diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3960.txt | 1848 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3960.zip | bin | 0 -> 41533 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
5 files changed, 1864 insertions, 0 deletions
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/3960.txt b/3960.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4df2324 --- /dev/null +++ b/3960.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1848 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Romance of Youth by Francois Coppee, v3 +#47 in our series The French Immortals Crowned by the French Academy +#3 in our series by Francois Copee + +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. The words +are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they +need about what they can legally do with the texts. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below, including for donations. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 + + + +Title: A Romance of Youth, v3 + +Author: Francois Coppee + +Release Date: April, 2003 [Etext #3960] +[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] +[The actual date this file first posted = 09/16/01] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +The Project Gutenberg Etext of A Romance of Youth by Francois Coppee, v3 +**********This file should be named 3960.txt or 3960.zip********** + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, +all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a +copyright notice is included. Therefore, we usually do NOT keep any +of these books in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our books one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to send us error messages even years after +the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. + +Most people start at our sites at: +https://gutenberg.org +http://promo.net/pg + + +Those of you who want to download any Etext before announcement +can surf to them as follows, and just download by date; this is +also a good way to get them instantly upon announcement, as the +indexes our cataloguers produce obviously take a while after an +announcement goes out in the Project Gutenberg Newsletter. + +http://www.ibiblio.org/gutenberg/etext03 +or +ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/etext03 + +Or /etext02, 01, 00, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90 + +Just search by the first five letters of the filename you want, +as it appears in our Newsletters. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +time it takes us, a rather conservative estimate, is fifty hours +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release fifty new Etext +files per month, or 500 more Etexts in 2000 for a total of 3000+ +If they reach just 1-2% of the world's population then the total +should reach over 300 billion Etexts given away by year's end. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000 = 1 Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only about 4% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 4,000 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding. + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation has been created +to secure a future for Project Gutenberg into the next millennium. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +As of July 12, 2001 contributions are only being solicited from people in: +Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, +Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, +Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North +Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, +Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, +Wisconsin, and Wyoming. + +We have filed in about 45 states now, but these are the only ones +that have responded. + +As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising +will begin in the additional states. Please feel +free to ask to check the status of your state. + +In answer to various questions we have received on this: + +We are constantly working on finishing the paperwork +to legally request donations in all 50 states. If +your state is not listed and you would like to know +if we have added it since the list you have, just ask. + +While we cannot solicit donations from people in +states where we are not yet registered, we know +of no prohibition against accepting donations +from donors in these states who approach us with +an offer to donate. + + +International donations are accepted, +but we don't know ANYTHING about how +to make them tax-deductible, or +even if they CAN be made deductible, +and don't have the staff to handle it +even if there are ways. + +All donations should be made to: + +Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +PMB 113 +1739 University Ave. +Oxford, MS 38655-4109 + + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) +organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541, +and has been approved as a 501(c)(3) organization by the US Internal +Revenue Service (IRS). Donations are tax-deductible to the maximum +extent permitted by law. As the requirements for other states are met, +additions to this list will be made and fund raising will begin in the +additional states. + +We need your donations more than ever! + +You can get up to date donation information at: + +https://www.gutenberg.org/donation.html + + +*** + +If you can't reach Project Gutenberg, +you can always email directly to: + +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +hart@pobox.com forwards to hart@prairienet.org and archive.org +if your mail bounces from archive.org, I will still see it, if +it bounces from prairienet.org, better resend later on. . . . + +Prof. Hart will answer or forward your message. + +We would prefer to send you information by email. + + +*** + + +Example command-line FTP session: + +ftp ftp.ibiblio.org +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 or etext00 through etext02, etc. +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + + +**The Legal Small Print** + + +(Three Pages) + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you may distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etexts, +is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor Michael S. Hart +through the Project Gutenberg Association (the "Project"). +Among other things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +Please do not use the "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark to market +any commercial products without permission. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] Michael Hart and the Foundation (and any other party you may +receive this etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims +all liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold Michael Hart, the Foundation, +and its trustees and agents, and any volunteers associated +with the production and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm +texts harmless, from all liability, cost and expense, including +legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of the +following that you do or cause: [1] distribution of this etext, +[2] alteration, modification, or addition to the etext, +or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word + processing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Foundation of 20% of the + gross profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation" + the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were + legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent + periodic) tax return. Please contact us beforehand to + let us know your plans and to work out the details. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +Project Gutenberg is dedicated to increasing the number of +public domain and licensed works that can be freely distributed +in machine readable form. + +The Project gratefully accepts contributions of money, time, +public domain materials, or royalty free copyright licenses. +Money should be paid to the: +"Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or +software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: +hart@pobox.com + +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + +*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + + +A ROMANCE OF YOUTH + +By FRANCOIS COPPEE + + + +BOOK 3. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +SUCCESS + +Success, which usually is as fickle as justice, took long strides and +doubled its stations in order to reach Amedee. The Cafe de Seville, and +the coterie of long-haired writers, were busying themselves with the +rising poet already. His suite of sonnets, published in La Guepe, +pleased some of the journalists, who reproduced them in portions in well- +distributed journals. Ten days after Amedee's meeting with Jocquelet, +the latter recited his poem "Before Sebastopol" at a magnificent +entertainment given at the Gaite for the benefit of an illustrious actor +who had become blind and reduced to poverty. + +This "dramatic solemnity," to use the language of the advertisement, +began by being terribly tiresome. There was an audience present who were +accustomed to grand Parisian soirees, a blase and satiated public, who, +upon this warm evening in the suffocating theatre, were more fatigued and +satiated than ever. The sleepy journalists collapsed in their chairs, +and in the back part of the stage-boxes, ladies' faces, almost green +under paint, showed the excessive lassitude of a long winter of pleasure. +The Parisians had all come there from custom, without having the +slightest desire to do so, just as they always came, like galley-slaves +condemned to "first nights." They were so lifeless that they did not +even feel the slightest horror at seeing one another grow old. This +chloroformed audience was afflicted with a long and too heavy programme, +as is the custom in performances of this kind. They played fragments of +the best known pieces, and sang songs from operas long since fallen into +disuse even on street organs. This public saw the same comedians march +out; the most famous are the most monotonous; the comical ones abused +their privileges; the lover spoke distractedly through his nose; the +great coquette--the actress par excellence, the last of the Celimenes-- +discharged her part in such a sluggish way that when she began an adverb +ending in "ment," one would have almost had time to go out and smoke a +cigarette or drink a glass of beer before she reached the end of the said +adverb. + +But at the most lethargic moment of this drowsy soirees, after the +comedians from the Francais had played in a stately manner one act +from a tragedy, Jocquelet appeared. Jocquelet, still a pupil at the +Conservatoire, showed himself to the public for the first time and by an +exceptional grace--Jocquelet, absolutely unknown, too short in his +evening clothes, in spite of the two packs of cards that he had put in +his boots. He appeared, full of audacity, riding his high horse, raising +his flat-nosed, bull-dog face toward the "gallery gods," and, in his +voice capable of making Jericho's wall fall or raising Jehoshaphat's +dead, he dashed off in one effort, but with intelligence and heroic +feeling, his comrade's poem. + +The effect was prodigious. This bold, common, but powerful actor, and +these picturesque and modern verses were something entirely new to this +public satiated with old trash. What a happy surprise! Two novelties at +once! To think of discovering an unheard-of poet and an unknown +comedian! To nibble at these two green fruits! Everybody shook off his +torpor; the anaesthetized journalists aroused themselves; the colorless +and sleepy ladies plucked up a little animation; and when Jocquelet had +made the last rhyme resound like a grand flourish of trumpets, all +applauded enough to split their gloves. + +In one of the theatre lobbies, behind a bill-board pasted over with old +placards, Amedee Violette heard with delight the sound of the applause +which seemed like a shower of hailstones. He dared not think of it! +Was it really his poem that produced so much excitement, which had thawed +this cold public? Soon he did not doubt it, for Jocquelet, who had just +been recalled three times, threw himself into the poet's arms and glued +his perspiring, painted face to his. + +"Well, my little one, I have done it!" he exclaimed, bursting with +gratification and vanity. "You heard how I caught them!" + +Immediately twenty, thirty, a hundred spectators appeared, most of them +very correct in white cravats, but all eager and with beaming +countenances, asking to see the author and the interpreter, and to be +presented to them, that they might congratulate them with an enthusiastic +word and a shake of the hand. Yes! it was a success, an instantaneous +one. It was certainly that rare tropical flower of the Parisian +greenhouse which blossoms out so seldom, but so magnificently. + +One large, very common-looking man, wearing superb diamond shirt-buttons, +came in his turn to shake Amedee's hand, and in a hoarse, husky voice +which would have been excellent to propose tickets "cheaper than at the +office!" he asked for the manuscript of the poem that had just been +recited. + +"It is so that I may put you upon the first page of my tomorrow's +edition, young man, and I publish eighty thousand. Victor Gaillard, +editor of 'Le Tapage'. Does that please you?" + +He took the manuscript without listening to the thanks of the poet, who +trembled with joy at the thought that his work had caught the fancy of +this Barnum of the press, the foremost advertiser in France and Europe, +and that his verses would meet the eyes of two hundred thousand readers. + +Yes, it was certainly a success, and he experienced the first bitterness +of it as soon as he arrived the next morning at the Cafe de Seville, +where he now went every two or three days at the hour for absinthe. His +verses had appeared in that morning's Tapage, printed in large type and +headed by a few lines of praise written by Victor Gaillard, a la Barnum. +As soon as Amedee entered the caf‚ he saw that he was the object of +general attention, and the lyric gentlemen greeted him with acclamations +and bravos; but at certain expressions of countenance, constrained looks, +and bitter smiles, the impressionable young man felt with a sudden +sadness that they already envied him. + +"I warned you of it," said Paul Sillery to him, as he led him into a +corner of the cafe. "Our good friends are not pleased, and that is very +natural. The greater part of these rhymers are 'cheap jewellers,' and +they are jealous of a master workman. Above all things, pretend not to +notice it; they will never forgive you for guessing their bad sentiments. +And then you must be indulgent to them. You have your beautiful +lieutenant's epaulettes, Violette, do not be too hard upon these poor +privates. They also are fighting under the poetic flag, and ours is a +poverty-stricken regiment. Now you must profit by your good luck. Here +you are, celebrated in forty-eight hours. Do you see, even the political +people look at you with curiosity, although a poet in the estimation of +these austere persons is an inferior and useless being. It is all they +will do to accept Victor Hugo, and only on account of his 'Chatiments.' +You are the lion of the day. Lose no time. I met just now upon the +boulevard Massif, the publisher. He had read 'Le Tapage' and expects +you. Carry him all your poems to-morrow; there will be enough to make a +volume. Massif will publish it at his own expense, and you will appear +before the public in one month. You never will inveigle a second time +that big booby of a Gaillard, who took a mere passing fancy for you. But +no matter! I know your book, and it will be a success. You are +launched. Forward, march! Truly, I am better than I thought, for your +success gives me pleasure." + +This amiable comrade's words easily dissipated the painful feelings +that Amedee had just experienced. However, it was one of those exalted +moments when one will not admit that evil exists. He spent some time +with the poets, forcing himself to be more gracious and friendly than +ever, and left them persuaded--the unsuspecting child!--that he had +disarmed them by his modesty; and very impatient to share his joy with +his friends, the Gerards, he quickly walked the length of Montmartre and +reached them just at their dinner hour. + +They did not expect him, and only had for their dinner the remains of the +boiled beef of the night before, with some cucumbers. Amedee carried his +cake, as usual, and, what was better still, two sauces that always make +the poorest meal palatable--hope and happiness. + +They had already read the journals and knew that the poem had been +applauded at the Gaite, and that it had at once been printed on the first +page of the journal; and they were all so pleased, so glad, that they +kissed Amedee on both cheeks. Mamma Gerard remembered that she had a few +bottles--five or six--of old chambertin in the cellar, and you could not +have prevented the excellent woman from taking her key and taper at once, +and going for those old bottles covered with cobwebs and dust, that they +might drink to the health of the triumphant one. As to Louise, she was +radiant, for in several houses where she gave lessons she had heard them +talk of the fine and admirable verses published in Le Tapage, and she was +very proud to think that the author was a friend of hers. What completed +Amedee's pleasure was that for the first time Maria seemed to be +interested in his poem, and said several times to him, with such a +pretty, vain little air: + +"Do you know, your battle is very nice. Amedee, you are going to become +a great poet, a celebrated man! What a superb future you have before +you!" + +Ah! what exquisitely sweet hopes he carried away that evening to his room +in the Faubourg St.-Jacques! They gave him beautiful dreams, and +pervaded his thoughts the next morning when the concierge brought him two +letters. + +Still more happiness! The first letter contained two notes of a hundred +francs each, with Victor Gaillard's card, who congratulated Amedee anew +and asked him to write something for his journal in the way of prose; a +story, or anything he liked. The young poet gave a cry of joyful +surprise when he recognized the handwriting of Maurice Roger upon the +other envelope. + +"I have just returned to Paris, my dear Amedee," wrote the traveller, +"and your success was my first greeting. I must embrace you quickly and +tell you how happy I am. Come to see me at four o'clock in my den in the +Rue Monsieur-le-Prince. We will dine and pass the evening together." + +Ah! how the poet loved life that morning, how good and sweet it seemed to +him! Clothed in his best, he gayly descended the Rue St.-Jacques, where +boxes of asparagus and strawberries perfumed the fruit-stalls, and went +to the Boulevard St. Michel, where he purchased an elegant gray felt hat +and a new cravat. Then he went to the Cafe Voltaire, where he lunched. +He changed his second hundred-franc bill, so that he might feel, with the +pleasure of a child, the beautiful louis d'or which he owed to his work +and its success. At the office the head clerk--a good fellow, who sang +well at dinners--complimented Amedee upon his poem. The young man had +only made his appearance to ask for leave that afternoon, so as to take +his manuscript to the publisher. + +Once more in the street in the bright May sun, after the fashion of +nabobs, he took an open carriage and was carried to Massif, in the +Passage des Princes. The editor of the Jeunes was seated in his office, +which was decorated with etchings and beautiful bindings. He is well +known by his magnificent black beard and his large bald head, upon which +a wicked jester once advised him to paste his advertisements; he +publishes the works of audacious authors and sensational books, and had +the honor of sharing with Charles Bazile, the poet, an imprisonment at +St.-Pelagie. He received this thin-faced rhymer coldly. Amedee +introduced himself, and at once there was a broad smile, a handshake, and +a connoisseur's greedy sniffling. Then Massif opened the manuscript. + +"Let us see! Ah, yes, with margins and false titles we can make out two +hundred and fifty pages." + +The business was settled quickly. A sheet of stamped paper--an +agreement! Massif will pay all the expenses of the first edition of one +thousand, and if there is another edition--and of course there will be! +--he will give him ten cents a copy. Amedee signs without reading. All +that he asks is that the volume should be published without delay. + +"Rest easy, my dear poet! You will receive the first proofs in three +days, and in one month it will appear." + +Was it possible? Was Amedee not dreaming? He, poor Violette's son, the +little office clerk--his book would be published, and in a month! +Readers and unknown friends will be moved by his agitation, will suffer +in his suspense; young people will love him and find an echo of their +sentiments in his verses; women will dreamily repeat--with one finger in +his book--some favorite verse that touches their hearts! Ah! he must +have a confidant in his joy, he must tell some true friend. + +"Driver, take me to the Rue Monsieur-le-Prince." + +He mounted, four steps at a time, the stairs leading to Maurice's room. +The key is in the door. He enters and finds the traveller there, +standing in the midst of the disorder of open trunks. + +"Maurice!" + +"Amedee!" + +What an embrace! How long they stood hand in hand, looking at each other +with happy smiles! + +Maurice is more attractive and gracious than ever. His beauty is more +manly, and his golden moustache glistens against his sun-browned skin. +What a fine fellow! How he rejoiced at his friend's first success! + +"I am certain that your book will turn everybody's head. I always told +you that you were a genuine poet. We shall see!" + +As to himself, he was happy too. His mother had let him off from +studying law and allowed him to follow his vocation. He was going to +have a studio and paint. It had all been decided in Italy, where Madame +Roger had witnessed her son's enthusiasm over the great masters. Ah, +Italy! Italy! and he began to tell of his trip, show knickknacks and +souvenirs of all kinds that littered the room. He turned in his hands, +that he might show all its outlines, a little terra-cotta reduction of +the Antinous in the Museum of Naples. He opened a box, full to bursting, +of large photographs, and passed them to his friend with exclamations of +retrospective admiration. + +"Look! the Coliseum! the ruins of Paestum--and this antique from the +Vatican! Is it not beautiful?" + +While looking at the pictures he recalled the things that he had seen and +the impressions he had experienced. There was a band of collegians in +little capes and short trousers taking their walk; they wore buckled +shoes, like the abbes of olden times, and nothing could be more droll +than to see these childish priests play leapfrog. There, upon the Riva +dei Schiavoni, he had followed a Venetian. "Shabbily dressed, and fancy, +my friend, bare-headed, in a yellow shawl with ragged green fringe! No, +I do not know whether she was pretty, but she possessed in her person all +the attractions of Giorgione's goddesses and Titian's courtesans +combined!" + +Maurice is still the same wicked fellow. But, bah! it suits him; he even +boasts of it with such a joyous ardor and such a youthful dash, that it +is only one charm the more in him. The clock struck seven, and they went +to dine. They started off through the Latin Quarter. Maurice gave his +arm to Amedee and told him of his adventures on the other side of the +Alps. Maurice, once started on this subject, could not stop, and while +the dinner was being served the traveller continued to describe his +escapades. This kind of conversation was dangerous for Amedee; for it +must not be forgotten that for some time the young poet's innocence had +weighed upon him, and this evening he had some pieces of gold in his +pocket that rang a chime of pleasure. While Maurice, with his elbow upon +the table, told him his tales of love, Amedee gazed out upon the sidewalk +at the women who passed by in fresh toilettes, in the gaslight which +illuminated the green foliage, giving a little nod of the head to those +whom they knew. There was voluptuousness in the very air, and it was +Amedee who arose from the table and recalled to Maurice that it was +Thursday, and that there was a fete that night at Bullier's; and he also +was the one to add, with a deliberate air: + +"Shall we take a turn there?" + +"Willingly," replied his gay friend. "Ah, ha! we are then beginning to +enjoy ourselves a little, Monsieur Violette! Go to Bullier's? so be it. +I am not sorry to assure myself whether or not I still love the +Parisians." + +They started off, smoking their cigarettes. Upon the highway, going in +the same direction as themselves, were victorias carrying women in spring +costumes and wearing bonnets decked with flowers. From time to time the +friends were elbowed by students shouting popular refrains and walking in +Indian-file. + +Here is Bullier's! They step into the blazing entrance, and go thence to +the stairway which leads to the celebrated public ballroom. They are +stifled by the odor of dust, escaping gas, and human flesh. Alas! there +are in every village in France doctors in hansom cabs, country lawyers, +and any quantity of justices of the peace, who, I can assure you, regret +this stench as they take the fresh air in the open country under the +starry heavens, breathing the exquisite perfume of new-mown hay; for it +is mingled with the little poetry that they have had in their lives, with +their student's love-affairs, and their youth. + +All the same, this Bullier's is a low place, a caricature of the Alhambra +in pasteboard. Three or four thousand moving heads in a cloud of +tobacco-smoke, and an exasperating orchestra playing a quadrille in which +dancers twist and turn, tossing their legs with calm faces and audacious +gestures. + +"What a mob!" said Amedee, already a trifle disgusted. "Let us go into +the garden." + +They were blinded by the gas there; the thickets looked so much like old +scenery that one almost expected to see the yellow breastplates of comic- +opera dragoons; and the jet of water recalled one of those little spurts +of a shooting-gallery upon which an empty egg-shell dances. But they +could breathe there a little. + +"Boy! two sodas," said Maurice, striking the table with his cane; and the +two friends sat down near the edge of a walk where the crowd passed and +repassed. They had been there about ten minutes when two women stopped +before them. + +"Good-day, Maurice," said the taller, a brunette with rich coloring, the +genuine type of a tavern girl. + +"What, Margot!" exclaimed the young man. "Will you take something? Sit +down a moment, and your friend too. Do you know, your friend is +charming? What is her name?" + +"Rosine," replied the stranger, modestly, for she was only about +eighteen, and, in spite of the blond frizzles over her eyes, she was not +yet bold, poor child! She was making her debut, it was easy to see. + +"Well, Mademoiselle Rosine, come here, that I may see you," continued +Maurice, seating the young girl beside him with a caressing gesture. +"You, Margot, I authorize to be unfaithful to me once more in favor of my +friend Amedee. He is suffering with lovesickness, and has a heart to +let. Although he is a poet, I think he happens to have in his pocket +enough to pay for a supper." + +Everywhere and always the same, the egotistical and amiable Maurice takes +the lion's share, and Amedee, listening only with one ear to the large +Margot, who is already begging him to make an acrostic for her, thinks +Rosine is charming, while Maurice says a thousand foolish things to her. +In spite of himself, the poet looks upon Maurice as his superior, and +thinks it perfectly natural that he should claim the prettier of the two +women. No matter! Amedee wanted to enjoy himself too. This Margot, who +had just taken off her gloves to drink her wine, had large, red hands, +and seemed as silly as a goose, but all the same she was a beautiful +creature, and the poet began to talk to her, while she laughed and looked +at him with a wanton's eyes. Meanwhile the orchestra burst into a polka, +and Maurice, in raising his voice to speak to his friend, called him +several times Amedee, and once only by his family name, Violette. +Suddenly little Rosine started up and looked at the poet, saying with +astonishment: + +"What! Is your name Amedee Violette?" + +"Certainly." + +"Then you are the boy with whom I played so much when I was a child." + +"With me?" + +"Yes! Do you not remember Rosine, little Rosine Combarieu, at Madame +Gerard's, the engraver's wife, in the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs? We +played games with his little girls. How odd it is, the way one meets old +friends!" + +What is it that Amedee feels? His entire childhood rises before him. +The bitterness of the thought that he had known this poor girl in her +innocence and youth, and the Gerards' name spoken in such a place, filled +the young man's heart with a singular sadness. He could only say to +Rosine, in a voice that trembled a little with pity: + +"You! Is it you?" + +Then she became red and very embarrassed, lowering her eyes. + +Maurice had tact; he noticed that Rosine and Amedee were agitated, and, +feeling that he was de trop, he arose suddenly and said: + +"Now then, Margot. Come on! these children want to talk over their +childhood, I think. Give up your acrostic, my child. Take my arm, and +come and have a turn." + +When they were alone Amedee gazed at Rosine sadly. She was pretty, in +spite of her colorless complexion, a child of the faubourg, born with a +genius for dress, who could clothe herself on nothing-a linen gown, a +flower in her hat. One who lived on salads and vegetables, so as to buy +well-made shoes and eighteen-button gloves. + +The pretty blonde looked at Amedee, and a timid smile shone in her nut- +brown eyes. + +"Now, Monsieur Amedee," said she, at last, "it need not trouble you to +meet at Bullier's the child whom you once played with. What would have +been astonishing would be to find that I had become a fine lady. I am +not wise, it is true, but I work, and you need not fear that I go with +the first comer. Your friend is a handsome fellow, and very amiable, +and I accepted his attentions because he knew Margot, while with you it +is very different. It gives me pleasure to talk with you. It recalls +Mamma Gerard, who was so kind to me. What has become of her, tell me? +and her husband and her daughters?" + +"Monsieur Gerard is dead," replied Amedee; "but the ladies are well, and +I see them often." + +"Do not tell them that you met me here, will you? It is better not. +If I had had a good 'mother, like those girls, things would have turned +out differently for me. But, you remember, papa was always interested in +his politics. When I was fifteen years old he apprenticed me to a +florist. He was a fine master, a perfect monster of a man, who ruined +me! I say, Pere Combarieu has a droll trade now; he is manager of a +Republican journal--nothing to do--only a few months in prison now and +then. I am always working in flowers, and I have a little friend, a +pupil at Val-de-Grace, but he has just left as a medical officer for +Algeria. I was lonely all by myself, and this evening big Margot, whom I +got acquainted with in the shop, brought me here to amuse myself. But +you--what are you doing? Your friend said just now that you were a poet. +Do you write songs? I always liked them. Do you remember when I used to +play airs with one finger upon the Gerards' old piano? You were such a +pretty little boy then, and as gentle as a girl. You still have your +nice blue eyes, but they are a little darker. I remember them. No, you +can not know how glad I am to see you again!" + +They continued to chatter, bringing up old reminiscences, and when she +spoke of the Gerard ladies she put on a respectful little air which +pleased Amedee very much. She was a poor feather-headed little thing, +he did not doubt; but she had kept at least the poor man's treasure, +a simple heart. The young man was pleased with her prattling, and as he +looked at the young girl he thought of the past and felt a sort of +compassion for her. As she was silent for a moment, the poet said to +her, "Do you know that you have become very pretty? What a charming +complexion you have! such a lovely pallor!" + +The grisette, who had known what poverty was, gave a bitter little laugh: + +"Oh, my pallor! that is nothing! It is not the pallor of wealth." + +Then, recovering her good-humor at once, she continued: + +"Tell me, Monsieur Amedee, does this big Margot, whom you began to pay +attentions to a little while ago, please you?" + +Amedee quickly denied it. "That immense creature? Never! Now then, +Rosine, I came here to amuse myself a little, I will admit. That is not +forbidden at my age, is it? But this ball disgusts me. You have no +appointment here? No? Is it truly no? Very well, take my arm and let +us go. Do you live far from here?" + +"In the Avenue d'Orleans, near the Montrouge church." + +"Will you allow me to escort you home, then?" + +She would be happy to, and they arose and left the ball. It seemed to +the young poet as if the pretty girl's arm trembled a little in his; but +once upon the boulevard, flooded by the light from the silvery moon, +Rosine slackened her steps and became pensive, and her eyes were lowered +when Amedee sought a glance from them in the obscurity. How sweet was +this new desire that troubled the young man's heart! It was mixed with a +little sentiment; his heart beat with emotion, and Rosine was not less +moved. They could both find only insignificant things to say. + +"What a beautiful night!" + +"Yes! It does one good to breathe the fresh air." + +They continued their walk without speaking. Oh, how fresh and sweet it +was under these trees! + +At last they reached the door of Rosine's dwelling. With a slow movement +she pressed her hand upon the bell-button. Then Amedee, with a great +effort, and in a confused, husky voice, asked whether he might go up with +her and see her little room. + +She looked at him steadily, with a tender sadness in her eyes, and then +said to him, softly: + +"No, certainly not! One must be sensible. I please you this evening, +and you know very well that I think you are charming. It is true we knew +each other when we were young, and now that we have met again, it seems +as if it would be pleasant to love each other. But, believe me, we +should commit a great folly, perhaps a wrong. It is better, I assure +you, to forget that you ever met me at Bullier's with big Margot, and +only remember your little playmate of the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs. +It will be better than a caprice, it will be something pure that you can +keep in your heart. Do not let us spoil the remembrance of our +childhood, Monsieur Amedee, and let us part good friends." + +Before the young man could find a reply, the bell pealed again, and +Rosine gave Amedee a parting smile, lightly kissing the tips of her +fingers, and disappeared behind the doer, which fell together, with a +loud bang. The poet's first movements was one of rage. Giddy weather- +cock of a woman! But he had hardly taken twenty steps upon the sidewalk +before he said to himself, with a feeling of remorse, "She was right!" +He thought that this poor girl had kept in one corner of her heart a +shadow of reserve and modesty, and he was happy to feel rise within him a +sacred respect for woman! + +Amedee, my good fellow, you are quite worthless as a man of pleasure. +You had better give it up! + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +SOCIAL TRIUMPHS + +For one month now Amedee Violette's volume of verses, entitled Poems from +Nature, had embellished with its pale-blue covers the shelves of the +book-shops. The commotion raised by the book's success, and the +favorable criticisms given by the journals, had not yet calmed down at +the Cafe de Seville. + +This emotion, let it be understood, did not exist except among the +literary men. The politicians disdained poets and poetry, and did not +trouble them selves over such commonplace matters. They had affairs of a +great deal more importance to determine the overthrow of the government +first, then to remodel the map of Europe! What was necessary to over +throw the Empire? First, conspiracy; second, barricades. Nothing was +easier than to conspire. Every body conspired at the Seville. It is the +character of the French, who are born cunning, but are light and +talkative, to conspire in public places. As soon as one of our +compatriots joins a secret society his first care is to go to his +favorite restaurant and to confide, under a bond of the most absolute +secrecy, to his most intimate friend, what he has known for about five +minutes, the aim of the conspiracy, names of the actors, the day, hour, +and place of the rendezvous, the passwords and countersigns. A little +while after he has thus relieved himself, he is surprised that the police +interfere and spoil an enterprise that has been prepared with so much +mystery and discretion. It was in this way that the "beards" dealt in +dark deeds of conspiracy at the Cafe de Seville. At the hour for +absinthe and mazagran a certain number of Fiesques and Catilines were +grouped around each table. At one of the tables in the foreground five +old "beards," whitened by political crime, were planning an infernal +machine; and in the back of the room ten robust hands had sworn upon the +billiard-table to arm themselves for regicide; only, as with all +"beards," there were necessarily some false ones among them, that is to +say, spies. All the plots planned at the Seville had miserably +miscarried. + +The art of building barricades was also--you never would suspect it!-- +very ardently and conscientiously studied. This special branch of the +science of fortification reckoned more than one Vauban and Gribeauval +among its numbers. "Professor of barricading," was a title honored at +the Cafe de Seville, and one that they would willingly have had engraved +upon their visiting-cards. Observe that the instruction was only +theoretical; doubtless out of respect for the policemen, they could not +give entirely practical lessons to the future rioters who formed the +ground-work of the business. The master or doctor of civil war could not +go out with them, for instance, and practise in the Rue Drouot. But he +had one resource, one way of getting out of it; namely, dominoes. No! +you never would believe what a revolutionary appearance these inoffensive +mutton-bones took on under the seditious hands of the habitues of the +Cafe de Seville. These miniature pavements simulated upon the marble +table the subjugation of the most complicated of barricades, with all +sorts of bastions, redans, and counterscarps. It was something after the +fashion of the small models of war-ships that one sees in marine museums. +Any one, not in the secret, would have supposed that the "beards" simply +played dominoes. Not at all! They were pursuing a course of technical +insurrection. When they roared at the top of their lungs "Five on all +sides!" certain players seemed to order a general discharge, and they had +a way of saying, "I can not!" which evidently expressed the despair of a +combatant who has burned his last cartridge. A "beard" in glasses and a +stovepipe hat, who had been refused in his youth at the Ecole +Polytechnique, was frightful in the rapidity and mathematical precision +with which he added up in three minutes his barricade of dominoes. When +this man "blocked the six," you were transported in imagination to the +Rue Transnonain, or to the Cloitre St. Merry. It was terrible! + +As to foreign politics, or the remodelling of the map of Europe, it was, +properly speaking, only sport and recreation to the "beards." It added +interest to the game, that was all. Is it not agreeable, when you are +preparing a discard, at the decisive moment, with one hundred at piquet, +which gives you 'quinte' or 'quatorze', to deliver unhappy Poland; and +when one has the satisfaction to score a king and take every trick, what +does it cost to let the Russians enter Constantinople? + +Nevertheless, some of the most solemn "beards" of the Cafe de Seville +attached themselves to international questions, to the great problem of +European equilibrium. One of the most profound of these diplomats--who +probably had nothing to buy suspenders with, for his shirt always hung +out between his waistcoat and trousers--was persuaded that an indemnity +of two million francs would suffice to obtain from the Pope the transfer +of Rome to the Italians; and another Metternich on a small scale assumed +for his specialty the business of offering a serious affront to England +and threatening her, if she did not listen to his advice, with a loss in +a short time of her Indian Empire and other colonial possessions. + +Thus the "beards," absorbed by such grave speculations, did not trouble +themselves about the vanity called literature, and did not care a pin for +Amedee Violette's book. Among the long-haired ones, however, we repeat, +the emotion was great. They were furious, they were agitated, and +bristled up; the first enthusiasm over Amedee Violette's verses could not +be lasting and had been only a mere flash. The young man saw these +Merovingians as they really were toward a man who succeeded, that is, +severe almost to cruelty. What! the first edition of Poems from Nature +was exhausted and Massif had another in press! What! the bourgeoisie, +far from being "astonished" at this book, declared themselves delighted +with it, bought it, read it, and perhaps had it rebound! They spoke +favorably of it in all the bourgeois journals, that is to say, in those +that had subscribers! Did they not say that Violette, incited by +Jocquelet, was working at a grand comedy in verse, and that the Theatre- +Francais had made very flattering offers to the poet? But then, if he +pleased the bourgeoisie so much he was--oh, horror!--a bourgeois himself. +That was obvious. How blind they had been not to see it sooner! When +Amedee had read his verses not long since at Sillery's, by what +aberration had they confounded this platitude with simplicity, this +whining with sincere emotion, these stage tricks with art? Ah! you may +rest assured, they never will be caught again! + +As the poets' tables at the Cafe de Seville had been for some time +transformed into beds of torture upon which Amedee Violette's poems were +stretched out and racked every day from five to seven, the amiable Paul +Sillery, with a jeering smile upon his lips, tried occasionally to cry +pity for his friend's verses, given up to such ferocious executioners. +But these literary murderers, ready to destroy a comrade's book, are +more pitiless than the Inquisition. There were two inquisitors more +relentless than the others; first, the little scrubby fellow who claimed +for his share all the houris of a Mussulman's palace; another, the great +elegist from the provinces. Truly, his heartaches must have made him +gain flesh, for very soon he was obliged to let out the strap on his +waistcoat. + +Of course, when Amedee appeared, the conversation was immediately +changed, and they began to talk of insignificant things that they had +read in the journals; for example, the fire-damp, which had killed +twenty-five working-men in a mine, in a department of the north; or of +the shipwreck of a transatlantic steamer in which everything was lost, +with one hundred and fifty passengers and forty sailors--events of no +importance, we must admit, if one compares them to the recent discovery +made by the poet inquisitors of two incorrect phrases and five weak +rhymes in their comrade's work. + +Amedee's sensitive nature soon remarked the secret hostility of which he +was the object in this group of poets, and he now came to the Cafe de +Seville only on rare occasions, in order to take Paul Sillery by the +hand, who, in spite of his ironical air, had always shown himself a good +and faithful friend. + +It was there that he recognized one evening his classmate of the Lycee, +Arthur Papillon, seated at one of the political tables. The poet +wondered to himself how this fine lawyer, with his temperate opinions, +happened to be among these hot-headed revolutionists, and what interest +in common could unite this correct pair of blond whiskers to the +uncultivated, bushy ones. Papillon, as soon as he saw Amedee, took leave +of the group with whom he was talking and came and offered his hearty +congratulations to the author of Poems from Nature, leading him out upon +the boulevard and giving him the key to the mystery. + +All the old parties were united against the Empire, in view of the coming +elections; Orleanists and Republicans were, for the time being, close +friends. He, Papillon, had just taken his degree, and had attached +himself to the fortunes of an old wreck of the July government; who, +having rested in oblivion since 1852, had consented to run as candidate +for the Liberal opposition in Seine-et-Oise. Papillon was flying around +like a hen with her head cut off, to make his companion win the day. He +came to the Seville to assure himself of the neutral goodwill of the +unreconciled journalists, and he was full of hope. + +"Oh! my dear friend, how difficult it is to struggle against an official +candidate! But our candidate is an astonishing man. He goes about all +day upon the railroads in our department, unfolding his programme before +the travelling countrymen and changing compartments at each station. +What a stroke of genius! a perambulating public assembling. This idea +came to him from seeing a harpist make the trip from Havre to Honfleur, +playing 'Il Bacio' all the time. Ah, one must look alive! The prefect +does not shrink from any way of fighting us. Did he not spread through +one of our most Catholic cantons the report that we were Voltairians, +enemies to religion and devourers of priests? Fortunately, we have yet +four Sundays before us, from now until the voting-day, and the patron +will go to high mass and communion in our four more important parishes. +That will be a response! If such a man is not elected, universal +suffrage is hopeless!" + +Amedee was not at that time so disenchanted with political matters as he +became later, and he asked himself with an uneasy feeling whether this +model candidate, who was perhaps about to give. himself sacrilgious +indigestion, and who showed his profession of faith as a cutler shows his +knives, was not simply a quack. + +Arthur Papillon did not give him time to devote himself to such +unpleasant reflections, but said to him, in a frank, protecting tone: + +"And you, my boy, let us see, where do you stand? You have been very +successful, have you not? The other evening at the house of Madame la +Comtesse Fontaine, you know--the widow of one of Louis Philippe's +ministers and daughter of Marshal Lefievre--Jocquelet recited your +'Sebastopol' with enormous success. What a voice that Jocquelet has! +We have not his like at the Paris bar. Fortunate poet! I have seen your +book lying about in the boudoir of more than one beautiful woman. Well, +I hope that you will leave the Cafe de Seville and not linger with all +these badly combed fellows. You must go into society; it is +indispensable to a man of letters, and I will present you whenever you +wish." + +For the time being Amedee's ardor was a little dampened concerning the +Bohemians with whom he enjoyed so short a favor, and who had also in many +ways shocked his delicacy. He was not desirous to be called "thou" by +Pere Lebuffle. + +But to go into society! His education had been so modest! Should he +know how to appear, how to conduct himself properly? He asked this of +Papillon. Our poet was proud, he feared ridicule, and would not consent +to play an inferior role anywhere; and then his success just then was +entirely platonic. He was still very poor and lived in the Faubourg St.- +Jacques. Massif ought to pay him in a few days five hundred francs for +the second edition of his book; but what is a handful of napoleons? + +"It is enough," said the advocate, who thought of his friend's dress. +"It is all that is necessary to buy fine linen, and a well cut dress- +coat, that is the essential thing. Good form consists, above all things, +in keeping silent. With your fine and yielding nature you will become at +once a gentleman; better still, you are not a bad-looking fellow; you +have an interesting pallor. I am convinced that you will please. It is +now the beginning of July, and Paris is almost empty, but Madame la +Comtesse Fontaine does not go away until the vacations, as she is looking +after her little son, who is finishing his studies at the Lycee +Bonaparte. The Countess's drawing-rooms are open every evening until the +end of the month, and one meets there all the chic people who are delayed +in Paris, or who stop here between two journeys. Madame Fontaine is a +very amiable and influential old lady; she has a fancy for writers when +they are good company. Do not be silly, but go and order yourself some +evening clothes. By presenting you there, my dear fellow, I assure you, +perhaps in fifteen years, a seat in the Academy. It is agreed! Get +ready for next week." + +Attention! Amedee Violette is about to make his first appearance in +society. + +Although his concierge, who aided him to finish his toilette and saw him +put on his white cravat, had just said to him, "What a love of a husband +you would make!" the poet's heart beat rapidly when the carriage in +which he was seated beside Arthur Papillon stopped before the steps of an +old house in the Rue de Bellechasse, where Madame la Comtesse Fontaine +lived. + +In the vestibule he tried to imitate the advocate's bearing, which was +full of authority; but quickly despaired of knowing how to swell out his +starched shirt-front under the severe looks of four tall lackeys in silk +stockings. Amedee was as much embarrassed as if he were presented naked +before an examining board. But they doubtless found him "good for +service," for the door opened into a brightly lighted drawing-room into +which he followed Arthur Papillon, like a frail sloop towed in by an +imposing three-master, and behold the timid Amedee presented in due form +to the mistress of the house! She was a lady of elephantine proportions, +in her sixtieth year, and wore a white camellia stuck in her rosewood- +colored hair. Her face and arms were plastered with enough flour to make +a plate of fritters; but for all that, she had a grand air and superb +eyes, whose commanding glance was softened by so kindly a smile that +Amedee was a trifle reassured. + +She had much applauded M. Violette's beautiful verse, she said, that +Jocquelet had recited at her house on the last Thursday of her season; +and she had just read with the greatest pleasure his Poems from Nature. +She thanked M. Papillon--who bows his head and lets his monocle fall--for +having brought M. Violette. She was charmed to make his acquaintance. + +Amedee was very much embarrassed to know what to reply to this +commonplace compliment which was paid so gracefully. Fortunately he was +spared this duty by the arrival of a very much dressed, tall, bony woman, +toward whom the Countess darted off with astonishing vivacity, +exclaiming, joyfully: "Madame la Marechale!" and Amedee, still following +in the wake of his comrade, sailed along toward the corner of the +drawing-room, and then cast anchor before a whole flotilla of black +coats. Amedee's spirits began to revive, and he examined the place, so +entirely new to him, where his growing reputation had admitted him. + +It was a vast drawing-room after the First Empire style, hung and +furnished in yellow satin, whose high white panels were decorated with +trophies of antique weapons carved in wood and gilded. A dauber from the +Ecole des Beaux-Arts would have branded with the epithet "sham" the +armchairs and sofas ornamented with sphinx heads in bronze, as well as +the massive green marble clock upon which stood, all in gold, a favorite +court personage, clothed in a cap, sword, and fig-leaf, who seemed to be +making love to a young person in a floating tunic, with her hair dressed +exactly like that of the Empress Josephine. But the dauber would have +been wrong, for this massive splendor was wanting neither in grandeur nor +character. Two pictures only lighted up the cold walls; one, signed by +Gros, was an equestrian portrait of the Marshal, Madame Fontaine's +father, the old drummer of Pont de Lodi, one of the bravest of Napoleon's +lieutenants. He was represented in full-dress uniform, with an enormous +black-plumed hat, brandishing his blue velvet baton, sprinkled with +golden bees, and under the rearing horse's legs one could see in the dim +distance a grand battle in the snow, and mouths of burning cannons. The +other picture, placed upon an easel and lighted by a lamp with a +reflector, was one of Ingre's the 'chef-d'oeuvres'. It was the portrait +of the mistress of the house at the age of eighteen, a portrait of which +the Countess was now but an old and horrible caricature. + +Arthur Papillon talked in a low voice with Amedee, explaining to him how +Madame Fontaine's drawing-room was neutral ground, open to people of all +parties. As daughter of a Marshal of the First Empire, the Countess +preserved the highest regard for the people at the Tuileries, although +she was the widow of Count Fontaine, who was one of the brood of Royer- +Collard's conservatives, a parliamentarian ennobled by Louis-Philippe, +twice a colleague of Guizot on the ministerial bench, who died of spite +and suppressed ambition after '48 and the coup d'etat. Besides, the +Countess's brother, the Duc d'Eylau, married, in 1829, one of the +greatest heiresses in the Faubourg St. Germain; for his father, the +Marshal, whose character did not equal his bravery, attached himself to +every government, and carried his candle in the processions on Corpus +Christi Day under Charles X, and had ended by being manager of the +Invalides at the beginning of the July monarchy. Thanks to this +fortunate combination of circumstances, one met several great lords, +many Orleanists, a certain number of official persons, and even some +republicans of high rank, in this liberal drawing-room, where the +Countess, who was an admirable hostess, knew how to attract learned men, +writers, artists, and celebrities of all kinds, as well as young and +pretty women. As the season was late, the gathering this evening was not +large. However, neglecting the unimportant gentlemen whose ancestors had +perhaps been fabricated by Pere Issacar, Papillon pointed out to his +friend a few celebrities. One, with the badge of the Legion of Honor +upon his coat, which looked as if it had come from the stall of an old- +clothes man, was Forgerol, the great geologist, the most grasping of +scientific men; Forgerol, rich from his twenty fat sinecures, for whom +one of his confreres composed this epitaph in advance: "Here lies +Forgerol, in the only place he did not solicit." + +That grand old man, with the venerable, shaky head, whose white, silky +hair seemed to shed blessings and benedictions, was M. Dussant du Fosse, +a philanthropist by profession, honorary president of all charitable +works; senator, of course, since he was one of France's peers, and who +in a few years after the Prussians had left, and the battles were over, +would sink into suspicious affairs and end in the police courts. + +That old statesman, whose rough, gray hairs were like brushes for +removing cobwebs, a pedant from head to foot, leaning in his favorite +attitude against the mantel decorated only with flowers, by his mulish +obstinacy contributed much to the fall of the last monarchy. He was +respectfully listened to and called "dear master" by a republican orator, +whose red-hot convictions began to ooze away, and who, soon after, as +minister of the Liberal empire, did his best to hasten the government's +downfall. + +Although Amedee was of an age to respect these notabilities, whom +Papillon pointed out to him with so much deference, they did not impress +him so much as certain visitors who belonged to the world of art and +letters. In considering them the young man was much surprised and a +little saddened at the want of harmony that he discovered between the +appearance of the men and the nature of their talents. The poet Leroy +des Saules had the haughty attitude and the Apollo face corresponding to +the noble and perfect beauty of his verses; but Edouard Durocher, the +fashionable painter of the nineteenth century, was a large, common- +looking man with a huge moustache, like that of a book agent; and +Theophile de Sonis, the elegant story-writer, the worldly romancer, had a +copper-colored nose, and his harsh beard was like that of a chief in a +custom-house. + +What attracted Amedee's attention, above all things, were the women--the +fashionable women that he saw close by for the first time. Some of them +were old, and horrified him. The jewels with which they were loaded made +their fatigued looks, dark-ringed eyes, heavy profiles, thick flabby +lips, like a dromedary's, still more distressing; and with their bare +necks and arms--it was etiquette at Madame Fontaine's receptions--which +allowed one to see through filmy lace their flabby flesh or bony +skeletons, they were as ridiculous as an elegant cloak would be upon an +old crone. + +As he saw these decrepit, painted creatures, the young man felt the +respect that he should have for the old leave him. He would look only at +the young and beautiful women, those with graceful figures and triumphant +smiles upon their lips, flowers in their hair, and diamonds upon their +necks. All this bare flesh intimidated Amedee; for he had been brought +up so privately and strictly that he was distressed enough to lower his +eyes at the sight of so many arms, necks, and shoulders. He thought of +Maria Gerard as she looked the other day, when he met her going to work +in the Louvre, so pretty in her short high-necked dress, her magnificent +hair flying out from her close bonnet, and her box of pastels in her +hand. How much more he preferred this simple rose, concealed among +thorns, to all these too full-blown peonies! + +Soon the enormous and amiable Countess came to the poet and begged him, +to his great confusion, to recite a few verses. He was forced to do it. +It was his turn to lean upon the mantel. Fortunately it was a success +for him; all the full-blown peonies, who did not understand much of his +poetry, thought him a handsome man, with his blue eyes, and their ardent, +melancholy glance; and they applauded him as much as they could without +bursting their very tight gloves. They surrounded him and complimented +him. Madame Fontaine presented him to the poet Leroy des Saules, who +congratulated him with the right word, and invited him with a paternal +air to come and see him. It would have been a very happy moment for +Amedee, if one of the old maids with camel-like lips, whose stockings +were probably as blue as her eyelids, had not monopolized him for a +quarter of an hour, putting him through a sort of an examination on +contemporary poets. At last the poet retired, after receiving a cup of +tea and an invitation to dinner for the next Tuesday. Then he was once +more seated in the carriage with Arthur Papillon, who gave him a slap on +the thigh, exclaiming, joyfully: + +"Well, you are launched!" + +It was true; he was launched, and he will wear out more than one suit of +evening clothes before he learns all that this action "going into +society," which seems nothing at all at first, and which really is +nothing, implies, to an industrious man and artist, of useless activity +and lost time. He is launched! He has made a successful debut! A +dinner in the city! At Madame Fontaine's dinner on the next Tuesday, +some abominable wine and aged salmon was served to Amedee by a butler +named Adolphe, who ought rather to have been called Exili or Castaing, +and who, after fifteen years' service to the Countess, already owned two +good paying houses in Paris. At the time, however, all went well, for +Amedee had a good healthy stomach and could digest buttons from a +uniform; but when all the Borgias, in black-silk stockings and white-silk +gloves, who wish to become house-owners, have cooked their favorite +dishes for him, and have practised only half a dozen winters, two or +three times a week upon him, we shall know more as to his digestion. +Still that dinner was enjoyable. Beginning with the suspicious salmon, +the statesman with the brush-broom head, the one who had overthrown +Louis-Philippe without suspecting it, started to explain how, if they had +listened to his advice, this constitutional king's dynasty would yet be +upon the throne; and at the moment when the wretched butler poured out +his most poisonous wine, the old lady who looked like a dromedary with +rings in its ears, made Amedee--her unfortunate neighbor--undergo a new +oral examination upon the poets of the nineteenth century, and asked him +what he thought of Lamartine's clamorous debts, and Victor Hugo's foolish +pride, and Alfred de Musset's intemperate habits. + +The worthy Amedee is launched! He will go and pay visits of indigestion; +appear one day at Madame such a one's, and at the houses of several other +"Madames." At first he will stay there a half-hour, the simpleton! +until he sees that the cunning ones only come in and go out exactly as +one does in a booth at a fair. He will see pass before him--but this +time in corsages of velvet or satin-all the necks and shoulders of his +acquaintances, those that he turned away from with disgust and those that +made him blush. Each Madame this one, entering Madame that one's house, +will seat herself upon the edge of a chair, and will always say the same +inevitable thing, the only thing that can be or should be said that day; +for example, "So the poor General is dead!" or "Have you heard the new +piece at the Francais? It is not very strong, but it is well played!" +"This will be delicious;" and Amedee will admire, above all things, +Madame this one's play of countenance, when Madame G------ tells her that +Madame B-------'s daughter is to marry Madame C-----'s nephew. While she +hardly knows these people, she will manifest as lively a joy as if they +had announced the death of an old aunt, whose money she is waiting for to +renew the furniture in her house. And, on the contrary, when Madame D--- +announces that Madame E-----'s little son has the whooping-cough, at +once, without transition, by a change of expression that would make the +fortune of an actress, the lady of the house puts on an air of +consternation, as if the cholera had broken out the night before in the +Halles quarter. + +Amedee is launched, I repeat it. He is still a little green and will +become the dupe, for a long time, of all the shams, grimaces, acting, and +false smiles, which cover so many artificial teeth. At first sight all +is elegance, harmony, and delicacy. Since Amedee does not know that the +Princess Krazinska's celebrated head of hair was cut from the heads of +the Breton girls, how could he suspect that the austere defender of the +clergy, M. Lemarguillier, had been gravely compromised in a love affair, +and had thrown himself at the feet of the chief of police, exclaiming, +"Do not ruin me!" When the king of society is announced, the young Duc +de la Tour-Prends-Garde, whose one ancestor was at the battle of the +bridge, and who is just now introducing a new style in trousers, Amedee +could not suspect that the favorite amusement of this fashionable rake +consisted in drinking in the morning upon an empty stomach, with his +coachman, at a grog-shop on the corner. When the pretty Baroness des +Nenuphars blushed up to her ears because someone spoke the word "tea- +spoon" before her, and she considered it to be an unwarrantable +indelicacy--nobody knows why--it is assuredly not our young friend who +will suspect that, in order to pay the gambling debts of her third lover, +this modest person had just sold secretly her family jewels. + +Rest assured Amedee will lose all these illusions in time. The day will +come when he will not take in earnest this grand comedy in white cravats. +He will not have the bad taste to show his indignation. No! he will +pity these unfortunate society people condemned to hypocrisy and +falsehood. He will even excuse their whims and vices as he thinks of the +frightful ennui that overwhelms them. Yes, he will understand how the +unhappy Duc de la Tour-Prends-Garde, who is condemned to hear La Favorita +seventeen times during the winter, may feel at times the need of a +violent distraction, and go to drink white wine with his servant. Amedee +will be full of indulgence, only one must pardon him for his plebeian +heart and native uncouthness; for at the moment when he shall have +fathomed the emptiness and vanity of this worldly farce, he will keep +all of his sympathy for those who retain something like nature. He will +esteem infinitely more the poorest of the workmen--a wood-sawyer or a +bell-hanger--than a politician haranguing from the mantel, or an old +literary dame who sparkles like a window in the Palais-Royal, and is +tattooed like a Caribbean; he will prefer an old; wrinkled, village +grand-dame in her white cap, who still hoes, although sixty years old, +her little field of potatoes. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A SERPENT AT THE FIRESIDE + +A little more than a year has passed. It is now the first days of +October; and when the morning mist is dissipated, the sky is of so limpid +a blue and the air so pure and fresh, that Amedee Violette is almost +tempted to make a paper kite and fly it over the fortifications, as he +did in his youth. But the age for that has passed; Amedee's real kite is +more fragile than if it had been made of sticks and pieces of old paper +pasted on one over another; it does not ascend very high yet, and the +thread that sails it is not very strong. Amedee's kite is his growing +reputation. He must work to sustain it; and always with the secret hope +of making little Maria his wife. Amedee works. He is not so poor now, +since he earns at the ministry two hundred francs a month, and from time +to time publishes a prose story in journals where his copy is paid for. +He has also left his garret in the Faubourg St.-Jacques and lives on the +Ile St. Louis, in one room only, but large and bright, from whose window +he can see, as he leans out, the coming and going of boats on the river +and the sun as it sets behind Notre-Dame. + +Amedee has been working mostly upon his drama, for the Comedie-Francaise +this summer, and it is nearly done; it is a modern drama in verse, +entitled L'Atelier. The action is very simple, like that of a tragedy, +but he believes it is sympathetic and touching, and it ends in a popular +way. Amedee thinks he has used for his dialogue familiar but +nevertheless poetic lines, in which he has not feared to put in certain +graphic words and energetic speeches from the mouths of working-people. + +The grateful poet has destined the principal role for Jocquelet, who has +made a successful debut in the 'Fourberies de Scapin', and who, since +then, has won success after success. Jocquelet, like all comic actors, +aspires to play also in drama. He can do so in reality, but under +particular conditions; for in spite of his grotesque nose, he has strong +and spirited qualities, and recites verses very well. He is to represent +an old mechanic, in his friend's work, a sort of faubourg Nestor, and +this type will accommodate itself very well to the not very aristocratic +face of Jocquelet, who more and more proves his cleverness at "making- +up." However, at first the actor was not satisfied with his part. He +fondles the not well defined dream of all actors, he wishes, like all the +others, the "leading part." They do not exactly know what they mean by +it, but in their dreams is vaguely visible a wonderful Almanzor, who +makes his first entrance in an open barouche drawn by four horses +harnessed a la Daumont, and descends from it dressed in tight-fitting +gray clothes, tasselled boots, and decorations. This personage is as +attractive as Don Juan, brave as Murat, a poet like Shakespeare, and as +charitable as St. Vincent de Paul. He should have, before the end of the +first act, crushed with love by one single glance, the young leading +actress; dispersed a dozen assassins with his sword; addressed to the +stars--that is to say, the spectators in the upper gallery--a long speech +of eighty or a hundred lines, and gathered up two lost children under the +folds of his cloak. + +A "fine leading part" should also, during the rest of the piece, +accomplish a certain number of sublime acts, address the multitude from +the top of a staircase, insult a powerful monarch to his face, dash into +the midst of a conflagration--always in the long-topped boots. The ideal +part would be for him to discover America, like Christopher Columbus; win +pitched battles, like Bonaparte, or some other equally senseless thing; +but the essential point is, never to leave the stage and to talk all the +time--the work, in reality, should be a monologue in five acts. + +This role of an old workman, offered to Jocquelet by Amedee, obtained +only a grimace of displeasure from the actor. However, it ended by his +being reconciled to the part, studying it, and, to use his own +expression, "racking his brains over it," until one day he ran to +Violette's, all excited, exclaiming: + +"I have the right idea of my old man now! I will dress him in a tricot +waistcoat with ragged sleeves and dirty blue overalls. He is an +apprentice, is he not? A fellow with a beard! Very well! in the great +scene where they tell him that his son is a thief and he defies the whole +of the workmen, he struggles and his clothes are torn open, showing a +hairy chest. I am not hairy, but I will make myself so--does that fill +the bill? You will see the effect." + +While reserving the right to dissuade Jocquelet from making himself up in +this way, Amedee carried his manuscript to the director of the Theatre +Francais, who asked a little time to look it over, and also promised the +young poet that he would read it aloud to the committee. + +Amedee is very anxious, although Maurice Roger, to whom he has read the +piece, act by act, predicts an enthusiastic acceptance. + +The handsome Maurice has been installed for more than a year in a studio +on the Rue d'Assas and leads a jolly, free life there. Does he work? +Sometimes; by fits and starts. And although he abandons his sketches at +the first attack of idleness, there is a charm about these sketches, +suspended upon the wall; and he will some day show his talent. One of +his greatest pleasures is to see pass before him all his beautiful +models, at ten francs an hour. With palette in hand, he talks with the +young women, tells them amusing stories, and makes them relate all their +love-affairs. When friends come to see him, they can always see a model +just disappearing behind a curtain. Amedee prefers to visit his friend +on Sunday afternoons, and thus avoid meeting these models; and then, too, +he meets there on that day Arthur Papillon, who paves the way for his +political career by pleading lawsuits for the press. Although he is, at +heart, only a very moderate Liberalist, this young man, with the very +chic side whiskers, defends the most republican of "beards," if it can be +called defending; for in spite of his fine oratorical efforts, his +clients are regularly favored with the maximum of punishment. But they +are all delighted with it, for the title of "political convict" is one +very much in demand among the irreconcilables. They are all convinced +that the time is near when they will overthrow the Empire, without +suspecting, alas! that in order to do that twelve hundred thousand +German bayonets will be necessary. The day after the triumph, the month +of imprisonment will be taken into account, and St. Pelagie is not the +'carcere duro'. Papillon is cunning and wishes to have a finger in every +pie, so he goes to dine once a week with those who owe their sojourn in +this easy-going jail to him, and regularly carries them a lobster. + +Paul Sillery, who has also made Maurice's acquaintance, loiters in this +studio. The amiable Bohemian has not yet paid his bill to Pere Lebuffle, +but he has cut his red fleece close to his head, and publishes every +Sunday, in the journals, news full of grace and humor. Of course they +will never pardon him at the Cafe de Seville; the "long-haired" ones have +disowned this traitor who has gone over to the enemy, and is now only a +sickening and fetid bourgeois; and if the poetical club were able to +enforce its decrees, Paul Sillery, like an apostate Jew in the times of +the Inquisition, would have been scourged and burned alive. Paul Sillery +does not trouble himself about it, however; and from time to time returns +to the "Seville" and treats its members to a bumper all around, which he +pays for with the gold of his dishonor. Sometimes Jocquelet appears, +with his smooth-shaved face; but only rarely, for he is at present a very +busy man and already celebrated. His audacious nose is reproduced in all +positions and displayed in photographers' windows, where he has for +neighbors the negatives most in demand; for instance, the fatherly and +benevolent face of the pope; Pius IX, or the international limbs of +Mademoiselle Ketty, the majestic fairy, in tights. The journals, which +print Jocquelet's name, treat him sympathetically and conspicuously, and +are full of his praises. "He is good to his old aunt," "gives alms," +"picked up a lost dog in the street the other evening." An artist such +as he, who stamps immortality on all the comic repertory, and takes +Moliere under his wing, has no time to go to visit friends, that is +understood. However, he still honors Maurice Roger with short visits. +He only has time to make all the knickknacks and china on the sideboard +tremble with the noise of his terrible voice; only time to tell how, on +the night before, in the greenroom, when still clothed in Scapin's +striped cloak, he deigned to receive, with the coldest dignity, the +compliments of a Royal Highness, or some other person of high rank. A +prominent society lady has been dying of love for him the past six +months; she occupies stage box Number Six--and then off he goes. Good +riddance! + +Amedee enjoys himself in his friend's studio, where gay and witty artists +come to talk. They laugh and amuse themselves, and this Sunday resting- +place is the most agreeable of the hard-working poet's recreations. +Amedee prolongs them as long as possible, until at last he is alone with +his friend; then the young men stretch themselves out upon the Turkish +cushions, and they talk freely of their hopes, ambitions, and dreams for +the future. + +Amedee, however, keeps one secret to himself; he never has told of his +love for Maria Gerard. Upon his return from Italy the traveller inquired +several times for the Gerards, sympathized politely with their +misfortune, and wished to be remembered to them through Amedee. The +latter had been very reserved in his replies, and Maurice no longer +broaches the subject in their conversation. Is it through neglect? +After all, he hardly knew the ladies; still, Amedee is not sorry to talk +of them no longer with his friend, and it is never without a little +embarrassment and unacknowledged jealousy that he replies to Maria when +she asks for news of Maurice. + +She no longer inquires. The pretty Maria is cross and melancholy, for +now they talk only of one thing at the Gerards; it is always the same, +the vulgar and cruel thought, obtaining the means to live; and within a +short time they have descended a few steps lower on the slippery ladder +of poverty. It is not possible to earn enough to feed three mouths with +a piano method and a box of pastels--or, at least, it does not hold out. +Louise has fewer pupils, and Pere Issacar has lessened his orders. Mamma +Gerard, who has become almost an old woman, redoubles her efforts; but +they can no longer make both ends meet. Amedee sees it, and how it makes +him suffer! + +The poor women are proud, and complain as little as possible; but the +decay inside this house, already so modest, is manifested in many ways. +Two beautiful engravings, the last of their father's souvenirs, had been +sold in an hour of extreme want; and one could see, by the clean spots +upon the wall, where the frames once hung. Madame Gerard's and her +daughters' mourning seemed to grow rusty, and at the Sunday dinner Amedee +now brings, instead of a cake, a pastry pie, which sometimes constitutes +the entire meal. There is only one bottle of old wine in the cellar, +and they drink wine by the pot from the grocer's. Each new detail that +proves his friends' distress troubles the sensitive Amedee. Once, having +earned ten Louis from some literary work, he took the poor mother aside +and forced her to accept one hundred francs. The unfortunate woman, +trembling with emotion, while two large tears rolled down her cheeks, +admitted that the night before, in order to pay the washerwoman, they had +pawned the only clock in the house. + +What can he do to assist them, to help them to lead a less terrible life? +Ah! if Maria would have it so, they could be married at once, without any +other expense than the white dress, as other poor people do; and they +would all live together. He has his salary of twenty-four hundred +francs, besides a thousand francs that he has earned in other ways. With +Louise's lessons this little income would be almost sufficient. Then he +would exert himself to sell his writings; he would work hard, and they +could manage. Of course it would be quite an undertaking on his part to +take all this family under his charge. Children might be born to them. +Had he not begun to gain a reputation; had he not a future before him? +His piece might be played and meet with success. This would be their +salvation. Oh! the happy life that the four would lead together! Yes, +if Maria could love him a little, if he persisted in hoping, if she had +the courage, it was the only step to take. + +Becoming enthusiastic upon this subject, Amedee decided to submit the +question to the excellent Louise, in whom he had perfect confidence, and +considered to be goodness and truth personified. Every Thursday, at six +o'clock, she left a boarding-school in the Rue de la Rochechouart, where +she gave lessons to young ladies in singing. He would go and wait for +her as she came out that very evening. And there he met her. Poor +Louise! her dress was lamentable; and what a sad countenance! What a +tired, distressed look! + +"What, you, Amedee!" said she, with a happy smile, as he met her. + +"Yes, my dear Louise. Take my arm and let me accompany you part of the +way. We will talk as we walk; I have something very serious to say to +you, confidentially--important advice to ask of you." + +The poet then began to make his confession. He recalled their childhood +days in the Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, when they played together; it was +as long ago as that that he had first begun to be charmed by little +Maria. As soon as he became a young man he felt that he loved the dear +child, and had always cherished the hope that he might inspire her with a +tender sentiment and marry her some day. If he had not spoken sooner it +was because he was too poor, but he had always loved her, he loved her +now, and never should love any other woman. He then explained his plan +of life in simple and touching terms; he would become Madame Gerard's son +and his dear Louise's brother; the union of their two poverties would +become almost comfort. Was it not very simple and reasonable? He was +very sure that she would approve of it, and she was wisdom itself and the +head of the family. + +While he was talking Louise lowered her eyes and looked at her feet. +He did not feel that she was trembling violently. Blind, blind Amedee! +You do not see, you will never see, that she is the one who loves you! +Without hope! she knows that very well; she is older than you, she is +not pretty, and she will always be in your eyes an adopted elder sister, +who once showed you your alphabet letters with the point of her knitting- +needle. She has suspected for a long time your love for Maria; she +suffers, but she is resigned to it, and she will help you, the brave +girl! But this confession that you make, Maria's name that you murmur +into her ear in such loving accents, this dream of happiness in which, +in your artless egotism, you reserve for her the role of an old maid who +will bring up your children, is cruel, oh! how cruel! They have reached +the Boulevard Pigalle; the sun has set; the sky is clear and bright as a +turquoise, and the sharp autumn wind detaches the last of the dried +leaves from the trees. Amedee is silent, but his anxious glance solicits +and waits for Louise's reply. + +"Dear Amedee," said she, raising her frank, pure eyes to his face, "you +have the most generous and best of hearts. I suspected that you loved +Maria, and I would be glad to tell you at once that she loves you, so +that we might hereafter be but one family--but frankly I can not. +Although the dear child is a little frivolous, her woman's instinct must +suspect your feeling for her, but she has never spoken of it to mamma or +to me. Have confidence; I do not see anything that augurs ill for you in +that. She is so young and so innocent that she might love you without +suspecting it herself. It is very possible, probable even, that your +avowal will enlighten her as to the state of her own heart. She will be +touched by your love, I am sure, as well as by your devotion to the whole +family. I hope, with all my heart, Amedee, that you will succeed; for, +I can say it to you, some pleasure must happen in poor Maria's life soon. +She has moments of the deepest sadness and attacks of weeping that have +made me uneasy for some time. You must have noticed, too, that she is +overwhelmed with ennui. I can see that she suffers more than mamma or I, +at the hard life that we lead. It is not strange that she feels as she +does, for she is pretty and attractive, and made for happiness; and to +see the present and the future so sad! How hard it is! You can +understand, my friend, how much I desire this marriage to take place. +You are so good and noble, you will make Maria happy; but you have said +it, I am the one who represents wisdom in our house. Let me have then a +few days in which to observe Maria, to obtain her confidence, to discover +perhaps a sentiment in her heart of which she is ignorant; and remember +that you have a sure and faithful ally in me." + +"Take your own time, dear Louise," replied the poet. "I leave everything +to you. Whatever you do will be for the best." + +He thanked her and they parted at the foot of the Rue Lepic. It was a +bitter pleasure for the slighted one to give the young man her poor, +deformed, pianist's hand, and to feel that he pressed it with hope and +gratitude. + +She desired and must urge this marriage. She said this over and over +again to herself, as she walked up the steep street, where crowds of +people were swarming at the end of their day's work. No! no! Maria did +not care for Amedee. Louise was very sure of it; but at all events it +was necessary that she should try to snatch her young sister from the +discouragements and bad counsel of poverty. Amedee loved her and would +know how to make her love him. In order to assure their happiness these +two young people must be united. As to herself, what matter! If they +had children she would accept in advance her duties as coddling aunt and +old godmother. Provided, of course, that Maria would be guided, or, at +least, that she would consent. She was so pretty that she was a trifle +vain. She was nourishing, perhaps, nobody knew what fancy or vain hope, +based upon her beauty and youth. Louise had grave fears. The poor girl, +with her thin, bent shoulders wrapped up in an old black shawl, had +already forgotten her own grief and only thought of the happiness of +others, as she slowly dragged herself up Montmartre Hill. When she +reached the butcher's shop in front of the mayor's office, she remembered +a request of her mother's; and as is always the case with the poor, a +trivial detail is mixed with the drama of life. Louise, without +forgetting her thoughts, while sacrificing her own heart, went into the +shop and picked out two breaded cutlets and had them done up in brown +paper, for their evening's repast. + +The day after his conversation with Louise, Amedee felt that distressing +impatience that waiting causes nervous people. The day at the office +seemed unending, and in order to escape solitude, at five o'clock he went +to Maurice's studio, where he had not been for fifteen days. He found +him alone, and the young artist also seemed preoccupied. While Amedee +congratulated him upon a study placed upon an easel, Maurice walked up +and down the room with his hands in his pocket, and eyes upon the floor, +making no reply to his friend's compliments. Suddenly he stopped and +looking at Amedee said: + +"Have you seen the Gerard ladies during the past few days?" + +Maurice had not spoken of these ladies for several months, and the poet +was a trifle surprised. + +"Yes," he replied. "Not later than yesterday I met Mademoiselle Louise." + +"And," replied Maurice, in a hesitating manner, "were all the family +well?" + +"Yes." + +"Ah!" said the artist, in a strange voice, and he resumed his silent +promenade. + +Amedee always had a slightly unpleasant sensation when Maurice spoke the +name of the Gerards, but this time the suspicious look and singular tone +of the young painter, as he inquired about them, made the poet feel +genuinely uneasy. He was impressed, above all, by Maurice's simple +exclamation, "Ah!" which seemed to him to be enigmatical and mysterious. +But nonsense! all this was foolish; his friend's questions were +perfectly natural. + +"Shall we pass the evening together, my dear Maurice?" + +"It is impossible this evening," replied Maurice, still continuing his +walk. "A duty--I have an engagement." + +Amedee had the feeling that he had come at an unfortunate time, and +discreetly took his departure. Maurice had seemed indifferent and less +cordial than usual. + +"What is the matter with him?" said the poet to himself several times, +while dining in the little restaurant in the Latin Quarter. He afterward +went to the Comedie Francaise, to kill time, as well as to inquire after +his drama of Jocquelet, who played that evening in 'Le Legataire +Universel'. + +The comedian received him in his dressing-room, being already arrayed in +Crispin's long boots and black trousers. He was seated in his shirt- +sleeves be fore his toilet-table, and had just pasted over his smooth +lips the bristling moustache of this traditional personage. Without +rising, or even saying "Good-day," he cried out to the poet as he +recognized him in the mirror. + +"No news as to your piece! The manager has not one moment to himself; +we are getting ready for the revival of Camaraderie. But we shall be +through with it in two days, and then--" + +And immediately, talking to hear himself talk, and to exercise his +terrible organ, he belched out, like the noise from an opened dam, a +torrent of commonplace things. He praised Scribe's works, which they had +put on the stage again; he announced that the famous Guillery, his senior +in the comedy line, would be execrable in this performance, and would +make a bungle of it. He complained of being worried to death by the +pursuit of a great lady--"You know, stage box Number Six," and showed, +with a conceited gesture, a letter, tossed in among the jars of paint and +pomade, which smelled of musk. Then, ascending to subjects of a more +elevated order, he scored the politics of the Tuileries, and scornfully +exposed the imperial corruption while recognizing that this "poor +Badingue," who, three days before, had paid a little compliment to the +actor, was of more account than his surroundings. + +The poet went home and retired, bewildered by such gossip. When he +awoke, the agony of his thoughts about Maria had become still more +painful. When should he see Louise again? Would her reply be favorable? +In spite of the fine autumn morning his heart was troubled, and he felt +that he had no courage. His administrative work had never seemed more +loathsome than on that day. His fellow-clerk, an amateur in hunting, +had just had two days' absence, and inflicted upon him, in an unmerciful +manner, his stories of slaughtered partridges, and dogs who pointed, +so wonderfully well, and of course punctuated all this with numerous +Pan-Pans! to imitate the report of a double-barrelled gun. + +When he left the office Amedee regained his serenity a little; he +returned home by the quays, hunting after old books and enjoying the +pleasures of a beautiful evening, watching, in the golden sky, around the +spires of Ste.-Chapelle, a large flock of swallows assembling for their +approaching departure. + +At nightfall, after dining, he resolved to baffle his impatience by +working all the evening and retouching one act of his drama with which he +was not perfectly content. He went to his room, lighted his lamp, and +seated himself before his open manuscript. Now, then! to work! He had +been silly ever since the night before. Why should he imagine that +misfortune was in the air? Do such things as presentiments exist? + +Suddenly, three light, but hasty and sharp knocks were struck upon his +door. Amedee arose, took his lamp, and opened it. He jumped back--there +stood Louise Gerard in her deep mourning! + +"You?--At my rooms?--At this hour?--What has happened?" + +She entered and dropped into the poet's armchair. While he put the lamp +upon the table he noticed that the young girl was as white as wax. Then +she seized his hands and pressing them with all her strength, she said, +in a voice unlike her own--a voice hoarse with despair: + +"Amedee, I come to you by instinct, as toward our only friend, as to a +brother, as to the only man who will be able to help us repair the +frightful misfortune which overwhelms us!" She stopped, stifled with +emotion. + +"A misfortune!" exclaimed the young man. "What misfortune? Maria?" + +"Yes! Maria!" + +"An accident?--An illness?" + +Louise made a rapid gesture with her arm and head which signified: "If it +were only that!" With her mouth distorted by a bitter smile and with +lowered eyes, talking confusedly, she said: + +"Monsieur Maurice Roger--yes--your friend Maurice! A miserable wretch!-- +he has deceived and ruined the unhappy child! Oh! what infamy!--and now +--now--" + +Her deathly pale face flushed and became purple to the roots of her hair. + +"Now Maria will become a mother!" + +At these words the poet gave a cry like some enraged beast; he reeled, +and would have fallen had the table not been near. He sat down on the +edge of it, supporting himself with his hands, completely frozen as if +from a great chill. Louise, overcome with shame, sat in the armchair, +hiding her face in her hands while great tears rolled down between the +fingers of her ragged gloves. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Good form consists, above all things, in keeping silent +Intimate friend, whom he has known for about five minutes +My good fellow, you are quite worthless as a man of pleasure +Society people condemned to hypocrisy and falsehood + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of A Romance of Youth, v3 +by Francois Coppee + diff --git a/3960.zip b/3960.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4a5603 --- /dev/null +++ b/3960.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. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..69a2043 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #3960 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3960) |