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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3958.txt b/3958.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a3d4e4d --- /dev/null +++ b/3958.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1956 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Romance of Youth by Francois Coppee, v1 +#45 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#1 in our series by Francois Coppee + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!!!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. + +Please do not remove this. + +This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. +Do not change or edit it without written permission. 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His +father was a minor 'employe' in the French War Office; and, as the family +consisted of six the parents, three daughters, and a son (the subject of +this essay)--the early years of the poet were not spent in great luxury. +After the father's death, the young man himself entered the governmental +office with its monotonous work. In the evening he studied hard at St. +Genevieve Library. He made rhymes, had them even printed (Le Reliquaire, +1866); but the public remained indifferent until 1869, when his comedy in +verse, 'Le Passant', appeared. From this period dates the reputation of +Coppee--he woke up one morning a "celebrated man." + +Like many of his countrymen, he is a poet, a dramatist, a novelist, and a +writer of fiction. He was elected to the French Academy in 1884. Smooth +shaven, of placid figure, with pensive eyes, the hair brushed back +regularly, the head of an artist, Coppee can be seen any day looking over +the display of the Parisian secondhand booksellers on the Quai Malaquais; +at home on the writing-desk, a page of carefully prepared manuscript, yet +sometimes covered by cigarette-ashes; upon the wall, sketches by Jules +Lefebvre and Jules Breton; a little in the distance, the gaunt form of +his attentive sister and companion, Annette, occupied with household +cares, ever fearful of disturbing him. Within this tranquil domicile can +be heard the noise of the Parisian faubourg with its thousand different +dins; the bustle of the street; the clatter of a factory; the voice of +the workshop; the cries of the pedlers intermingled with the chimes of +the bells of a near-by convent-a confusing buzzing noise, which the +author, however, seems to enjoy; for Coppee is Parisian by birth, +Parisian by education, a Parisian of the Parisians. + +If as a poet we contemplate him, Coppee belongs to the group commonly +called "Parnassiens"--not the Romantic School, the sentimental lyric +effusion of Lamartine, Hugo, or De Musset! When the poetical lute was +laid aside by the triad of 1830, it was taken up by men of quite +different stamp, of even opposed tendencies. Observation of exterior +matters was now greatly adhered to in poetry; it became especially +descriptive and scientific; the aim of every poet was now to render most +exactly, even minutely, the impressions received, or faithfully to +translate into artistic language a thesis of philosophy, a discovery of +science. With such a poetical doctrine, you will easily understand the +importance which the "naturalistic form" henceforth assumed. + +Coppee, however, is not only a maker of verses, he is an artist and a +poet. Every poem seems to have sprung from a genuine inspiration. When +he sings, it is because he has something to sing about, and the result is +that his poetry is nearly always interesting. Moreover, he respects the +limits of his art; for while his friend and contemporary, M. Sully- +Prudhomme, goes astray habitually into philosophical speculation, and his +immortal senior, Victor Hugo, often declaims, if one may venture to say +so, in a manner which is tedious, Coppee sticks rigorously to what may be +called the proper regions of poetry. + +Francois Coppee is not one of those superb high priests disdainful of the +throng: he is the poet of the "humble," and in his work, 'Les Humbles', +he paints with a sincere emotion his profound sympathy for the sorrows, +the miseries, and the sacrifices of the meek. Again, in his 'Grave des +Forgerons, Le Naufrage, and L'Epave', all poems of great extension and +universal reputation, he treats of simple existences, of unknown +unfortunates, and of sacrifices which the daily papers do not record. +The coloring and designing are precise, even if the tone be somewhat +sombre, and nobody will deny that Coppee most fully possesses the +technique of French poetry. + +But Francois Coppee is known to fame as a prosewriter, too. His 'Contes +en prose' and his 'Vingt Contes Nouveaux' are gracefully and artistically +told; scarcely one of the 'contes' fails to have a moral motive. The +stories are short and naturally slight; some, indeed, incline rather to +the essay than to the story, but each has that enthralling interest which +justifies its existence. Coppee possesses preeminently the gift of +presenting concrete fact rather than abstraction. A sketch, for +instance, is the first tale written by him, 'Une Idylle pendant le Seige' +(1875). In a novel we require strong characterization, great grasp of +character, and the novelist should show us the human heart and intellect +in full play and activity. In 1875 appeared also 'Olivier', followed by +'L'Exilee (1876); Recits et Elegies (1878); Vingt Contes Nouveaux (1883); +and Toute une Jeunesse', mainly an autobiography, crowned by acclaim by +the Academy. 'Le Coupable' was published in 1897. Finally, in 1898, +appeared 'La Bonne Souffrance'. In the last-mentioned work it would seem +that the poet, just recovering from a severe malady, has returned to the +dogmas of the Catholic Church, wherefrom he, like so many of his +contemporaries, had become estranged when a youth. The poems of 1902, +'Dans la Priere et dans la Lutte', tend to confirm the correctness of +this view. + +Thanks to the juvenile Sarah Bernhardt, Coppee became, as before +mentioned, like Byron, celebrated in one night. This happened through +the performance of 'Le Passant'. + +As interludes to the plays there are "occasional" theatrical pieces, +written for the fiftieth anniversary of the performance of 'Hernani' +or the two-hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the "Comedie +Francaise." This is a wide field, indeed, which M. Coppee has cultivated +to various purposes. + +Take Coppee's works in their sum and totality, and the world-decree is +that he is an artist, and an admirable one. He plays upon his instrument +with all power and grace. But he is no mere virtuoso. There is +something in him beyond the executant. Of Malibran, Alfred de Musset +says, most beautifully, that she had that "voice of the heart which alone +has power to reach the heart." Here, also, behind the skilful player on +language, the deft manipulator of rhyme and rhythm, the graceful and +earnest writer, one feels the beating of a human heart. One feels that +he is giving us personal impressions of life and its joys and sorrows; +that his imagination is powerful because it is genuinely his own; that +the flowers of his fancy spring spontaneously from the soil. Nor can I +regard it as aught but an added grace that the strings of his instrument +should vibrate so readily to what is beautiful and unselfish and delicate +in human feeling. + JOSE DE HEREDIA + de l'Academie Francaise. + + + + + +A ROMANCE OF YOUTH + + + +BOOK 1. + + +CHAPTER I + +ON THE BALCONY + +As far back as Amedee Violette can remember, he sees himself in an +infant's cap upon a fifth-floor balcony covered with convolvulus; the +child was very small, and the balcony seemed very large to him. Amedee +had received for a birthday present a box of water-colors, with which he +was sprawled out upon an old rug, earnestly intent upon his work of +coloring the woodcuts in an odd volume of the 'Magasin Pittoresque', and +wetting his brush from time to time in his mouth. The neighbors in the +next apartment had a right to one-half of the balcony. Some one in there +was playing upon the piano Marcailhou's Indiana Waltz, which was all the +rage at that time. Any man, born about the year 1845, who does not feel +the tears of homesickness rise to his eyes as he turns over the pages of +an old number of the 'Magasin Pittoresque', or who hears some one play +upon an old piano Marcailhou's Indiana Waltz, is not endowed with much +sensibility. + +When the child was tired of putting the "flesh color" upon the faces of +all the persons in the engravings, he got up and went to peep through the +railings of the balustrade. He saw extending before him, from right to +left, with a graceful curve, the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, one of the +quietest streets in the Luxembourg quarter, then only half built up. +The branches of the trees spread over the wooden fences, which enclosed +gardens so silent and tranquil that passers by could hear the birds +singing in their cages. + +It was a September afternoon, with a broad expanse of pure sky across +which large clouds, like mountains of silver, moved in majestic slowness. + +Suddenly a soft voice called him: + +"Amedee, your father will return from the office soon. We must wash your +hands before we sit down to the table, my darling." + +His mother came out upon the balcony for him. His mother; his dear +mother, whom he knew for so short a time! It needs an effort for him to +call her to mind now, his memories are so indistinct. She was so modest +and pretty, so pale, and with such charming blue eyes, always carrying +her head on one side, as if the weight of her lovely chestnut hair was +too heavy for her to bear, and smiling the sweet, tired smile of those +who have not long to live! She made his toilette, kissed him upon his +forehead, after brushing his hair. Then she laid their modest table, +which was always decorated with a pretty vase of flowers. Soon the +father entered. He was one of those mild, unpretentious men who let +everybody run over them. + +He tried to be gay when he entered his own house. He raised his little +boy aloft with one arm, before kissing him, exclaiming, "Houp la!" A +moment later he kissed his young wife and held her close to him, +tenderly, as he asked, with an anxious look: + +"Have you coughed much to-day?" + +She always replied, hanging her head like a child who tells an untruth, +"No, not very much." + +The father would then put on an old coat--the one he took off was not +very new. Amedee was then seated in a high chair before his mug, and the +young mother, going into the kitchen, would bring in the supper. After +opening his napkin, the father would brush back behind his ear with his +hand a long lock on the right side, that always fell into his eyes. + +"Is there too much of a breeze this evening? you afraid to go out upon +the balcony, Lucie? Put a shawl on, then," said M. Violette, while his +wife was pouring the water remaining in the carafe upon a box where some +nasturtiums were growing. + +"No, Paul, I am sure--take Amedee down from his chair, and let us go out +upon the balcony." + +It was cool upon this high balcony. The sun had set, and now the great +clouds resembled mountains of gold, and a fresh odor came up from the +surrounding gardens. + +"Good-evening, Monsieur Violette," suddenly said a cordial voice. "What +a fine evening!" + +It was their neighbor, M. Gerard, an engraver, who had also come to take +breath upon his end of the balcony, having spent the entire day bent over +his work. He was large and bald-headed, with a good-natured face, a red +beard sprinkled with white hairs, and he wore a short, loose coat. As he +spoke he lighted his clay pipe, the bowl of which represented Abd-el- +Kader's face, very much colored, save the eyes and turban, which were of +white enamel. + +The engraver's wife, a dumpy little woman with merry eyes, soon joined +her husband, pushing before her two little girls; one, the smaller of the +two, was two years younger than Amedee; the other was ten years old, and +already had a wise little air. She was the pianist who practised one +hour a day Marcailhou's Indiana Waltz. + +The children chattered through the trellis that divided the balcony in +two parts. Louise, the elder of the girls, knew how to read, and told +the two little ones very beautiful stories: Joseph sold by his brethren; +Robinson Crusoe discovering the footprints of human beings. + +Amedee, who now has gray hair upon his temples, can still remember the +chills that ran down his back at the moment when the wolf, hidden under +coverings and the grandmother's cap, said, with a gnashing of teeth, to +little Red Riding Hood: "All the better to eat you with, my child." + +It was almost dark then upon the terrace. It was all delightfully +terrible! + +During this time the two families, in their respective parts of the +balcony, were talking familiarly together. The Violettes were quiet +people, and preferred rather to listen to their neighbors than to talk +themselves, making brief replies for politeness' sake--"Ah!" "Is it +possible?" "You are right." + +The Gerards liked to talk. Madame Gerard, who was a good housekeeper, +discussed questions of domestic economy; telling, for example, how she +had been out that day, and had seen, upon the Rue du Bac, some merino: +"A very good bargain, I assure you, Madame, and very wide!" Or perhaps +the engraver, who was a simple politician, after the fashion of 1848, +would declare that we must accept the Republic, "Oh, not the red-hot, you +know, but the true, the real one!" Or he would wish that Cavaignac had +been elected President at the September balloting; although he himself +was then engraving--one must live, after all--a portrait of Prince Louis +Napoleon, destined for the electoral platform. M. and Madame Violette +let them talk; perhaps even they did not always pay attention to the +conversation. When it was dark they held each other's hands and gazed at +the stars. + +These lovely, cool, autumnal evenings, upon the balcony, under the starry +heavens, are the most distant of all Amedee's memories. Then there was a +break in his memory, like a book with several leaves torn out, after +which he recalls many sad days. + +Winter had come, and they no longer spent their evenings upon the +balcony. One could see nothing now through the windows but a dull, gray +sky. Amedee's mother was ill and always remained in her bed. When he +was installed near the bed, before a little table, cutting out with +scissors the hussars from a sheet of Epinal, his poor mamma almost +frightened him, as she leaned her elbow upon the pillow and gazed at him +so long and so sadly, while her thin white hands restlessly pushed back +her beautiful, disordered hair, and two red hectic spots burned under her +cheekbones. + +It was not she who now came to take him from his bed in the morning, but +an old woman in a short jacket, who did not kiss him, and who smelled +horribly of snuff. + +His father, too, did not pay much attention to him now. When he returned +in the evening from the office he always brought bottles and little +packages from the apothecary. Sometimes he was accompanied by the +physician, a large man, very much dressed and perfumed, who panted for +breath after climbing the five flights of stairs. Once Amedee saw this +stranger put his arms around his mother as she sat in her bed, and lay +his head for a long time against her back. The child asked, "What for, +mamma?" + +M. Violette, more nervous than ever, and continually throwing back the +rebellious lock behind his ear, would accompany the doctor to the door +and stop there to talk with him. Then Amedee's mother would call to him, +and he would climb upon the bed, where she would gaze at him with her +bright eyes and press him to her breast, saying, in a sad tone, as if she +pitied him: "My poor little Medee! My poor little Medee!" Why was it? +What did it all mean? + +His father would return with a forced smile which was pitiful to see. + +"Well, what did the doctor say?" + +"Oh, nothing, nothing! You are much better. Only, my poor Lucie, we +must put on another blister to-night." + +Oh, how monotonous and slow these days were to the little Amedee, near +the drowsy invalid, in the close room smelling of drugs, where only the +old snuff-taker entered once an hour to bring a cup of tea or put +charcoal upon the fire! + +Sometimes their neighbor, Madame Gerard, would come to inquire after the +sick lady. + +"Still very feeble, my good Madame Gerard," his mother would respond. +"Ah, I am beginning to get discouraged." + +But Madame Gerard would not let her be despondent. + +"You see, Madame Violette, it is this horrible, endless winter. It is +almost March now; they are already selling boxes of primroses in little +carts on the sidewalks. You will surely be better as soon as the sun +shines. If you like, I will take little Amedee back with me to play with +my little girls. It will amuse the child." + +So it happened that the good neighbor kept the child every afternoon, and +he became very fond of the little Gerard children. + +Four little rooms, that is all; but with a quantity of old, picturesque +furniture; engravings, casts, and pictures painted by comrades were on +the walls; the doors were always open, and the children could always play +where they liked, chase each other through the apartments or pillage +them. In the drawing-room, which had been transformed into a work-room, +the artist sat upon a high stool, point in hand; the light from a +curtainless window, sifting through the transparent paper, made the +worthy man's skull shine as he leaned over his copper plate. He worked +hard all day; with an expensive house and two girls to bring up, it was +necessary. In spite of his advanced opinions, he continued to engrave +his Prince Louis--"A rogue who is trying to juggle us out of a Republic." +At the very most, he stopped only two or three times a day to smoke his +Abu-el-Kader. Nothing distracted him from his work; not even the little +ones, who, tired of playing their piece for four hands upon the piano, +would organize, with Amedee, a game of hide-and-seek close by their +father, behind the old Empire sofa ornamented with bronze lions' heads. +But Madame Gerard, in her kitchen, where she was always cooking something +good for dinner, sometimes thought they made too great an uproar. Then +Maria, a real hoyden, in trying to catch her sister, would push an old +armchair against a Renaissance chest and make all the Rouen crockery +tremble. + +"Now then, now then, children!" exclaimed Madame Gerard, from the depths +of her lair, from which escaped a delicious odor of bacon. "Let your +father have a little quiet, and go and play in the dining-room." + +They obeyed; for there they could move chairs as they liked, build houses +of them, and play at making calls. Did ever anybody have such wild ideas +at five years of age as this Maria? She took the arm of Amedee, whom she +called her little husband, and went to call upon her sister and show her +her little child, a pasteboard doll with a large head, wrapped up in a +napkin. + +"As you see, Madame, it is a boy." + +"What do you intend to make of him when he grows up?" asked Louise, who +lent herself complacently to the play, for she was ten years old and +quite a young lady, if you please. + +"Why, Madame," replied Maria, gravely, "he will be a soldier." + +At that moment the engraver, who had left his bench to stretch his legs a +little and to light his Abd-el-Kader for the third time, came and stood +at the threshold of his room. Madame Gerard, reassured as to the state +of her stew, which was slowly cooking--and oh, how good it smelled in the +kitchen!--entered the dining-room. Both looked at the children, so +comical and so graceful, as they made their little grimaces! Then the +husband glanced at his wife, and the wife at the husband, and both burst +out into hearty laughter. + +There never was any laughter in the apartment of the Violettes. It was +cough! cough! cough! almost to suffocation, almost to death! This gentle +young woman with the heavy hair was about to die! When the beautiful +starry evenings should come again, she would no longer linger on the +balcony, or press her husband's hand as they gazed at the stars. Little +Amedee did not understand it; but he felt a vague terror of something +dreadful happening in the house. Everything alarmed him now. He was +afraid of the old woman who smelled of snuff, and who, when she dressed +him in the morning, looked at him with a pitying air; he was afraid of +the doctor, who climbed the five flights of stairs twice a day now, and +left a whiff of perfume behind him; afraid of his father, who did not go +to his office any more, whose beard was often three days old, and who +feverishly paced the little parlor, tossing back with a distracted +gesture the lock of hair behind his ear. He was afraid of his mother, +alas! of his mother, whom he had seen that evening, by the light from the +night-lamp, buried in the pillows, her delicate nose and chin thrown up, +and who did not seem to recognize him, in spite of her wide-open eyes, +when his father took her child in his arms and leaned over her with him +that he might kiss her cold forehead covered with sweat! + +At last the terrible day arrived, a day that Amedee never will forget, +although he was then a very small child. + +What awakened him that morning was his father's embrace as he came and +took him from his bed. His father's eyes were wild and bloodshot from so +much crying. Why was their neighbor, M. Gerard, there so early in the +morning, and with great tears rolling down his cheeks too? He kept +beside M. Violette, as if watching him, and patted him upon the back +affectionately, saying: + +"Now then, my poor friend! Have courage, courage!" + +But the poor friend had no more. He let M. Gerard take the child from +him, and then his head fell like a dead person's upon the good engraver's +shoulder, and he began to weep with heavy sobs that shook his whole body. + +"Mamma! See mamma!" cried the little Amedee, full of terror. + +Alas! he never will see her again! At the Gerards, where they carried +him and the kind neighbor dressed him, they told him that his mother had +gone for a long time, a very long time; that he must love his papa very +much and think only of him; and other things that he could not understand +and dared not ask the meaning of, but which filled him with +consternation. + +It was strange! The engraver and his wife busied themselves entirely +with him, watching him every moment. The little ones, too, treated him +in a singular, almost respectful manner. What had caused such a change? +Louise did not open her piano, and when little Maria wished to take her +"menagerie" from the lower part of the buffet, Madame Gerard said +sharply, as she wiped the tears from her eyes: "You must not play to- +day." + +After breakfast Madame Gerard put on her hat and shawl and went out, +taking Amedee with her. They got into a carriage that took them through +streets that the child did not know, across a bridge in the middle of +which stood a large brass horseman, with his head crowned with laurel, +and stopped before a large house and entered with the crowd, where a very +agile and rapid young man put some black clothes on Amedee. + +On their return the child found his father seated at the dining-room +table with M. Gerard, and both of them were writing addresses upon large +sheets of paper bordered with black. M. Violette was not crying, but his +face showed deep lines of grief, and he let his lock of hair fall over +his right eye. + +At the sight of little Amedee, in his black clothes, he uttered a groan, +and arose, staggering like a drunken man, bursting into tears again. + +Oh, no! he never will forget that day, nor the horrible next day, when +Madame Gerard came and dressed him in the morning in his black clothes, +while he listened to the noise of heavy feet and blows from a hammer in +the next room. He suddenly remembered that he had not seen his mother +since two days before. + +"Mamma! I want to see mamma!" + +It was necessary then to try to make him understand the truth. Madame +Gerard repeated to him that he ought to be very wise and good, and try to +console his father, who had much to grieve him; for his mother had gone +away forever; that she was in heaven. + +In heaven! heaven is very high up and far off. If his mother was in +heaven, what was it that those porters dressed in black carried away in +the heavy box that they knocked at every turn of the staircase? What did +that solemn carriage, which he followed through all the rain, quickening +his childish steps, with his little hand tightly clasped in his father's, +carry away? What did they bury in that hole, from which an odor of +freshly dug earth was emitted--in that hole surrounded by men in black, +and from which his father turned away his head in horror? What was it +that they hid in this ditch, in this garden full of crosses and stone +urns, where the newly budded trees shone in the March sun after the +shower, large drops of water still falling from their branches like +tears? + +His mother was in heaven! On the evening of that dreadful day Amedee +dared not ask to "see mamma" when he was seated before his father at the +table, where, for a long time, the old woman in a short jacket had placed +only two plates. The poor widower, who had just wiped his eyes with his +napkin, had put upon one of the plates a little meat cut up in bits for +Amedee. He was very pale, and as Amedee sat in his high chair, he asked +himself whether he should recognize his mother's sweet, caressing look, +some day, in one of those stars that she loved to watch, seated upon the +balcony on cool September nights, pressing her husband's hand in the +darkness. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +SAD CHANGES + +Trees are like men; there are some that have no luck. A genuinely +unfortunate tree was the poor sycamore which grew in the playground of an +institution for boys on the Rue de la Grande-Chaumiere, directed by +M. Batifol. + +Chance might just as well have made it grow upon the banks of a river, +upon some pretty bluff, where it might have seen the boats pass; or, +better still, upon the mall in some garrison village, where it could have +had the pleasure of listening twice a week to military music. But, no! +it was written in the book of fate that this unlucky sycamore should lose +its bark every summer, as a serpent changes its skin, and should scatter +the ground with its dead leaves at the first frost, in the playground of +the Batifol institution, which was a place without any distractions. + +This solitary tree, which was like any other sycamore, middle-aged and +without any singularities, ought to have had the painful feeling that it +served in a measure to deceive the public. In fact, upon the +advertisement of the Batifol institution (Cours du lycee Henri IV. +Preparation au baccalaureat et aux ecoles de l'Etat), one read these +fallacious words, "There is a garden;" when in reality it was only a +vulgar court graveled with stones from the river, with a paved gutter in +which one could gather half a dozen of lost marbles, a broken top, and a +certain number of shoe-nails, and after recreation hours still more. +This solitary sycamore was supposed to justify the illusion and fiction +of the garden promised in the advertisement; but as trees certainly have +common sense, this one should have been conscious that it was not a +garden of itself. + +It was a very unjust fate for an inoffensive tree which never had harmed +anybody; only expanding, at one side of the gymnasium portico, in a +perfect rectangle formed by a prison wall, bristling with the glass of +broken bottles, and by three buildings of distressing similarity, +showing, above the numerous doors on the ground floor, inscriptions which +merely to read induced a yawn: Hall 1, Hall 2, Hall 3, Hall 4, Stairway +A, Stairway B, Entrance to the Dormitories, Dining-room, Laboratory. + +The poor sycamore was dying of ennui in this dismal place. Its only +happy seasons--the recreation hours, when the court echoed with the +shouts and the laughter of the boys--were spoiled for it by the sight of +two or three pupils who were punished by being made to stand at the foot +of its trunk. Parisian birds, who are not fastidious, rarely lighted +upon the tree, and never built their nests there. It might even be +imagined that this disenchanted tree, when the wind agitated its foliage, +would charitably say, "Believe me! the place is good for nothing. Go +and make love elsewhere!" + +In the shade of this sycamore, planted under an unlucky star, the greater +part of Amedee's infancy was passed. + +M. Violette was an employe of the Ministry, and was obliged to work seven +hours a day, one or two hours of which were devoted to going wearily +through a bundle of probably superfluous papers and documents. The rest +of the time was given to other occupations as varied as they were +intellectual; such as yawning, filing his nails, talking about his +chiefs, groaning over the slowness of promotion, cooking a potato or a +sausage in the stove for his luncheon, reading the newspaper down to the +editor's signature, and advertisements in which some country cure +expresses his artless gratitude at being cured at last of an obstinate +disease. In recompense for this daily captivity, M. Violette received, +at the end of the month, a sum exactly sufficient to secure his household +soup and beef, with a few vegetables. + +In order that his son might attain such a distinguished position, +M. Violette's father, a watch-maker in Chartres, had sacrificed +everything, and died penniless. The Silvio Pellico official, during +these exasperating and tiresome hours, sometimes regretted not having +simply succeeded his father. He could see himself, in imagination, in +the light little shop near the cathedral, with a magnifying-glass fixed +in his eye, ready to inspect some farmer's old "turnip," and suspended +over his bench thirty silver and gold watches left by farmers the week +before, who would profit by the next market-day to come and get them, all +going together with a merry tick. It may be questioned whether a trade +as low as this would have been fitting for a young man of education, a +Bachelor of Arts, crammed with Greek roots and quotations, able to prove +the existence of God, and to recite without hesitation the dates of the +reigns of Nabonassar and of Nabopolassar. This watch-maker, this simple +artisan, understood modern genius better. This modest shopkeeper acted +according to the democratic law and followed the instinct of a noble and +wise ambition. He made of his son--a sensible and intelligent boy--a +machine to copy documents, and spend his days guessing the conundrums in +the illustrated newspapers, which he read as easily as M. Ledrain would +decipher the cuneiform inscriptions on an Assyrian brick. Also-- +an admirable result, which should rejoice the old watch-maker's shade-- +his son had become a gentleman, a functionary, so splendidly remunerated +by the State that he was obliged to wear patches of cloth, as near like +the trousers as possible, on their seat; and his poor young wife, during +her life, had always been obliged, as rent-day drew near, to carry the +soup-ladle and six silver covers to the pawn-shop. + +At all events, M. Violette was a widower now, and being busy all day was +very much embarrassed with the care of his little son. His neighbors, +the Gerards, were very kind to Amedee, and continued to keep him with +them all the afternoon. This state of affairs could not always continue, +and M. Violette hesitated to abuse his worthy friends' kindness in that +way. + +However, Amedee gave them little trouble, and Mamma Gerard loved him as +if he were her own. The orphan was now inseparable from little Maria, a +perfect little witch, who became prettier every day. The engraver, +having found in a cupboard the old bearskin cap which he had worn as a +grenadier in the National Guard, a headdress that had been suppressed +since '98, gave it to the children. What a magnificent plaything it was, +and how well calculated to excite their imagination! It was immediately +transformed in their minds into a frightfully large and ferocious bear, +which they chased through the apartment, lying in wait for it behind +armchairs, striking at it with sticks, and puffing out their little +cheeks with all their might to say "Boum!" imitating the report of a +gun. This hunting diversion completed the destruction of the old +furniture. Tranquil in the midst of the joyous uproar and disorder, the +engraver was busily at work finishing off the broad ribbon of the Legion +of Honor, and the large bullion epaulettes of the Prince President, whom, +as a suspicious republican and foreseeing the 'coup d'etat', he detested +with all his heart. + +"Truly, Monsieur Violette," said Mother Gerard to the employe, when he +came for his little son upon his return from the office, and excused +himself for the trouble that the child must give his neighbors, "truly, I +assure you, he does not disturb us in the least. Wait a little before +you send him to school. He is very quiet, and if Maria did not excite +him so--upon my word, she is more of a boy than he--your Amedee would +always be looking at the pictures. My Louise hears him read every day +two pages in the Moral Tales, and yesterday he amused Gerard by telling +him the story of the grateful elephant. He can go to school later--wait +a little." + +But M. Violette had decided to send Amedee to M. Batifol's. "Oh, yes, as +a day scholar, of course! It is so convenient; not two steps' distance. +This will not prevent little Amedee from seeing his friends often. He is +nearly seven years old, and very backward; he hardly knows how to make +his letters. One can not begin with children too soon," and much more to +the same effect. + +This was the reason why, one fine spring day, M. Violette was ushered +into M. Batifol's office, who, the servant said, would be there directly. + +M. Batifol's office was hideous. In the three bookcases which the master +of the house--a snob and a greedy schoolmaster--never opened, were some +of those books that one can buy upon the quays by the running yard; for +example, Laharpe's Cours de Litterature, and an endless edition of +Rollin, whose tediousness seems to ooze out through their bindings. The +cylindrical office-table, one of those masterpieces of veneered mahogany +which the Faubourg St. Antoine still keeps the secret of making, was +surmounted by a globe of the world. + +Suddenly, through the open window, little Amedee saw the sycamore in the +yard. A young blackbird, who did not know the place, came and perched +for an instant only upon one of its branches. + +We may fancy the tree saying to it: + +"What are you doing here? The Luxembourg is only a short distance from +here, and is charming. Children are there, making mud-pies, nurses upon +the seats chattering with the military, lovers promenading, holding +hands. Go there, you simpleton!" + +The blackbird flew away, and the university tree, once more solitary and +alone, drooped its dispirited leaves. Amedee, in his confused childish +desire for information, was just ready to ask why this sycamore looked so +morose, when the door opened and M. Batifol appeared. The master of the +school had a severe aspect, in spite of his almost indecorous name. +He resembled a hippopotamus clothed in an ample black coat. He entered +slowly and bowed in a dignified way to M. Violette, then seated himself +in a leather armchair before his papers, and, taking off his velvet +skull-cap, revealed such a voluminous round, yellow baldness that little +Amedee compared it with terror to the globe on the top of his desk. + +It was just the same thing! These two round balls were twins! There was +even upon M. Batifol's cranium an eruption of little red pimples, grouped +almost exactly like an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. + +"Whom have I the honor--?" asked the schoolmaster, in an unctuous voice, +an excellent voice for proclaiming names at the distribution of prizes. + +M. Violette was not a brave man. It was very foolish, but when the +senior clerk called him into his office to do some work, he was always +seized with a sort of stammering and shaking of the limbs. A person so +imposing as M. Batifol was not calculated to give him assurance. Amedee +was timid, too, like his father, and while the child, frightened by the +resemblance of the sphere to M. Batifol's bald head, was already +trembling, M. Violette, much agitated, was trying to think of something +to say, consequently, he said nothing of any account. However, he ended +by repeating almost the same things he had said to Mamma Gerard: "My son +is nearly seven years old, and very backward, etc." + +The teacher appeared to listen to M. Violette with benevolent interest, +inclining his geographical cranium every few seconds. In reality, he was +observing and judging his visitors. The father's scanty overcoat, the +rather pale face of the little boy, all betokened poverty. It simply +meant a day scholar at thirty francs a month, nothing more. +So M. Batifol shortened the "speech" that under like circumstances he +addressed to his new pupils. + +He would take charge of his "young friend" (thirty francs a month, that +is understood, and the child will bring his own luncheon in a little +basket) who would first be placed in an elementary class. Certain +fathers prefer, and they have reason to do so, that their sons should be +half-boarders, with a healthful and abundant repast at noon. But M. +Batifol did not insist upon it. His young friend would then be placed in +the infant class, at first; but he would be prepared there at once, 'ab +ovo', one day to receive lessons in this University of France, 'alma +parens' (instruction in foreign languages not included in the ordinary +price, naturally), which by daily study, competition between scholars +(accomplishments, such as dancing, music, and fencing, to be paid for +separately; that goes without saying) prepare children for social life, +and make men and citizens of them. + +M. Violette contented himself with the day school at thirty francs, and +for a good reason. The affair was settled. Early the next morning +Amedee would enter the "ninth preparatory." + +"Give me your hand, my young friend," said the master, as father and son +arose to take their leave. + +Amedee reached out his hand, and M. Batifol took it in his, which was so +heavy, large, and cold that the child shivered at the contact, and +fancied he was touching a leg of mutton of six or seven pounds' weight, +freshly killed, and sent from the butcher's. + +Finally they left. Early the next morning, Amedee, provided with a +little basket, in which the old snuff-taker had put a little bottle of +red wine, and some sliced veal, and jam tarts, presented himself at the +boarding-school, to be prepared without delay for the teaching of the +'alma parens'. + +The hippopotamus clothed in black did not take off his skullcap this +time, to the child's great regret, for he wished to assure himself if the +degrees of latitude and longitude were checked off in squares on M. +Batifol's cranium as they were on the terrestrial globe. He conducted +his pupil to his class at once and presented him to the master. + +"Here is a new day scholar, Monsieur Tavernier. You will find out how +far advanced he is in reading and writing, if you please." M. Tavernier +was a tall young man with a sallow complexion, a bachelor who, had he +been living like his late father, a sergeant of the gendarmes, in a +pretty house surrounded by apple trees and green grass, would not, +perhaps, have had that 'papier-mache' appearance, and would not have been +dressed at eight o'clock in the morning in a black coat of the kind we +see hanging in the Morgue. M. Tavernier received the newcomer with a +sickly smile, which disappeared as soon as M. Batifol left the room. + +"Go and take your place in that empty seat there, in the third row," said +M. Tavernier, in an indifferent tone. + +He deigned, however, to conduct Amedee to the seat which he was to +occupy. Amedee's neighbor, one of the future citizens preparing for +social life--several with patches upon their trousers--had been naughty +enough to bring into class a handful of cockchafers. He was punished by +a quarter of an hour's standing up, which he did soon after, sulking at +the foot of the sycamore-tree in the large court. + +"You will soon see what a cur he is," whispered the pupil in disgrace; +as soon as the teacher had returned to his seat. + +M. Tavernier struck his ruler on the edge of his chair, and, having +reestablished silence, invited pupil Godard to recite his lesson. + +Pupil Godard, who was a chubby-faced fellow with sleepy eyes, rose +automatically and in one single stream, like a running tap, recited, +without stopping to take breath, "The Wolf and the Lamb," rolling off La +Fontaine's fable like the thread from a bobbin run by steam. + +"The-strongest-reason-is-always-the-best-and-we-will-prove-it-at-once-a- +lamb-was-quenching-his-thirst-in-a-stream-of-pure-running-water--" + +Suddenly Godard was confused, he hesitated. The machine had been badly +oiled. Something obstructed the bobbin. + +"In-a-stream-of-pure-running-water-in-a stream--" + +Then he stopped short, the tap was closed. Godard did not know his +lesson, and he, too, was condemned to remain on guard under the sycamore +during recess. + +After pupil Godard came pupil Grosdidier; then Blanc, then Moreau +(Gaston), then Moreau (Ernest), then Malepert; then another, and another, +who babbled with the same intelligence and volubility, with the same +piping voice, this cruel and wonderful fable. It was as irritating and +monotonous as a fine rain. All the pupils in the "ninth preparatory" +were disgusted for fifteen years, at least, with this most exquisite of +French poems. + +Little Amedee wanted to cry; he listened with stupefaction blended with +fright as the scholars by turns unwound their bobbins. To think that +to-morrow he must do the same! He never would be able. M. Tavernier +frightened him very much, too. The yellow-complexioned usher, seated +nonchalantly in his armchair, was not without pretension; in spite of his +black coat with the "take-me-out-of-pawn" air, polished his nails, and +only opened his mouth at times to utter a reprimand or pronounce sentence +of punishment. + +This was school, then! Amedee recalled the pleasant reading-lessons that +the eldest of the Gerards had given him--that good Louise, so wise and +serious and only ten years old, pointing out his letters to him in a +picture alphabet with a knitting-needle, always so patient and kind. +The child was overcome at the very first with a disgust for school, +and gazed through the window which lighted the room at the noiselessly +moving, large, indented leaves of the melancholy sycamore. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PAPA AND MAMMA GERARD + +One, two, three years rolled by without anything very remarkable +happening to the inhabitants of the fifth story. + +The quarter had not changed, and it still had the appearance of a +suburban faubourg. They had just erected, within gunshot of the house +where the Violettes and Gerards lived, a large five-story building, +upon whose roof still trembled in the wind the masons' withered bouquets. +But that was all. In front of them, on the lot "For Sale," enclosed by +rotten boards, where one could always see tufts of nettles and a goat +tied to a stake, and upon the high wall above which by the end of April +the lilacs hung in their perfumed clusters, the rains had not effaced +this brutal declaration of love, scraped with a knife in the plaster: +"When Melie wishes she can have me," and signed "Eugene." + +Three years had passed, and little Amedee had grown a trifle. At that +time a child born in the centre of Paris--for example, in the labyrinth +of infected streets about the Halles--would have grown up without having +any idea of the change of seasons other than by the state of the +temperature and the narrow strip of sky which he could see by raising his +head. Even today certain poor children--the poor never budge from their +hiding-places--learn of the arrival of winter only by the odor of roasted +chestnuts; of spring, by the boxes of gilly-flowers in the fruiterer's +stall; of summer, by the water-carts passing, and of autumn, by the heaps +of oyster-shells at the doors of wine-shops. The broad sky, with its +confused shapes of cloud architecture, the burning gold of the setting +sun behind the masses of trees, the enchanting stillness of moonlight +upon the river, all these grand and magnificent spectacles are for the +delight of those who live in suburban quarters, or play there sometimes. +The sons of people who work in buttons and jet spend their infancy +playing on staircases that smell of lead, or in courts that resemble +wells, and do not suspect that nature exists. At the outside they +suspect that nature may exist when they see the horses on Palm Sunday +decorated with bits of boxwood behind each ear. What matters it, after +all, if the child has imagination? A star reflected in a gutter will +reveal to him an immense nocturnal poem; and he will breathe all the +intoxication of summer in the full-blown rose which the grisette from the +next house lets fall from her hair. + +Amedee had had the good fortune of being born in that delicious and +melancholy suburb of Paris which had not yet become "Haussmannized," +and was full of wild and charming nooks. + +His father, the widower, could not be consoled, and tried to wear out his +grief in long promenades, going out on clear evenings, holding his little +boy by the hand, toward the more solitary places. They followed those +fine boulevards, formerly in the suburbs, where there were giant elms, +planted in the time of Louis XIV, ditches full of grass, ruined +palisades, showing through their opening market-gardens where melons +glistened in the rays of the setting sun. Both were silent; the father +lost in reveries, Amedee absorbed in the confused dreams of a child. +They went long distances, passing the Barriere d'Enfer, reaching unknown +parts, which produced the same effect upon an inhabitant of Rue +Montmartre as the places upon an old map of the world, marked with the +mysterious words 'Mare ignotum', would upon a savant of the Middle Ages. +There were many houses in this ancient suburb; curious old buildings, +nearly all of one story. + +Sometimes they would pass a public-house painted in a sinister wine- +color; or else a garden hedged in by acacias, at the fork of two roads, +with arbors and a sign consisting of a very small windmill at the end of +a pole, turning in the fresh evening breeze. It was almost country; the +grass grew upon the sidewalks, springing up in the road between the +broken pavements. A poppy flashed here and there upon the tops of the +low walls. They met very few people; now and then some poor person, a +woman in a cap dragging along a crying child, a workman burdened with his +tools, a belated invalid, and sometimes in the middle. of the sidewalk, +in a cloud of dust, a flock of exhausted sheep, bleating desperately, and +nipped in the legs by dogs hurrying them toward the abattoir. The father +and son would walk straight ahead until it was dark under the trees; +then they would retrace their steps, the sharp air stinging their faces. +Those ancient hanging street-lamps, the tragic lanterns of the time of +the Terror, were suspended at long intervals in the avenue, mingling +their dismal twinkle with the pale gleams of the green twilight sky. + +These sorrowful promenades with his melancholy companion would commonly +end a tiresome day at Batifol's school. Amedee was now in the "seventh," +and knew already that the phrase, "the will of God," could not be turned +into Latin by 'bonitas divina', and that the word 'cornu' was not +declinable. These long, silent hours spent at his school-desk, or beside +a person absorbed in grief, might have become fatal to the child's +disposition, had it not been for his good friends, the Gerards. He went +to see them as often as he was able, a spare hour now and then, and most +of the day on Thursdays. The engraver's house was always full of good- +nature and gayety, and Amedee felt comfortable and really happy there. + +The good Gerards, besides their Louise and Maria, to say nothing of +Amedee, whom they looked upon as one of the family, had now taken charge +of a fourth child, a little girl, named Rosine, who was precisely the +same age as their youngest. + +This was the way it happened. Above the Gerards, in one of the mansards +upon the sixth floor, lived a printer named Combarieu, with his wife or +mistress--the concierge did not know which, nor did it matter much. The +woman had just deserted him, leaving a child of eight years. One could +expect nothing better of a creature who, according to the concierge, +fed her husband upon pork-butcher's meat, to spare herself the trouble +of getting dinner, and passed the entire day with uncombed hair, in a +dressing-sacque, reading novels, and telling her fortune with cards. +The grocer's daughter declared she had met her one evening, at a dancing- +hall, seated with a fireman before a salad-bowl full of wine, prepared in +the French fashion. + +During the day Combarieu, although a red-hot Republican, sent his little +girl to the Sisters; but he went out every evening with a mysterious air +and left the child alone. The concierge even uttered in a low voice, +with the romantic admiration which that class of people have for +conspirators, the terrible word "secret society," and asserted that the +printer had a musket concealed under his straw bed. + +These revelations were of a nature to excite M. Gerard's sympathy in +favor of his neighbor, for the coup d'etat and the proclamation of the +Empire had irritated him very much. Had it not been his melancholy duty +to engrave, the day after the second of December--he must feed his family +first of all--a Bonapartist allegory entitled, "The Uncle and the +Nephew," where one saw France extending its hand to Napoleon I and Prince +Louis, while soaring above the group was an eagle with spreading wings, +holding in one of his claws the cross of the Legion of Honor? + +One day the engraver asked his wife, as he lighted his pipe--he had given +up Abd-el-Kader and smoked now a Barbes--if they ought not to interest +themselves a little in the abandoned child. It needed nothing more to +arouse the good woman, who had already said more than once: "What a +pity!" as she saw little Rosine waiting for her father in the lodge of +the concierge, asleep in a chair before the stove. She coaxed the child +to play with her children. Rosine was very pretty, with bright eyes, +a droll little Parisian nose, and a mass of straw-colored curly hair +escaping from her cap. The little rogue let fly quite often some gutter +expression, such as "Hang it!" or "Tol-derol-dol!" at which Madame +Gerard would exclaim, "What do I hear, Mademoiselle?" but she was +intelligent and soon corrected herself. + +One Sunday morning, Combarieu, having learned of their kindness to his +child, made a visit to thank them. + +Very dark, with a livid complexion, all hair and beard, and trying to +look like the head of Jesus Christ, in his long black blouse he embodied +the type of a club conspirator, a representative of the workingmen. +A Freemason, probably; a solemn drunkard, who became intoxicated oftener +on big words than on native wine, and spoke in a loud, pretentious voice, +gazing before him with large, stupid eyes swimming in a sort of ecstasy; +his whole person made one think of a boozy preacher. He immediately +inspired the engraver with respect, and dazzled him by the fascination +which the audacious exert over the timid. M. Gerard thought he discerned +in Combarieu one of those superior men whom a cruel fate had caused to be +born among the lower class and in whom poverty had stifled genius. + +Enlightened as to the artist's political preferences by the bowl of his +pipe, Combarieu complacently eulogized himself. Upon his own admission +he had at first been foolish enough to dream of a universal brotherhood, +a holy alliance of the people. He had even written poems which he had +published himself, notably an "Ode to Poland," and an "Epistle to +Beranger," which latter had evoked an autograph letter from the +illustrious song-writer. But he was no longer such a simpleton. + +"When one has seen what we have seen during June, and on the second of +December, there is no longer any question of sentiment." Here the +engraver, as a hospitable host, brought a bottle of wine and two glasses. +"No, Monsieur Gerard, I thank you, I take nothing between my meals. The +workingmen have been deceived too often, and at the next election we +shall not let the bourgeoisie strangle the Republic." (M. Gerard had now +uncorked the bottle.) "Only a finger! Enough! Enough! simply so as not +to refuse you. While waiting, let us prepare ourselves. Just now the +Eastern question muddles us, and behold 'Badinguet,'--[A nickname given +to Napoleon III.]--with a big affair upon his hands. You have some wine +here that is worth drinking. If he loses one battle he is done for. One +glass more? Ah! you make me depart from my usual custom--absolutely +done for. But this time we shall keep our eyes open. No half measures! +We will return to the great methods of 'ninety-three--the Committee of +Public Safety, the Law of Suspects, the Revolutionary Tribunal, every +damned one of them! and, if it is necessary, a permanent guillotine! To +your good health!" + +So much energy frightened Father Gerard a little; for in spite of his +Barbes pipe-bowl he was not a genuine red-hot Republican. He dared not +protest, however, and blushed a little as he thought that the night +before an editor had proposed to him to engrave a portrait of the new +Empress, very decollete, and showing her famous shoulders, and that he +had not said No; for his daughters needed new shoes, and his wife had +declared the day before that she had not a gown to put on. + +So for several months he had four children--Amedee, Louise, Maria, and +little Rose Combarieu--to make a racket in his apartment. Certainly they +were no longer babies; they did not play at making calls nor chase the +old fur hat around the room; they were more sensible, and the old +furniture had a little rest. And it was time, for all the chairs were +lame, two of the larger ones had lost an arm each, and the Empire sofa +had lost the greater part of its hair through the rents in its dark-green +velvet covering. The unfortunate square piano had had no pity shown it; +more out of tune and asthmatic than ever, it was now always open, and one +could read above the yellow and worn-out keyboard a once famous name- +"Sebastian Erard, Manufacturer of Pianos and Harps for S.A.R. Madame la +Duchesse de Berri." Not only Louise, the eldest of the Gerards--a large +girl now, having been to her first communion, dressing her hair in bands, +and wearing white waists--not only Louise, who had become a good +musician, had made the piano submit to long tortures, but her sister +Maria, and Amedee also, already played the 'Bouquet de Bal' or 'Papa, +les p'tits bateaux'. Rosine, too, in her character of street urchin, +knew all the popular songs, and spent entire hours in picking out the +airs with one finger upon the old instrument. + +Ah! the songs of those days, the last of romanticism, the make-believe +'Orientales'; 'Odes' and 'Ballads', by the dozen; 'Comes d'Espagne et +d'Italie', with their pages, turrets, chatelaines; bull-fighters, Spanish +ladies; vivandieres, beguiled away from their homes under the pale of the +church, "near a stream of running water, by a gay and handsome +chevalier," and many other such silly things--Amedee will remember them +always! They bring back to him, clearly and strongly, certain happy +hours in his childhood! They make him smell again at times even the odor +that pervaded the Gerards' house. A mule-driver's song will bring up +before his vision the engraver working at his plate before the +curtainless window on a winter's day. It snows in the streets, and large +white flakes are slowly falling behind the glass; but the room, +ornamented with pictures and busts, is lighted and heated by a bright +coke fire. Amedee can see himself seated in a corner by the fire, +learning by heart a page of the "Epitome" which he must recite the next +morning at M. Batifol's. Maria and Rosine are crouched at his feet, with +a box of glass beads, which they are stringing into a necklace. It was +comfortable; the whole apartment smelled of the engraver's pipe, and in +the dining-room, whose door is half opened, Louise is at the piano, +singing, in a fresh voice, some lines where "Castilla" rhymes with +"mantilla," and "Andalousie" with "jealousy," while her agile fingers +played on the old instrument an accompaniment supposed to imitate bells +and castanets. + +Or perhaps it is a radiant morning in June, and they are in the dining- +room; the balcony door is open wide, and a large hornet buzzes loudly in +the vine. Louise is still at the piano; she is singing this time, and +trying to reach the low tones of a dramatic romance where a Corsican +child is urged on to vengeance by his father: + + Tiens, prends ma carabiue! + Sur toi veillera Dieu-- + +This is a great day, the day when Mamma Gerard makes her gooseberry +preserves. There is a large basin already full of it on the table. What +a delicious odor! A perfume of roses mingled with that of warm sugar. +Maria and Rosine have just slipped into the kitchen, the gourmands! But +Louise is a serious person, and will not interrupt her singing for such a +trifle. She continues to sing in a low voice: and at the moment when +Amedee stands speechless with admiration before her, as she is scolding +in a terrible tone and playing dreadful chords, to and behold! here come +the children, both with pink moustaches, and licking their lips +voluptuously. + +Ah! these were happy hours to Amedee. They consoled him for the +interminable days at M. Batifol's. + +Having passed the ninth preparatory grade, under the direction of the +indolent M. Tavernier, always busy polishing his nails, like a Chinese +mandarin, the child had for a professor in the eighth grade Pere +Montandeuil, a poor fellow stupefied by thirty years of teaching, who +secretly employed all his spare hours in composing five-act tragedies, +and who, by dint of carrying to and going for his manuscripts at the +Odeon, ended by marrying the stagedoor-keeper's daughter. In the seventh +grade Amedee groaned under the tyranny of M. Prudhommod, a man from the +country, with a smattering of Latin and a terribly violent temper, +throwing at the pupils the insults of a plowboy. Now he had entered the +sixth grade, under M. Bance, an unfortunate fellow about twenty years +old, ugly, lame, and foolishly timid, whom M. Batifol reproached severely +with not having made himself respected, and whose eyes filled with tears +every morning when, upon entering the schoolroom, he was obliged to +efface with a cloth a caricature of himself made by some of his pupils. + +Everything in M. Batifol's school--the grotesque and miserable teachers, +the ferocious and cynical pupils, the dingy, dusty, and ink-stained +rooms--saddened and displeased Amedee. Although very intelligent, he was +disgusted with the sort of instruction there, which was served out in +portions, like soldier's rations, and would have lost courage but for his +little friend, Louise Gerard, who out of sheer kindness constituted +herself his school-mistress, guiding and inspiriting him, and working +hard at the rudiments of L'homond's Grammar and Alexandre's Dictionary, +to help the child struggle with his 'De Viris'. Unfortunate indeed is he +who has not had, during his infancy, a petticoat near him--the sweet +influence of a woman. He will always have something coarse in his mind +and hard in his heart. Without this excellent and kind Louise, Amedee +would have been exposed to this danger. His mother was dead, and M. +Violette, alas! was always overwhelmed with his grief, and, it must be +admitted, somewhat neglected his little son. + +The widower could not be consoled. Since his wife's death he had grown +ten years older, and his refractory lock of hair had become perfectly +white. His Lucie had been the sole joy in his commonplace and obscure +life. She was so pretty, so sweet! such a good manager, dressing upon +nothing, and making things seem luxurious with only one flower! +M. Violette existed only on this dear and cruel souvenir, living his +humble idyll over again in his mind. + +He had had six years of this happiness. One of his comrades took him to +pass an evening with an old friend who was captain in the Invalides. The +worthy man had lost an arm at Waterloo; he was a relative of Lucie, a +good-natured old fellow, amiable and lively, delighting in arranging his +apartments into a sort of Bonapartist chapel and giving little +entertainments with cake and punch, while Lucie's mother, a cousin of the +captain, did the honors. M. Violette immediately observed the young +girl, seated under a "Bataille des Pyramides" with two swords crossed +above it, a carnation in her hair. It was in midsummer, and through the +open window one could see the magnificent moonlight, which shone upon the +esplanade and made the huge cannon shine. They were playing charades, +and when it came Lucie's turn to be questioned among all the guests, M. +Violette, to relieve her of her embarrassment, replied so awkwardly that +they all exclaimed, "Now, then, that is cheating!" With what naive grace +and bashful coquetry she served the tea, going from one table to another, +cup in hand, followed by the one-armed captain with silver epaulets, +carrying the plum-cake! In order to see her again, M. Violette paid the +captain visit after visit. But the greater part of the time he saw only +the old soldier, who told him of his victories and conquests, of the +attack of the redoubt at Borodino, and the frightful swearing of the +dashing Murat, King of Naples, as he urged the squadrons on to the +rescue. At last, one beautiful Sunday in autumn, he found himself alone +with the young girl in the private garden of the veteran of the Old +Guard. He seated himself beside Lucie on a stone bench: he told her his +love, with the profound gaze of the Little Corporal, in bronzed plaster, +resting upon them; and, full of delicious confusion, she replied, "Speak +to mamma," dropping her bewildered eyes and gazing at the bed of china- +asters, whose boxwood border traced the form of a cross of the Legion of +Honor. + +And all this was effaced, lost forever! The captain was dead; Lucie's +mother was dead, and Lucie herself, his beloved Lucie, was dead, after +giving him six years of cloudless happiness. + +Certainly, he would never marry again. Oh, never! + +No woman had ever existed or ever would exist for him but his poor +darling, sleeping in the Montparnasse Cemetery, whose grave he visited +every Sunday with a little watering-pot concealed under his coat. + +He recalled, with a shiver of disgust, how, a few months after Lucie's +death, one stifling evening in July, he was seated upon a bench in the +Luxembourg, listening to the drums beating a retreat under the trees, +when a woman came and took a seat beside him and looked at him steadily. +Surprised by her significant look, he replied, to the question that she +addressed to him, timidly and at the same time boldly: "So this is the +way that you take the air?" And when she ended by asking him, "Come to +my house," he had followed her. But he had hardly entered when the past +all came back to him, and he felt a stifled feeling of distress. Falling +into a chair, he sobbed, burying his face in his hands. His grief was so +violent that, by a feminine instinct of pity, the wretched creature took +his head in her arms, saying, in a consoling tone, "There, cry, cry, it +will do you good!" and rocked him like an infant. At last he disengaged +himself from this caress, which made him ashamed of himself, and throwing +what little money he had about him upon the top of the bureau, he went +away and returned to his home, where he went hastily to bed and wept to +his heart's content, as he gnawed his pillow. Oh, horrible memories! + +No! never a wife, no mistress, nothing! Now his grief was his wife, and +lived with him. + +The widower's morning awakening was frightful above all things else-his +awakening in the large bed that now had but one pillow. It was there +that he had once had the exquisite pleasure of watching his dear Lucie +every morning when asleep; for she did not like to get up early, and +sometimes he had jokingly scolded her for it. What serenity upon this +delicate, sweet face, with its closed eyes, nestling among her beautiful, +disordered hair! How chaste this lovely young wife was in her +unconstraint! She had thrown one of her arms outside of the covering, +and the neck of her nightrobe, having slipped down, showed such a pure +white shoulder and delicate neck. He leaned over the half-opened mouth, +which exhaled a warm and living odor, something like the perfume of a +flower, to inhale it, and a tender pride swept over him when he thought +that she was his, his wife, this delicious creature who was almost a +child yet, and that her heart was given to him forever. He could not +resist it; he touched his young wife's lips with his own. She trembled +under the kiss and opened her eyes, when the astonishment of the +awakening was at once transformed into a happy smile as she met her +husband's glance. Oh, blissful moment! But in spite of all, one must be +sensible. He recalled that the milk-maid had left at daybreak her pot of +milk at the door of their apartment; that the fire was not lighted, and +that he must be at the office early, as the time for promotions was +drawing near. Giving another kiss to the half-asleep Lucie, he said to +her, in a coaxing tone, "Now then, Lucie, my child, it is half-past +eight. Up, up with you, lazy little one!" + +How could he console himself for such lost happiness? He had his son, +yes--and he loved him very much--but the sight of Amedee increased +M. Violette's grief; for the child grew to look more like his mother +every day. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE DEMON ABSINTHE + +Three or four times a year M. Violette, accompanied by his son, paid a +visit to an uncle of his deceased wife, whose heir Amedee might some day +become. + +M. Isidore Gaufre had founded and made successful a large house for +Catholic books and pictures, to which he had added an important agency +for the sale of all kinds of religious objects. This vast establishment +was called, by a stroke of genius of its proprietor, "Bon Marche des +Paroisses," and was famous among all the French clergy. At last it +occupied the principal part of the house and all the out-buildings of an +old hotel on the Rue Servandoni, constructed in the pompous and +magnificent style of the latter part of the seventeenth century. He did +a great business there. + +All day long, priests and clerical-looking gentlemen mounted the long +flight of steps that led to a spacious first floor, lighted by large, +high windows surmounted by grotesque heads. There the long-bearded +missionaries came to purchase their cargoes of glass beads or imitation +coral rosaries, before embarking for the East, or the Gaboon, to convert +the negroes and the Chinese. + +The member of the third estate, draped in a long chocolate-colored, +straight frock-coat, holding a gigantic umbrella under his arm, procured, +dirt cheap and by the thousand, pamphlets of religious tenets. The +country curate, visiting Paris, arranged for the immediate delivery of a +remonstrance, in electrotype, Byzantine style, signing a series of long- +dated bills, contracting, by zeal supplemented by some ready cash, to +fulfil his liabilities, through the generosity of the faithful ones. + +There, likewise, a young director of consciences came to look for some +devotional work--for example, the 12mo entitled "Widows' Tears Wiped +Away," by St. Francois de Sales--for some penitent. The representative +from some deputation from a devoutly Catholic district would solicit a +reduction upon a purchase of the "Twelve Stations of the Cross," +hideously daubed, which he proposed to present to the parishes which his +adversaries had accused of being Voltairians. A brother of the Christian +Doctrine, or a sister of St. Vincent de Paul, would bargain for +catechisms for their schools. From time to time, even a prince of the +church, a bishop with aristocratic mien, enveloped in an ample gown, with +his hat surrounded with a green cord and golden tassels, would +mysteriously shut himself up in M. Isidore Gaufre's office for an hour; +and then would be reconducted to the top of the steps by the cringing +proprietor, profuse with his "Monseigneur," and obsequiously bowing under +the haughty benediction of two fingers in a violet glove. + +It was certainly not from sympathy that M. Violette had kept up his +relations with his wife's uncle; for M. Gaufre, who was servilely polite +to all those in whom he had an interest, was usually disdainful, +sometimes even insolent, to those who were of no use to him. During his +niece's life he had troubled himself very little about her, and had given +her for a wedding present only an ivory crucifix with a shell for holy +water, such as he sold by the gross to be used in convents. A self-made +man, having already amassed--so they said--a considerable fortune, +M. Gaufre held in very low estimation this poor devil of a commonplace +employe whose slow advancement was doubtless due to the fact that he was +lazy and incapable. From the greeting that he received, M. Violette +suspected the poor opinion that M. Gaufre had of him. If he went there +in spite of his natural pride it was only on his son's account. For M. +Gaufre was rich, and he was not young. Perhaps--who could tell?--he +might not forget Amedee, his nephew, in his will? It was necessary for +him to see the child occasionally, and M. Violette, in pursuance of his +paternal duty, condemned himself, three or four times a year, to the +infliction of a visit at the "Bon Marche des Paroisses." + +The hopes that M. Violette had formed as to his son's inheriting from M. +Gaufre were very problematical; for the father, whom M. Gaufre had not +been able to avoid receiving at his table occasionally, had been struck, +even shocked, by the familiar and despotic tone of the old merchant's +servant, a superb Normandy woman of about twenty-five years, answering to +the royal name of Berenice. The impertinent ways of this robust woman +betrayed her position in her master's house, as much as the diamonds that +glittered in her ears. This creature would surely watch the will of her +patron, a sexagenarian with an apoplectic neck, which became the color of +dregs of wine after a glass of brandy. + +M. Gaufre, although very practical and a churchwarden at St. Sulpice, had +always had a taste for liaisons. His wife, during her life--he had been +a widower for a dozen years--had been one of those unfortunate beings of +whom people said, "That poor lady is to be pitied; she never can keep a +servant." She had in vain taken girls from the provinces, without beauty +and certified to be virtuous. One by one--a Flemish girl, an Alsatian, +three Nivernaise, two from Picardy; even a young girl from Beauce, hired +on account of her certificate as "the best-behaved girl in the village"-- +they were unsparingly devoured by the minotaur of the Rue Servandoni. +All were turned out of doors, with a conscientious blow in the face, by +the justly irritated spouse. When he became a widower he gave himself up +to his liaisons in perfect security, but without scandal, of course, as +to his passion for servants. New country-girls, wearing strange +headdresses, responded favorably, in various patois, to his propositions. +An Alsatian bow reigned six months; a Breton cap more than a year; but at +last what must inevitably take place happened. The beautiful Berenice +definitely bound with fetters of iron the old libertine. She was now +all-powerful in the house, where she reigned supreme through her beauty +and her talent for cooking; and as she saw her master's face grow more +congested at each repast, she made her preparations for the future. Who +could say but that M. Gaufre, a real devotee after all, would develop +conscientious scruples some day, and end in a marriage, in extremis? + +M. Violette knew all this; nevertheless it was important that Amedee +should not be forgotten by his old relative, and sometimes, though +rarely, he would leave his office a little earlier than usual, call for +his son as he left the Batifol boarding-school, and take him to the Rue +Servandoni. + +The large drawing-rooms, transformed into a shop, where one could still +see, upon forgotten panels, rococo shepherds offering doves to their +shepherdesses, were always a new subject of surprise to little Amedee. +After passing through the book-shop, where thousands of little volumes +with figured gray and yellow covers crowded the shelves, and boys in ecru +linen blouses were rapidly tying up bundles, one entered the jewellery +department. There, under beautiful glass cases, sparkled all the +glittering display and showy luxury of the Church, golden tabernacles +where the Paschal Lamb reposed in a flaming triangle, censers with +quadruple chains, stoles and chasubles, heavy with embroidery, enormous +candelabra, ostensories and drinking-cups incrusted with enamel and false +precious stones-before all these splendors the child, who had read the +Arabian Nights, believed that he had entered Aladdin's cave, or Aboul- +Cassem's pit. From this glittering array one passed, without transition, +into the sombre depot of ecclesiastical vestments. Here all was black. +One saw only piles of cassocks and pyramids of black hats. Two manikins, +one clothed in a cardinal's purple robe, the other in episcopalian +violet, threw a little color over the gloomy show. + +But the large hall with painted statues amazed Amedee. They were all +there, statues of all the saints in little chapels placed promiscuously +upon the shelves in rows. + +No more hierarchy. The Evangelist had, for a neighbor a little Jesuit +saint--an upstart of yesterday. The unfortunate Fourier had at his side +the Virgin Mary. The Saviour of men elbowed St. Labre. They were of +plaster run into moulds, or roughly carved in wood, and were colored with +paint as glaring as the red and blue of a barber's pole, and covered with +vulgar gildings. Chins in the air, ecstatic eyes shining with varnish, +horribly ugly and all new, they were drawn up in line like recruits at +the roll-call, the mitred bishop, the martyr carrying his palm, St. +Agnes embracing her lamb, St. Roch with his dog and shells, St. John the +Baptist in his sheepskin, and, most ridiculous of all, poor Vincent de +Paul carrying three naked children in his arms, like a midwife's +advertisement. + +This frightful exhibition, which was of the nature of the Tussaud Museum +or a masquerade, positively frightened Amedee. He had recently been to +his first communion, and was still burning with the mystical fever, but +so much ugliness offended his already fastidious taste and threw him into +his first doubt. + +One day, about five o'clock, M. Violette and his son arrived at the "Bon +Marche des Paroisses," and found Uncle Isidore in the room where the +painted statues were kept, superintending--the packing of a St. Michel. +The last customer of the day was just leaving, the Bishop 'in partibus' +of Trebizonde, blessing M. Gaufre. The little apoplectic man, the giver +of holy water, left alone with his clerks, felt under restraint no +longer. + +"Pay attention, you confounded idiot!" he cried to the young man just +ready to lay the archangel in the shavings. "You almost broke the +dragon's tail." + +Then, noticing Amedee and M. Violette who had just entered: + +"Ah! It is you, Violate! Good-day! Good-day, Amedee! You come at an +unlucky time. It is shipping-day with us. I am in a great hurry--Eh! +Monsieur Combier, by your leave, Monsieur Combier! Do not forget the +three dozen of the Apparition de la Salette in stucco for Grenoble, with +twenty-five per cent. reduction upon the bill. Are you working hard, +Amedee? What do you say? He was first and assisted at the feast of St. +Charlemagne! So much the better!--Jules, did you send the six +chandeliers and the plated pyx and the Stations of the Cross, Number Two, +to the Dames du Sacre-Coeur d'Alencons? What, not yet? But the order +came three days ago! You must hurry, I tell you!--You can see, Violette, +I am overflowing with work--but come in here a moment." + +And once more ordering his bookkeeper, a captive in his glass case, to +send the officers the notes that the cure of Sourdeval had allowed to go +to protest, Uncle Isidore ushered M. Violette and his son into his +office. + +It was an ancient room, and M. Gaufre, who aimed at the austere, had made +it gloomier still by a safe, and black haircloth furniture, which looked +as if taken from a vestryroom. The pretty, high, and oval apartment, +with its large window, opening upon a garden, its ceiling painted in +light rosy clouds, its woodwork ornamented with wreaths and quivers, +still preserved some of the charm and elegance of former days. Amedee +would have been amused there, had not Uncle Isidore, who had seated +himself before his desk, launched at once an unkind question at M. +Violette. + +"By the way, have you obtained the promotion that you counted so much +upon last year?" + +"Unfortunately, no, Monsieur Gaufre. You know what the Administration +is." + +"Yes, it is slow; but you are not overwhelmed with work, however. While +in a business like this--what cares, what annoyances! I sometimes envy +you. You can take an hour to cut your pens. Well, what is wanted of me +now?" + +The head of a clerk with a pencil behind his ear, appeared through the +half-open door. + +"Monsieur le Superieur of Foreign Missions wishes to speak with +Monsieur." + +"You can see! Not one minute to myself. Another time, my dear Violette. +Adieu, my little man--it is astonishing how much he grows to look like +Lucie! You must come and dine with me some Sunday, without ceremony. +Berenice's 'souffle au fromage' is something delicious! Let Monsieur le +Superieur come in." + +M. Violette took his departure, displeased at his useless visit and +irritated against Uncle Isidore, who had been hardly civil. + +"That man is a perfect egotist," thought he, sadly; "and that girl has +him in her clutches. My poor Amedee will have nothing from him." + +Amedee himself was not interested in his uncle's fortune. He was just +then a pupil in the fourth grade, which follows the same studies as at +the Lycee Henri IV. Having suddenly grown tall, he was annoyed at +wearing short trousers, and had already renounced all infantile games. +The dangling crows which illustrated the pages of his Burnouf grammar +were all dated the previous year, and he had entirely renounced feeding +silkworms in his desk. Everything pointed to his not being a very +practical man. Geometry disgusted him, and as for dates, he could not +remember one. On holidays he liked to walk by himself through quiet +streets; he read poems at the bookstalls, and lingered in the Luxembourg +Gardens to see the sun set. Destined to be a dreamer and a +sentimentalist--so much the worse for you, poor Amedee! + +He went very often to the Gerards, but he no longer called his little +friends "thou." Louise was now seventeen years old, thin, without color, +and with a lank figure; decidedly far from pretty. People, in speaking +of her, began to say, "She has beautiful eyes and is an excellent +musician." Her sister Maria was twelve years old and a perfect little +rosebud. + +As to the neighbor's little girl, Rosine Combarieu, she had disappeared. +One day the printer suddenly departed without saying a word to anybody, +and took his child with him. The concierge said that he was concerned in +some political plot, and was obliged to leave the house in the night. +They believed him to be concealed in some small town. + +Accordingly, Father Gerard was not angry with him for fleeing without +taking leave of him. The conspirator had kept all his prestige in the +eyes of the engraver, who, by a special run of ill-luck, was always +engaged by a publisher of Bonapartist works, and was busy at that moment +upon a portrait of the Prince Imperial, in the uniform of a corporal of +the Guards, with an immense bearskin cap upon his childish head. + +Father Gerard was growing old. His beard, formerly of a reddish shade, +and what little hair there was remaining upon his head, had become +silvery white; that wonderful white which, like a tardy recompense to +red-faced persons, becomes their full-blooded faces so well. The good +man felt the weight of years, as did his wife, whose flesh increased in +such a troublesome way that she was forced to pant heavily when she +seated herself after climbing the five flights. Father Gerard grew old, +like everything that surrounded him; like the house opposite, that he had +seen built, and that no longer had the air of a new building; like his +curious old furniture, his mended crockery, and his engravings, yellow +with age, the frames of which had turned red; like the old Erard piano, +upon which Louise, an accomplished performer, now was playing a set of +Beethoven's waltzes and Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words." This poor +old servant now had only the shrill, trembling tones of a harmonica. + +The poor artist grew old, and he was uneasy as to the future; for he had +not known how to manage like his school-friend, the intriguing +Damourette, who had formerly cheated him out of the 'prix de Rome' by a +favor, and who now played the gentleman at the Institute, in his +embroidered coat, and received all the good orders. He, the simpleton, +had saddled himself with a family, and although he had drudged like a +slave he had laid nothing aside. One day he might be stricken with +apoplexy and leave his widow without resources, and his two daughters +without a dowry. He sometimes thought of all this as he filled his pipe, +and it was not pleasant. + +If M. Gerard grew gloomy as he grew older, M. Violette became mournful. +He was more than forty years old now. What a decline! Does grief make +the years count double? The widower was a mere wreck. His rebellious +lock of hair had become a dirty gray, and always hung over his right eye, +and he no longer took the trouble to toss it behind his ear. His hands +trembled and he felt his memory leaving him. He grew more taciturn and +silent than ever, and seemed interested in nothing, not even in his son's +studies. He returned home late, ate little at dinner, and then went out +again with a tottering step to pace the dark, gloomy streets. At the +office, where he still did his work mechanically, he was a doomed man; +he never would be elected chief assistant. "What depravity!" said one +of his fellow clerks, a young man with a bright future, protected by the +head of the department, who went to the races and had not his equal in +imitating the "Gnouf! gnouf!" of Grassot, the actor. "A man of his age +does not decline so rapidly without good cause. It is not natural!" +What is it, then, that has reduced M. Violette to such a degree of +dejection and wretchedness? + +Alas! we must admit it. The unhappy man lacked courage, and he sought +consolation in his despair, and found it in a vice. + +Every evening when he left his office he went into a filthy little cafe +on the Rue du Four. He would seat himself upon a bench in the back of +the room, in the darkest corner, as if ashamed; and would ask in a low +tone for his first glass of absinthe. His first! Yes, for he drank two, +three even. He drank them in little sips, feeling slowly rise within him +the cerebral rapture of the powerful liquor. Let those who are happy +blame him if they will! It was there, leaning upon the marble table, +looking at, without seeing her, through the pyramids of lump sugar and +bowls of punch, the lady cashier with her well oiled hair reflected in +the glass behind her--it was there that the inconsolable widower found +forgetfulness of his trouble. It was there that for one hour he lived +over again his former happiness. + +For, by a phenomenon well known to drinkers of absinthe, he regulated and +governed his intoxication, and it gave him the dream that he desired. + +"Boy, one glass of absinthe!" + +And once more he became the young husband, who adores his dear Lucie and +is adored by her. + +It is winter, he is seated in the corner by the fire, and before him, +sitting in the light reflected by a green lampshade upon which dark +silhouettes of jockey-riders are running at full speed, his wife is +busying herself with some embroidery. Every few moments they look at +each other and smile, he over his book and she over her work; the lover +never tired of admiring Lucie's delicate fingers. She is too pretty! +Suddenly he falls at her feet, slips his arm about her waist, and gives +her a long kiss; then, overcome with languor, he puts his head upon his +beloved's knees and hears her say to him, in a low voice: "That is right! +Go to sleep!" and her soft hands lightly stroke his hair. + +"Boy, one glass of absinthe!" + +They are in that beautiful field filled with flowers, near the woods in +Verrieres, upon a fine June afternoon when the sun is low. She has made +a magnificent bouquet of field flowers. She stops at intervals to add a +cornflower, and he follows, carrying her mantle and umbrella. How +beautiful is summer and how sweet it is to love! They are a little +tired; for during the whole of this bright Sunday they have wandered +through the meadows. It is the hour for dinner, and here is a little +tavern under some lindens, where the whiteness of the napkins rivals the +blossoming thickets. They choose a table and order their repast of a +moustached youth. While waiting for their soup, Lucie, rosy from being +out all day in the open air and silent from hunger, amuses herself in +looking at the blue designs on the plates, which represented battles in +Africa. What a joyous dinner! There were mushrooms in the omelet, +mushrooms in the stewed kidneys, mushrooms in the filet. But so much the +better! They are very fond of them. And the good wine! The dear child +is almost intoxicated at dessert! She takes it into her head to squeeze +a cherry-stone between her thumb and first finger and makes it pop-slap! +into her husband's face! And the naughty creature laughs! But he will +have his revenge--wait a little! He rises, and leaning over the table +buries two fingers between her collar and her neck, and the mischievous +creature draws her head down into her shoulders as far as she can, +begging him, with a nervous laugh, "No, no, I beseech you!" for she is +afraid of being tickled. But the best time of all is the return through +the country at night, the exquisite odor of new-mown hay, the road +lighted by a summer sky where the whole zodiac twinkles, and through +which, like a silent stream, the Chemin de St. Jacques rolls its diamond +smoke. + +Tired and happy she hangs upon her husband's arm. How he loves her! +It seems to him that his love for Lucie is as deep and profound as the +night. "Nobody is coming let me kiss your dear mouth!" and their kisses +are so pure, so sincere, and so sweet, that they ought to rejoice the +stars! + +"Another glass of absinthe, boy--one more!" + +And the unhappy man would forget for a few moments longer that he ought +to go back to his lonely lodging, where the servant had laid the table +some time before, and his little son awaited him, yawning with hunger and +reading a book placed beside his plate. He forgot the horrible moment of +returning, when he would try to hide his intoxicated condition under a +feint of bad humor, and when he would seat himself at table without even +kissing Amedee, in order that the child should not smell his breath. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Break in his memory, like a book with several leaves torn out +Inoffensive tree which never had harmed anybody +It was all delightfully terrible! +Mild, unpretentious men who let everybody run over them +Now his grief was his wife, and lived with him +Tediousness seems to ooze out through their bindings +Tired smile of those who have not long to live +Trees are like men; there are some that have no luck +Voice of the heart which alone has power to reach the heart +When he sings, it is because he has something to sing about + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext A Romance of Youth, v1, +by Francois Coppee + diff --git a/3958.zip b/3958.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..86a6165 --- /dev/null +++ b/3958.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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