? You hesitate! Speak, man!" + +"I am not a wretch! I love you and pity you!--that is all;" and Vautrot +sighed deeply. + +"And why do you pity me?" She spoke haughtily; and though Vautrot had +never suspected this imperiousness of manner or of language, he reflected +hurriedly on the point at which he had arrived. More sure than ever of +success, after a moment he took from his pocket a folded letter. It was +one with which he had provided himself to confirm the suspicions of the +Countess, now awakened for the first time. + +In profound silence he unfolded and handed it to her. She hesitated a +moment, then seized it. A single glance recognized the writing, for she +had often exchanged notes with the Marquise de Campvallon. + +Words of the most burning passion terminated thus: + +"--Always a little jealous of Mary; half vexed at having given her to +you. For--she is pretty and--but I! I am beautiful, am I not, my +beloved?--and, above all, I adore you!" + +At the first word the Countess became fearfully pale. Finishing, she +uttered a deep groan; then she reread the letter and returned it to +Vautrot, as if unconscious of what she was doing. + +For a few seconds she remained motionless--petrified--her eyes fixed on +vacancy. A world seemed rolling down and crushing her heart. + +Suddenly she turned, passed with rapid steps into her boudoir; and +Vautrot heard the sound of opening and shutting drawers. A moment after +she reappeared with bonnet and cloak, and crossed the boudoir with the +same strong and rapid step. + +Vautrot, greatly terrified, rushed to stop her. + +"Madame!" he cried, throwing himself before her. + +She waved him aside with an imperious gesture of her hand; he trembled +and obeyed, and she left the boudoir. A moment later she was in the +Avenue des Champs Elysees, going toward Paris. + +It was now near midnight; cold, damp April weather, with the rain falling +in great drops. The few pedestrians still on the broad pavement turned +to follow with their eyes this majestic young woman, whose gait seemed +hastened by some errand of life or death. + +But in Paris nothing is surprising, for people witness all manner of +things there. Therefore the strange appearance of Madame de Camors did +not excite any extraordinary attention. A few men smiled and nodded; +others threw a few words of raillery at her--both were unheeded alike. +She traversed the Place de la Concorde with the same convulsive haste, +and passed toward the bridge. Arriving on it, the sound of the swollen +Seine rushing under the arches and against the pillars, caught her ear; +she stopped, leaned against the parapet, and gazed into the angry water; +then bowing her head she uttered a deep sigh, and resumed her rapid walk. + +In the Rue Vanneau she stopped before a brilliantly lighted mansion, +isolated from the adjoining houses by a garden wall. It was the dwelling +of the Marquise de Campvallon: Arrived there, the unfortunate child knew +not what to do, nor even why she had come. She had some vague design of +assuring herself palpably of her misfortune; to touch it with her finger; +or perhaps to find some reason, some pretext to doubt it. + +She dropped down on a stone bench against the garden wall, and hid her +face in both her hands, vainly striving to think. It was past midnight. +The streets were deserted: a shower of rain was falling over Paris, and +she was chilled to numbness. + +A sergent-de-ville passed, enveloped in his cape. He turned and stared +at the young woman; then took her roughly by the arm. + +"What are you doing here?" he said, brutally. + +She looked up at him with wondering eyes. + +"I do not know myself," she answered. + +The man looked more closely at her, discovered through all her confusion +a nameless refinement and the subtle perfume of purity. He took pity on +her. + +"But, Madame, you can not stay here," he rejoined in a softer voice. + +"No?" + +"You must have some great sorrow?" + +"Very great." + +"What is your name?" + +"The Comtesse de Camors," she said, simply. + +The man looked bewildered. + +"Will you tell me where you live, Madame?" + +She gave the address with perfect simplicity and perfect indifference. +She seemed to be thinking nothing of what she was saying. The man took a +few steps, then stopped and listened to the sound of wheels approaching. +The carriage was empty. He stopped it, opened the door, and requested +the Countess to get in. She did so quietly, and he placed himself beside +the driver. + +The Comte de Camors had just reached his house and heard with surprise, +from the lips of his wife's maid, the details of the Countess's +mysterious disappearance, when the bell rang violently. + +He rushed out and met his wife on the stairs. She had somewhat recovered +her calmness on the road, and as he interrogated her with a searching +glance, she made a ghastly effort to smile. + +"I was slightly ill and went out a little," she said. "I do not know the +streets and lost my way." + +Notwithstanding the improbability of the explanation, he did not +hesitate. He murmured a few soft words of reproach and placed her in the +hands of her maid, who removed her wet garments. + +During that time he called the sergent-de-ville, who remained in the +vestibule, and closely interrogated him. On learning in what street and +what precise spot he had found the Countess, her husband knew at once and +fully the whole truth. + +He went directly to his wife. She had retired and was trembling in every +limb. One of her hands was resting outside the coverlet. He rushed to +take it, but she withdrew it gently, with sad and resolute dignity. + +The simple gesture told him they were separated forever. + +By a tacit agreement, arranged by her and as tacitly accepted by him, +Madame de Camors became virtually a widow. + +He remained for some seconds immovable, his expression lost in the shadow +of the bed-hangings; then walked slowly across the chamber. The idea of +lying to defend himself never occurred to him. + +His line of conduct was already arranged--calmly, methodically. But two +blue circles had sunk around his eyes, and his face wore a waxen pallor. +His hands, joined behind his back, were clenched; and the ring he wore +sparkled with their tremulous movement. At intervals he seemed to cease +breathing, as he listened to the chattering teeth of his young wife. + +After half an hour he approached the bed. + +"Marie!" he said in a low voice. She turned upon him her eyes gleaming +with fever. + +"Marie, I am ignorant of what you know, and I shall not ask," he +continued. "I have been very criminal toward you, but perhaps less so +than you think. Terrible circumstances bound me with iron bands. Fate +ruled me! But I seek no palliation. Judge me as severely as you wish; +but I beg of you to calm yourself--preserve yourself! You spoke to me +this morning of your presentiments--of your maternal hopes. Attach +yourself to those thoughts, and you will always be mistress of your life. +As for myself, I shall be whatever you will--a stranger or a friend. But +now I feel that my presence makes you ill. I would leave you for the +present, but not alone. Do you wish Madame Jaubert to come to you +tonight?" + +"Yes!" she murmured, faintly. + +"I shall go for her; but it is not necessary to tell you that there are +confidences one must reserve even from one's dearest friends." + +"Except a mother?" She murmured the question with a supplicating agony +very painful to see. + +He grew still paler. After an instant, "Except a mother!" he said. +"Be it so!" + +She turned her face and buried it in the pillow. + +"Your mother arrives to-morrow, does she not?" She made an affirmative +motion of her head. "You can make your arrangements with her. I shall +accept everything." + +"Thank you," she replied, feebly. + +He left the room and went to find Madame Jaubert, whom he awakened, and +briefly told her that his wife had been seized with a severe nervous +attack--the effect of a chill. The amiable little woman ran hastily to +her friend and spent the night with her. + +But she was not the dupe of the explanation Camors had given her. Women +quickly understand one another in their grief. Nevertheless she asked no +confidences and received none; but her tenderness to her friend +redoubled. During the silence of that terrible night, the only service +she could render her was to make her weep. + +Nor did those laggard hours pass less bitterly for M. de Camors. He +tried to take no rest, but walked up and down his apartment until +daylight in a sort of frenzy. The distress of this poor child wounded +him to the heart. The souvenirs of the past rose before him and passed +in sad procession. Then the morrow would show him the crushed daughter +with her mother--and such a mother! Mortally stricken in all her best +illusions, in all her dearest beliefs, in all connected with the +happiness of life! + +He found that he still had in his heart lively feelings of pity; still +some remorse in his conscience. + +This weakness irritated him, and he denounced it to himself. Who had +betrayed him? This question agitated him to an equal degree; but from +the first instant he had not been deceived in this matter. + +The sudden grief and half-crazed conviction of his wife, her despairing +attitude and her silence, could only be explained by strong assurance and +certain revelation. After turning the matter over and over in his own +mind, he arrived at the conclusion that nothing could have thrown such +clear light into his life save the letters of Madame de Campvallon. + +He never wrote the Marquise, but could not prevent her writing to him; +for to her, as to all women, love without letters was incomplete. + +But the fault of the Count--inexcusable in a man of his tact--was in +preserving these letters. No one, however, is perfect, and he was an +artist. He delighted in these the 'chefs-d'oeuvre' of passionate +eloquence, was proud of inspiring them, and could not make up his mind to +burn or destroy them. He examined at once the secret drawer where he had +concealed them and, by certain signs, discovered the lock had been +tampered with. Nevertheless no letter was missing; the arrangement of +them alone had been disturbed. + +His suspicions at once reverted to Vautrot, whose scruples he suspected +were slight; and in the morning they were confirmed beyond doubt by a +letter from the secretary. In fact Vautrot, after passing on his part a +most wretched night, did not feel his nerves equal in the morning to +meeting the reception the Count possibly had in waiting for him. His +letter was skilfully penned to put suspicion to sleep if it had not been +fully roused, and if the Countess had not betrayed him. + +It announced his acceptance of a lucrative situation suddenly offered him +in a commercial house in London. He was obliged to decide at once, and +to sail that same morning for fear of losing an opportunity which could +not occur again. It concluded with expressions of the liveliest +gratitude and regret. + +Camors could not reach his secretary to strangle him; so he resolved to +pay him. He not only sent him all arrears of salary, but a large sum in +addition as a testimonial of his sympathy and good wishes. + +This, however, was a simple precaution; for the Count apprehended nothing +more from the venomous reptile so far beneath him, after he had once +shaken it off. Seeing him deprived of the only weapon he could use +against him, he felt safe. Besides, he had lost the only interest he +could desire to subserve, for he knew M. Vautrot had done him the +compliment of courting his Wife. + +And he really esteemed him a little less low, after discovering this +gentlemanly taste! + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ONE GLEAM OF HOPE + +It required on the part of M. de Camors, this morning, an exertion of all +his courage to perform his duty as a gentleman in going to receive Madame +de Tecle at the station. But courage had been for some time past his +sole remaining virtue; and this at least he sought never to lose. He +received, then, most gracefully his mother-in-law, robed in her mourning +attire. She was surprised at not seeing her daughter with him. He +informed her that she had been a little indisposed since the preceding +evening. Notwithstanding the precautions he took in his language and by +his smile, he could not prevent Madame de Tecle from feeling a lively +alarm. + +He did not pretend, however, entirely to reassure her. Under his +reserved and measured replies, she felt the presentiment of some +disaster. After first pressing him with many questions, she kept silent +during the rest of the drive. + +The young Countess, to spare her mother the first shock, had quitted her +bed; and the poor child had even put a little rouge on her pale cheeks. +M. de Camors himself opened for Madame de Tecle the door of her +daughter's chamber, and then withdrew. + +The young woman raised herself with difficulty from her couch, and her +mother took her in her arms. + +All that passed between them at first was a silent interchange of mutual +caresses. Then the mother seated herself near her daughter, drew her +head on her bosom, and looked into the depths of her eyes. + +"What is the matter?" she said, sadly. + +"Oh, nothing--nothing hopeless! only you must love your little Mary more +than ever. Will you not?" + +"Yes; but why?" + +"I must not worry you; and I must not wrong myself either--you know why!" + +"Yes; but I implore you, my darling, to tell me." + +"Very well; I will tell you everything; but, mother, you must be brave as +I am." + +She buried her head lower still on her mother's breast, and recounted to +her, in a low voice, without looking up once, the terrible revelation +which had been made to her, and which her husband's avowal had confirmed. + +Madame de Tecle did not once interrupt her during this cruel recital. +She only imprinted a kiss on her hair from time to time. The young +Countess, who did not dare to raise her eyes to her, as if she were +ashamed of another's crime, might have imagined that she had exaggerated +the gravity of her misfortune, since her mother had received the +confidence with so much calmness. But the calmness of Madame de Tecle at +this terrible moment was that of the martyrs; for all that could have +been suffered by the Christians under the claws of the tiger, or on the +rack of the torturer, this mother was suffering at the hands of her best- +beloved daughter. Her beautiful pale face--her large eyes upturned to +heaven, like those that artists give to the pure victims kneeling in the +Roman circus--seemed to ask God whether He really had any consolation for +such torture. + +When she had heard all, she summoned strength to smile at her daughter, +who at last looked up to her with an expression of timid uncertainty-- +embracing her more tightly still. + +"Well, my darling," said she, at last, "it is a great affliction, it is +true. You are right, notwithstanding; there is nothing to despair of." + +"Do you really believe so?" + +"Certainly. There is some inconceivable mystery under all this; but be +assured that the evil is not so terrible as it appears." + +"My poor mother! but he has acknowledged it?" + +"I am better pleased that he has acknowledged it. That proves he has yet +some pride, and that some good is left in his soul. Then, too, he feels +very much afflicted--he suffers as much as we. Think of that. Let us +think of the future, my darling." + +They clasped each other's hands, and smiled at each other to restrain the +tears which filled the eyes of both. After a few minutes--"I wish much, +my child," said Madame de Tecle, "to repose for half an hour; and then +also I wish to arrange my toilet." + +"I will conduct you to your chamber. Oh, I can walk! I feel a great +deal better." + +Madame de Camors took her mother's arm and conducted her as far as the +door of the chamber prepared for her. On the threshold she left her. + +"Be sensible," said Madame de Tecle, turning and giving her another +smile. + +"And you also," said the young woman, whose voice failed her. + +Madame de Tecle, as soon as the door was closed, raised her clasped hands +toward heaven; then, falling on her knees before the bed, she buried her +head in it, and wept despairingly. + +The library of M. de Camors was contiguous to this chamber. He had been +walking with long strides up and down this corridor, expecting every +moment to see Madame de Tecle enter. As the time passed, he sat himself +down and tried to read, but his thoughts wandered. His ear eagerly +caught, against his will, the slightest sounds in the house. If a foot +seemed approaching him, he rose suddenly and tried to compose his +countenance. When the door of the neighboring chamber was opened, his +agony was redoubled. He distinguished the whispering of the two voices; +then, an instant after, the dull fall of Madame de Tecle upon the carpet; +then her despairing sobs. M. de Camors threw from him violently the book +which he was forcing himself to read, and, placing his elbows on the +bureau which was before him, held, for a long time, his pale brow +tightened in his contracted hands. When the sound of sobs abated little +by little, and then ceased, he breathed freer. About midday he received +this note: + + "If you will permit me to take my daughter to the country for a few + days, I shall be grateful to you. + + "ELISE DE TECLE." + + +He returned immediately this simple reply: + + "You can do nothing of which I do not approve to-day and always. + CAMORS." + +Madame de Tecle, in fact, having consulted the inclination and the +strength of her daughter, had determined to remove her without delay, +if possible, from the impressions of the spot where she had suffered so +severely from the presence of her husband, and from the unfortunate +embarrassment of their situation. She desired also to meditate in +solitude, in order to decide what course to take under such unexampled +circumstances. Finally, she had not the courage to see M. de Camors +again--if she ever could see him again--until some time had elapsed. +It was not without anxiety that she awaited the reply of the Count to the +request she had addressed him. + +In the midst of the troubled confusion of her ideas, she believed him +capable of almost anything; and she feared everything from him. The +Count's note reassured her. She hastened to read it to her daughter; +and both of them, like two poor lost creatures who cling to the smallest +twig, remarked with pleasure the tone of respectful abandonment with +which he had reposed their destinies in their own hands. He spent his +whole day at the session of the Corps Legislatif; and when he returned, +they had departed. + +Madame de Camors woke up the next morning in the chamber where her +girlhood had passed. The birds of spring were singing under her windows +in the old ancestral gardens. As she recognized these friendly voices, +so familiar to her infancy, her heart melted; but several hours' sleep +had restored to her her natural courage. She banished the thoughts which +had weakened her, rose, and went to surprise her mother at her first +waking. Soon after, both of them were walking together on the terrace of +lime-trees. It was near the end of April; the young, scented verdure +spread itself out beneath the sunbeams; buzzing flies already swarmed in +the half-opened roses, in the blue pyramids of lilacs, and in the +clusters of pink clover. After a few turns made in silence in the midst +of this fresh and enchanting scene, the young Countess, seeing her mother +absorbed in reverie, took her hand. + +"Mother," she said, "do not be sad. Here we are as formerly--both of us +in our little nook. We shall be happy." + +The mother looked at her, took her head and kissed her fervently on the +forehead. + +"You are an angel!" she said. + +It must be confessed that their uncle, Des Rameures, notwithstanding the +tender affection he showed them, was rather in the way. He never had +liked Camors; he had accepted him as a nephew as he had accepted him for +a deputy--with more of resignation than enthusiasm. His antipathy was +only too well justified by the event; but it was necessary to keep him in +ignorance of it. He was an excellent man; but rough and blunt. The +conduct of Camors, if he had but suspected it, would surely have urged +him to some irreparable quarrel. Therefore Madame de Tecle and her +daughter, in his presence, were compelled to make only half utterances, +and maintain great reserve--as much as if he had been a stranger. This +painful restraint would have become insupportable had not the young +Countess's health, day by day, assumed a less doubtful character, and +furnished them with excuses for their preoccupation, their disquiet, and +their retired life. + +Madame de Tecle, who reproached herself with the misfortunes of her +daughter, as her own work, and who condemned herself with an unspeakable +bitterness, did not cease to search, in the midst of those ruins of the +past and of the present, some reparation, some refuge for the future. +The first idea which presented itself to her imagination had been to +separate absolutely, and at any cost, the Countess from her husband. +Under the first shock of fright which the duplicity of Camors had +inflicted upon her, she could not dwell without horror on the thought of +replacing her child at the side of such a man. But this separation- +supposing they could obtain it, through the consent of M. de Camors, or +the authority of the law--would give to the public a secret scandal, and +might entail redoubled catastrophes. Were it not for these consequences +she would, at least, have dug between Madame de Camors and her husband an +eternal abyss. Madame de Tecle did not desire this. By force of +reflection she had finally seen through the character of M. de Camors in +one day--not probably more favorably, but more truly. Madame de Tecle, +although a stranger to all wickedness, knew the world and knew life, and +her penetrating intelligence divined yet more than she knew certainly. +She then very nearly understood what species of moral monster M. de +Camors was. Such as she understood him, she hoped something from him +still. However, the condition of the Countess offered her some +consolation in the future, which she ought not to risk depriving herself +of; and God might permit that this pledge of this unfortunate union might +some day reunite the severed ties. + +Madame de Tecle, in communicating her reflections, her hopes, and her +fears to her daughter, added: "My poor child, I have almost lost the +right to give you counsel; but I tell you, were it myself I should act +thus." + +"Very well, mother, I shall do so," replied the young woman. + +"Reflect well on it first, for the situation which you are about to +accept will have much bitterness in it; but we have only a choice of +evils." + +At the close of this conversation, and eight days after their arrival in +the country, Madame de Tecle wrote M. de Camors a letter, which she read +to her daughter, who approved it. + + "I understood you to say, that you would restore to your wife her + liberty if she wished to resume it. She neither wishes, nor could + she accept it. Her first duty is to the child which will bear your + name. It does not depend on her to keep this name stainless. She + prays you, then, to reserve for her a place in your house. You need + not fear any trouble or any reproach from her. She and I know how + to suffer in silence. Nevertheless, I supplicate you to be true to + her--to spare her. Will you leave her yet a few days in peace, then + recall, or come for her?" + +This letter touched M. de Camors deeply. Impassive as he was, it can +easily be imagined that after the departure of his wife he had not +enjoyed perfect ease of mind. Uncertainty is the worst of all evils, +because everything may be apprehended. Deprived entirely of all news for +eight days, there was no possible catastrophe he did not fancy floating +over his head. He had the haughty courage to conceal from Madame de +Campvallon the event that had occurred in his house, and to leave her +undisturbed while he himself was sleepless for many nights. It was by +such efforts of energy and of indomitable pride that this strange man +preserved within his own consciousness a proud self-esteem. The letter +of Madame de Tecle came to him like a deliverance. He sent the following +brief reply: + + "I accept your decision with gratitude and respect. The resolution + of your daughter is generous. I have yet enough of generosity left + myself to comprehend this. I am forever, whether you wish it or + not, her friend and yours. + + "CAMORS." + +A week later, having taken the precaution of announcing his intention, he +arrived one evening at Madame de Tecle's. + +His young wife kept her chamber. They had taken care to have no +witnesses, but their meeting was less painful and less embarrassing than +they apprehended. + +Madame de Tecle and her daughter found in his courteous reply a gleam of +nobleness which inspired them with a shadow of confidence. Above all, +they were proud, and more averse to noisy scenes than women usually are. +They received him coldly, then, but calmly. On his part, he displayed +toward them in his looks and language a subdued seriousness and sadness, +which did not lack either dignity or grace. + +The conversation having dwelt for some time on the health of the +Countess, turned on current news, on local incidents, and took, little by +little, an easy and ordinary tone. M. de Camors, under the pretext of +slight fatigue, retired as he had entered--saluting both the ladies, but +without attempting to take their hands. Thus was inaugurated, between +Madame de Camors and her husband, the new, singular relation which should +hereafter be the only tie in their common life. + +The world might easily be silenced, because M. de Camors never had been +very demonstrative in public toward his wife, and his courteous but +reserved manner toward her did not vary from his habitual demeanor. He +remained two days at Reuilly. + +Madame de Tecle vainly waited for these two days for a slight +explanation, which she did not wish to demand, but which she hoped for. + +What were the terrible circumstances which had overruled the will of M. +de Camors, to the point of making him forget the most sacred sentiments? +When her thoughts plunged into this dread mystery, they never approached +the truth. M. de Camors might have committed this base action under the +menace of some great danger to save the fortune, the honor, probably the +life of Madame de Campvallon. This, though a poor excuse in the mother's +eyes, still was an extenuation. Probably also he had in his heart, while +marrying her daughter, the resolution to break off this fatal liaison, +which he had again resumed against his will, as often happens. On all +these painful points she dwelt after the departure of M. de Camors, as +she had previous to his arrival; confined to her own conjectures, when +she suggested to her daughter the most consolatory appearances. It was +agreed upon that Madame de Camors should remain in the country until her +health was reestablished: only her husband expressed the desire that she +should reside ordinarily on his estate at Reuilly, the chateau on which +had recently been restored with the greatest taste. + +Madame de Tecle felt the propriety of this arrangement. She herself +abandoned the old habitation of the Comte de Tecle, to install herself +near her daughter in the modest chateau which belonged to the maternal +ancestors of M. de Camors, and which we have already described in another +place, with its solemn avenue, its balustrades of granite, its labyrinths +of hornbeams and the black fishpond, shaded with poplars. + +Both dwelt there in the midst of their sweetest and most pleasant +souvenirs; for this little chateau, so long deserted--the neglected woods +which surrounded it the melancholy piece of water--the solitary nymph all +this had been their particular domain, the favorite framework of their +reveries, the legend of their infancy, the poetry of their youth. It was +doubtless a great grief to revisit again, with tearful eyes and wounded +hearts and heads bowed by the storms of life, the familiar paths where +they once knew happiness and peace. But, nevertheless, all these dear +confidants of past joys, of blasted hopes, of vanished dreams--if they +are mournful witnesses they are also friends. We love them; and they +seem to love us. Thus these two poor women, straying amid these woods, +these waters, these solitudes, bearing with them their incurable wounds, +fancied they heard voices which pitied them and breathed a healing +sympathy. The most cruel trial reserved to Madame de Camors in the life +which she had the courage and judgment to adopt, was assuredly the duty +of again seeing the Marquise de Campvallon, and preserving with her such +relations as might blind the eyes of the General and of the world. + +She resigned herself even to this; but she desired to defer as long as +possible the pain of such a meeting. Her health supplied her with a +natural excuse for not going, during that summer, to Campvallon, and also +for keeping herself confined to her own room the day the Marquise visited +Reuilly, accompanied by the General. + +Madame de Tecle received her with her usual kindness. Madame de +Campvallon, whom M. de Camors had already warned, did not trouble herself +much; for the best women, like the worst, excel in comedy, and everything +passed off without the General having conceived the shadow of a +suspicion. + +The fine season had passed. M. de Camors had visited the country several +times, strengthening at every interview the new tone of his relations +with his wife. He remained at Reuilly, as was his custom, during the +month of August; and under the pretext of the health of the Countess, did +not multiply his visits that year to Campvallon. On his return to Paris, +he resumed his old habits, and also his careless egotism, for he +recovered little by little from the blow he had received. He began to +forget his sufferings and those of his wife; and even to felicitate +himself secretly on the turn that chance had given to her situation. He +had obtained the advantage and had no longer any annoyance. His wife had +been enlightened, and he no longer deceived her--which was a comfortable +thing for him. As for her, she would soon be a mother, she would have a +plaything, a consolation; and he designed redoubling his attentions and +regards to her. + +She would be happy, or nearly so; as much so as two thirds of the women +in the world. + +Everything was for the best. He gave anew the reins to his car and +launched himself afresh on his brilliant career-proud of his royal +mistress, and foreseeing in the distance, to crown his life, the triumphs +of ambition and power. Pleading various doubtful engagements, he went to +Reuilly only once during the autumn; but he wrote frequently, and Madame +de Tecle sent him in return brief accounts of his wife's health. + +One morning toward the close of November, he received a despatch which +made him understand, in telegraphic style, that his presence was +immediately required at Reuilly, if he wished to be present at the birth +of his son. + +Whenever social duties or courtesy were required of M. de Camors, he +never hesitated. Seeing he had not a moment to spare if he wished to +catch the train which left that morning, he jumped into a cab and drove +to the station. His servant would join him the next morning. + +The station at Reuilly was several miles distant from the house. +In the confusion no arrangement had been made to receive him on his +arrival, and he was obliged to content himself with making the +intermediate journey in a heavy country-wagon. The bad condition of the +roads was a new obstacle, and it was three o'clock in the morning when +the Count, impatient and travel-worn, jumped out of the little cart +before the railings of his avenue. He strode toward the house under the +dark and silent dome of the tufted elms. He was in the middle of the +avenue when a sharp cry rent the air. His heart bounded in his breast: +he suddenly stopped and listened attentively. The cry echoed through the +stillness of the night. One would have deemed it the despairing shriek +of a human being under the knife of a murderer. + +These dolorous sounds gradually ceasing, he continued his walk with +greater haste, and only heard the hollow and muffled sound of his own +beating heart. At the moment he saw the lights of the chateau, another +agonized cry, more shrill and alarming than the first, arose. + +This time Camors stopped. Notwithstanding that the natural explanation +of these agonized cries presented itself to his mind, he was troubled. + +It is not unusual that men like him, accustomed to a purely artificial +life, feel a strange surprise when one of the simplest laws of nature +presents itself all at once before them with a violence as imperious and +irresistible as a divine law. Camors soon reached the house, and +receiving some information from the servants, notified Madame de Tecle of +his arrival. Madame de Tecle immediately descended from her daughter's +room. On seeing her convulsed features and streaming eyes, "Are you +alarmed?" Camors asked, quickly. + +"Alarmed? No," she replied; "but she suffers much, and it is very long." + +"Can I see her?" + +There was a moment's silence. + +Madame de Tecle, whose forehead was contracted, lowered her eyes, then +raised them. "If you insist on it," she said. + +"I insist on nothing! If you believe my presence would do her harm--" +The voice of Camors was not as steady as usual. + +"I am afraid," replied Madame de Tecle, "that it would agitate her +greatly; and if you will have confidence in me, I shall be much obliged +to you." + +"But at least," said Camors, "she might probably be glad to know that I +have come, and that I am here--that I have not abandoned her." + +"I shall tell her." + +"It is well." He saluted Madame de Tecle with a slight movement of his +head, and turned away immediately. + +He entered the garden at the back of the house, and walked abstractedly +from alley to alley. We know that generally the role of men in the +situation in which M. de Camors at this moment was placed is not very +easy or very glorious; but the common annoyance of this position was +particularly aggravated to him by painful reflections. Not only was his +assistance not needed, but it was repelled; not only was he far from a +support on the contrary, he was but an additional danger and sorrow. +In this thought was a bitterness which he keenly felt. His native +generosity, his humanity, shuddered as he heard the terrible cries and +accents of distress which succeeded each other without intermission. +He passed some heavy hours in the damp garden this cold night, and the +chilly morning which succeeded it. Madame de Tecle came frequently to +give him the news. Near eight o'clock he saw her approach him with a +grave and tranquil air. + +"Monsieur," she said, "it is a boy." + +"I thank you. How is she?" + +"Well. I shall request you to go and see her shortly." + +Half an hour later she reappeared on the threshold of the vestibule, and +called: + +"Monsieur de Camors!" and when he approached her, she added, with an +emotion which made her lips tremble: + +"She has been uneasy for some time past. She is afraid that you have +kept terms with her in order to take the child. If ever you have such a +thought--not now, Monsieur. Have you?" + +"You are severe, Madame," he replied in a hoarse voice. + +She breathed a sigh. + +"Come!" she said, and led the way upstairs. She opened the door of the +chamber and permitted him to enter it alone. + +His first glance caught the eyes of his young wife fixed upon him. She +was half sitting up in bed, supported by pillows, and whiter than the +curtains whose shadow enveloped her. She held clasped to her breast her +sleeping infant, which was already covered, like its mother, with lace +and pink ribbons. From the depths of this nest she fixed on her husband +her large eyes, sparkling with a kind of savage light--an expression in +which the sentiment of triumph was blended with one of profound terror. +He stopped within a few feet of the bed, and saluted her with his most +winning smile. + +"I have pitied you very much, Marie," he said. + +"I thank you!" she replied, in a voice as feeble as a sigh. + +She continued to regard him with the same suppliant and affrighted air. + +"Are you a little happier now?" he continued. + +The glittering eye of the young woman was fastened on the calm face of +her infant. Then turning toward Camors: + +"You will not take him from me?" + +"Never!" he replied. + +As he pronounced these words his eyes were suddenly dimmed, and he was +astonished himself to feel a tear trickling down his cheek. He +experienced a singular feeling, he bent over, seized the folds of the +sheet, raised them to his lips, rose immediately and left the room. + +In this terrible struggle, too often victorious against nature and truth, +the man was for once vanquished. But it would be idle to imagine that a +character of this temperament and of this obduracy could transform +itself, or could be materially modified under the stroke of a few +transitory emotions, or of a few nervous shocks. M. de Camors rallied +quickly from his weakness, if even he did not repent it. He spent eight +days at Reuilly, remarking in the countenance of Madame de Tecle and in +her manner toward him, more ease than formerly. + +On his return to Paris, with thoughtful care he made some changes in the +interior arrangement of his mansion. This was to prepare for the +Countess and her son, who were to join him a few weeks later, larger and +more comfortable apartments, in which they were to be installed. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE REPTILE TURNS TO STING + +When Madame de Camors came to Paris and entered the home of her husband, +she there experienced the painful impressions of the past, and the sombre +preoccupations of the future; but she brought with her, although in a +fragile form, a powerful consolation. + +Assailed by grief, and ever menaced by new emotion she was obliged to +renounce the nursing of her child; but, nevertheless, she never left him, +for she was jealous even of his nurse. She at least wished to be loved +by him. She loved him with an infinite passion. She loved him because +he was her own son and of her blood. He was the price of her misfortune +--of her pain. She loved him because he was her only hope of human +happiness hereafter. She loved him because she found him as beautiful as +the day. And it was true he was so; for he resembled his father--and she +loved him also on that account. She tried to concentrate her heart and +all her thoughts on this dear creature, and at first she thought she had +succeeded. She was surprised at herself, at her own tranquillity, when +she saw Madame de Campvallon; for her lively imagination had exhausted, +in advance, all the sadness which her new existence could contain; but +when she had lost the kind of torpor into which excessive suffering had +plunged her--when her maternal sensations were a little quieted by +custom, her woman's heart recovered itself in the mother's. She could +not prevent herself from renewing her passionate interest in her graceful +though terrible husband. + +Madame de Tecle went to pass two months with her daughter in Paris, and +then returned to the country. + +Madame de Camors wrote to her, in the beginning of the following spring, +a letter which gave her an exact idea of the sentiments of the young +woman at the time, and of the turn her domestic life had taken. After a +long and touching detail of the health and beauty of her son Robert, she +added: + + "His father is always to me what you have seen him. He spares me + everything he can spare me, but evidently the fatality he has obeyed + continues under the same form. Notwithstanding, I do not despair of + the future, my beloved mother. Since I saw that tear in his eye, + confidence has entered my poor heart. Be assured, my adored mother, + that he will love me one day, if it is only through our child, whom + he begins quietly to love without himself perceiving it. At first, + as you remember, this infant was no more to him than I was. When he + surprised him on my knee, he would give him a cold kiss, say, ' + Good-morning, Monsieur,' and withdraw. It is just one month--I have + forgotten the date--it was, 'Good-morning, my son--how pretty you + are!' You see the progress; and do you know, finally, what passed + yesterday? I entered Robert's room noiselessly; the door was open-- + what did I behold, my mother! Monsieur de Camors, with his head + resting on the pillow of the cradle, and laughing at this little + creature, who smiled back at him! I assure you, he blushed and + excused himself: 'The door was open,' he said, 'and I came in.' + I assured him that he had done nothing wrong. + + "Monsieur de Camors is very odd sometimes. He occasionally passes + the limits which were agreed upon as necessary. He is not only + polite, but takes great trouble. Alas! once these courtesies would + have fallen upon my heart like roses from heaven--now they annoy me + a little. Last evening, for example, I sat down, as is my custom, + at my piano after dinner, he reading a journal at the chimney- + corner--his usual hour for going out passed. Behold me, much + surprised. I threw a furtive glance, between two bars of music, + at him: he was not reading, he was not sleeping--he was dreaming. + 'Is there anything new in the Journal?'--'No, no; nothing at all.' + Another two or three bars of music, and I entered my son's room. + He was in bed and asleep. I devoured him with kisses and returned-- + Monsieur de Camors was still there. And now, surprise after + surprise: 'Have you heard from your mother? What does she say? + Have you seen Madame Jaubert? Have you read this review?' Just + like one who sought to open a conversation. Once I would willingly + have paid with my blood for one of these evenings, and now he offers + them to me, when I know not what to do with them. Notwithstanding I + remember the advice of my mother, I do not wish to discourage these + symptoms. I adopt a festive manner. I light four extra waxlights. + I try to be amiable without being coquettish; for coquetry here + would be shameful--would it not, my dear mother? Finally, we + chatted together; he sang two airs to the piano; I played two + others; he painted the design of a little Russian costume for Robert + to wear next year; then talked politics to me. This enchanted me. + He explained to me his situation in the Chamber. Midnight arrived; + I became remarkably silent; he rose: 'May I press your hand in + friendship?'--' Mon Dieu! yes.'--'Good-night, Marie.'--' + Goodnight.' Yes, my mother, I read your thoughts. There is danger + here! but you have shown it to me; and I believe also, I should + have perceived it by myself. Do not fear, then. I shall be happy + at his good inclinations, and shall encourage them to the best of my + power; but I shall not be in haste to perceive a return, on his + part, toward virtue and myself. I see here in society arrangements + which revolt me. In the midst of my misfortune I remain pure and + proud; but I should fall into the deepest contempt of myself if I + should ever permit myself to be a plaything for Monsieur de Camors. + A man so fallen does not raise himself in a day. If ever he really + returns to me, it will be necessary for me to have much proof. I + never have ceased to love him, and probably he doubts it: but he + will learn that if this sad love can break my heart it can never + abase it; and it is unnecessary to tell my mother that I shall live + and die courageously in my widow's robe. + + "There are other symptoms which also strike me. He is more + attentive to me when she is present. This may probably be arranged + between them, but I doubt it. The other evening we were at the + General's. She was waltzing, and Monsieur de Camors, as a rare + favor, came and seated himself at your daughter's side. In passing + before us she threw him a look--a flash. I felt the flame. Her + blue eyes glared ferociously. He perceived it. I have not + assuredly much tenderness for her. She is my most cruel enemy; but + if ever she suffers what she has made me suffer-yes, I believe I + shall pity her. My mother, I embrace you. I embrace our dear lime- + trees. I taste their young leaves as in olden times. Scold me as + in old times, and love, above all things, as in old times, your + MARIE." + +This wise young woman, matured by misfortune, observed everything saw +everything--and exaggerated nothing. She touched, in this letter, on the +most delicate points in the household of M. de Camors--and even of his +secret thoughts--with accurate justice. For Camors was not at all +converted, nor near being so; but it would be belying human nature to +attribute to his heart, or that of any other human being, a supernatural +impassibility. If the dark and implacable theories which M. de Camors +had made the law of his existence could triumph absolutely, this would be +true. The trials he had passed through did not reform him, they only +staggered him. He did not pursue his paths with the same firmness; he +strayed from his programme. He pitied one of his victims, and, as one +wrong always entails another, after pitying his wife, he came near loving +his child. These two weaknesses had glided into his petrified soul as +into a marble fount, and there took root-two imperceptible roots, +however. The child occupied him not more than a few moments every day. +He thought of him, however, and would return home a little earlier than +usual each day than was his habit, secretly attracted by the smile of +that fresh face. The mother was for him something more. Her sufferings, +her youthful heroism had touched him. She became somebody in his eyes. +He discovered many merits in her. He perceived she was remarkably well- +informed for a woman, and prodigiously so for a French woman. She +understood half a word--knew a great deal--and guessed at the remainder. +She had, in short, that blending of grace and solidity which gives to the +conversation of a woman of cultivated mind an incomparable charm. +Habituated from infancy to her mental superiority as to her pretty face, +she carried the one as unconsciously as the other. She devoted herself +to the care of his household as if she had no idea beyond it. There were +domestic details which she would not confide to servants. She followed +them into her salons, into her boudoirs, a blue feather-brush in hand, +lightly dusting the 'etageres', the 'jardinieres', the 'consoles'. She +arranged one piece of furniture and removed another, put flowers in a +vase-gliding about and singing like a bird in a cage. + +Her husband sometimes amused himself in following her with his eye in +these household occupations. She reminded him of the princesses one sees +in the ballet of the opera, reduced by some change of fortune to a +temporary servitude, who dance while putting the house in order. + +"How you love order, Marie!" said he to her one day. + +"Order" she said, gravely, "is the moral beauty of things." + +She emphasized the word things--and, fearing she might be considered +pretentious, she blushed. + +She was a lovable creature, and it can be understood that she might have +many attractions, even for her husband. Yet though he had not for one +instant the idea of sacrificing to her the passion that ruled his life, +it is certain, however, that his wife pleased him as a charming friend, +which she was, and probably as a charming forbidden fruit, which she also +was. Two or three years passed without making any sensible change in the +relations of the different persons in this history. This was the most +brilliant phase and probably the happiest in the life of M. de Camors. + +His marriage had doubled his fortune, and his clever speculations +augmented it every day. He had increased the retinue of his house in +proportion to his new resources. In the region of elegant high life he +decidedly held the sceptre. His horses, his equipages, his artistic +tastes, even his toilet, set the law. + +His liaison with Madame de Campvallon, without being proclaimed, was +suspected, and completed his prestige. At the same time his capacity as +a political man began to be acknowledged. He had spoken in some recent +debate, and his maiden speech was a triumph. His prosperity was great. +It was nevertheless true that M. de Camors did not enjoy it without +trouble. Two black spots darkened the sky above his head, and might +contain destroying thunder. His life was eternally suspended on a +thread. + +Any day General Campvallon might be informed of the intrigue which +dishonored him, either through some selfish treason, or through some +public rumor, which might begin to spread. Should this ever happen, he +knew the General never would submit to it; and he had determined never to +defend his life against his outraged friend. + +This resolve, firmly decided upon in his secret soul, gave him the last +solace to his conscience. All his future destiny was thus at the mercy +of an accident most likely to happen. The second cause of his +disquietude was the jealous hatred of Madame Campvallon toward the young +rival she had herself selected. After jesting freely on this subject at +first, the Marquise had, little by little, ceased even to allude to it. + +M. de Camors could not misunderstand certain mute symptoms, and was +sometimes alarmed at this silent jealousy. Fearing to exasperate this +most violent feminine sentiment in so strong a soul, he was compelled day +by day to resort to tricks which wounded his pride, and probably his +heart also; for his wife, to whom his new conduct was inexplicable, +suffered intensely, and he saw it. + +One evening in the month of May, 1860, there was a reception at the Hotel +Campvallon. The Marquise, before leaving for the country, was making her +adieus to a choice group of her friends. Although this fete professed to +be but an informal gathering, she had organized it with her usual +elegance and taste. A kind of gallery, composed of verdure and of +flowers, connected the salon with the conservatory at the other end of +the garden. + +This evening proved a very painful one to the Comtesse de Camors. Her +husband's neglect of her was so marked, his assiduities to the Marquise +so persistent, their mutual understanding so apparent, that the young +wife felt the pain of her desertion to an almost insupportable degree. +She took refuge in the conservatory, and finding herself alone there, she +wept. + +A few moments later, M. de Camors, not seeing her in the salon, became +uneasy. She saw him, as he entered the conservatory, in one of those +instantaneous glances by which women contrive to see without looking. +She pretended to be examining the flowers, and by a strong effort of will +dried her tears. Her husband advanced slowly toward her. + +"What a magnificent camellia!" he said to her. "Do you know this +variety?" + +"Very well," she replied; "this is the camellia that weeps." + +He broke off the flowers. + +"Marie," he said, "I never have been much addicted to sentimentality, but +this flower I shall keep." + +She turned upon him her astonished eyes. + +"Because I love it," he added. + +The noise of a step made them both turn. It was Madame de Campvallon, +who was crossing the conservatory on the arm of a foreign diplomat. + +"Pardon me," she said, smiling; "I have disturbed you! How awkward of +me!" and she passed out. + +Madame de Camors suddenly grew very red, and her husband very pale. The +diplomat alone did not change color, for he comprehended nothing. The +young Countess, under pretext of a headache, which her face did not +belie, returned home immediately, promising her husband to send back the +carriage for him. Shortly after, the Marquise de Campvallon, obeying a +secret sign from M. de Camors, rejoined him in the retired boudoir, which +recalled to them both the most culpable incident of their lives. She sat +down beside him on the divan with a haughty nonchalance. + +"What is it?" she said. + +"Why do you watch me?" asked Camors. "It is unworthy of you!" + +"Ah! an explanation? a disagreeable thing. It is the first between us-- +at least let us be quick and complete." + +She spoke in a voice of restrained passion--her eyes fixed on her foot, +which she twisted in her satin shoe. + +"Well, tell the truth," she said. "You are in love with your wife." + +He shrugged his shoulders. "Unworthy of you, I repeat." + +"What, then, mean these delicate attentions to her?" + +"You ordered me to marry her, but not to kill her, I suppose?" + +She made a strange movement of her eyebrows, which he did not see, for +neither of them looked at the other. After a pause she said: + +"She has her son! She has her mother! I have no one but you. Hear me, +my friend; do not make me jealous, for when I am so, ideas torment me +which terrify even myself. Wait an instant. Since we are on this +subject, if you love her, tell me so. You know me--you know I am not +fond of petty artifices. Well, I fear so much the sufferings and +humiliations of which I have a presentiment, I am so much afraid of +myself, that I offer you, and give you, your liberty. I prefer this +horrible grief, for it is at least open and noble! It is no snare that I +set for you, believe me! Look at me. I seldom weep." The dark blue of +her eyes was bathed in tears. "Yes, I am sincere; and I beg of you, if +it is so, profit by this moment, for if you let it escape, you never will +find it again." + +M. de Camors was little prepared for this decided proposal. The idea of +breaking off his liaison with the Marquise never had entered his mind. +This liaison seemed to him very reconcilable with the sentiments with +which his wife could inspire him. + +It was at the same time the greatest wickedness and the perpetual danger +of his life, but it was also the excitement, the pride, and the +magnificent voluptuousness of it. He shuddered. The idea of losing the +love which had cost him so dear exasperated him. He cast a burning +glance on this beautiful face, refined and exalted as that of a warring +archangel. + +"My life is yours," he said. "How could you have dreamed of breaking +ties like ours? How could you have alarmed yourself, or even thought of +my feelings toward another? I do what honor and humanity command me-- +nothing more. As for you--I love you--understand that." + +"Is it true?" she asked. "It is true! I believe you!" + +She took his hand, and gazed at him a moment without speaking--her eye +dimmed, her bosom palpitating; then suddenly rising, she said, "My +friend, you know I have guests!" and saluting him with a smile, left the +boudoir. + +This scene, however, left a disagreeable impression on the mind of +Camors. He thought of it impatiently the next morning, while trying a +horse on the Champs Elysees--when he suddenly found himself face to face +with his former secretary, Vautrot. He had never seen this person since +the day he had thought proper to give himself his own dismissal. + +The Champs Elysees was deserted at this hour. Vautrot could not avoid, +as he had probably done more than once, encountering Camors. + +Seeing himself recognized he saluted him and stopped, with an uneasy +smile on his lips. His worn black coat and doubtful linen showed a +poverty unacknowledged but profound. M. de Camors did not notice these +details, or his natural generosity would have awakened, and curbed the +sudden indignation that took possession of him. + +He reined in his horse sharply. + +"Ah, is it you, Monsieur Vautrot?" he said. "You have left England +then! What are you doing now?" + +"I am looking for a situation, Monsieur de Camors," said Vautrot, humbly, +who knew his old patron too well not to read clearly in the curl of his +moustache the warning of a storm. + +"And why," said Camors, "do you not return to your trade of locksmith? +You were so skilful at it! The most complicated locks had no secrets for +you." + +"I do not understand your meaning," murmured Vautrot. + +"Droll fellow!" and throwing out these words with an accent of withering +scorn, M. de Camors struck Vautrot's shoulder lightly with the end of his +riding-whip, and tranquilly passed on at a walk. + +Vautrot was truly in search of a place, had he consented to accept one +fitted to his talents; but he was, as will be remembered, one of those +whose vanity was greater than his merit, and one who loved an office +better than work. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE SECOND ACT OF THE TRAGEDY + +Vautrot had at this time fallen into the depth of want and distress, +which, if aggravated, would prompt him to evil and even to crime. There +are many examples of the extremes to which this kind of intelligence, at +once ambitious, grasping, yet impotent, can transport its possessor. +Vautrot, in awaiting better times, had relapsed into his old role of +hypocrite, in which he had formerly succeeded so well. Only the evening +before he had returned to the house of Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and made +honorable amends for his philosophical heresies; for he was like the +Saxons in the time of Charlemagne, who asked to be baptized every time +they wanted new tunics. Madame de la Roche-Jugan had given a kind +reception to this sad prodigal son, but she chilled perceptibly on seeing +him more discreet than she desired on certain subjects, the mystery of +which she had set her heart upon unravelling. + +She was now more preoccupied than ever about the relations which she +suspected to exist between M. de Camors and Madame de Campvallon. These +relations could not but prove fatal to the hopes she had so long founded +on the widowhood of the Marquise and the heritage of the General. The +marriage of M. de Camors had for the moment deceived her, but she was one +of those pious persons who always think evil, and whose suspicions are +soon reawakened. She tried to obtain from Vautrot, who had so long been +intimate with her nephew, some explanation of the mystery; but as Vautrot +was too prudent to enlighten her, she turned him out of doors. + +After his encounter with M. de Camors, he immediately turned his steps +toward the Rue St. Dominique, and an hour later Madame de la Roche-Jugan +had the pleasure of knowing all that he knew of the liaison between the +Count and the Marquise. But we remember that he knew everything. These +revelations, though not unexpected, terrified Madame de la Roche-Jugan, +who saw her maternal projects destroyed forever. To her bitter feeling +at this deception was immediately joined, in this base soul, a sudden +thirst for revenge. It was true she had been badly recompensed for her +anonymous letter, by which she had previously attempted to open the eyes +of the unfortunate General; for from that moment the General, the +Marquise, and M. de Camors himself, without an open rupture, let her feel +their marks of contempt, which embittered her heart. She never would +again expose herself to a similar slight of this kind; but she must +assuredly, in the cause of good morals, at once confront the blind with +the culpable, and this time with such proofs as would make the blow +irresistible. By the mere thought, Madame de la Roche-Jugan had +persuaded herself that the new turn events were taking might become +favorable to the expectations which had become the fixed idea of her +life. + +Madame de Campvallon destroyed, M. de Camors set aside, the General would +be alone in the world; and it was natural to suppose he would turn to his +young relative Sigismund, if only to recognize the far-sighted affection +and wounded heart of Madame de la Roche-Jugan. + +The General, in fact, had by his marriage contract settled all his +property on his wife; but Madame de la Roche-Jugan, who had consulted a +lawyer on this question, knew that he had the power of alienating his +fortune during life, and of stripping his unworthy wife and transferring +it to Sigismund. + +Madame de la Roche-Jugan did not shrink from the probability--which was +most likely--of an encounter between the General and Camors. Every one +knows the disdainful intrepidity of women in the matter of duels. She +had no scruple, therefore, in engaging Vautrot in the meritorious work +she meditated. She secured him by some immediate advantages and by +promises; she made him believe the General would recompense him largely. +Vautrot, smarting still from the cut of Camors's whip on his shoulder, +and ready to kill him with his own hand had he dared, hardly required the +additional stimulus of gain to aid his protectress in her vengeance by +acting as her instrument. + +He resolved, however, since he had the opportunity, to put himself, once +for all, beyond misery and want, by cleverly speculating, through the +secret he held, on the great fortune of the General. This secret he had +already given to Madame de Camors under the inspiration of another +sentiment, but he had then in his hands the proofs, which he now was +without. + +It was necessary, then, for him to arm himself with new and infallible +proofs; but if the intrigue he was required to unmask still existed, he +did not despair of detecting something certain, aided by the general +knowledge he had of the private habits and ways of Camors. This was the +task to which he applied himself from this moment, day and night, with an +evil ardor of hate and jealousy. The absolute confidence which the +General reposed in his wife and Camors after the latter's marriage with +Marie de Tecle, had doubtless allowed them to dispense with much of the +mystery and adventure of their intrigue; but that which was ardent, +poetic, and theatrical to the Marquise's imagination had not been lost. +Love alone was not sufficient for her. She needed danger, scenic effect, +and pleasure heightened by terror. Once or twice, in the early time, she +was reckless enough to leave her house during the night and to return +before day. But she was obliged to renounce these audacious flights, +finding them too perilous. + +These nocturnal interviews with M. de Camors were rare, and she had +usually received him at home. This was their arrangement: An open space, +sometimes used as a woodyard, was next the garden of the Hotel +Campvallon. The General had purchased a portion of it and had had a +cottage erected in the midst of a kitchen-garden, and had placed in it, +with his usual kind-heartedness, an old 'sous-officier', named Mesnil, +who had served under him in the artillery. This Mesnil enjoyed his +master's confidence. He was a kind of forester on the property; he lived +in Paris in the winter, but occasionally passed two or three days in the +country whenever the General wished to obtain information about the +crops. Madame de Campvallon and M. de Camors chose the time of these +absences for their dangerous interviews at night. Camors, apprised from +within by some understood signal, entered the enclosure surrounding the +cottage of Mesnil, and thence proceeded to the garden belonging to the +house. Madame de Campvallon always charged herself with the peril that +charmed her--with keeping open one of the windows on the ground floor. +The Parisian custom of lodging the domestics in the attics gave to this +hardihood a sort of security, notwithstanding its being always hazardous. +Near the end of May, one of these occasions, always impatiently awaited +on both sides, presented itself, and M. de Camors at midnight penetrated +into the little garden of the old 'sous-officier'. At the moment when he +turned the key in the gate of the enclosure, he thought he heard a slight +sound behind him. He turned, cast a rapid glance over the dark space +that surrounded him, and thinking himself mistaken, entered. An instant +after, the shadow of a man appeared at the angle of a pile of lumber, +which was scattered over the carpenter's yard. This shadow remained for +some time immovable in front of the windows of the hotel and then plunged +again into the darkness. + +The following week M. de Camors was at the club one evening, playing +whist with the General. He remarked that the General was not playing his +usual game, and saw also imprinted on his features a painful +preoccupation. + +"Are you in pain, General?" said he, after they had finished their game. + +"No, no!" said the General; "I am only annoyed--a tiresome affair +between two of my people in the country. I sent Mesnil away this morning +to examine into it." + +The General took a few steps, then returned to Camors and took him aside: +"My friend," he said, "I deceived you, just now; I have something on my +mind--something very serious. I am even very unhappy!" + +"What is the matter?" said Camors, whose heart sank. + +"I shall tell you that probably to-morrow. Come, in any case, to see me +to-morrow morning. Won't you?" + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Thanks! Now I shall go--for I am really not well." + +He clasped his hand more affectionately than usual. + +"Adieu, my dear child," he added, and turned around brusquely to hide the +tears which suddenly filled his eyes. M. de Camors experienced for some +moments a lively disquietude, but the friendly and tender adieus of the +General reassured him that it did not relate to himself. Still he +continued astonished and even affected by the emotion of the old man. + +Was it not strange? If there was one man in the world whom he loved, or +to whom he would have devoted himself, it was this one whom he had +mortally wronged. + +He had, however, good reason to be uneasy; and was wrong in reassuring +himself; for the General in the course of that evening had been informed +of the treachery of his wife--at least he had been prepared for it. Only +he was still ignorant of the name of her accomplice. + +Those who informed him were afraid of encountering the blind and +obstinate faith of the General, had they named Camors. + +It was probable, also, after what had already occurred, that had they +again pronounced that name, the General would have repelled the suspicion +as a monstrous impossibility, regretting even the thought. + +M. de Camors remained until one o'clock at the club and then went to the +Rue Vanneau. He was introduced into the Hotel Campvallon with the +customary precautions; and this time we shall follow him there. In +traversing the garden, he raised his eyes to the General's window, and +saw the soft light of the night-lamp burning behind the blinds. + +The Marquise awaited him at the door of her boudoir, which opened on a +rotunda at an elevation of a few feet. He kissed her hand, and told her +in few words of the General's sadness. + +She replied that she had been very uneasy about his health for some days. +This explanation seemed natural to M. de Camors, and he followed the +Marquise through the dark and silent salon. She held in her hand a +candle, the feeble light of which threw on her delicate features a +strange pallor. When they passed up the long, echoing staircase, the +rustling of her skirt on the steps was the only sound that betrayed her +light movement. + +She stopped from time to time, shivering--as if better to taste the +dramatic solemnity that surrounded them--turned her blonde head a little +to look at Camors; then cast on him her inspiring smile, placed her hand +on her heart, as if to say, "I am fearful," and went on. They reached +her chamber, where a dim lamp faintly illumined the sombre magnificence, +the sculptured wainscotings, and the heavy draperies. + +The flame on the hearth which flickered up at intervals, threw a bright +gleam on two or three pictures of the Spanish school, which were the only +decorations of this sumptuous, but stern-looking apartment. + +The Marquise sank as if terrified on a divan near the chimney, and pushed +with her feet two cushions before her, on which Camors half reclined; she +then thrust back the thick braids of her hair, and leaned toward her +lover. + +"Do you love me to-day?" she asked. + +The soft breath of her voice was passing over the face of Camors, when +the door suddenly opened before them. The General entered. The Marquise +and Camors instantly rose to their feet, and standing side by side, +motionless, gazed upon him. The General paused near the door. As he saw +them a shudder passed over his frame, and his face assumed a livid +pallor. For an instant his eye rested on Camors with a stupefied +surprise and almost bewilderment; then he raised his arms over his head, +and his hands struck together with a sharp sound. At this terrible +moment Madame de Campvallon seized the arm of Camors, and threw him a +look so profound, supplicating, and tragic, that it alarmed him. + +He roughly pushed her from him, crossed his arms, and waited the result. + +The General walked slowly toward him. Suddenly his face became inflamed +with a purple hue; his lips half opened, as if about to deliver some +deadly insult. He advanced rapidly, his hand raised; but after a few +steps the old man suddenly stopped, beat the air with both hands, as if +seeking some support, then staggered and fell forward, striking his head +against the marble mantelpiece, rolled on the carpet, and remained +motionless. There was an ominous silence. A stifled cry from M. de +Camors broke it. At the same time he threw himself on his knees by the +side of the motionless old man, touched first his hand, then his heart. +He saw that he was dead. A thin thread of blood trickled down his pale +forehead where it had struck the marble; but this was only a slight +wound. It was not that which had killed him. It was the treachery of +those two beings whom he had loved, and who, he believed, loved him. His +heart had been broken by the violence of the surprise, the grief, and the +horror. + +One look of Camors told Madame de Campvallon she was a widow. She threw +herself on the divan, buried her face in the cushions and sobbed aloud. +Camors still stood, his back against the mantelpiece, his eyes fixed, +wrapped in his own thoughts. He wished in all sincerity of heart that he +could have awakened the dead and restored him to life. He had sworn to +deliver himself up to him without defence, if ever the old man demanded +it of him for forgotten favors, betrayed friendship, and violated honor. +Now he had killed him. If he had not slain him with his own hand, the +crime was still there, in its most hideous form. He saw it before him, +he inhaled its odor--he breathed its blood. An uneasy glance of the +Marquise recalled him to himself and he approached her. They then +conversed together in whispers, and he hastily explained to her the line +of conduct she should adopt. + +She must summon the servants, say the General had been taken suddenly +ill, and that on entering her room he had been seized by an apoplectic +stroke. + +It was with some effort that she understood she was to wait long enough +before giving the alarm to give Camors sufficient time to escape; and +until then she was to remain in this frightful tete-a-tete, alone with +the dead. + +He pitied her, and decided on leaving the hotel by the apartment of M. de +Campvallon, which had a private entrance on the street. + +The Marquise immediately rang violently several times, and Camors did not +retire till he heard the sound of hastening feet on the stairs. The +apartment of the General communicated with that of his wife by a short +gallery. There was a suite of apartments--first a study, then his +sleeping-room. M. de Camors traversed this room with feelings we shall +not attempt to describe and gained the street. The surgeon testified +that the General had died from the rupture of a vessel in the heart. +Two days after the interment took place, at which M. de Camors attended. +The same evening he left Paris to join his wife, who had gone to Reuilly +the preceding week. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +THE FEATHER IN THE BALANCE + +One of the sweetest sensations in the world is that of a man who has just +escaped the fantastic terrors of night mare; and who, awaking, his fore +head bathed with icy sweat, says to himself, "It was only a dream!" This +was, in some degree, the impression which Camors felt on awaking, the +morning after his arrival at Reuilly, when his first glance fell on the +sunlight streaming over the foliage, and when he heard beneath his window +the joyous laugh of his little son. He, however, was not dreaming; but +his soul, crushed by the horrible tension of recent emotions, had a +moment's respite, and drank in, almost without alloy, the new calm that +surrounded him. He hastily dressed himself and descended to the garden, +where his son ran to meet him. + +M. de Camors embraced the child with tenderness; and leaning toward him, +spoke to him in a low voice, and asked after his mother and about his +amusements, with a singularly soft and sad manner. Then he let him go, +and walked with a slow step, breathing the fresh morning air, examining +the leaves and the flowers with extraordinary interest. From time to +time a deep, sad sigh broke from his oppressed chest; he passed his hand +over his brow as if to efface the importunate images. He sat down amid +the quaintly clipped boxwood which ornamented the garden in the antique +fashion, called his son again to him, held him between his knees, +interrogating him again, in a low voice, as he had done before; then drew +him toward him and clasped him tightly for a long time, as if to draw +into his own heart the innocence and peace of the child's. Madame de +Camors surprised him in this gush of feeling, and remained mute with +astonishment. He rose immediately and took her hand. + +"How well you bring him up!" he said. "I thank you for it. He will be +worthy of you and of your mother." + +She was so surprised at the soft, sad tone of his voice, that she +replied, stammering with embarrassment, "And worthy of you also, I hope." + +"Of me?" said Camors, whose lips were slightly tremulous. "Poor child, +I hope not!" and rapidly withdrew. + +Madame de Camors and Madame de Tecle had learned, the previous morning, +of the death of the General. The evening of the Count's arrival they did +not speak to him on the subject, and were cautious not to make any +allusion to it. The next day, and the succeeding ones, they practised +the same reserve, though very far from suspecting the fatal circumstances +which rendered this souvenir so painful to M. de Camors. They thought it +only natural he should be pained at so sudden a catastrophe, and that his +conscience should be disturbed; but they were astonished when this +impression prolonged itself from day to day, until it took the appearance +of a lasting sentiment. + +They began to believe that there had arisen between Madame de Campvallon +and himself, probably occasioned by the General's death, some quarrel +which had weakened the tie between them. + +A journey of twenty-four hours, which he made fifteen days after his +arrival, was to them a confirmation of the truth they before suspected; +but his prompt return, his new tastes, which kept him at Reuilly during +the summer, seemed to them favorable symptoms. + +He was singularly sad, pensive, and more inactive than usual in his +habits. He took long walks alone. Sometimes he took his son with him, +as if by chance. He sometimes attempted a little timid tenderness with +his wife; and this awkwardness, on his part, was quite touching. + +"Marie," he said to her one day, "you, who are a fairy, wave your wand +over Reuilly and make of it an island in mid-ocean." + +"You say that because you know how to swim," said she, laughing and +shaking her head; but the heart of the young woman was joyful. + +"You embrace me now every moment, my little one," said Madame de Tecle to +her. "Is this really all intended for me?" + +"My adorable mother," while embracing her again, "I assure you he is +really courting me again. Why, I am ignorant; but he is courting me and +you also, my mother. Observe it!" + +Madame de Tecle did observe it. In his conversation with her, M. de +Camors sought, under every pretext, to recall the souvenirs of the past, +common to them both. It seemed he wished to link the past with his new +life; to forget the rest, and pray of them to forget it also. + +It was not without fear that these two charming women abandoned +themselves to their hopes. They remembered they were in the presence of +an uncertain person; they little trusted a change so sudden, the reason +of which they could not comprehend. They feared it was some passing +caprice, which would return to them, if they were its dupes, all their +misfortunes, without the dignity which had hitherto attended them. + +They were not the only ones struck by this transformation. M. des +Rameures remarked it to them. The neighboring country people felt in the +Count's language something new--as it were, a tender humility; they said +that in other years he had been polite, but this year he was angelic. +Even the inanimate things, the woods, the trees, the heavens, should have +borne the same testimony, for he looked at and studied them with a +benevolent curiosity with which he had never before honored them. + +In truth, a profound trouble had invaded him and would not leave him. +More than once, before this epoch, his soul, his philosophy, his pride, +had received a rude shock, but he had no less pursued his path, rising +after every blow, like a lion wounded, but unconquered. In trampling +under his feet all moral belief which binds the vulgar, he had reserved +honor as an inviolable limit. Then, under the empire of his passions, +he said to himself that, after all, honor, like all the rest, was +conventional. Then he encountered crime--he touched it with his hand-- +horror seized him--and he recoiled. He rejected with disgust the +principle which had conducted him there--asked himself what would become +of human society if it had no other. + +The simple truths which he had misunderstood now appeared to him in their +tranquil splendor. He could not yet distinguish them clearly; he did not +try to give them a name, but he plunged with a secret delight into their +shadows and their peace. He sought them in the pure heart of his child, +in the pure love of his young wife, in the daily miracles of nature, in +the harmonies of the heavens, and probably already in the depths of his +thoughts--in God. In the midst of this approach toward a new life he +hesitated. Madame de Campvallon was there. He still loved her vaguely. +Above all, he could not abandon her without being guilty of a kind of +baseness. Terrible struggles agitated him. Having done so much evil, +would he now be permitted to do good, and gracefully partake of the joys +he foresaw? These ties with the past, his fortune dishonestly acquired, +his fatal mistress--the spectre of that old man would they permit it? + +And we may add, would Providence suffer it? Not that we should lightly +use this word Providence, and suspend over M. de Camors a menace of +supernatural chastisement. Providence does not intervene in human events +except through the logic of her eternal laws. She has only the sanction +of these laws; and it is for this reason she is feared. At the end of +August M. de Camors repaired to the principal town in the district, to +perform his duties in the Council-General. The session finished, he paid +a visit to Madame de Campvallon before returning to Reuilly. He had +neglected her a little in the course of the summer, and had only visited +Campvallon at long intervals, as politeness compelled him. The Marquise +wished to keep him for dinner, as she had no guests with her. She +pressed him so warmly that, reproaching himself all the time, he +consented. He never saw her without pain. She always brought back to +him those terrible memories, but also that terrible intoxication. She +had never been more beautiful. Her deep mourning embellished yet more +her languishing and regal grace; it made her pale complexion yet more +fair, and it heightened the brilliancy of her look. She had the air of a +young tragic queen, or of an allegory of Night. In the evening an hour +arrived when the reserve which for some time had marked their relations +was forgotten. M. de Camors found himself, as in olden time, at the feet +of the young Marquise--his eyes gazing into hers, and covering with +kisses her lovely hands. She was strange that evening. She looked at +him with a wild tenderness, instilling, at pleasure, into his veins the +poison of burning passion then escaping him, the tears gathering in her +eyes. Suddenly, by one of those magical movements of hers, she enveloped +with her hands the head of her lover, and spoke to him quite low beneath +the shadow of this perfumed veil. + +"We might be so happy!" she said. + +"Are we not so?" said Camors. + +"No! I at least am not, for you are not all mine, as I am yours. This +appears harder, now that I am free. If you had remained free--when I +think of it! or if you could become so, it would be heaven!" + +"You know that I am not so! Why speak of it?" + +She drew nearer to him, and with her breath, more than with her voice, +answered: + +"Is it impossible? Tell me!" + +"How?" he demanded. + +She did not reply, but her fixed look, caressing and cruel, answered him. + +"Speak, then, I beg of you!" murmured Camors. + +"Have you not told me--I have not forgotten it--that we are united by +ties stronger than all others; that the world and its laws exist no +longer for us; that there is no other good, no other bad for us, but our +happiness or our unhappiness? Well, we are not happy, and if we could be +so--listen, I have thought well over it!" + +Her lips touched the cheek of Camors, and the murmur of her last words +was lost in her kisses. + +Camors roughly repelled her, sprang up, and stood before her. + +"Charlotte," he said, sternly, "this is only a trial, I hope; but, trial +or no, never repeat it--never! Remember!" + +She also quickly drew herself up. + +"Ah! how you love her!" she cried. "Yes, you love her, it is she you +love-I know it, I feel it, and I-I am only the wretched object of your +pity, or of your caprice. Very well, go back to her--go and protect her, +for I swear to you she is in peril!" + +He smiled with his haughty irony. + +"Let us see your plot," he said. "So you intend to kill her?" + +"If I can!" she said; and her superb arm was stretched out as if to +seize a weapon. + +"What! with your own hand?" + +"The hand shall be found." + +"You are so beautiful at this moment!" said Camors; "I am dying with the +desire to fall at your feet. Acknowledge only that you wished to try me, +or that you were mad for a moment." + +She gave a savage smile. + +"Oh! you fear, my friend," she said, coldly; then raising again her +voice, which assumed a malignant tone, "You are right, I am not mad, I +did not wish to try you; I am jealous, I am betrayed, and I shall revenge +myself--no matter what it costs me--for I care for nothing more in this +world!--Go, and guard her!" + +"Be it so; I go," said Camors. He immediately left the salon and the +chateau; he reached the railway station on foot, and that evening arrived +at Reuilly. + +Something terrible there awaited him. + +During his absence, Madame de Camors, accompanied by her mother, had gone +to Paris to make some purchases. She remained there three days. She had +returned only that morning. He himself arrived late in the evening. He +thought he observed some constraint in their reception of him, but he did +not dwell upon it in the state of mind in which he was. + +This is what had occurred: Madame de Camors, during her stay in Paris, +had gone, as was her custom, to visit her aunt, Madame de la Roche-Jugan. +Their intercourse had always been very constrained. Neither their +characters nor their religion coincided. Madame de Camors contented +herself with not liking her aunt, but Madame de la Roche-Jugan hated her +niece. She found a good occasion to prove this, and did not lose it. +They had not seen each other since the General's death. This event, +which should have caused Madame de la Roche-Jugan to reproach herself, +had simply exasperated her. Her bad action had recoiled upon herself. +The death of M. Campvallon had finally destroyed her last hopes, which +she had believed she could have founded on the anger and desperation of +the old man. Since that time she was animated against her nephew and the +Marquise with the rage of one of the Furies. She learned through Vautrot +that M. de Camors had been in the chamber of Madame de Campvallon the +night of the General's death. On this foundation of truth she did not +fear to frame the most odious suspicions; and Vautrot, baffled like her +in his vengeance and in his envy, had aided her. A few sinister rumors, +escaping apparently from this source, had even crept at this time into +Parisian society. + +M. de Camors and Madame de Campvallon, suspecting that they had been +betrayed a second time by Madame de la Roche-Jugan, had broken with her; +and she could presume that, should she present herself at the door of the +Marquise, orders would have been given not to admit her. This affront +made her angrier still. She was still a prey to the violence of her +wrath when she received a visit from Madame de Camors. She affected to +make the General's death the theme of conversation, shed a few tears over +her old friend, and kissed the hand of her niece with a burst of +tenderness. + +"My poor little thing!" she said to her; "it is for you also I weep--for +you will yet be more unhappy than heretofore, if that can be possible." + +"I do not understand you, Madame," answered the young woman, coldly. + +"If you do not understand me, so much the better," replied Madame de la +Roche-Jugan, with a shade of bitterness; then, after a moment's pause--" +Listen, my dear! this is a duty of conscience which I comply with. You +see, an honest creature like you merits a better fate; and your mother +too, who is also a dupe. That man would deceive the good God. In the +name of my family, I feel bound to ask your pardon for both of them." + +"I repeat, Madame, that I do not understand you." + +"But it is impossible, my child--come!--it is impossible that all this +time you have suspected nothing." + +"I suspect nothing, Madame," said Madame de Camors, "because I know all." + +"Ah!" continued Madame de la Roche-Jugan, dryly; "if this be so, I have +nothing to say. But there are persons, in that case, who can accommodate +their consciences to very strange things." + +"That is what I thought a moment ago, Madame," said the young woman, +rising. + +"As you wish, my dear; but I speak in your own interest, and I shall +reproach myself for not having spoken to you more clearly. I know my +nephew better than you will ever know him; and the other also. +Notwithstanding you say so, you do not know all; let me tell you. The +General died very suddenly; and after him, it is your turn! Be very +careful, my poor child!" + +"Oh, Madame!" cried the young woman, becoming ghastly pale; "I shall +never see you again while I live!" She left on the instant-ran home, and +there found her mother. She repeated to her the terrible words she had +just heard, and her mother tried to calm her; but she herself was +disturbed. She went immediately to Madame de la Roche-Jugan, and +supplicated her to have pity on them and to retract the abominable +innuendo she had thrown out, or to explain it more fully. She made her +understand that she would inform M. de Camors of the affair in case of +need, and that he would hold his cousin Sigismund responsible. Terrified +in her turn, Madame de la Roche-Jugan judged the best method was to +destroy M. de Camors in the estimation of Madame de Tecle. She related +what had been told her by Vautrot, being careful not to compromise +herself in the recital. She informed her of the presence of M. de Camors +at the General's house the night of his death. She told her of the +reports that were circulated, and mingling calumny with truth, redoubling +at the same time her affection, her caresses, and her tears, she +succeeded in giving Madame de Tecle such an estimate of the character of +M. de Camors, that there were no suspicions or apprehensions which the +poor woman, from that moment, did not consider legitimate as connected +with him. + +Madame de la Roche-Jugan finally offered to send Vautrot to her, that she +might herself interrogate him. Madame de Tecle, affecting an incredulity +and a tranquillity she did not feel, refused and withdrew. + +On her returning to her daughter, she forced herself to deceive her as +to the impressions she had received, but she did not succeed; for her +anxious face belied her reassuring words. They separated the following +night, mutually concealing the trouble and distress of their souls; but +accustomed so long to think, feel, and suffer together, they met, so to +speak, in the same reflections, the same reasonings, and in the same +terrors. They went over, in their memories, all the incidents of the +life of Camors--all his faults; and, under the shadow of the monstrous +action imputed to him, his faults took a criminal character which they +were surprised they had not seen before. They discovered a series and a +sequence in his designs, all of which were imputed to him as crimes--even +his good actions. Thus his conduct during the last few months, his +strange ways, his fancy for his child and for his wife, his assiduous +tenderness toward her, were nothing more than the hypocritical meditation +of a new crime--a mask which he was preparing in advance. + +What was to be done? What kind of life was it possible to live in +common, under the weight of such thoughts? What present--what future? +These thoughts bewildered them. Next day Camors could not fail remarking +the singular change in their countenances in his presence; but he knew +that his servant, without thinking of harm, had spoken of his visit to +Madame de Campvallon, and he attributed the coldness and embarrassment of +the two women to this fact. He was less disquieted at this, because he +was resolved to keep them entirely safe. As a result of his reflections +during the night, he had determined to break off forever his intrigue +with Madame de Campvallon. For this rupture, which he had made it a +point of honor not to provoke, Madame de Campvallon had herself furnished +him a sufficient pretext. + +The criminal thought she had suggested was, he knew, only a feint to test +him, but it was enough to justify his abandonment of her. As to the +violent and menacing words the Marquise had used, he held them of little +value, though at times the remembrance of them troubled him. +Nevertheless, for many years he had not felt his heart so light. This +wicked tie once broken, it seemed as if he had resumed, with his liberty, +his youth and virtue. He walked and played a part of the day with his +little son. After dinner, just as night fell, clear and pure, he +proposed to Madame de Camors a tete-a-tete excursion in the woods. He +spoke to her of a view which had struck him shortly before on such a +night, and which would please, he said laughingly, her romantic taste. + +He would not permit himself to be surprised at the disinclination she +manifested, at the disquietude which her face indicated, or at the rapid +glance she exchanged with her mother. + +The same thought, and that a most fearful one; entered the minds of both +these unfortunate women at the same moment. + +They were still under the impression of the shock which had so weakened +their nerves, and the brusque proposition of M. de Camors, so contrary to +his usual habits-the hour, the night, and the solitary walk--had suddenly +awakened in their brains the sinister images which Madame de la Roche- +Jugan had laid there. Madame de Camors, however, with an air of +resolution the circumstances did not seem entitled to demand, prepared +immediately to go out, then followed her husband from the house, leaving +her little son in charge of her mother. They had only to cross the +garden to find themselves on the edge of the wood which almost touched +their dwelling, and which stretched to the old fields inherited from the +Comte de Tecle. The intention of Camors in seeking this tete-a-tete was +to confide to his wife the decisive determination he had taken of +delivering up to her absolutely and without reserve his heart and life, +and to enjoy in these solitudes his first taste of true happiness. +Surprised at the cold distraction with which his young wife replied to +the affectionate gayety of his language, he redoubled his efforts to +bring their conversation to a tone of more intimacy and confidence. +While stopping at intervals to point out to her some effects of light and +shadow in their walk, he began to question her on her recent trip to +Paris, and on the persons she had seen there. She named Madame Jaubert +and a few others; then, lowering her voice against her will, mentioned +Madame de la Roche-Jugan. + +"That one," said Camors, "you could very well have dispensed with. I +forgot to warn you that I no longer recognize her." + +"Why?" asked she, timidly. + +"Because she is a bad woman," said Camors. "When we are a little more +intimate with each other, you and I," he added, laughing, "I shall edify +you on this character, I shall tell you all--all, understand." + +There was so much of nature, and even of goodness in the accent with +which he pronounced these words, that the Countess felt her heart half +comforted from the oppression which had weighed it down. She gave +herself up with more abandon to the gracious advances of her husband and +to the slight incidents of her walk. + +The phantoms disappeared little by little from her mind, and she began to +say to herself that she had been the sport of a bad dream, and of a true +madness, when a singular change in her husband's face renewed all her +terrors. M. de Camors, in his turn, had become absent and visibly +preoccupied with some grave care. He spoke with an effort, made half +replies, meditated; then stopped quickly to look around him, like a +frightened child. These strange ways, so different from his former +temper, alarmed the young woman, the more so as she just then found +herself in the most distant part of the wood. + +There was an extraordinary similarity in the thoughts which occupied them +both. At the moment when Madame Camors was trembling for fear near her +husband, he was trembling for her. + +He thought he detected that they were followed; at different times he +thought he heard in the thicket the cracking of branches, rattling of +leaves, and finally the sound of stealthy steps. These noises always +ceased on his stopping, and began again the moment he resumed his walk. +He thought, a moment later, he saw the shadow of a man pass rapidly among +the underwood behind them. The idea of some woodman came first to his +mind, but he could not reconcile this with the persistence with which +they were followed. + +He finally had no doubt that they were dogged--but by whom? The repeated +menaces of Madame de Campvallon against the life of Madame de Camors, the +passionate and unbridled character of this woman, soon presented itself +to his thoughts, suggested this mysterious pursuit, and awakened these +frightful suspicions. + +He did not imagine for a moment that the Marquise would charge herself +personally with the infliction of her vengeance; but she had said--he +then remembered--that the hand would be found. She was rich enough to +find it, and this hand might now be here. + +He did not wish to alarm his wife by calling her attention to this +spectre, which he believed at her side, but he could not hide from her +his agitation, which every movement of his caused her to construe as +falsely as cruelly. + +"Marie," he said, "let us walk a little faster, I beg of you! I am +cold." + +He quickened his steps, resolved to return to the chateau by the public +road, which was bordered with houses. + +When he reached the border of the woods, although he thought he still +heard at intervals the sound which had alarmed him, he reassured himself +and resumed his flow of spirits as if a little ashamed even of his panic. +He stopped the Countess to look at the pretext of this excursion. This +was the rocky wall of the deep excavation of a marl-pit, long since +abandoned. The arbutus-trees of fantastic shape which covered the summit +of these rocks, the pendant vines, the sombre ivy which carpeted the +cliffs, the gleaming white stones, the vague reflections in the stagnant +pool at the bottom of the pit, the mysterious light of the moon, made a +scene of wild beauty. + +The ground in the neighborhood of the marl-pit was so irregular, and the +thorny underbrush so thick, that when pedestrians wished to reach the +nearest highway they, were compelled either to make a long detour or to +cross the deepest part of the excavation by means of the trunks of two +great trees, which had been cut in half, lashed together, and thrown +across the chasm. Thus they formed a crude bridge, affording a passage +across the deep hollow and adding to the picturesque aspect of this +romantic spot. + +Madame de Camors never had seen anything like this peculiar bridge, which +had been laid recently at her husband's orders. After they had gazed in +silence a moment into the depths of the marl-pit, Camors called his +wife's attention to the unique construction. + +"Do you intend to cross that?" she asked, briefly. + +"Yes, if you are not afraid," said Camors; "I shall be close beside you, +you know." + +He saw that she hesitated, and, looking at her closely in the moonlight, +he thought her face was strangely pale, and could not refrain from +saying: + +"I believed that you had more courage." + +She hesitated no longer, but stepped upon the dangerous bridge. In spite +of herself, she turned her head half around, in a backward glance, and +her steady step faltered. Suddenly she tottered. M. de Camors sprang +forward, and, in the agitation of the moment, seized her in an almost +violent grasp. The unhappy woman uttered a piercing shriek, made a +gesture as if to defend herself, repelling his touch; then, running +wildly across the bridge, she rushed into the woods. M. de Camors, +astounded, alarmed, not knowing how to interpret his wife's strange +conduct, immediately followed her. He found her a short distance beyond +the bridge, leaning against the first tree she had been able to reach. +She turned to face. him, with an expression of mingled terror and +menace, and as he approached, she shot forth the single word: + +"Coward!" + +He stared at her in sheer amazement. At that moment there was a sound of +hurried footsteps; a shadowy form glided toward them from the depth of +the thicket, and the next instant Camors recognized Madame de Tecle. She +ran, dishevelled and breathless, toward her daughter, seized her by the +hand and, drawing herself up, said to Camors: + +"If you kill one of us, kill both!" + +He understood the mystery in a flash. A stifled cry escaped him; for an +instant he buried his face in his hands; then; flinging out his arms in a +gesture of despair, he said: + +"So you took me for a murderer!" + +There was a moment of dead silence. + +"Well!" he cried, stamping his foot with sudden violence, "why do you +stay here, then? Run! Fly! Save yourselves from me!" + +Overcome with terror, the two women fled, the mother dragging her +daughter. The next moment they had disappeared in the darkness of the +woods. + +Camors remained in that lonely spot many hours, without being aware of +the passage of time. At intervals he paced feverishly to and fro along +the narrow strip of land between the woods and the bridge; then, stopping +short, with fixed eyes, he became lost in thought, and stood as +motionless as the trunk of the tree against which he leaned. If, as we +hope, there is a Divine hand which measures justly our sorrows according +to our sins, the unhappy man, in this dark hour, must have rendered his +account. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE CURTAIN FALLS + +The next morning the Marquise de Campvallon was strolling beside a large +circular sheet of water which ornamented the lower part of her park, the +metallic gleam of the rippling waves being discernible from afar through +the branches of the surrounding trees. + +She walked slowly along the bank of the lake, her head bowed, and the +long skirt of her mourning-robe sweeping the grass. Two large and +dazzlingly white swans, watching their mistress eagerly, in expectation +of receiving their usual titbits from her hands, swam close to the bank, +following her steps as if escorting her. + +Suddenly the Comte de Camors appeared before her. She had believed that +she never should see him again. She raised her head quickly and pressed +one hand to her heart. + +"Yes, it is I!" said Camors. "Give me your hand." + +She gave it to him. + +"You were right, Charlotte," he said, after a moment of silence. "Ties +like ours can not be broken. I have reflected on everything. I was +seized with a momentary cowardice, for which I have reproached myself +bitterly, and for which, moreover, I have been sufficiently punished. +But I come to you to ask your forgiveness." + +The Marquise led him tenderly into the deep shadow of the great plane- +trees that surrounded the lake; she knelt before him with theatric grace, +and fixed on him her swimming eyes. She covered his head with kisses. +He raised her and pressed her to his heart. + +"But you do not wish that crime to be committed?" he said in a low +voice. + +She bent her head with mournful indecision. + +"For that matter," he added, bitterly, "it would only make us worthier of +each other; for, as to myself, they have already believed me capable of +it." + +He took her arm and recounted to her briefly the scene of the night +before. + +He told her he had not returned home, and never should. This was the +result of his mournful meditations. To attempt an explanation with those +who had so mortally outraged him--to open to them the depth of his heart +--to allude to the criminal thought they had accused him of--he had +repelled with horror, the evening before, when proposed by another. He +thought of all this; but this humiliation--if he could have so abased +himself--would have been useless. How could he hope to conquer by these +words the distrust capable of creating such suspicions? + +He confusedly divined the origin, and understood that this distrust, +envenomed by remembrance of the past, was incurable. + +The sentiment of the irreparable, of revolted pride, indignation, and +even injustice, had shown him but one refuge, and it was this to which he +had fled. + +The Comtesse de Camors and Madame de Tecle learned only through their +servants and the public of the removal of the Count to a country-house he +had rented near the Chateau Campvallon. After writing ten letters--all +of which he had burned--he had decided to maintain an absolute silence. +They sometimes trembled at the thought he might take away his son. He +thought of it; but it was a kind of vengeance that he disdained. + +This move, which publicly proclaimed the relations existing between M. de +Camors and the Marquise, made a sensation in the Parisian world, where it +was soon known. It revived again the strange recollections and rumors +that all remembered. Camors heard of them, but despised them. + +His pride, which was then exasperated by a savage irritation, was +gratified at defying public opinion, which had been so easily duped +before. He knew there was no situation one could not impose upon the +world providing one had wealth and audacity. From this day he resumed +energetically the love of his life, his habits, his labors, and his +thoughts for the future. Madame de Campvallon was the confidante of all +his projects, and added her own care to them; and both occupied +themselves in organizing in advance their mutual existence, hereafter +blended forever. The personal fortune of M. de Camors, united to that of +the Marquise, left no limits to the fancies which their imagination could +devise. They arranged to live separately at Paris, though the Marquise's +salon should be common to both; but their double influence would shine at +the same time, and they would be the social centre of a sovereign +influence. The Marquise would reign by the splendor of her person over +the society of letters, art, and politics. Camors would there find the +means of action which could not fail to accomplish the high destiny to +which his talent and his ambition called him. + +This was the life that had appeared to them in the origin of their +liaison as a sort of ideal of human happiness--that of two superior +beings, who proudly shared, above the masses, all the pleasures of earth, +the intoxication of passion, the enjoyment of intellectual strength, the +satisfaction of pride, and the emotions of power. The eclat of such a +life would constitute the vengeance of Camors, and force to repent +bitterly those who had dared to misunderstand him. The recent mourning +of the Marquise commanded them, notwithstanding, to adjourn the +realization of their dream, if they did not wish to wound the conscience +of the public. They felt it, and resolved to travel for a few months +before settling in Paris. The time that passed in their preparations for +the future, and in arrangements for this voyage, was to Madame de +Campvallon the sweetest period of her life. She finally tasted to the +full an intimacy, so long troubled, of which the charm, in truth, was +very great; for her lover, as if to make her forget his momentary +desertion, was prodigal in the effusion of his tenderness. He brought to +private studies, as well as to their common schemes, an ardor, a fire, +which displayed itself in his face, in his eyes, and which seemed yet +more to heighten his manly beauty. It often happened, after quitting the +Marquise in the evening, that he worked very late at home, sometimes +until morning. One night, shortly before the day fixed for their +departure, a private servant of the Count, who slept in the room above +his master's, heard a noise which alarmed him. + +He went down in great haste, and found M. de Camors stretched apparently +lifeless on the floor at the foot of his desk. The servant, whose name +was Daniel, had all his master's confidence, and he loved him with that +singular affection which strong natures often inspire in their inferiors. + +He sent for Madame de Campvallon, who soon came. M. de Camors, +recovering from his fainting-fit, was very pale, and was walking across +the room when she entered. He seemed irritated at seeing her, and +rebuked his servant sharply for his ill-advised zeal. + +He said he had only had a touch of vertigo, to which he was subject. +Madame de Campvallon soon retired, having first supplicated him not to +overwork himself again. When he came to her next day, she could not help +being surprised at the dejection stamped on his face, which she +attributed to the attack he had had the night before. But when she spoke +of their approaching departure, she was astonished, and even alarmed by +his reply: + +"Let us defer it a little, I beg of you," he said. "I do not feel in a +state fit for travelling." + +Days passed; he made no further allusion to the voyage. He was serious, +silent, and cold. The active ardor, almost feverish, which had animated +until then his life, his speech, his eyes, was suddenly quenched. One +symptom which disquieted the Marquise above all was the absolute idleness +to which he now abandoned himself. + +He left her in the evening at an early hour. Daniel told the Marquise +that the Count worked no longer; that he heard him pacing up and down the +greater part of the night. At the same time his health failed visibly. +The Marquise ventured once to interrogate him. As they were both walking +one day in the park, she said: + +"You are hiding something from me. You suffer, my friend. What is the +cause?" + +"There is nothing." + +"I pray you tell me!" + +"Nothing is the matter with me," he replied, petulantly. + +"Is it your son that you regret?" + +"I regret nothing." After a few steps taken in silence--" When I think," +he said, quickly, "that there is one person in the world who considers me +a coward--for I hear always that word in my ear--and who treated me like +a coward, and who believed it when it was said, and believes it still! +If it had been a man, it would be easy, but it was a woman." + +After this sudden explosion he was silent. + +"Very well; what do you desire?" said the Marquise, with vexation. "Do +you wish that I should go and tell her the truth--tell her that you were +ready to defend her against me--that you love her, and hate me? If it be +that you wish, say so. I believe if this life continues I shall be +capable of doing anything!" + +"Do not you also outrage me! Dismiss me, if that will give you pleasure; +but I love you only. My pride bleeds, that is all; and I give you my +word of honor that if you ever affront me by going to justify me, I shall +never in my life see you or her. Embrace me!" and he pressed her to his +heart. + +She was calm for a few hours. + +The house he occupied was about to be taken again by its proprietor. The +middle of September approached, and it was the time when the Marquise was +in the habit of returning to Paris. She proposed to M. de Camors to +occupy the chateau during the few days he purposed passing in the +country. He accepted; but whenever she spoke of returning to Paris: + +"Why so soon?" he would say; "are we not very well here?" + +A little later she reminded him that the session of the Chamber was about +to open. He made his health a pretext for delay, saying that he felt +weak and wished to send in his resignation as deputy. She induced him +only by her urgent prayer to content himself with asking leave of +absence. + +"But you, my beloved!" he said, "I am condemning you to a sad +existence!" + +"With you," she replied, "I am happy everywhere and always!" + +It was not true that she was happy, but it was true that she loved him +and was devoted to him. There was no suffering she would not have +resigned herself to, no sacrifice she would not make, were it for him. + +From this moment the prospect of worldly sovereignty, which she thought +she had touched with her hand, escaped her. She had a presentiment of a +melancholy future of solitude, of renunciation, of secret tears; but near +him grief became a fete. One knows with what rapidity life passes with +those who busy themselves without distraction in some profound grief--the +days themselves are long, but the succession of them is rapid and +imperceptible. It was thus that the months and then the seasons +succeeded one another, for Camors and the Marquise, with a monotony that +left hardly any trace on their thoughts. Their daily relations were +marked, on the part of the Count with an invariably cold and distant +courtesy, and very often silence; on the part of the Marquise by an +attentive tenderness and a constrained grief. Every day they rode out on +horseback, both clad in black, sympathetic by their beauty and their +sadness, and surrounded in the country by distant respect. About the +beginning of the ensuing winter Madame de Campvallon experienced a +serious disquietude. Although M. de Camors never complained, it was +evident his health was gradually failing. A dark and almost clayey tint +covered his thin cheeks, and spread nearly to the whites of his eyes. +The Marquise showed some emotion on perceiving it, and persuaded him to +consult a physician. The physician perceived symptoms of chronic +debility. He did not think it dangerous, but recommended a season at +Vichy, a few hygienic precautions, and absolute repose of mind and body. + +When the Marquise proposed to Camors this visit to Vichy, he only +shrugged his shoulders without reply. + +A few days after, Madame de Campvallon on entering the stable one +morning, saw Medjid, the favorite mare of Camors, white with foam, +panting and exhausted. The groom explained, with some awkwardness, +the condition of the animal, by a ride the Count had taken that morning. +The Marquise had recourse to Daniel, of whom she made a confidant, +and having questioned him, drew out the acknowledgment that for some time +his master had been in the habit of going out in the evening and not +returning until morning. Daniel was in despair with these nightly +wanderings, which he said greatly fatigued his master. He ended by +confessing to Madame de Campvallon the goal of his excursions. + +The Comtesse de Camors, yielding to considerations the details of which +would not be interesting, had continued to live at Reuilly since her +husband had abandoned her. Reuilly was distant twelve leagues from +Campvallon, which could be made shorter by a crosscut. M. de Camors did +not hesitate to pass over this distance twice in the same night, to give +himself the emotion of breathing for a few minutes the same air with his +wife and child. + +Daniel had accompanied him two or three times, but the Count generally +went alone. He left his horse in the wood, and approached as near as he +could without risking discovery; and, hiding himself like a malefactor +behind the shadows of the trees, he watched the windows, the lights, the +house, the least signs of those dear beings, from whom an eternal abyss +had divided him. + +The Marquise, half frightened, half irritated, by an oddity which seemed +to border on madness, pretended to be ignorant of it. But these two +spirits were too accustomed to each other, day by day, to be able to hide +anything. He knew she was aware of his weakness, and seemed no longer to +care to make a mystery of it. + +One evening in the month of July, he left on horseback in the afternoon, +and did not return for dinner. He arrived at the woods of Reuilly at the +close of the day, as he had premeditated. He entered the garden with his +usual precaution, and, thanks to his knowledge of the habits of the +household, he could approach, without being noticed, the pavilion where +the Countess's chamber was situated, and which was also that of his son. +This chamber, by a particular arrangement of the house, was elevated at +the side of the court by the height of an entresol, but was level with +the garden. One of the windows was open, owing to the heat of the +evening. Camors hid himself behind the shutters, which were half closed, +and gazed eagerly into the chamber. + +He had not seen for two years either his wife, his child, or Madame de +Tecle. He now saw all three there. Madame de Tecle was working near the +chimney. Her face was unchanged. She had the same youthful look, but +her hair was as white, as snow. Madame de Camors was sitting on a couch +nearly in front of the window and undressing her son, at the same time +talking to and caressing him. + +The child, at a sign, knelt down at his mother's feet in his light night- +garments, and while she held his joined hands in her own, he began in a +loud voice his evening prayers. She whispered him from time to time a +word that escaped him. This prayer, composed of a number of phrases +adapted to a youthful mind, terminated with these words: "O God! be good +and merciful to my mother, my grandmother, to me--and above all, O God, +to my unfortunate father." He pronounced these words with childish +haste, but under a serious look from his mother, he repeated them +immediately, with some emotion, as a child who repeats the inflection of +a voice which has been taught him. + +Camors turned suddenly and retired noiselessly, leaving the garden by the +nearest gate. A fixed idea tortured him. He wished to see his son--to +speak to him--to embrace him, and to press him to his heart. After that, +he cared for little. + +He remembered they had formerly the habit of taking the child to the +dairy every morning to give him a cup of milk. He hoped they had +continued this custom. Morning arrived, and soon came the hour for which +he waited. He hid himself in the walk which led to the farm. He heard +the noise of feet, of laughter, and of joyous cries, and his son suddenly +appeared running in advance. He was a charming little boy of five or six +years, of a graceful and proud mien. On perceiving M. de Camors in the +middle of the walk he stopped, he hesitated at this unknown or half- +forgotten face; but the tender and half-supplicating smile of Camors +reassured him. + +"Monsieur!" he said, doubtfully. + +Camors opened his arms and bent as if to kneel before him. + +"Come and embrace me, I beg of you," he murmured. + +The child had already advanced smiling, when the woman who was following +him, who was his old nurse, suddenly appeared. 'She made a gesture of +fright: + +"Your father!" she said, in a stifled voice. + +At these words the child uttered a cry of terror, rushed back to the +nurse, pressed against her, and regarded his father with frightened eyes. + +The nurse took him by the arm, and earned him off in great haste. + +M. de Camors did not weep. A frightful contraction distorted the corners +of his mouth, and exaggerated the thinness of his cheeks. He had two or +three shudderings as if seized with sudden fever. He slowly passed his +hand over his forehead, sighed profoundly, and departed. + +Madame de Campvallon knew nothing of this sad scene, but she saw its +consequences; and she herself felt them bitterly. The character of M. de +Camors, already so changed, became after this unrecognizable. He showed +her no longer even the cold politeness he had manifested for her up to +that period. He exhibited a strange antipathy toward her. He fled from +her. She perceived he avoided even touching her hand. + +They saw each other rarely now. The health of Camors did not admit of +his taking regular meals. These two desolate existences offered then, +in the midst of the almost royal state which surrounded them, a spectacle +of pity. + +In this magnificent park--across these beautiful gardens, with great +vases of marble--under long arcades of verdure peopled with more statues- +both wandered separately, like two sad shadows, meeting sometimes but +never speaking. + +One day, near the end of September, Camors did not descend from his +apartment. Daniel told the Marquise he had given orders to let no one +enter. + +"Not even me?" she said. He bent his head mournfully. She insisted. + +"Madame, I should lose my place!" + +The Count persisted in this mania of absolute seclusion. She was +compelled from this moment to content herself with the news she obtained +from his servant. M. de Camors was not bedridden. He passed his time in +a sad reverie, lying on his divan. He got up at intervals, wrote a few +lines, then lay down again. His weakness appeared great, though he did +not complain of any suffering. + +After two or three weeks, the Marquise read in the features of Daniel a +more marked disquietude than usual. He supplicated her to call in the +country physician who had once before seen him. It was so decided. +The unfortunate woman, when the physician was shown into the Count's +apartment, leaned against the door listening in agony. She thought she +heard the voice of Camors loudly raised, then the noise ceased. + +The doctor, when departing, simply said to her: "Madame, his sad case +appears to me serious--but not hopeless. I did not wish to press him +to-day, but he allows me to return tomorrow." + +In the night which followed, at two o'clock, Madame de Campvallon heard +some one calling her, and recognized the voice of Daniel. She rose +immediately, threw a mantle around her, and admitted him. + +"Madame," he said, "Monsieur le Comte asks for you," and burst into +tears. + +"Mon Dieu! what is the matter?" + +"Come, Madame--you must hasten!" + +She accompanied him immediately. From the moment she put her foot in the +chamber, she could not deceive herself--Death was there. Crushed by +sorrow, this existence, so full, so proud, so powerful, was about to +terminate. The head of Camors, turned on the pillow, seemed already to +have assumed a death-like immobility. His beautiful features, sharpened +by suffering, took the rigid outline of sculpture; his eye alone yet +lived and looked at her. + +She approached him hastily and wished to seize the hand resting on the +sheet. + +He withdrew it. She gave a despairing groan. He continued to look +fixedly at her. She thought he was trying to speak, but could not; but +his eyes spoke. They addressed to her some request, at the same time +with an imperious though supplicating expression, which she doubtless +understood; for she said aloud, with an accent full of sadness and +tenderness: + +"I promise it to you." + +He appeared to make a painful effort, and his look indicated a large +sealed letter lying on the bed. She took it, and read on the envelope- +"To my son." + +"I promise you," she said, again, falling on her knees, and moistening +the sheet with her tears. + +He extended his hand toward her. "Thanks!" was all he said. Her tears +flowed faster. She set her lips on this hand already cold. When she +raised her head, she saw at the same instant the eyes of Camors slightly +moist, rolling wildly--then extinguished! She uttered a cry, threw +herself on the bed, and kissed madly those eyes still open--yet void of +light forever! + +Thus ended Camors, who was a great sinner, but nevertheless a MAN! + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man never should kneel unless sure of rising a conqueror +One of those pious persons who always think evil + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Monsieur de Camors, v3 +by Octave Feuillet + diff --git a/3945.zip b/3945.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1d412be --- /dev/null +++ b/3945.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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