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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Naiad, by George Sand
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: The Naiad
-       A ghost story
-
-Author: George Sand
-
-Translator: Katherine Berry di Zéréga
-
-Release Date: November 7, 2022 [eBook #69312]
-
-Produced by: Richard Tonsing, Carlos Colon, the University of Minnesota
-             and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-             https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images
-             made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE NAIAD ***
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                               THE NAIAD
-                             A GHOST STORY
-
-
-                          _FROM THE FRENCH OF_
-
-                              GEORGE SAND
-
-
-                                   BY
-
-                       KATHERINE BERRY DI ZÉRÉGA
-
-
-                                PRESS OF
-                           WILLIAM R. JENKINS
-                         851 & 853 SIXTH AVENUE
-                                NEW YORK
-
-
-
-
-                            COPYRIGHT, 1892,
-                                   BY
-                       KATHERINE BERRY DI ZÉRÉGA.
-
-
-
-
- TO THE LATE
-
-                            =Lady Frankland=
-
-                    THIS BOOK IS LOVINGLY INSCRIBED
-
-                                 BY HER
-
-                                 MOTHER
-
-
-
-
-                               _PREFACE._
-
-
-_When years ago the author of this volume read, with delight, the story
-in the original, she then decided to translate it, in order that others
-(unfamiliar with the language) might enjoy a similar pleasure; the work
-of publication, hardly begun, was interrupted by the illness and sudden
-death of her only daughter, and to one who in so many ways resembled the
-heroine of this sketch, this book is now dedicated._
-
-
-
-
-                               CONTENTS.
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-                                           PAGE
-                         THE THREE LOAVES,    3
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-
-                         THE APPARITION,     19
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-
-                         THE LAW SUIT,       35
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-
-                         THE NAIAD,          52
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-
-                         THE DUEL,           83
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-
-                         CONCLUSION,         99
-
-
-
-
-                               THE NAIAD.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER I.
-                           THE THREE LOAVES.
-
-
-Charged by my father with a very delicate mission, I repaired, towards
-the end of May, 1788, to the château of Ionis, situated a dozen leagues
-distant, in the lands lying between Angers and Saumur. I was twenty-two,
-and already practising the profession of lawyer, for which I experienced
-but slight inclination, although neither the study of business nor of
-argument had presented serious difficulties to me. Taking my youth into
-consideration, I was not esteemed without talent, and the standing of my
-father, a lawyer renowned in the locality, assured me a brilliant
-patronage in the future, in return for any paltry efforts I might make
-to be worthy of replacing him. But I would have preferred literature, a
-more dreamy life, a more independent and more individual use of my
-faculties, a responsibility less submissive to the passions and
-interests of others. As my family was well off, and I an only son,
-greatly spoiled and petted, I might have chosen my own career, but I
-would have thus afflicted my father, who took pride in his ability to
-direct me in the road which he had cleared in advance, and I loved him
-too tenderly to permit my instinct to outweigh his wishes.
-
-It was a delightful evening in which I was finishing my ride on
-horseback through the woods that surrounded the ancient and magnificent
-castle of Ionis. I was well mounted, dressed _en cavalier_, with a
-species of elegance, and accompanied by a servant of whom I had not the
-slightest need, but whom my mother had conceived the innocent idea of
-giving me for the occasion, desiring that her son should present a
-proper appearance at the house of one of the most brilliant personages
-of our patronage.
-
-The night was illuminated by the soft fire of its largest stars. A
-slight mist veiled the scintillations of those myriads of satellites
-that gleam like brilliant eyes on clear, cold evenings. This was a true
-summer sky, pure enough to be luminous and transparent, still
-sufficiently softened not to overwhelm one by its immeasurable wealth.
-It was, if I may so speak, one of those soft firmaments that permit one
-to think of earth, to admire the vaporous lines of narrow horizons, to
-breathe without disdain its atmosphere of flowers and herbage—in fine,
-to consider oneself as something in this immensity, and to forget that
-one is but an atom in the infinite.
-
-In proportion as I approached the seigneurial park the wild perfumes of
-the forest were mingled with those of the lilacs and acacias, whose
-blooming heads leaned over the wall. Soon through the shrubbery I saw
-the windows of the manor gleaming behind their curtains of purple moire,
-divided by the dark crossbars of the frame work. It was a magnificent
-castle of the renaissance, a _chef-d’œuvre_ of taste mingled with
-caprice, one of those dwellings where one is impressed by something
-indescribably ingenious and bold, which from the imagination of the
-architect seems to pass into one’s own, and take possession of it,
-raising it above the usages and preoccupations of a positive world.
-
-I confess that my heart beat fast in giving my name to the lackey
-commissioned to announce me. I had never seen Madame d’Ionis; she passed
-for one of the prettiest women in the country, was twenty-two, and had a
-husband who was neither handsome nor amiable, and who neglected her in
-order to travel. Her writing was charming, and she found means to show
-not only a great deal of sense, but still more cleverness in her
-business letters. Altogether she was a very fine character. This was all
-that I knew of her, and it was sufficient for me to dread appearing
-awkward or provincial. I grew pale on entering the salon. My first
-impression then was one of relief and pleasure, when I found myself in
-the presence of two stout and very ugly old women, one of whom, Madame
-the Dowager d’Ionis informed me that her daughter-in-law was at the
-house of her friends in the neighborhood, and probably would not return
-before the next day.
-
-“You are welcome, all the same,” added this matron. “We have a very
-friendly and grateful feeling for your father, and it appears that we
-stand in great need of his counsel, which you are without doubt charged
-to communicate to us.”
-
-“I came from him,” I replied, “to talk over the affair with Madame
-d’Ionis.”
-
-“The Countess d’Ionis does in fact occupy herself with business
-affairs,” replied the dowager, rather coldly, as if to warn me that I
-had committed a blunder. “She understands it, she has a good head, and
-in the absence of my son, who is at Vienna, she is conducting this
-wearisome and interminable law suit. You must not depend upon me to
-replace her, for I understand nothing about it, and all that I can do is
-to retain you until the countess’ return, and offer you a supper, such
-as it may be, and a good bed.”
-
-Hereupon the old lady, who in spite of the little lesson she had given
-me, appeared a good enough woman, rang and gave orders for making me at
-home. I refused to eat anything, having taken care to do so on the road,
-and knowing that nothing is more annoying than to eat alone, and under
-the eyes of people with whom one happens to be totally unacquainted.
-
-As my father had allowed me several days in which to execute my
-commission, I had nothing better to do, than to wait the return of my
-beautiful client; and I was, in the eyes of herself and family, a
-messenger of sufficient importance to be entitled to a very cordial
-hospitality. I did not then await a second invitation to remain in her
-house, although there was a very comfortable inn where persons of my
-condition went ordinarily to await the moment of consultation with
-“people of quality.” Such was still the language of the provinces at
-this epoch, and it was necessary to appreciate these terms and their
-value, in order to maintain one’s position without degradation and
-without impertinence in one’s relations with the world. A _bourgeois_,
-and a philosopher (they did not yet say Democrat), I was not in the
-least convinced of the moral superiority of the nobility, and although
-they prided themselves upon being philosophical, I knew it was necessary
-to humor their susceptibilities of etiquette and respect them, in order
-to be respected oneself. I displayed then a slight timidity with an air
-of sufficiently good style, having already seen at my father’s house
-some specimens of all classes of society. The dowager appeared to
-perceive this, before the lapse of many minutes and no longer assumed an
-air of condescension in order to welcome, if not as an equal, at least
-as a friend the son of the family lawyer.
-
-While she was conversing with me, as a woman with whom custom supplies
-the place of wit, I had the leisure to examine both her countenance and
-that of the other matron still stouter than she who, seated at some
-distance and filling in the background of a piece of tapestry, never
-opened her lips and scarcely raised her eyes in my direction. She was
-dressed somewhat in the style of the dowager, in a dark silk gown with
-tight sleeves, and a black lace scarf, surmounting a white cap, tied
-under her chin. But it was not so fresh or clean, her hands were less
-white, although equally plump, her type coarser, although coarseness was
-very evident in the heavy features of the stout dowager of Ionis. In
-short I was no longer in doubt as to her condition of companion, when
-the dowager remarked apropos of my refusal to sup.
-
-“No matter, Zéphyrine, we must not forget that M. Nivières is young, and
-that he may be hungry yet before going to sleep. Order a light supper to
-be served in his apartment.”
-
-The monumental Zéphyrine arose; she was as tall as she was stout. “And
-above all,” observed her mistress, “do not let them forget the bread.”
-
-“The bread,” said Zéphyrine, in a fine, husky little voice that offered
-a pleasing contrast to her stature. Then she repeated, “The bread!” with
-an intonation strongly marked by doubt and surprise.
-
-“The loaves,” replied the dowager with authority.
-
-Zéphyrine seemed to hesitate an instant and went out, but her mistress
-recalled her immediately, and gave her this strange order—“Three
-loaves!”
-
-Zéphyrine opened her mouth to answer, shrugged her shoulders slightly
-and disappeared.
-
-“Three loaves!” I exclaimed in my turn. “But what kind of an appetite do
-you suppose I have, Madame la Comtesse?”
-
-“Oh, that is nothing,” said she, “They are quite small.”
-
-She was silent for a moment, I sought for some subject of conversation
-while awaiting the time when I might retire, when she appeared a prey to
-a certain perplexity, placed her hand on a bell, and stopped to say as
-if speaking to herself—“Still three loaves!”
-
-“It is a great deal in fact,” answered I, repressing a strong temptation
-to laugh. She looked at me in amazement, unconscious that she had spoken
-aloud.
-
-“You speak of the law suit,” said she, as if to make me forget her
-distraction, “it is a great deal that they claim. Do you think we will
-gain it?”
-
-But she paid very little attention to my evasive answers, and rang
-emphatically. A servant came, she asked for Zéphyrine, who reappeared
-and in whose ear she whispered, after which she seemed relieved, and
-began to chat with me like a good-natured gossip, very ignorant, but
-benevolent and almost maternal, questioning me upon my tastes, my
-dispositions, my occupations and my pleasures. I made myself more of a
-child than I was in order to put her at her ease, for I soon remarked
-that she was one of those women of the great world who contrive to get
-along with the most mediocre intelligence, and who would prefer not to
-encounter a greater degree in others. On the whole she showed so much
-good nature that I was not greatly bored with her during the space of an
-hour, and that I did not await her permission to leave her with too much
-impatience.
-
-A groom of the chambers conducted me to my apartment, for it was almost
-a complete suite, three decidedly handsome rooms, quite large and
-furnished in the Louis XV style, with a great deal of luxury. My own
-servant to whom my good mother had given his lesson, was in my bedroom,
-awaiting the honor of undressing me, in order to appear as well posted
-in his duties as the valets of great houses.
-
-“This is all very well, my dear Baptiste,” said I to him, when we were
-alone, “but thou canst go to sleep, I shall undress myself as I have
-been in the habit of doing all my life.”
-
-Baptiste bade me good-night, and left me. It was only ten o’clock. I had
-no desire to sleep so soon, so I set myself to examine the furniture and
-pictures in my room, when my eyes fell upon the repast which had been
-served near the fire-place, and the three loaves appeared before me in
-all their mysterious symmetry. They were passably large and arranged in
-the centre of the Japanese waiter in a pretty basket of old Saxony, with
-a handsome silver salt-cellar in the midst, and three damask napkins
-placed at intervals around it.
-
-“What the deuce does this mean?” I asked myself, “and why has this
-vulgar accessory of my supper, the bread, tormented my aged hostess to
-such an extent?” “Why were three loaves so expressly ordered? Why not
-four! Why not ten? Since they take me for an ogre! Upon my word! This is
-really a bounteous feast, and here are some bottles of wine whose
-etiquettes promise well. But why three carafes of water? Here again it
-becomes mysterious and absurd. Does this good old countess imagine that
-I am triple, or that I carry two guests in my valise?” I was musing upon
-this enigma when some one knocked at the door of the ante-chamber.
-
-“Come in,” cried I, without moving, thinking that Baptiste had forgotten
-something. What was my surprise to behold the powerful Zéphyrine in her
-night cap, holding a candle in one hand and, with a finger placed upon
-her lips, advancing towards me on tip-toe as if she entertained the
-absurd idea of not letting the floor creak under her elephantine tread.
-I certainly grew paler than I had done in preparing to meet the youthful
-Madame d’Ionis. The spectacle of this voluminous apparition was truly
-appalling!
-
-“Fear nothing, sir,” said the good old maid ingeniously, as if she had
-divined my terror. “I come to explain about the extraordinary—the three
-carafes, and the three loaves.”
-
-“Ah! willingly,” answered I, offering her an armchair, “I was really
-considerably perplexed.”
-
-“As housekeeper,” said Zéphyrine, refusing to be seated and still
-holding her candle, “I should be very much mortified if monsieur
-imagined that I wished to perpetrate a poor joke. I would not permit
-myself—and still I come to ask monsieur to connive at it, so that my
-mistress may not be displeased.”
-
-“Go on, Mademoiselle Zéphyrine, I am not of a disposition to be vexed at
-a joke, above all, when it is an amusing one.”
-
-“Oh! _mon Dieu_, no, sir, there is nothing amusing about it, but neither
-is there anything disagreeable. It is only this, madame the dowager
-countess is very—her head is very—.” Zéphyrine stopped short; she either
-loved or feared the dowager and could not make up her mind to criticise
-her. Her embarrassment was comical, for it showed itself in a childish
-smile curling around the corners of a decidedly small and toothless
-mouth which caused her round, chubby face, minus forehead and chin, to
-appear still larger. You might have mistaken it for the full moon
-grimacing as it is represented on almanacs. Her breathless little voice,
-and her peculiar lisp had the effect of causing her to appear so
-extraordinary that I did not dare to look her in the face for fear of
-losing my countenance.
-
-“Let me see,” said I, endeavoring to encourage her in her revelations,
-“madame the dowager countess is something of a tease; she likes to amuse
-herself at the expense of others!”
-
-“No, sir, no indeed. She does it in perfect good faith; she believes,
-she imagines”—I sought in vain for what the countess might imagine, when
-Zéphyrine added with an effort—“In fact, sir, my poor mistress believes
-in spirits!”
-
-“Well, granted,” I replied. “She is not the only person of her sex and
-age who entertains the same belief; and, it certainly does harm to no
-one.”
-
-“But it sometimes causes evil to those who fear them, and if monsieur
-should be afraid of anything in this apartment, I can assure him that
-nothing ever reappears here.”
-
-“So much the worse, I would have been very pleased to see something
-supernatural. Ghosts are part of all old manors and this one is so
-handsome that I would only have imagined very agreeable phantoms.”
-
-“Really, monsieur has then heard something spoken of?”
-
-“In regard to this castle and this apartment, never. I am waiting for
-you to tell me about it.”
-
-“Well, monsieur, this is the story: In the year—I can’t remember—but it
-was in the reign of Henri II, monsieur must know better than I when that
-was, there lived here three young ladies of the d’Ionis family,
-beautiful as the day, and so amiable that they were adored by everybody.
-A wicked court lady who was jealous of them, and of the youngest in
-particular, caused some poison to be placed in the water of a fountain
-from which they drank and which was used in making their bread. All
-three died the same night, and as they pretend to say, in the room where
-we now are. But this is not by any means certain and no one ever
-imagined such a thing until lately. To be sure they were in the habit of
-telling a story in the country of three white ladies who had shown
-themselves for a long time in the castle and in the gardens; but it was
-so old that no one thought of it any more, and no one believed it, when
-one of the friends of the family, M. l’abbé de Lamyre, who is an _esprit
-gai_ and a good talker, having slept in this room, dreamed or pretended
-to have dreamed of three green ladies who had appeared and prophesied
-before him. And as he saw that his dream interested madame the dowager,
-and diverted the young countess, her daughter-in-law, he invented
-whatever he pleased and made his ghosts talk according to his fancy so
-well, that madame the dowager is persuaded that the future of the family
-and that of the law suit, which is tormenting M. le comte, might be
-revealed by causing these phantoms to reappear and speak. But, as all
-the persons who have lodged here have seen nothing at all, and have
-simply laughed at her, she has resolved to put only those here who not
-having been forewarned would not think of inventing apparitions or of
-concealing those that they might have seen. This is why she has ordered
-you to be put in this room without saying anything to you, but as madame
-is not very—clever, perhaps, she has not been able to keep herself from
-speaking to me of the three loaves in your presence.”
-
-“To be sure, the three loaves and the three carafes have given me some
-subject of thought. Nevertheless, I confess that absolutely I can
-discover no connection whatever.”
-
-“Oh, yes, monsieur, the three ladies of the time of Henri II were
-poisoned by bread and water.”
-
-“There I see the connection very plainly, but I do not understand how
-this offering, if it is one, should be agreeable to them. What do you
-think of it yourself?”
-
-“I think wherever their souls may be they neither know nor care anything
-about it,” said Zéphyrine with an air of superior modesty. “But you
-ought to learn how these ideas were suggested to my good old mistress. I
-bring you the manuscript that Madame d’Ionis, her daughter-in-law,
-Madame Caroline as we call her here, has herself unearthed by means of
-directions given in some old scribblings found in the archives of the
-family. This perusal will interest you more than my conversation, and I
-am going to wish you good evening after having preferred a little
-petition, however.”
-
-“With all my heart, my dear young lady, what can I do for you?”
-
-“Do not tell any one in the world, unless Madame Caroline, who will not
-mind, that I have forewarned you, for madame the dowager would scold me,
-and would trust me no longer.”
-
-“I promise, and what must I say to-morrow if I am questioned in regard
-to my dreams?”
-
-“Ah! that, monsieur, is a case in which you must have the kindness to
-invent something, a dream without sense or connection, whatever you
-please, provided it includes the three young ladies, otherwise madame
-the dowager will be like a soul in torment, and will accuse me of not
-putting the loaves, and carafes and salt-cellar in their places, or
-rather that I have warned you, and that your incredulity has prevented
-the ghosts from making their appearance. She is convinced of these
-ladies’ bad temper and of their refusal to show themselves to those who
-ridicule them beforehand, were it only in their thoughts.”
-
-Left alone, after having promised Zéphyrine to lend myself to the fancy
-of her mistress, I opened and read the manuscript of which I shall only
-relate the circumstances relative to my story. That of the d’Ionis,
-young ladies appeared to me purely legendary, recounted by Madame
-d’Ionis on the faith of documents of slender authenticity, which she
-herself criticised in that light and mocking strain which was the
-fashion of the day. I pass over then in silence the chronicle of the
-three dead ladies, thus coldly commented upon, and which had appeared
-more interesting to me in the sober words of Zéphyrine and will only
-relate the following fragment, transcribed by madame d’Ionis from a
-manuscript dated 1650, and revised by an ancient chaplain of the castle.
-
-“It is a fact that I have heard in my youth that the castle of Ionis was
-haunted by three spirits, exhibiting the appearance of ladies richly
-dressed, who without menacing any one appeared to be seeking something
-in the rooms and closets of the house. Masses and prayers recited for
-their benefit proving ineffectual to prevent their return, some one
-conceived the idea of causing three white loaves to be blessed, and of
-putting them in the room where the demoiselles d’Ionis had expired. That
-night they came without making any noise or frightening any one by their
-appearance, and it was discovered on the following day that they had
-nibbled the loaves after the manner of mice but had taken nothing away,
-and on the following night they had recommenced complaining and making
-the doors creak and bolts groan. For this reason some one conceived the
-idea of giving them three pitchers of clear water, which they did not
-drink, but a portion of which they spilled. At length the prior of Saint
-—— suggested that they might be entirely appeased by offering them a
-salt-cellar with white salt, on account of their having been poisoned by
-a loaf without salt, and as soon as this was done they were heard
-singing a very beautiful song in which we are assured that they
-promised, in Latin, to bestow blessings and good fortune upon the
-younger branch of the Ionis family to whom their property had reverted.
-This took place, I am told, in the time of King Henri IV, and since then
-nothing further has been heard of them; but for a long time a belief
-existed in the d’Ionis family, that by making them this offering at
-midnight they could be drawn thither and the future revealed through
-them. It is even said that if the three loaves, three carafes and a
-salt-cellar should by chance be discovered on a table in the aforesaid
-castle, astounding things would be seen and heard in this place.”
-
-To this fragment Madame d’Ionis had added the following reflection: “It
-is much to be regretted for the sake of the d’Ionis family that this
-fine miracle should have ceased; all its members would then have been
-virtuous and wise: but, though I have in my hands a formula of
-invocation arranged by some astrologer formerly attached to the house, I
-have no hopes that the green ladies will ever reappear here.”
-
-I remained for some time absorbed, not from the effects of this perusal,
-but rather on account of Madame d’Ionis’ pretty handwriting and her
-elegant revision of the other reflections that accompanied the legend. I
-did not then make, as I permit myself to-day, any criticism on the easy
-scepticism of this beautiful lady. I fully sympathized with her on this
-point. It was the fashion to regard fantastical things not from an
-artistic but from an ironical point of view. People prided themselves
-upon not crediting nurses’ tales or the superstitions of former ages. I
-was, besides, strongly disposed to fall in love. They had spoken to me
-so much at home of this amiable person, and my mother had recommended me
-so strongly on my departure, not to allow my head to be turned that it
-was already partially accomplished. So far I had only been in love with
-two or three of my cousins, and these affections, rehearsed in verses as
-chaste as my flame, had not consumed my heart to such an extent that it
-was not ready to lend itself to burning much more seriously.
-
-I had brought with me a bundle of law papers that my father had made me
-promise to look over. I opened it conscientiously; but after having read
-several pages with my eyes, without taking in the sense of a single
-word, I soon found out that mode of study was perfectly useless and
-wisely determined to renounce it. I thought I could make up for my
-laziness by seriously thinking over the d’Ionis law suit, that I had at
-the end of my fingers, and I prepared the arguments with which I was to
-convince the countess of the steps she ought to take. Only, each of
-these wonderful arguments terminated, I know not how, with some amorous
-madrigal which had no direct connection with the procedure.
-
-In the midst of this important work I was seized with hunger. The muse
-is not so hard upon children of a family accustomed to live well as to
-forbid them to sup with a good appetite. I therefore set myself to do
-justice to the _pâté_ which smilingly greeted me among my law papers and
-my alexandrines, and I unfolded the napkin placed at my plate where, to
-my great surprise, I found a fourth roll.
-
-This surprise yielded quickly to a very simple train of reasoning. If in
-the plans and previsions of the dowager, the three cabalistic loaves
-were to remain intact, it was but natural that one should have been
-consecrated to the demands of my appetite. I tasted the wines and found
-them of so good a quality that I generously made a sacrifice to the
-phantoms of the carafes of water, designed for their particular use.
-
-And while eating with great pleasure, I, at length, began to think of
-the chronicle and to ask myself how I should recount the wonders that I
-could not dispense with having seen. I regretted that Zéphyrine had not
-furnished me with more details of the three dead women’s presumed
-peculiarities. The extract from the magazine of 1650 was not
-sufficiently explicit: were these ladies to wait until I was asleep
-before coming, like mice, to nibble the loaves they were supposed to
-relish so greatly? Or rather, were they likely to appear at any moment,
-and seat themselves, one at my left, the other at my right, and the
-third opposite me?
-
-The bell of the castle announced midnight, it was the classic hour, the
-fatal hour!
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER II.
-                            THE APPARITION.
-
-
-The clock struck twelve, but the last vibration died away without any
-ghost appearing. I arose, thinking I was rid of them. I had finished
-eating and, after a dozen leagues on horseback, began to feel the need
-of sleep, when the bell of the castle which had a very fine _timbre_
-solemn and resounding, began again to toll the four quarters and twelve
-hours with an imposing slowness.
-
-Shall I confess that I felt some emotion at this sort of return of the
-fantastical hour that I thought had gone by? Why not? So far I had
-maintained a philosophical composure. Although a fervent disciple of
-reason, I was none the less a very young man, and a man of imagination,
-brought up at the knees of a mother, who firmly believed in all the
-legends which served as lullabies, and which had never appeared in the
-least laughable to me. I was conscious of experiencing an imperceptible
-uneasiness, and in order to overcome it—for I felt quite ashamed of it—I
-hastened to undress myself.
-
-The bell had ceased tolling. I was in bed and about to extinguish my
-candle, when a clock some distance from the village began in its turn to
-strike four quarters and twelve hours, but in a tone so lugubrious and
-with such dreadful nonchalance, that I was seriously discomposed—and
-still more so, as it had like the castle clock a double stroke, and
-appeared as if it would never cease.
-
-In fact, for several minutes it seemed as if I would hear it recommence
-and that it would strike thirty-seven times; but this was a pure
-illusion, as I assured myself by opening my window. The most profound
-silence reigned in the castle and throughout the country. The sky was
-quite overcast, the stars were no longer visible; the air was heavy; and
-I could see clouds of moths dancing in the ray of light that my candle
-cast outside. Their uneasiness was a sign of storm. As I have always
-enjoyed a tempest greatly, I pleased myself with inhaling its approach.
-Sudden gusts wafted the perfume of the garden towards me. The
-nightingale sang once more, then ceased, in order to seek a shelter. I
-forgot my foolish emotion while enjoying this spectacle of reality.
-
-My room opened on the court of honor, which was immense and surrounded
-by magnificent buildings, whose delicate proportions were defined in
-pale blue against the dark sky, by the light of the first flashes.
-
-But the wind arose and drove me from the casement from which it seemed
-desirous of tearing away the curtains. I closed everything and before
-again retiring, as I wished to brave the ghosts and satisfy Zéphyrine by
-accomplishing conscientiously what I presumed to be the rites of
-invocation, I brushed the table and removed the remains of my repast. I
-placed the three carafes around the basket. I had not disturbed the
-salt; and wishing to establish a complete victory over myself, by
-provoking my imagination to its extreme limit, I arranged three chairs
-around the table and placed three candlesticks upon it, one before each
-easy chair.
-
-After this, I extinguished all the lights and fell asleep quietly,
-without failing to compare myself to sire Enguerrand, whose story my
-mother had often sung to me in the form of a plaintive melody,
-recounting thus his adventures in the terrible castle of Ardennes.
-
-You can very well believe that my first sleep must have been profound,
-for I remember nothing more of the storm, and it was not that which
-awoke me; it was a clinking of glasses on the table, that I at first
-heard intermingled with my dreams—and that I ended by hearing in
-reality. I opened my eyes, and—believe me who will, but I was witness of
-such surprising things, that after twenty years the slightest detail is
-as clear in my memory as on the first day.
-
-There was some light in the room although I could see no candle burning.
-It was a species of very vague green flame, which seemed to proceed from
-the fire-place. By the means of this faint illumination I could see, not
-very distinctly, but beyond any doubt, three persons, or rather three
-forms seated on the chairs that I had placed around the table, one at
-the right, the other at the left, the third between the two first,
-opposite the first-place, with its back to my bed.
-
-In proportion as my eyes became accustomed to this light, I thought I
-could distinguish in these three shadows the forms of women, dressed or
-rather enveloped in voluminous greenish white veils, which at times
-resembled clouds, and which entirely concealed their faces, forms and
-hands. I do not know if they moved; but, if so, I could see none of
-their motions: and still the clinking of the glasses continued, as if
-they had been pushed and knocked against the basket, in a sort of
-musical measure. After the lapse of several moments, I confess I grew
-seriously alarmed. I thought I was the dupe of some mystery, and was
-about to leap resolutely into the middle of the room in order to
-frighten those who wished to terrify me when, remembering that in this
-house there could be none but respectable women, perhaps great ladies,
-who were doing me the honor of amusing themselves at my expense, I
-suddenly drew my curtain and hurriedly dressed myself.
-
-When this was accomplished, I pulled back the curtain to watch for the
-time when I should surprise these malicious people by a loud outcry in
-my harshest voice when, behold! everything had disappeared, and darkness
-reigned supreme.
-
-At this period, the means of procuring light instantaneously had not
-been discovered; I did not even possess that of obtaining it slowly by
-aid of my gunflint. I was thus compelled to feel my way towards the
-table, where I found absolutely nothing but the easy chairs, the
-carafes, the candlesticks and the rolls, in the same order I had placed
-them.
-
-No perceptible voice had betrayed the departure of the strange visitors;
-it is true that the wind was still blowing very hard and howled
-mournfully down the large chimney of my room.
-
-I opened the window and blinds, and after quite a struggle succeeded in
-fastening them.
-
-Day had not yet dawned, and the slight transparency of the exterior air
-was not sufficient to permit me seeing every part of my room, so I was
-compelled to go by the sense of feeling, not wishing to call any one, or
-ask questions, so much I feared to appear alarmed. I passed into the
-_salon_ and the room beyond, taking care to make no more noise in my
-search; then I came back, seated myself upon my bed, struck my watch,
-and thought over my adventure.
-
-My watch had stopped, and the clocks out of doors struck the half hour,
-as if to announce that no other means existed of learning the time.
-
-I listened to the wind and strove to examine its sound or to detect any
-which might proceed from some corner of my apartment. I tortured my eyes
-and my ears. I racked my brain also to discover if I had not dreamed
-what I thought I had seen. The thing was possible, although I could
-remember no dream that had preceded or led up to this nightmare.
-
-I resolved to torment myself no longer, and to await a return of sleep
-on my bed without undressing myself in case of some new mystification.
-
-But I could not go to sleep again. Nevertheless, I felt tired and the
-wind soothed me inexpressibly. I dropped off every few moments, and the
-next instant I would reopen my eyes, and in spite of myself gaze
-suspiciously into the darkness and emptiness around me.
-
-I was beginning at last to doze, when the clinking recommenced, and,
-this time, opening my eyes wide, without moving, I saw the three ghosts
-in their places, motionless apparently with their green veils floating
-in the verdant light that proceeded from the fire-place. I feigned
-sleep, for it was probable that my open eyes could not be seen in the
-shadow of the alcove, and I observed attentively. I was no longer
-frightened; I no longer experienced anything but a curiosity to surprise
-a mystery either pleasant or disagreeable (as the case might be), a
-phantasmagoria with well appointed scenery, enacted by living people,
-or—I confess that I could find no definition for the second hypothesis;
-it could only be a foolish, and ridiculous one, and still it tormented
-me as being possible.
-
-I then saw the three shadows arise, and move rapidly and noiselessly
-around the table with incomprehensible gestures. They had seemed to me
-of medium height when seated; standing, they were as tall as men.
-Suddenly, one of them diminished in size, re-assumed the figure of a
-woman, became quite small, then grew disproportionately tall, and
-approached me, while the two others remained standing under the shadow
-of the fire-place.
-
-This affected me very unpleasantly and with a childish movement, I
-covered my face with my pillow, as if to place an obstacle between
-myself and the vision.
-
-Then, ashamed of my stupidity, I looked around attentively. The ghost
-was seated in an easy chair placed at the foot of my bed. I could not
-see its face. The head and bust were not invisible, but partially
-obscured by the curtain of the alcove. The light from the fire-place,
-grown brighter, revealed only the lower portion of a figure and the
-folds of a garment whose form and color though indeterminate, could no
-longer be called into question.
-
-It was fearfully immovable, as if nothing breathed under this species of
-shroud. I waited several moments that appeared an age to me. I felt that
-I was losing the coolness with which I had armed myself. I moved in my
-bed, I thought of flying I knew not where. I resisted this idea. I
-passed my hands over my eyes, then stretched them out resolutely to
-seize the spectre by the folds of this perfectly visible garment; but
-they encountered space. I threw myself upon the chair, it was empty.
-Light and vision had alike disappeared. I recommenced rushing through
-the room and the adjoining apartments. As at first, I found them empty.
-Quite sure this time that I had neither dreamed nor slept, I stayed up
-until day-break which did not long delay.
-
-Of late years people have made quite a study of the phenomena of
-hallucinations; they have been observed and classified. Scientific men
-have experimented upon themselves. I have even seen delicate and nervous
-women often act as spiritual mediums not without suffering, but without
-fear, and giving a thorough account of this state of delusion in which
-they had been.
-
-In my youth, they were not so far advanced, there was no medium between
-the absolute denial of all visions and a blind belief in apparitions.
-They laughed at those who were tormented by these visions that were
-attributed to credulity and fear, and only excused in cases of serious
-illness.
-
-So during this terrible watch, I reprimanded myself severely and
-unjustly for my weakness of mind, without ever once thinking of
-attributing it all to the effect of a bad digestion or atmospherical
-influence. Such an idea would have been entertained with difficulty as
-with the exception of a little fatigue and bad humor I did not feel in
-the least ill.
-
-Thoroughly resolved to boast of my adventure to no one, I retired and
-slept very well until Baptiste knocked at my door to inform me that
-breakfast would soon be ready. I admitted him after having thoroughly
-convinced myself that my door had remained bolted, as I had previously
-assured myself before going to sleep; I had observed, and I again
-noticed that the other door of my apartment was in a like condition. I
-counted the large screws which secured the tiles of the fire-place. I
-sought in vain for the slightest indication of a secret door.
-
-Besides, of what use would it be, said I to myself, whilst Baptiste was
-powdering my hair; have I not seen an object without substance, a robe,
-or a shroud which vanished beneath my touch?
-
-Without this conclusive circumstance, I might have attributed it all to
-a joke of Madame d’Ionis, as I learned from Baptiste that she had
-returned the evening before towards midnight.
-
-This news snatched me from my preoccupation. I bestowed particular pains
-upon my _coiffure_ and my toilet, and was a little vexed that the nature
-of my profession condemned me to wear black; but my mother had supplied
-me with such fine linen and such well cut coats that I considered myself
-on the whole, very presentable. I was neither ill-looking or badly
-formed. I resembled my mother, who had been very beautiful, and without
-being foppish, I was accustomed to remark the general approval that a
-pleasing countenance produces.
-
-Madame d’Ionis was in the _salon_ when I entered. I beheld a bewitching
-woman indeed; but much too small to have figured in my trio of spectres.
-Neither was there anything fantastical or diaphanous about her. Hers was
-a realistic beauty, fresh, gay, lively, expressing gracefully, what was
-designed in the style of the period, an amiable embonpoint, discussing
-every subject clearly and sensibly, and revealing great energy of
-character combined with singular sweetness of manner.
-
-After exchanging several words with her, I understood how, thanks to so
-much intelligence and resolution, candor and cleverness, she managed to
-live on good terms with a pretty bad husband and a very stupid
-mother-in-law.
-
-Scarcely had we begun breakfast, when the dowager, scrutinizing me
-closely, declared that I looked ill and pale, although I had so far
-forgotten my adventure as to eat with a good appetite, and to be
-pleasantly affected by the amiable attention of my beautiful hostess.
-
-Then recollecting Zéphyrine’s instructions, I hastened to say that I had
-slept well and had had very pleasant dreams.
-
-“Ah! I was sure of it,” cried the old lady evidently enchanted. “One
-always sleeps well in that room. Tell us your dreams, Monsieur
-Nivières.”
-
-“They were very confused; still I think I can remember a lady.”
-
-“Only one?”
-
-“Perhaps two!”
-
-“Perhaps three also?” said Madame d’Ionis, smiling.
-
-“Precisely, madame, you remind me that they were three!”
-
-“Pretty?” said the triumphant dowager.
-
-“Rather pretty, but somewhat faded.”
-
-“Really?” said Madame d’Ionis, who seemed to communicate through her
-eyes with Zéphyrine (who was seated at the lower end of the table), in
-order to answer me. “And what did they say to you?”
-
-“Incomprehensible things. But if it interests madame, the dowager
-Countess, I will do my utmost to remember.”
-
-“Ah! my dear child,” said the dowager, “it interests me more than I can
-say. I will explain by and by. Begin by telling us.”
-
-“But it will be very difficult for me to tell. Can any one recount a
-dream?”
-
-“Perhaps if your memory were assisted,” said Madame d’Ionis with great
-coolness, determined to encourage her mother-in-law’s hobby; “did they
-say nothing to you about the future prosperity of this house?”
-
-“It seems to me they did, in fact.”
-
-“Ah! you see, Zéphyrine,” cried the dowager; “you who believe in nothing
-and I wager that they spoke of the law suit: come, Monsieur Nivières,
-tell us all about it.”
-
-A glance from Madame d’Ionis warned me not to answer. I declared that
-not a word of the law suit had I heard in my dreams. The dowager seemed
-greatly disappointed, but consoled herself by saying: “It will come! It
-will come!”
-
-This, “it will come,” was very disagreeable to me, although it was said
-with the utmost benevolence. I did not in the least care to pass another
-bad night, but I readily resigned myself to my fate when Madame d’Ionis
-said to me in an undertone, while the dowager was quarreling with
-Zéphyrine about her lack of faith.
-
-“It is very amiable of you to lend yourself to this fancy of the day in
-our house. I trust indeed that you will have only pleasant dreams while
-with us; and you are not absolutely compelled to see these three young
-ladies every night. It is sufficient that you should have spoken of them
-to-day to my excellent mother-in-law without laughing. It gives her
-great pleasure and does not compromise your courage. All of our friends
-have decided to see them in order to have some peace.”
-
-I was sufficiently compensated and magnetized by the air of confiding
-intimacy that this charming woman assumed towards me to recover my
-ordinary gayety, and I endeavored, during my meal to recall, little by
-little, the wonderful things that had been revealed to me. Above all I
-predicted through the green ladies, a long life to the dowager.
-
-“And my asthma, monsieur?” said she, “did they tell you that I would be
-cured of my asthma?”
-
-“Not exactly; but they spoke of long life, fortune and health.”
-
-“Well, indeed; I ask nothing further of the good God.”
-
-“Now, my child,” said she to her daughter-in-law, “you who tell a story
-so well, relate to this good young man the cause of his dreams, and tell
-him the history of the three young ladies of Ionis.”
-
-I assumed an air of surprise, Madame d’Ionis asked permission to give me
-the manuscript, that she had only prepared, she said, in order to
-dispense with going over the same story so often.
-
-Breakfast being over, the dowager went to take her siesta.
-
-“It is too warm to go in the garden at noon,” said Madame d’Ionis, “and
-still I do not wish you to work at that horrid law suit just after
-leaving the table. So if you care to visit the interior of the castle,
-which is quite interesting, I will act as your guide.”
-
-“To accept your proposition is indiscreet and presumptuous,” I answered,
-“and yet I am dying to do so.”
-
-“Well, don’t die, but come on,” said she, with adorable gayety.
-
-But she added immediately, and quite naturally:
-
-“Come with us, my good Zéphyrine; you will open the doors for us.”
-
-An hour before, the addition of Zéphyrine would have been very agreeable
-to me, but I no longer felt so timid in Madame d’Ionis’ society, and I
-confess that the presence of a third person annoyed me. I certainly had
-no sort of presumption, no impertinent ideas; but it seemed to me that I
-could have talked more sensibly and agreeably in a _tête-à-tête_. The
-presence of this full moon blunted my ideas, and impeded the flight of
-my imagination.
-
-And then Zéphyrine was thinking of the thing, that I, most naturally,
-would gladly have forgotten.
-
-“You see now, Madame Caroline,” said she to Madame d’Ionis, while
-crossing the gallery on the ground floor, “there is nothing at all in
-the green ladies’ room; M. Nivières has slept there undisturbed.”
-
-“Well, dear me! My good creature, I don’t doubt it,” answered the young
-woman.
-
-“M. Nivières doesn’t impress me as a fool but that doesn’t hinder me
-from believing that the abbé Lamyre _did_ see something there.”
-
-“Indeed,” said I, with some emotion, “I have occasionally had the honor
-of seeing Monsieur de Lamyre, and I should have thought him no more of a
-fool than myself.”
-
-“He is not a fool, sir,” replied Zéphyrine, “he is fond of a joke which
-gives a serious tone to his jests.”
-
-“No,” said Madame d’Ionis with decision, “he is a clever man with a
-powerful imagination. He began by making fun at our expense, and telling
-us stories about ghosts. It was easy then, not for our good dowager, but
-for the rest of us, to see that he was joking. But perhaps we should not
-jest too much about certain foolish ideas. It was very evident to me,
-that one night something frightened him, since then nothing could
-persuade him to enter that room. But let us speak of something else, for
-I am sure that M. Nivières is already sick of this story, as for myself
-it bores me inexpressibly, and since you have already shown him the
-manuscript, I am absolved from giving myself any further concern about
-it.”
-
-“It is strange, madame,” replied Zéphyrine laughing, “one would say that
-you, in your turn, are beginning to put some faith in this story! I then
-am the only person in the house who remains incredulous.”
-
-We entered the chapel and Madame d’Ionis rapidly sketched its history.
-She was very cultivated and nothing of a pedant, and exhibited in the
-course of her explanations all the important rooms, the statues, the
-paintings and all the rare and precious furniture contained in the
-castle. She manifested throughout so incomparable a grace and so
-remarkable a degree of complaisance that I fell in love at first sight,
-as they say, in love to the extent of being jealous when I reflected
-that she was perhaps as amiable with every one as with myself.
-
-In this manner we at length arrived at the immense and magnificent hall
-divided into two galleries by a beautiful rotunda. This hall was called
-the library, although only a portion of it was consecrated to books. The
-other half was a sort of museum for pictures and works of art. The
-rotunda contained a fountain surrounded by flowers. Madame d’Ionis
-called my attention to this valuable monument, that had recently been
-removed from the gardens and placed here to preserve it from accident,
-the fall of a large branch on a stormy night having slightly injured it.
-
-It was a rock of white marble on which marine monsters were intertwined,
-and above them, on the most elevated portion, a naiad, regarded as a
-_chef-d’œuvre_ was gracefully seated. This group was thought to be the
-work of Jean Goujon or of one of his best pupils.
-
-The nymph, instead of being nude, was chastely draped; a circumstance
-which caused it to be thought that it was the portrait of a modest lady
-who had not been willing to pose in the simple apparel of a goddess, or
-permit the artist to interpret her elegant figure in order to exhibit it
-to the gaze of a profane public. But these draperies, from which the
-upper part of the bust and arms as far as the shoulders alone were
-released did not prevent one from appreciating the ensemble of this
-extraordinary type which characterizes the statuary of the renaissance,
-those slight proportions, that roundness combined with slenderness, that
-delicacy allied to strength, that indefinable something more beautiful
-than nature, which at first surprises us like a dream, and which little
-by little captivates the most enthusiastic region of the mind. One knows
-not if these beauties were conceived for the senses, but they do not
-affect them. They seem to owe their origin to a Divinity in some Eden,
-or on some Mount Ida, from which they have but descended against their
-will, to mingle in the realities of earth. Such is the famous Diana of
-Goujon, majestic, almost terrifying in aspect, despite the serene
-sweetness of its lineaments, exquisite and monumental, informed with
-physical vigor and yet calm as intellectual force.
-
-I had as yet seen nothing of that national statuary, that we have
-perhaps never sufficiently appreciated, and which places the France of
-that period on a level with the Italy of Michael Angelo. I did not at
-first comprehend what I beheld. I was besides ill-disposed towards it,
-while comparing this extraordinary type with the plump and dainty beauty
-of Madame d’Ionis, a true Louis XV. specimen, ever smiling and more
-attractive, on account of her vitality, than through any grandeur of the
-intellect.
-
-“This is more beautiful than true, _n’est-ce pas_?” said she calling my
-attention to the long arms and serpentine body of the naiad.
-
-“I don’t think so,” I replied while regarding Madame d’Ionis with
-involuntary ardor.
-
-She did not appear to pay the least attention.
-
-“Let us stop here,” said she, “the air is so cool and refreshing. If you
-wish, we will speak of business. Zéphyrine, my dear, you may leave us.”
-
-I was at last alone with her! Two or three times during the past hour,
-the beautiful glance of her eye, unaffectedly vivacious and loving, had
-given me a vertigo, and I had thought were Zéphyrine not here I would
-throw myself at her feet.
-
-But hardly had she left us than I felt myself chained by a sentiment of
-respect and fear, and at once began to discuss the law suit with a
-desperate perspicacity.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER III.
-                             THE LAW SUIT.
-
-
-“So,” said she after having listened with attention, “there is no way of
-losing it?”
-
-“The opinion of my father as well as of myself, is that in order to lose
-it, it would be necessary to desire its loss.”
-
-“But your worthy father has surely understood that I did wish it
-absolutely?”
-
-“No, madame,” replied I with firmness, for it was a question of my duty,
-and I assumed the only part proper for me to play, in the presence of
-this noble lady. “No, my father does not so understand it. His
-conscience forbids him to betray the interests confided to him by M. le
-comte d’Ionis. He thinks that you will induce your husband to adopt a
-compromise and he will render it as acceptable as possible to the
-adversaries that you protect. But he will never bring himself to
-persuade M. d’Ionis that his cause is bad in justice.”
-
-“In legal justice,” she replied, with a sweet sad smile; “but, in real
-justice, in moral and natural justice, your worthy father knows well
-that our right leads us to exercise a cruel spoliation.”
-
-“What my father thinks of this subject,” I replied a little confused,
-“he is only accountable for to his own conscience. When a lawyer can
-defend a cause where the two justices of which you speak are in his
-favor, he is very fortunate, thoroughly compensated for those cases
-where he finds them in opposition; but he ought never to observe this
-distinction when he has voluntarily accepted the charge, and you know,
-madame, that my father has only consented to oppose M. d’Aillane because
-you wished him to do so.”
-
-“I did wish it, yes! I obtained my husband’s consent that this suit
-should not be confided to another; I hoped that your father, the best
-and most honest man of my acquaintance would succeed in saving this
-unhappy family from the rigorous pursuit of my own. A lawyer can always
-show himself reticent and generous, above all when he knows that he will
-not be blamed by his principal client. And I am this client, monsieur.
-It concerns my fortune, and not M. d’Ionis, which nothing menaces.”
-
-“It is true, madame but you are in the power of your husband; and the
-husband, like the chief of the community....”
-
-“Ah! I know the rest! He has more rights over my fortune than I myself
-possess, and he uses them in my interest, I am willing to believe it,
-but he forgets, that in this, my conscience is concerned; and for whom?
-He has an immense personal fortune and no children; I have then before
-God the right to despoil myself of a portion of my wealth in order not
-to ruin honest people, victims of a question of procedure.”
-
-“Such a sentiment is worthy of you, madame, and I am not here to dispute
-so fine a right, but to remind you of our duty, and to beg of you not to
-require us to be faithless to our trust. All the concessions consistent
-with the success of your suit, we will observe, even should we incur the
-reproaches of M. d’Ionis and those of his mother. But to withdraw from
-the accepted task, declaring that success is doubtful, and that it would
-be better to compromise, is what a thorough investigation of the affair
-forbids us to do, under penalty of falsehood and betrayal.”
-
-“Indeed, no! You are mistaken,” cried Madame d’Ionis excitedly. “I
-assure you, you are mistaken. These are legal subtilities which may
-deceive a man grown old in the practice of law, but that a _sensible_
-young man ought not to accept as an absolute rule of conduct.... If your
-father has undertaken the suit, and you admit that he has done so at my
-request, it is because he foresaw my intentions. Had he been ignorant of
-them, I should greatly regret the fact, and I would think that you did
-not entertain the esteem for me that I would have liked to inspire in
-the members of your family. In this case where one feels that victory
-would be horrible, one does not fear to propose peace before the battle.
-To act otherwise is to conceive a false idea of duty. Duty is not a
-military password, it is a religion, and a religion which would
-prescribe evil, ceases to be one. Hush! speak to me no more of your
-charge. Do not place M. d’Ionis’ ambition above my honor, do not make a
-sacred thing of this ambition. It is a disgraceful thing, no more, and
-no less. Unite your efforts with mine to save these unfortunate people.
-Act so that I may find in you a friend after my own heart, rather than
-an infallible legislator and an implacable lawyer!”
-
-While speaking thus she gave me her hand and enveloped me in the
-enthusiastic fire of her beautiful eyes. I lost my head and covering her
-hand with kisses, I felt myself conquered. In fact, I was so in advance
-I had been of her opinion before seeing her. I still defended myself
-however, for I had sworn to my father that I would not yield to the
-sentimental considerations that his client had caused him to foresee in
-her letters. Madame d’Ionis would not hear a word of my defense.
-
-“You speak,” said she, “like a good son, who is pleading his father’s
-cause, but I would like you better, were you not so good a lawyer.”
-
-“Ah! madame,” I cried heedless of consequences, “do not say that I am
-pleading against you, for you would make me hate too much a calling for
-which I feel that I have not the requisite insensibility.”
-
-I will not weary you with the particulars of the law suit instituted by
-the d’Ionis family against the d’Aillanes. The conversation I have just
-reported will suffice to explain my story. It concerned an estate of
-five hundred thousand francs, that is to say, almost all the funded
-fortune of our beautiful client. M. d’Ionis made a very bad use of the
-immense wealth that he possessed on his own side of the house. He was
-given over to dissipation, and the doctors allowed him but two years to
-live. It was quite possible that he would leave his widow more debts
-than money. Should Madame d’Ionis renounce the benefit of the law suit,
-she would then incur the risk of falling from a state of opulence, into
-a condition of mediocrity to which she had not been brought up. My
-father pitied the d’Aillane family greatly, a family deserving the
-highest esteem, and which included a worthy gentleman, his wife and his
-two children. The loss of the law suit would plunge them into misery;
-but my father naturally preferred to devote himself to the future of his
-client and to preserve her from disaster. This was for him a true case
-of conscience; but he had recommended me not to urge this consideration
-with her. “Her soul is romantic and sublime,” said he, “and the more her
-personal interest is alleged, the greater pride and pleasure she will
-take in the joy of her sacrifice; but with the approach of age, her
-enthusiasm will disappear. Then look out for regrets; and look out also
-for the reproaches that she will justly heap upon us for not having
-wisely counselled her.”
-
-My father did not know that I was so much of an enthusiast in fact.
-Engaged in numberless affairs, he had confided to me the care of
-subduing the generous impulses of this admirable woman, by taking refuge
-behind pretended scruples which he only considered as accessories. It
-was a very good idea, but he had not foreseen any more than myself that
-I would share Madame d’Ionis’ opinion to such an extent. I was at an age
-when material wealth is of no value in the imagination; it is a period
-of a wealth of heart.
-
-And then this woman, who produced upon me the effect of a spark on
-powder; this despicable absent husband condemned by his physicians; the
-moderate circumstances which threatened her, and towards which she
-smilingly stretched her arms—how did I know?
-
-I was an only son, my father possessed some fortune and I could also
-acquire one. I was only a _bourgeois_, who owed a position to a
-magistracy in the past, and in the present to the consideration attached
-to talent and probity; but we were in the midst of a philosophical
-period, and without thinking ourselves on the verge of a radical
-revolution, one could readily admit the idea of an impoverished woman of
-quality, marrying a man of lower condition in easy circumstances.
-
-In short, my youthful imagination was fired, and my young heart
-instinctively desired the loss of Madame d’Ionis’ fortune. While she
-talked with animation about the annoyances of wealth and the happiness
-of a reduced condition _à la_ Jean-Jacques Rousseau, I made such rapid
-strides in my romance that it seemed as if she were deigning to guess at
-my thoughts and was alluding to them in each one of the intoxicating
-words that fell from her lips.
-
-I did not however surrender openly. My word was pledged; I could only
-promise to try and dissuade my father. I could give no assurance of
-success, for I did not myself participate in any. I knew the firmness of
-his decisions. The solution was approaching, we had reached the
-termination of delays and evasive procedures. Madame d’Ionis proposed a
-plan, in case she should bring me over to her views. It was that my
-father should feign illness when the time arrived to plead the cause,
-that the case then should be confided to me, and that I should lose it!
-
-I confess that I took fright at this hypothesis and that I then
-understood my father’s scruples. To hold in one’s hands the destiny of a
-client and to sacrifice her rights to a question of sentiment, is a fine
-role when one can fill it openly and by her order; but such was not my
-position. On account of M. d’Ionis, it was necessary to preserve
-appearances, to execute errors adroitly, and to employ deceit in order
-that virtue might triumph. I became frightened, I grew pale, I almost
-wept, for I was in love, and the idea of refusing broke my heart.
-
-“Let us say no more about it,” said Madame d’Ionis kindly, she seemed
-now to divine, if she had not already done so, the passion she had
-awakened in me. “Pardon me for having put your conscience to this proof.
-No! You must not sacrifice it to mine, we must find some other means of
-securing these poor adversaries. We will search for it together, for you
-are on my side, I see it, I feel it, in spite of yourself. You must stay
-with me for several days. Write to your father that I am resisting and
-that you are endeavoring to overcome my scruples. To my mother-in-law,
-we will have the appearance of studying the chances of success together.
-She is persuaded that I am a born lawyer, and Heaven is my witness, that
-before this deplorable affair, I knew no more about such things than she
-herself, which isn’t saying much! Come,” she added, resuming her
-charming and sympathetic gayety, “do not let us torment ourselves and
-don’t be so sad! We will contrive to find some cause for delay. Ah! I
-have one now, a most singular and absurd one, but which none the less
-would exercise an all-powerful influence over the mind of the good
-dowager, and even over M. d’Ionis. Can’t you guess it?”
-
-“I have no idea what you mean.”
-
-“Well then it is this, to make the green ladies speak.”
-
-“What! really, does M. d’Ionis share his mother’s credulity?”
-
-“M. d’Ionis is very brave, he has given proofs of it; but he believes in
-ghosts and fears them. Let the three young ladies forbid us to hasten
-the law suit and the suit will remain inactive.”
-
-“So, you can think of nothing better to satisfy the desire I feel of
-aiding you, than that of condemning me to the use of abominable
-impostures? Ah! Madame, how well you understand the art of making people
-unhappy!”
-
-“What! you are so scrupulous as all that? Haven’t you already
-participated with a good grace?”
-
-“A joke without consequences was all very well; but if M. d’Ionis
-inquires into the matter and summons me to declare upon my honor....”
-
-“True! ’Tis only another worthless idea! Let us attempt no more to-day.”
-“_La nuit porte conseil._” “To-morrow, perhaps, I shall at last be able
-to propose something practicable. It is getting late, and I hear the
-abbé Lamyre who is looking for us.”
-
-The abbé Lamyre was a charming little man. Although fifty years old, he
-was still fresh and good-looking. He was kind, frivolous, witty,
-entertaining, full of fun, and in fact, held philosophical opinions,
-always agreeing with those whom he conversed with, for the question with
-him was not to persuade, but to please. He threw his arms around my
-neck, and heaped praises upon me which I esteemed at their proper value,
-as coming from one whom I knew lavished them upon everyone, but for
-which I was more thankful than usual, on account of the pleasure they
-seemed to afford Madame d’Ionis.
-
-He praised my great talents as a lawyer and poet and forced me to recite
-some verses, which appeared to be relished more than they deserved.
-Madame d’Ionis, after having complimented me with an air of emotion and
-sincerity, left us together to attend to the cares of her household.
-
-The abbé talked of a thousand things that did not interest me. I would
-have liked to be alone to indulge in a revery, to recall each word, each
-gesture of Madame d’Ionis; but the abbé attached himself to me, and told
-me numerous ingenious stories that I consigned to the devil. At last,
-the conversation assumed a lively interest for me, when it turned upon
-the burning ground of my relations with Madame d’Ionis.
-
-“I know what brings you here,” said he, “she has already spoken to me
-about it. Without knowing the day of your visit, she was expecting you.
-Your father does not wish her to ruin herself, and, _parbleu_, he is
-very right. But he will not convince her, and you must either quarrel
-with her, or let her have her own way. If she believed in the green
-ladies, _à la bonne heure_, you might make them speak in her interest,
-but unfortunately she has no more faith in them than you or I!”
-
-“Madame d’Ionis pretends however that you do believe in them, Monsieur
-l’abbé.”
-
-“I? She told you that? Yes, yes, I know she treats her little friend as
-if he were a great coward! Sing the duo with her, I am not afraid of the
-green ladies, I do not believe in them; but there is certainly one thing
-that alarms me, it is having seen them.”
-
-“How then do you reconcile such contradictory assertions?”
-
-“Nothing more simple, either there are ghosts or there are none. I
-myself have seen them, and I have paid the penalty for knowing that they
-exist. Only I do not consider them malicious, I am not afraid of their
-injuring me, I was not born a coward, but I mistrust my brain which is
-composed of saltpetre. I know that shadows have no more power over
-bodies than bodies have over shadows, since I have held the sleeve of
-one of these young ladies without discovering any kind of arm. From that
-moment, which I shall never forget; and which has changed all my ideas
-about the things of this world and of the next, I have sworn to myself
-that never again would I put human weakness to such a test. I am not at
-all desirous of losing my reason. So much the worse for me if I have not
-sufficient moral strength to coolly and philosophically contemplate what
-passes my understanding; but why should I deceive myself? I began by
-trifling with myself, and laughingly summoned the ghost. The ghost
-appeared.—_Bonjour!_ Once is enough for me, you won’t catch me in it
-another time.”
-
-One can readily imagine that I was strongly impressed by what I had
-heard. The abbé’s faith was evident. He did not believe that he was the
-victim of a mania. Since the emotions he had experienced in “_la chambre
-aux dames_,” he had never again dreamed of them. He added that he was
-convinced that they would have done him no kind of harm or injury, had
-he possessed sufficient courage to examine them.
-
-“But I did not,” he observed, “for I almost lost consciousness, and
-realizing my weakness, I said: “Whoever wishes to do so may penetrate
-this mystery, I will not assume the charge, I am not equal to such a
-task.”
-
-I questioned the abbé carefully. His vision had been almost exactly like
-my own. I made a great effort not to let him suspect the similarity of
-our adventures. I knew he was too much of a gossip to preserve the
-secret inviolate, and I feared Madame d’Ionis’ sarcasms more than all
-the demons of the night; so I assumed an air of ignorance while the abbé
-questioned me, assuring him that nothing had disturbed my sleep; and
-when the moment arrived at eleven o’clock in the evening, to re-enter
-this fatal room, I laughingly promised the dowager to keep a secret
-account of my dreams, and took leave of the company with an air of
-gayety and valor.
-
-Nevertheless I was far from feeling either the one or the other. The
-presence of the abbé, the supper and the evening spent under the
-dowager’s eyes, had rendered Madame d’Ionis more reserved than she had
-been with me in the morning. She also seemed to say in each allusion to
-our sudden and cordial intimacy: “You know at what price I have granted
-it to you.” I was vexed with myself, I had been neither submissive
-enough, or sufficiently independent, I seemed to have betrayed the
-mission my father had confided to me, without in the least advancing my
-chimeras of love.
-
-The sombre interior reacted upon my impressions and my beautiful
-apartment wore a gloomy and lugubrious air. I knew not what to think of
-either the abbé’s reason or my own. Had it not been for a feeling of
-_mauvaise honte_, I would have asked for other lodgings and I really
-experienced a sensation of anger, when I saw Baptiste enter with the
-accursed waiter, the basket, the three loaves and all the absurd
-accompaniments of the previous evening.
-
-“What does this mean?” said I testily. “Am I hungry? Haven’t I just left
-the table?”
-
-“Indeed, Monsieur,” he replied, “I think it is very odd. It was
-Mademoiselle Zéphyrine who ordered me to bring it to you. It was of no
-use for me to tell her that you were in the habit of passing your nights
-in sleeping, and not in eating, she answered laughingly:
-
-“Take it all the same, it is a custom we have always observed. It will
-not annoy your master and you will see that he will be pleased to have
-you leave it in his room.”
-
-“Very well, _mon ami_, do me the favor of carrying it back, without
-saying anything about it in the servant’s hall. I need my table to write
-upon.”
-
-Baptiste obeyed. I locked myself in, and retired, after having written
-to my father. I confess that I slept splendidly and dreamed of but one
-lady, Madame d’Ionis.
-
-The next day, the dowager assailed me anew with questions. I was so rude
-as to declare that I had dreamed nothing worth mentioning. The good lady
-was greatly disappointed.
-
-“I am sure,” said she to Zéphyrine, “that you did not put the ladies’
-supper in M. Nivières’ room?”
-
-“Pardon me, madame,” replied Zéphyrine, looking at me reproachfully.
-
-Madame d’Ionis seemed also to say with her eyes, that I was disobliging.
-The abbé exclaimed ingenuously:
-
-“It is strange; these things then happen only to me?”
-
-After breakfast he left, and Madame d’Ionis appointed a meeting with me,
-at one o’clock, in the library. I was there at noon; but she sent me
-word by Zéphyrine that she was besieged by importunate visitors and that
-I must have patience. This was easier to ask than acquire. I waited; the
-minutes seemed centuries. I asked myself how I had managed to exist up
-to this time, without this _tête-à-tête_ that I already called _daily_,
-and how I could go on living when there would be no further occasion to
-expect it. I sought for some means that should entail the necessity, and
-resolved at last to protract the law suit, to the extent of my poor
-abilities, and I puzzled my brains over a thousand subterfuges which did
-not even possess the merit of common sense.
-
-While walking up and down the gallery, in my agitation, I every now and
-then stopped before the fountain and sometimes seated myself upon its
-brink, that was surrounded by magnificent flowers, artistically disposed
-in the crevices of the rough rock on top of which rested a block of
-white marble. This rugged base gave a more finished effect to the work
-of the chisel causing the water to overflow in brilliant sheets into the
-lower receptacles, which were adorned with aquatic plants.
-
-It was a delicious spot, and the reflection of the stained glass
-occasionally imparted an appearance of life to the fantastical features
-of the statuary.
-
-I regarded the naiad with renewed wonder, surprised to find it so
-beautiful and realizing at last the exalted sense of this mysterious
-loveliness which I no longer thought of comparing unfavorably with that
-of Madame d’Ionis. I felt that all comparisons are puerile between
-inanimate objects and beings that bear no resemblance to each other.
-This inspiration of Jean Goujon’s had a beauty peculiar to itself—the
-face wore an expression of sublime sweetness—and seemed to communicate a
-feeling of repose and happiness to the mind, like the sensation of
-freshness imparted by the continuous murmur of the limpid waters of the
-fountain. At last Madame d’Ionis made her appearance.
-
-“Here is some news,” said she, seating herself familiarly near me; “look
-at this strange letter that I have just received from M. d’Ionis.”
-
-And she showed it to me with an _abandon_ that affected me strongly. I
-was disgusted with a husband whose letters to such a wife could be shown
-without embarrassment to the first comer.
-
-The letter was cold, long and diffuse, the characters slender and
-tremulous, the orthography very doubtful. Here is the substance of it:
-
-“You ought not to have any scruples about gaining your end. I have none
-whatever in employing the most rigid legal means. I refuse all other
-arrangements than those I have already proposed to the d’Aillanes, and I
-wish to see a termination to this law suit. You may, when it is once
-gained, extend a helping hand to them, I shall not oppose your
-generosity, but I wish for no compromise. Their lawyer has offended me
-in his address in the first place, and the appeal that they have lodged
-is presumptuous beyond belief. I find M. Nivières very sluggish, and I
-have expressed my displeasure through the mail to-day. Act, yourself,
-stimulate his zeal, unless some higher order should issue from ——. You
-know what I mean, and I am surprised that you say nothing to me about
-what may have been observed in the room—since my departure. Has no one
-had the courage to pass the night there and to write down what he may
-have heard? Must we depend alone on the assertions of the abbé de
-Lamyre, a man who does not speak seriously? Let some one _worthy of
-belief_ attempt this proof, unless you have sufficient courage to do so
-yourself, which would not surprise me.”
-
-As she read this last sentence, Madame d’Ionis burst out laughing.
-
-“M. d’Ionis amuses me,” she said. “He flatters me so that he may induce
-me to attempt a thing that he would never think of doing himself, and he
-is indignant at the cowardice of people for whose benefit nothing would
-induce him to give such an example.”
-
-“What I find most remarkable in this,” said I, “is M. d’Ionis’ faith in
-these apparitions, and his respect for the decisions he believes them
-capable of rendering.”
-
-“You see now,” said she, “that this is the only means of subduing his
-rigor towards the poor d’Aillanes; I told you so, and I repeat it, and
-you will not lend yourself to it, when the opportunity is so fine. Since
-he is so anxious to receive the green ladies’ revelations perhaps he
-will not go so far as to ask you for your word of honor.”
-
-“It seems to me, on the contrary, that I must seriously assume the role
-of imposter, since M. d’Ionis demands the assertion of a person ‘_worthy
-of belief_.’”
-
-“And then you fear the ridicule, the blame, the jests that you would not
-fail to meet with; but I could answer for M. d’Ionis’ absolute silence
-so far as that is concerned.”
-
-“No, madame, no! I would fear neither ridicule nor blame, as long as it
-was a question of obedience to your wishes. But you would despise me if
-I merited this blame by a false oath. Besides, why not try to induce the
-d’Aillanes to consent to a compromise conveying honorable conditions to
-themselves?”
-
-“You know perfectly well that those M. d’Ionis proposes are not
-honorable.”
-
-“You have then no hope of modifying his intentions?”
-
-She shook her head and was silent. This gesture was an eloquent
-explanation of the kind of man her husband was, a creature without heart
-or principle, indifferent to such an array of charms, and given over to
-excesses.
-
-“Still,” replied I, “he authorizes you to be generous after victory.”
-
-“And what does he take them for?” cried she, crimsoning with anger. “He
-forgets that the d’Aillanes are the soul of honor, and will never
-receive as a favor or benefit, what justice causes them to regard as the
-legal property of their family.”
-
-I was struck with the energy she infused into this reply.
-
-“Are you then so intimate with the d’Aillanes?” I asked. “I was not
-aware of it.”
-
-She blushed again and answered in the negative.
-
-“I have never had much to do with them,” said she; “but they are nearly
-enough related to me for our honor to be identical. I am quite sure that
-it was my uncle’s wish to leave them his fortune, and still more as M.
-d’Ionis having married me for what is termed _mes beaux yeux_, did not
-at that time have the countenance to look up a fortune for me by means
-of breaking this will, through some legal defect.” Then she added:
-
-“Are you not acquainted with any of the d’Aillanes?”
-
-“I have seen the father quite often, the children never, the son is an
-officer in a garrison somewhere or other.”
-
-“At Tours,” said she quickly. Then she added, still more hastily:
-
-“At least I think so.”
-
-“They say he is a very fine fellow!”
-
-“I am told so, but I have not seen him since he has grown up.”
-
-This answer reassured me. For an instant it had occurred to me that the
-disinterested magnanimous motives of Madame d’Ionis might be
-attributable to a passion that she entertained for her cousin d’Aillane.
-
-“His sister is charming,” said she; “Have you never seen her?”
-
-“Never, isn’t she still in the convent?”
-
-“Yes, at Angers, they say she is an angel. Will you not be proud when
-you have succeeded in plunging a daughter of a good house into misery?
-One who counted rightfully, upon an honorable marriage and a life
-agreeable to her rank and education? This is what troubles her poor
-father more than anything else. But come, tell me your expedients, for
-you have sought and found some, have you not?”
-
-“Yes,” I replied, after having reflected as well as one can reflect in a
-fever. “I have found a solution.”
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER IV.
-                               THE NAIAD.
-
-
-I had hardly imparted this hope of success, when I was terrified at
-having entertained it myself, but I could not now withdraw. My beautiful
-client overwhelmed me with questions.
-
-“Well, madame,” said I, “the means must be found of making the oracle
-speak, without my acting the part of an imposter; but you must furnish
-me with certain details which I lack, concerning the apparition, whose
-theatre of action as they affirm is this castle.”
-
-“Will you look over the old papers from which I made my extracts?” cried
-she joyfully. “I have them here.” She opened a piece of furniture of
-which she had the key, and showed me quite a long account, with
-commentaries written at different epochs by different chroniclers
-attached to the chapel of the castle, or to the chapter of a neighboring
-convent that had been secularized under the last reign.
-
-As I was in no hurry to undertake an engagement which would have
-abridged the time accorded to my mission I put off reading this
-fantastical bundle of papers until evening, and allowed myself to be
-chastely cajoled by my enchantress. It seemed to me that she was
-exercising a delicate coquetry, whether it was that she clung to her
-ideas to the extent of compromising herself a little in order to triumph
-eventually, whether my resistance excited her legitimate pride of an
-irresistible woman, or whether, in fine, and I dwelt with delight on
-this last supposition, she was animated by a particular regard for me.
-
-She was forced to leave me, other visitors were arriving. There was
-company at dinner; she presented me to her noble neighbors with marked
-distinction, and showed me more consideration before them, than I had
-perhaps any right to expect. Some appeared to think that I was receiving
-more than my position entitled me to, and tried to make her so
-understand it. She proved that she feared no criticism, and showed so
-much courage in sustaining me that I began to lose my head.
-
-When we were alone together, Madame d’Ionis asked me what I intended
-doing with the manuscripts relative to the apparition of the three green
-ladies? I was over excited, it seemed as if she really loved me and that
-I had now no occasion to fear her raillery. I then recounted
-ingenuously, the vision I had seen, and the one similar to it, that the
-abbé Lamyre had related to me.
-
-“So I am forced to believe,” I added, “that conditions of the soul exist
-in which, equally without fear, charlatanism or supposition, certain
-ideas assume images which deceive our senses, and I wish to study these
-phenomena, that I have already witnessed, under the simple or sage
-conditions which have produced them. I do not conceal from you, that
-contrary to my habits of mind, far from guarding myself from the charm
-of these illusions, I will do everything in my power to yield my
-intellect up to them. And should I in this poetical disposition of mind,
-succeed in seeing or hearing some ghost who commands me to obey you, I
-will not draw back from the oath that M. d’Ionis or his mother may
-require. No one can force me to swear that I believe in the revelations
-of spirits or in apparitions of the dead, for perhaps I may not put
-absolute faith in them, but in asserting that I have heard voices, since
-even now I can affirm that I have seen shadows, I will not be a liar,
-and should I be taken for a fool, what do I care as long as you do me
-the honor of not sharing this opinion?”
-
-Madame d’Ionis exhibited great surprise at what I told her, and asked me
-many questions relative to my vision in the ladies’ room. She listened
-without laughing, and was even astonished at the calmness with which I
-had undergone this strange adventure.
-
-“I see,” said she, “that you are very strong-minded. As to me, I
-confess, that in your place I would have been afraid. Before permitting
-you to make another attempt, swear that you will be no more affected or
-frightened by it than the first time.”
-
-“I think I can promise that,” I replied. “I feel excessively calm, and
-should I witness any terrifying spectacle, I trust that I shall remain
-master of myself sufficiently to attribute it solely to my imagination.”
-
-“Do you wish to make this extraordinary invocation to-night, then?”
-
-“Perhaps; but I would prefer first to read all the reports concerning
-it, and I would also like to glance over some work on this subject, not
-any derogatory _critique_, my doubts are sufficiently established, but
-one of those ancient, simple treatises where among many absurdities, I
-may chance to discover some ingenious ideas.”
-
-“Very well, you are right,” said she, “but I do not know what work to
-recommend. I have never dipped into these old books; if you would like,
-to-morrow, to look over the library”——.
-
-“If you will permit me, I will set about this task at once. It is only
-eleven o’clock, this is the time that your house subsides into silence.
-I will sit up in the library, and if my imagination becomes slightly
-excited, I will then be in a fit frame of mind to return to my room so
-that I may offer to the three ladies the commemorative supper which
-possesses the virtue of attracting them hither.”
-
-“I will order the famous tray to be taken there then,” said Madame
-d’Ionis, smilingly, “and I am forcing myself to look only on the strange
-side of this affair, not to be too much impressed by it.”
-
-“What, madame, you too!”
-
-“Eh, _mon Dieu_,” she exclaimed, “after all, what do we know about it?
-We ridicule everything nowadays; are we any the wiser for it than
-formerly? We are weak creatures, who think ourselves strong; who knows
-if we do not thus render ourselves more material than God desired, and
-if what we take for lucidity of vision is not really blindness. Like
-myself, you believe in the immortality of the soul. Is an absolute
-separation between our own and those freed from matter so clear a thing
-to conceive that we can prove it?”
-
-She talked in this fashion for several minutes with a great deal of
-intelligence and imagination; then left me, a little disturbed, begging
-me in case I should become nervous or beset by lugubrious ideas, to
-abandon my project. I was so happy and so touched by her solicitude,
-that I expressed my regret at not having a little fear to overcome so
-that I might better prove my zeal.
-
-I went up stairs to my room, where Zéphyrine had already arranged the
-basket; Baptiste wanted to take it away.
-
-“Leave it,” said I, “since it is the custom of the house, and go to bed,
-I have no more need of you than I have ever had.”
-
-“_Mon Dieu_, monsieur,” said he, “if you will permit me, I will pass the
-night on an easy chair in your room.”
-
-“And why, my friend?”
-
-“Because I have heard there were ghosts here. Yes, yes, sir, I
-understand the servants now, they are very much afraid of these ghosts,
-and I who am an old soldier, I would like to show them that I am not so
-foolish as they are.”
-
-I refused, however, and left him to arrange the bed, while I went down
-to the library, after having told him not to wait for me. I wandered
-through the immense hall before beginning my work, and locked myself in
-carefully, lest I should be disturbed by some prying or mischievous
-valet. I then lighted a silver candelabra with numerous branches and
-began to turn over the leaves of the fantastical pamphlet relative to
-the green ladies.
-
-The frequent apparition of the d’Ionis demoiselles observed and reported
-in detail coincided in every particular with what I had seen and with
-what the abbé had recounted to me. But then neither he nor I had
-possessed sufficient faith, or courage to question the phantoms. Others
-had done so, according to the chroniclers, and it had been reserved for
-them to see the three maidens, no longer as greenish clouds, but in all
-the brilliancy of their youth and beauty, not all of them at once, but
-one in particular, while the others remained in the background. Then
-this funereal beauty answered all _serious_ and _decent_ questions that
-might be asked of her. She unveiled the secrets of the past, of the
-present, and of the future. She gave judicious advice. She informed
-those who were capable of making a good use of them where treasures lay
-concealed. She foretold disasters that might be averted, mistakes to be
-repaired. She spoke in the name of God and of the angels. She was a
-beneficent power to those who consulted her with good and pious designs,
-but she invariably reproved and threatened mockers, libertines and
-impious people. According to the manuscript, they had been known to
-inflict severe punishment upon those whose intentions were wicked or
-fraudulent, and those who were only influenced by malice or idle
-curiosity might expect fearful things to befall them, such as they would
-have bitter cause to regret.
-
-Without particularizing these fearful things, the manuscript furnished
-the formula of invocation and all the rules to be observed, with so much
-seriousness and such naïve good faith that I yielded myself to its
-influence. The apparition assumed such marvelous colors in imagination
-as to beguile me rather to desire than to fear it. I did not feel in the
-least depressed or alarmed at the idea of seeing the dead walk or of
-hearing them speak; on the contrary, I revelled in elysian dreams, and
-beheld a Beatrix arise in the rays of my empyrean.
-
-“And why should these dreams be denied me,” I exclaimed, mentally,
-“since the prologue of the vision has already been vouchsafed me? My
-foolish fears have hitherto rendered me unworthy and incapable of
-believing in Swedenborgian revelations, such as superior minds credit
-and which I have mistakenly ridiculed. But now I will gladly renounce
-these old illusions, and such sentiments will surely be more healthful
-and agreeable to the soul of a poet than the cold denial of our age. If
-I pass for a madman, should I even become one, what matters it; I will
-have lived in an ideal sphere, and will, perhaps, be happier than all
-the sages of the earth combined.”
-
-Thus I communed with myself, resting my head on my hands. It was about
-two o’clock in the morning and the most profound silence reigned
-throughout the castle and the surrounding country, when a sound of
-delicate and exquisite music, which seemed to proceed from the rotunda
-snatched me from my revery. I raised my head and pushed back the
-candlestick, so that I could see to whom I was indebted for this
-serenade, but the four candles which lighted my writing-table
-thoroughly, were not sufficient for me to distinguish objects at the end
-of the hall even, still less the rotunda beyond.
-
-I proceeded at once towards this rotunda and being no longer dazzled by
-another light, I could distinguish the upper portion of the beautiful
-group in the fountain, fully illuminated by the moon, whose rays
-penetrated the arched window of the cupola. The rest of the circular
-hall was in shadow. In order to assure myself that I was as much alone
-as I appeared to be, I drew back the bolt of the large glass door which
-opened on the parterre, and saw in fact that no one was there. The music
-had seemed to diminish and fade away in proportion to my approach, so
-that I now could scarcely hear it. I passed into the other gallery, and
-found it also deserted, but here the sounds which had so charmed me
-could once more be heard distinctly, and this time they seemed to
-proceed from the rear.
-
-I paused without turning around, to listen to them; they were sweet and
-plaintive and formed a melodious combination beyond my comprehension. It
-was rather a succession of vague and mysterious chords, struck as if by
-chance and executed by instruments that I could not divine, for their
-tones resembled nothing that I had ever heard. The effect although
-pleasing was exceedingly melancholy.
-
-I retraced my steps and convinced myself that these voices, if voices
-they could be called, issued decidedly from the shell of the tritons and
-nymphs of the fountain, increasing and diminishing in intensity as the
-water which now flowed in an irregular and intermittent manner,
-increased or decreased in the basins.
-
-I saw nothing fantastical in this for I remembered having heard of those
-Italian jets, which produced hydraulic organs of a more or less
-successful nature, through means of air compressed by water. These
-sounds were sweet and very true, perhaps because they attempted no air
-and only sighed forth harmonious chords somewhat after the manner of
-eolian harps.
-
-I also remembered that Madame d’Ionis had spoken to me of this music,
-telling me that it was out of order, and that sometimes it played by
-itself for several minutes.
-
-This solution did not prevent me from pursuing the course of my poetical
-reveries. I was grateful to this capricious fountain who reserved its
-music for me alone, on such a beautiful night and amid so religious a
-silence.
-
-Seen thus by the light of the moon, the effect was startling, a shower
-of green diamonds appeared to be descending upon the fresh ferns that
-were planted around the border. There was something appalling in the
-appearance of the tritons, immovable in the midst of all this tumult,
-and their dying murmurs, mingled with the subdued sound of the cascades,
-made them seem as if in despair that their passionate souls should be
-chained in bodies of marble. One would have thought it a scene from
-Pagan life that had been suddenly petrified by the sovereign touch of
-the naiad.
-
-I then remembered the species of fear that this nymph had caused me in
-broad daylight, with her air of proud repose in the midst of these
-monsters writhing beneath her feet.
-
-Can an unemotional soul express true beauty? thought I, and should this
-creature of marble awake to life, despite her magnificence would she not
-terrify one, by that air of supreme indifference which renders her so
-superior to the beings of our race?
-
-I regarded her attentively in the light of the moonbeams which bathed
-her white shoulders and revealed her small head set upon a firm and
-slender neck as upon a column. I could not distinguish her features, as
-she was at too great a height; but her easy attitude was defined in
-brilliant lines with an incomparable grace.
-
-This is truly, thought I, the idea I would fain picture to myself of the
-green lady, for surely, seen thus....
-
-Suddenly I ceased to reason or reflect. It seemed to me that I saw the
-statue move.
-
-I thought that a cloud was passing over the moon and had produced the
-illusion; but there was none. Only, it was not the statue that moved, it
-was a form that arose from behind or beside her, and which seemed
-exactly like her, as if an animate reflection had detached itself from
-this body of marble and had quitted it to approach me. For a moment I
-doubted the evidence of my senses, but it became so distinct, so
-positive, that I was soon convinced that I beheld a real being, and that
-I experienced no feeling of terror, nor even any very great surprise.
-
-The living image of the naiad descended the irregular steps of the
-monument with a flying motion; her movements were easy and ideally
-graceful. She was not much taller than a real woman, although the
-elegance of her proportions imparted a stamp of exceptional beauty,
-which had intimidated me in the statue; but I no longer experienced
-aught of this feeling, and my admiration rose to ecstasy. I stretched
-out my arms to seize her, for it seemed as if she were about to rush
-towards me leaping over a height of from five to six feet which still
-separated us.
-
-I was mistaken. She stopped on the edge of the rock and made me a sign
-to move back.
-
-I obeyed mechanically and saw her seat herself upon a marble dolphin,
-which at once began to roar in a genuine fashion; then suddenly all
-these hydraulic voices increased like a tempest and formed a truly
-diabolical concert around her.
-
-I began to be somewhat unnerved when a ghostly greenish light, which
-seemed but a more brilliant moonbeam burst from I knew not where,
-distinctly revealing the features of the living naiad, so like those of
-the statue that I had to look twice in order to assure myself that it
-had not quitted its rocky chair of state.
-
-Then, no longer seeking to unravel this mystery without any desire to
-comprehend it, I became dumbly intoxicated with the supernatural beauty
-of this apparition. The effect that it produced upon me was so absolute,
-that I never even thought of approaching it, in order to assure myself
-of its immateriality, as I had done before when it had appeared in my
-room.
-
-And had I entertained such an idea, which I am altogether unconscious of
-doing, the fear of causing it to vanish by an audacious curiosity
-probably withheld me.
-
-How did it happen that I was not overcome by the desire of verifying the
-evidence of my senses? ’Twas in truth the influence of the sublime
-naiad, with clear and living eyes, beaming with a fascinating sweetness,
-the naiad, with undraped arms, contours of transparent flesh and supple
-motions resembling those of childhood. This daughter of Heaven seemed at
-the utmost about fifteen years old. The ensemble of her figure expressed
-the perfect chastity of youth, while the charm of a mature womanly soul
-illuminated her features.
-
-Her peculiar attire was precisely that of the naiad; a robe or floating
-tunic, made of some indescribable and marvellous tissue whose soft folds
-seemed wet and clinging; an exquisitely wrought diadem, and showers of
-pearls were entwined in her magnificent hair, with that mixture of
-peculiar luxury and happy caprice which characterizes the taste of the
-renaissance; in singular and charming contrast to the altogether simple
-garment, and which evinced its richness only in the easy grace of its
-arrangement and the minute finish of the jewels, and delicate details of
-the coiffure.
-
-I could have gone on looking at her all my life, without dreaming of
-addressing her. I did not observe the silence that had succeeded to the
-roar of the fountain, I do not even know whether I stood gazing at her
-for a moment or for an hour. It seemed to me of a sudden—as if I had
-always seen her, always known her—it was, perhaps, because I was living
-a century in a moment’s space.
-
-She was the first to speak. I heard but could not understand all at
-once, for the silvery tones of her voice, like her supernatural beauty,
-served to complete the illusion.
-
-I listened as if to music, without seeking to attach any particular
-sense to her words.
-
-At last I made an effort to shake off this stupor and heard her ask if I
-could see her. I know not what I answered, for she added:
-
-“Under what guise dost thou behold me?”
-
-It was only then that I remarked she addressed me as “thou.” I felt
-myself drawn to reply in the same fashion, for if she spoke to me _en
-reine_, I addressed her as a divinity.
-
-“I see thee,” I replied, “as a being to whom naught upon this earth can
-compare.”
-
-It seemed to me that she blushed, for my eyes were becoming accustomed
-to the sea-green light which inundated her figure. I beheld her, white
-as a lily, with the fresh tint of youth upon her cheek, a melancholy
-smile added to her charms.
-
-“What do you see extraordinary in me?” said she.
-
-“Beauty,” I replied, briefly. I was too much moved to add more.
-
-“My beauty,” answered she, “is an effect of the imagination; for it does
-not exist in a form that thou canst appreciate. All that is here of me
-is my mind. Address me then as a soul and not as a woman. About what did
-you wish me to advise you?”
-
-“I no longer remember.”
-
-“And the cause of this forgetfulness?”
-
-“Is thy presence.”
-
-“Try to remember.”
-
-“No, I do not wish to.”
-
-“Then, adieu!”
-
-“No, no,” I exclaimed, approaching her, as if to retain her, but I
-stopped short—terrified, for the light suddenly paled and the apparition
-seemed fading away.
-
-“In the name of heaven, remain!” I went on, with anguish. “I am
-submissive, my love for you is chaste.”
-
-“What love?” she asked, reassuming her brilliancy.
-
-“What love? I know not. Did I speak of love? Oh, yes, I remember now.
-Yesterday I loved a woman and I wished to please her, to work her will
-at the risk of betraying my duty. If you are a pure essence, as I
-believe, you know everything. Must I then explain?”
-
-“No, I know the facts that concern the posterity of the family whose
-name I bear.” “But I am no divinity, I cannot read souls, I did not know
-that thou lovedst.”
-
-“I love no one. At this moment I love nothing upon earth, and I would
-like to die if in another state of existence I could follow you.”
-
-“Thou talkest wildly. To be happy after death, it is necessary to have
-led a pure life. Thou hast a difficult duty to fulfill, and it is for
-this that thou hast summoned me. Perform thy duty then or thou wilt
-never see me more.”
-
-“What is this duty? Speak, henceforth I will obey none but thee.”
-
-“This duty,” answered the naiad, leaning towards me and speaking so low
-that I could with difficulty distinguish her voice from the fresh murmur
-of the waters, “is to obey thy father. And, afterwards, thou shalt tell
-the generous woman who wishes to sacrifice herself, that those whom she
-pities will always bless her, but will never accept her sacrifice. I
-know their thoughts, for they have summoned and consulted me. I know
-that they are fighting for their honor, but that they do not fear what
-men call poverty. For proud souls there is no such thing as poverty. Say
-this to the lady who will question thee to-morrow, and yield not to the
-love that she inspires so far as to make thee betray the religion of thy
-family.”
-
-“I will obey, I swear. And, now reveal to me the secrets of eternal
-life. Where is your soul now? What different qualities has it acquired
-in this removal?”
-
-“All that I can say is this: death does not exist—nothing dies; but
-things in the outer world are very different from what one imagines
-here. I will tell thee no more. Do not question me.”
-
-“Say at least if I shall see you in this other life.”
-
-“I know not.”
-
-“And in this?”
-
-“Yes, shouldst thou prove worthy.”
-
-“I will prove worthy. But tell me this much, since you can direct and
-counsel those who live in this world, can you not pity them?”
-
-“I can.”
-
-“And love them?”
-
-“I love them all as brothers with whom I have lived.”
-
-“Love one then above the others. He will perform miracles of courage and
-virtue if you will but interest yourself in him.”
-
-“Let him perform these miracles and he will find me in his thoughts.
-Adieu!”
-
-“Wait one moment! O heaven! One moment! It is said that you bestow a
-charmed ring upon those who have not offended you, as a pledge of your
-protection and as a means of evoking you. Is this true? And wilt you
-give it to me?”
-
-“Vulgar minds alone believe in magic. Thou couldst never put faith
-therein, thou who speakest of eternal life and who seekest divine truth.
-By what means could a soul that communicates with thee without the aid
-of real organs bestow upon thee a material and palpable object?”
-
-“Still I see a sparkling ring on your finger.”
-
-“I cannot perceive what thine eyes behold. What kind of a ring dost thou
-see?”
-
-“A large circle with an emerald in the form of a star, set in gold.”
-
-“It is strange thou shouldst see that,” said she, after a moment’s
-silence. “The involuntary workings of the human mind and the connection
-of its dreams with certain past deeds, perchance, include providential
-mysteries. The science of these inexplicable things belongs only to the
-One who knows the cause and the reason for everything. The hand that
-thou thinkest thou dost behold exists only in thine imagination. What is
-left of me in the tomb would fill thee with horror; but it may be that
-thou seest me such as I was on earth. Tell me how I appear to thee?”
-
-I know not what enthusiastic picture I drew of her. She seemed to listen
-with attention and said:
-
-“If I resemble this statue, that should not surprise thee for I acted as
-its model. Thus thou bringest back to my mind the memory of what I once
-was, and even the jewels thou dost describe, I remember having worn. The
-ring thou thinkest thou dost see I lost in a room that I occupied in
-this chateau. It fell between two stones under the hearth. I intended to
-have had the stone raised on the next day, but I died that very day.
-Shouldst thou search for it thou mayst perchance find it. In that case,
-I give it to thee as a souvenir of me and of the oath thou hast sworn to
-obey me. Behold, the day breaks, farewell!”
-
-This farewell caused me the most acute pain I had ever experienced and I
-came near rushing forward once more to seize this shadowy enchantress,
-for by degrees I had approached near enough to be within reach of the
-hem of her garment, had I dared to touch it, but I had not the courage.
-It is true, I had forgotten the threats of the legend against those who
-attempted this profanation. I was only held back, powerless, by a
-superstitious respect, but a cry of despair broke from my heart and
-vibrated even amid the marine shells, held by the tritons of the
-fountain. The shadow paused as if withheld by pity.
-
-“What more dost thou desire?” said she. “Day approaches and I cannot
-remain.”
-
-“Why not, if such is thy will?”
-
-“I am forbidden to again behold the sun of this earth. I dwell in the
-eternal light of a more beautiful world.”
-
-“Take me with thee to that world. I no longer wish to live in this. I
-will not remain here I swear, if I must never see thee more.”
-
-“Thou shalt see me again, have no fear,” said she. “Await till thou art
-worthy and until then, summon me not. I forbid thee. I will watch over
-thee like an invisible providence, and when thy soul is as pure as a ray
-of morning, I will then appear to thee, simply on the appeal of thy
-pious desire. Submit!”
-
-“Submit!” repeated a solemn voice that resounded at my right. I turned
-and beheld one of the phantoms I had already seen in my room, at the
-time of the first apparition.
-
-“Submit!” repeated a voice exactly similar, like an echo, at my left,
-and I beheld the second ghost.
-
-I was not at all affected by this, although there was something
-terrifying in the height of these two spectres and in the deep tones of
-their voices. But what cared I for the terrible things I might see or
-hear? Nothing could snatch me from the ecstasy in which I was plunged. I
-did not even stop to look at these accessory shadows; my eyes sought my
-celestial beauty. Alas! she had disappeared, and I no longer beheld
-aught save the motionless naiad of the fountain, with its passionless
-pose and its cold tones of marble rendered blue by the first rays of
-morning.
-
-I know not what became of the sisters; I did not see them disappear. I
-went around and around the fountain like a madman. I thought I was
-sleeping and I grew bewildered in the confusion of my ideas, hoping that
-I would not awake.
-
-But I remembered the promised ring, and went up to my room, where I
-found Baptiste, who spoke to me without my being able to gather the
-meaning of his words. He appeared worried, perhaps on account of my
-expression, but I never thought of questioning him. I looked at the
-hearth and soon observed two disconnected stones, which I endeavored to
-raise, but it was too difficult an undertaking without the necessary
-tools.
-
-Baptiste probably thought me mad, and mechanically endeavoring to aid
-me—
-
-“Has monsieur lost anything?” said he.
-
-“Yes, I let one of my rings fall here yesterday.”
-
-“A ring! Monsieur has no rings, I have never seen him wear one.”
-
-“No matter. Let us try to find it.”
-
-He took a knife and scraped the soft stone, to enlarge the crack,
-removed the ashes and powdered cement which filled it up, and while
-working thus to please me, he asked me what kind of a ring it was in the
-same tone he would have asked me what I had been dreaming about.
-
-“It is a gold ring with a star formed of a large emerald,” I replied,
-with the coolness of certainty.
-
-He no longer doubted, and detaching a rod from the window curtains, he
-bent it in the form of a hook and reached the ring, which he smilingly
-presented me. He thought without daring to say so, that it was a gift
-from Madame d’Ionis. As for myself, I scarcely looked at it, so sure was
-I that it was the same that I had seen on the finger of the ghost; it
-was, in fact, exactly like it. I put it on my little finger, never
-doubting that it belonged to the defunct demoiselle d’Ionis, or that I
-had seen the ghost of that marvelous beauty.
-
-Baptiste showed a great deal of discretion in his behavior, and when he
-left me, made me promise to go to bed.
-
-You can readily imagine such was far from my thoughts. I seated myself
-before the table, from which Baptiste had removed the famous supper of
-three loaves, and compelling myself to recall the details of my
-transporting vision, some parts of which I feared I might forget, I
-began to write a full account thereof, just as you have read it.
-
-I remained in this state of agitation mingled with ecstasy, till the
-rising of the sun. At times I dozed a little, my elbows on the table,
-and thought I was again going through my dream; but it ever eluded me,
-and Baptiste came and dragged me from the solitude in which I would have
-gladly thenceforth have passed my life.
-
-I arranged it so as to go down stairs, just as they were about to take
-their places at the table. I had not yet asked myself how I was to give
-an account of the vision; I thought of it while making believe
-breakfast, for I ate nothing and without feeling wearied or ill, I
-experienced an unconquerable disgust for the functions of animal life.
-
-The dowager who did not see very well, was not aware of my trouble. I
-answered her usual questions with the vagueness of the preceding days,
-but this time without acting any comedy, and with the preoccupation of a
-poet when questioned stupidly on the subject of his poem, and who gives
-evasive and ironical replies to get rid of stultifying investigations. I
-do not know if Madame d’Ionis was anxious or surprised to see me thus. I
-did not look at her, I did not even see her. I hardly understood what
-she was saying to me, during the mortal constraint of this breakfast.
-
-At last I found myself alone in the library, awaiting her as on previous
-days, but without any impatience whatever. Far from it, I felt a lively
-satisfaction in sinking into a revery. The weather was admirable; the
-sun kissed the trees and the blooming grounds beyond the large masses of
-transparent shadows that were projected by the architecture of the
-chateau on the nearest flowerbeds. I walked from one end of this vast
-hall to the other, stopping each time that I found myself before the
-fountain. The windows were closed and the curtains drawn on account of
-the heat. These curtains were of a soft shade of blue that I tried to
-imagine green, and in this artificial twilight which somewhat recalled
-that of my vision, I experienced an incredible sensation of happiness,
-and a species of delirious gayety.
-
-I was talking aloud, and laughing without being aware of any cause, when
-I felt some one seize me rather roughly by the arm. I turned around and
-saw Madame d’Ionis, who had come in without my observing her.
-
-“Come, answer me, look at me at least,” said she with some impatience.
-“Are you aware that you frighten me, and that I no longer know what to
-think of you?”
-
-“You have your wish,” I answered, “I have tampered with my reason, I
-have become insane. But do not reproach yourself on that account; I am
-much happier thus, and do not wish to be cured.”
-
-“So,” said she, scrutinizing me anxiously, “this apparition is not then
-an absurd story? At least, you think—you have seen it produced?”
-
-“Better than I see you at this moment.”
-
-“Don’t affect such an air of stupid pride—I do not doubt your words.
-Tell me all about it quietly.”
-
-“No, never! I implore you do not question me. I cannot, I do not wish to
-answer.”
-
-“Really the society of ghosts does not seem to agree with you, my dear
-sir, and you will make me think that you have heard some singularly
-flattering things, for you are as proud and discreet as a fortunate
-lover.”
-
-“Ah! what do you say, madame?” I cried, “No love is possible between two
-beings separated by the abyss of a tomb. But you know not of what you
-speak, you believe in nothing, you ridicule everything.”
-
-I was so rude in my enthusiasm, that Madame d’Ionis was rather vexed.
-
-“There is one thing which I do not ridicule,” said she quickly; “and
-that is my law suit, and since you have promised on your honor, to
-consult a mysterious oracle and to obey its orders—”
-
-“Yes,” I replied, taking her hand with a familiarity that was quite out
-of place, but so quietly that she was not offended, so well did she
-understand the condition of my mind; “yes, madame, you must pardon my
-preoccupation and my forgetfulness. It was through devotion to you that
-I have played a very dangerous game, and I owe you at least an account
-of the result. I have been ordered to carry out my father’s intentions
-and make you win your suit.”
-
-Whether she expected this answer, or whether she doubted my sanity,
-Madame d’Ionis showed neither surprise or disappointment. She contented
-herself with shrugging her shoulders, and shaking my arm as if to awake
-me.
-
-“My poor child,” said she, “you have been dreaming, that is all. For a
-moment I shared your exaltation, I hoped at least that it would bring
-you back to the ideas of delicacy and justice that at heart you cherish.
-But I know not what exaggerated scruples or what habits of passive
-obedience to your father, have caused you to hear such chimerical words.
-Shake off these illusions, there have been no ghosts, nor has there been
-any mysterious voice, your head was affected by the indigestible perusal
-of that old manuscript, and by the abbé Lamyre’s doleful stories. I am
-going to explain how it all happened.”
-
-She talked with me for some time; but my efforts to listen and
-understand were in vain. At times it seemed as if she were speaking an
-unknown language. When she saw that the words that fell upon my ear were
-not communicated to my brain, she grew seriously alarmed about me, felt
-my pulse to see if I had any fever, asked me if my head ached, and
-begged me to go and lie down. I understood that she gave me permission
-to be alone and I gladly ran and threw myself upon my bed, not that I
-felt the least fatigue, but because I kept thinking all the time that
-could I but sleep, I might again behold the celestial beauty of my
-immortal nymph.
-
-I do not know how the rest of the day passed. I had no knowledge of it.
-The next morning I saw Baptiste walking through the room on tip-toe.
-
-“What are you doing, _mon ami_?” I asked.
-
-“I am sitting up with you, my dear master,” he replied. “Thank God you
-have slept two good hours. You feel better, don’t you?”
-
-“I feel very well, have I then been ill?”
-
-“You had a severe attack of fever last evening, and it lasted part of
-the night. It was the effect of the great heat. You never think of
-putting on your hat when you go in the garden. Yet _madame votre mère_
-gave you so many cautions about it.”
-
-Zéphyrine entered, asked about me with much interest and made me promise
-to take _another_ spoonful of _my_ soothing potion.
-
-“Very well,” said I, although I had no recollection of this potion, “a
-sick guest is an inconvenience and all I ask is to get well quickly.”
-
-The potion really did me a great deal of good, for I again fell asleep
-and dreamed of my immortal nymph. When I opened my eyes, I saw an
-apparition at the foot of my bed, which would have charmed me two nights
-ago, but which now vexed me like an importunate reproach. It was Madame
-d’Ionis, who came herself to see how I was, and to give her personal
-supervision to the efforts made in my behalf. She was very friendly, and
-showed real interest in me. I thanked her to the best of my ability and
-assured her that I was very well.
-
-Upon this, appeared the solemn head of a physician, who examined my
-pulse and my tongue, prescribed rest, and said to Madame d’Ionis:
-
-“It is nothing. Keep him from reading, writing and talking until
-to-morrow and he will then be able to return to his family.”
-
-Left alone with Baptiste, I questioned him.
-
-“_Mon Dieu_, Monsieur,” said he, “I don’t exactly know what to say. It
-seems that the room where you were is considered haunted.”
-
-“The room where I was? Where then am I now?”
-
-I looked around me and recovering from my stupor I at last recognized
-that I was not in “_la chambre aux dames_,” but in another apartment of
-the chateau.
-
-“As for me,” continued Baptiste, who was of a very positive temperament.
-“I slept in the room and saw nothing. I don’t believe any of these
-stories. But, when I heard you tormenting yourself during your fever,
-always talking about a beautiful lady who exists and who does not exist,
-who is dead and who lives—who knows what you haven’t said about it. It
-was all so pretty sometimes that I wished to remember it, or that I knew
-how to write it down, in order to preserve it, but it did you harm, and
-I decided upon bringing you here, where you are better off. Don’t you
-see, Monsieur, that this all comes from writing too many verses? Your
-father said rightly that it would turn your brain! You would do better
-to think only of your law papers.”
-
-“Thou art certainly right, my dear Baptiste,” I answered “and I will try
-and take thine advice. In fact it does seem as if I had had an attack of
-madness.”
-
-“Of madness? Oh! no indeed, Monsieur. _Dieu merci_. You have wandered a
-little in your fever just as it might happen to anyone; but now that it
-is all over, if you will take a little chicken broth, your brain will be
-as clear as ever.”
-
-I resigned myself to the chicken broth, although I would have preferred
-something more nourishing so as to get well quickly. I was very weak,
-but little by little my strength came back during the day, and I was
-allowed a light supper. The following day, Madame d’Ionis came again to
-see me. I had risen and was feeling quite well. I talked very sensibly
-with her about what had happened, without however giving her any details
-upon the subject. I had been light-headed, I was much ashamed of it, and
-begged her to keep my secret; my position as a lawyer would be lost if I
-acquired the reputation of a ghost seer; and it would affect my father
-seriously.
-
-“Fear nothing,” said she; “I will answer for the discretion of my
-people; make sure of your valet’s silence, and the story of this
-adventure will never leave the place. Besides, even should something of
-the kind be told, we would all be perfectly justified in saying that you
-had had an attack of fever, and that it pleased these superstitious
-souls to interpret it to suit their credulity. And really, this would
-only be the truth. You had a sun stroke coming here on horseback on a
-scorching day. You were ill during the night. On the following days I
-tormented you with this unfortunate law suit, and I stopped at nothing
-to bring you over to my way of thinking.”
-
-She paused, and, in a different tone said:
-
-“Do you remember what I said to you the day before yesterday in the
-library?”
-
-“I confess that I did not understand, I was under the influence.”——
-
-“Of the fever? I saw that very plainly.”
-
-“Will it please you to repeat to me, now that my head is no longer
-affected, what you were saying about apparitions?”
-
-Madame d’Ionis hesitated.
-
-“Has your memory preserved the idea of this apparition?” said she
-carelessly, but examining me rather anxiously.
-
-“No,” I replied, “it is very confused now, confused as a dream of which
-one is still conscious, but no longer cares to remember.”
-
-I lied boldly, Madame d’Ionis was deceived, and I saw that she also was
-lying, when she pretended having spoken to me in the library only about
-the effect of the manuscript, in order to blame herself for having lent
-it to me at a time when I was already greatly agitated. It was evident
-that through fear caused by my mental condition, she had on that evening
-said certain things, that she was very glad now I had not understood,
-but I could not imagine what they might be. She saw I was quite
-confused, so she believed me cured. I talked very decidedly about my
-vision as though it were the effect of a high fever. She made me promise
-to think no more of it, and never to torment myself about it.
-
-“Don’t go and think yourself more weak-minded than other people; there
-is no one in the world who has not had their hours of delirium. Remain
-with us two or three days longer, no matter what the doctor says. I do
-not like to send you back to your parents, so weak and pale. We will say
-nothing more about the suit, it is useless; I will go and see your
-father and talk it over with him; without worrying you any more about
-it.”
-
-By evening I was already cured, and I tried to get into my old room, it
-was shut up. I risked asking Zéphyrine for the key, who replied that it
-had been given to Madame d’Ionis. They did not wish to put anyone there,
-until the recently unearthed legend had again been buried in oblivion.
-
-I pretended that I had forgotten something in the room. They had to
-yield. Zéphyrine went after the key and entered the room with me. I
-searched everywhere without saying what I was looking for. I examined
-the hearth and saw the fresh scratches on the disjointed stones, that
-Baptiste had left there with his knife. But what did this prove, save
-that in my madness I had caused a search for an object that existed only
-in the memory of a dream? I had thought that I had found a ring and had
-put it on my finger. It was there no longer, without doubt it had never
-been there!
-
-I did not even dare to question Baptiste on this subject. They did not
-leave me one moment alone in the ladies’ room, and they shut it up
-again, as soon as I went out. I felt that there was nothing to keep me
-at the chateau d’Ionis, and I left by stealth the next morning so as to
-avoid the drive in a carriage with which they had threatened me.
-
-The horse and the fresh air quite set me up again. I galloped rapidly
-through the woods that surrounded the chateau, fearing that I might be
-pursued by the solicitude of my beautiful hostess. I slackened my pace
-when two leagues distant, and arrived quietly at Angers during the
-afternoon.
-
-My face was a little changed; my father did not notice it much, but
-nothing escapes a mother’s eye, and it worried mine. I succeeded in
-quieting her by eating with an appetite; I had compelled Baptiste to
-give me his word that he would not say anything; he had made it a
-condition however that he would not feel bound, should I chance to fall
-ill again.
-
-But I took good care not to do so; I watched over my physical and moral
-welfare like a youth bent upon the preservation of his existence. I
-worked, but not too much; I took walks regularly, I dwelt upon no
-mournful ideas, I abstained from all reading of an exciting nature. The
-reason for all this had its source in an obstinate but tranquil mania
-and, so to speak, ’twas mistress of itself. I wanted to prove to my own
-judgment that I neither had been nor now was out of my mind, and that
-there was nothing more certain, in my opinion, than the existence of the
-green ladies. I also wished to restore my mind to that state of
-clearness necessary to conceal my secret and to nourish it internally as
-the source of my intellectual life and the criterion of my moral
-existence.
-
-Every trace of the crisis then rapidly disappeared, and seeing me
-studious, reasonable and moderate in all things, it would have been
-impossible to guess that I was under the dominion of a fixed idea, of a
-well regulated monomania.
-
-Three days after my return to Angers, my father sent me to Tours on some
-other business. I spent twenty-four hours there, and when I returned
-home, I learned that Madame d’Ionis had been there to have an
-understanding with my father about the consequences of her law suit. She
-had appeared to yield to positive reason; she had consented to gain it.
-
-I was glad that I had not met her. It would be impossible to say that so
-charming a woman had become repugnant to me, but it is certain that I
-feared more than I desired her presence. Her scepticism, which she
-appeared to have renounced one day only to overwhelm me with it on the
-next, had produced an injurious effect upon me, and had caused me
-inexpressible suffering.
-
-At the end of two months, notwithstanding all the efforts I made to
-appear happy, my mother discovered the terrible sadness that permeated
-my mind. Everyone observed a great change for the better in me, and at
-first she was pleased with it. My manner of life was altogether austere,
-and my language as grave and sensible as that of an old magistrate.
-Without being devout, I professed to be religious. I no longer
-scandalized simple people by my voltairianism. I judged everything
-impartially and criticised without bitterness those of whom I did not
-approve. All this was edifying, excellent; but I had no taste for
-anything, and I bore my life as if it were a burden. I was no longer
-young, I experienced no more the ecstasy of enthusiasm or the
-allurements of gayety.
-
-I had time then, notwithstanding my important occupations to write
-verses, and I would have made time in any case, even had none been
-allowed me, for I hardly slept any more and I sought none of those
-amusements that absorb three quarters of a young man’s life. I no longer
-thought of love, I fled from the world, I ceased to parade myself with
-men of my age before the eyes of the beautiful ladies of the land. I was
-retiring, meditative, austere, very gentle with my own people, very
-modest with everybody, very ardent in legal discussions. Thus I was
-esteemed an accomplished young man, but I was thoroughly unhappy.
-
-And it was because I nourished with a strange stoicism, an insane
-passion without its parallel. I was in love with a ghost, I could not
-even say with a dead woman. All my historical researches resolved
-themselves into this. The three demoiselles d’Ionis had possibly never
-existed save in legend. Their history, fixed by the latest chroniclers
-at the period of Henri II, was already old and uncertain, even at that
-date. No evidence of them remained: no title, name or crest among the
-d’Ionis family papers that my father happened to have in his possession
-on account of the suit, not even a tombstone in any part of the country.
-
-I was thus worshipping a pure fiction, engendered, to all appearance in
-the vapors of my brain. But this was precisely what I failed to be
-convinced of. I had seen and heard this marvel of beauty; she existed in
-a region that it was impossible for me to attain, but from which it was
-possible for her to descend to me. To solve the problem of this
-indefinable existence, and the mystery of the tie that bound us would
-have rendered me insane. I was conscious of the fact, I wished to
-explain nothing, to fathom nothing; I lived upon faith, which is “the
-evidence of things not seen,” a sublime madness, if reason is only to be
-proved by the evidence of the senses.
-
-My madness was not so puerile as might have been feared. I nursed it as
-a superior faculty and did not allow it to descend from the heights upon
-which I had enthroned it. Thus I abstained from another evocation, lest
-I should lose myself in the cabalistic pursuit of some chimera unworthy
-of me. The immortal maiden had said that “I must become worthy, if she
-were to live in my thoughts.” She had not promised to reappear in the
-same form as I had seen her. She had said that this form did not exist
-and was but the product of my imagination caused by the elevation of my
-feelings towards her. I ought not then to torment my brain to reproduce
-her, for it might misrepresent her and cause some other image to
-obliterate her own. I wished to purify my life and cultivate the
-treasure of conscience, in the hope, that at some given time, this
-celestial figure would come to me of her own accord and talk to me in
-those cherished tones that through my unworthiness had been vouchsafed
-me for so short a time.
-
-Under the influence of this mania, I was in the way of becoming a good
-man, and it was rather odd that I should be led to wisdom through
-madness. But all this was too subtle and too tense for human nature.
-This rupture of my soul with the rest of my being, and of my life with
-the temptations of youth, was gradually leading me on to despair,
-perhaps even to insanity.
-
-So far I was only melancholy, and although very pale and very thin, I
-did not appear to be ill either physically or mentally when the turn
-came for the hearing of the case of d’Ionis versus d’Aillane. My father
-instructed me to prepare my speech for the following week. It was now
-about three months since I had left, on a morning in June for the fatal
-chateau d’Ionis.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER V.
-                               THE DUEL.
-
-
-The more time and attention we bestowed upon this unhappy suit, the more
-fully convinced were my father and myself that it was impossible to lose
-it. Two wills were brought forward in evidence; one of which five years
-previous had been duly attested, signed and sealed, was in favor of M.
-d’Aillane. Being in straitened circumstanced at this period, he had
-escaped from his difficulties by a sale of the real estate which he
-regarded as his own. The other will, discovered three years afterwards,
-by one of those strange chances which causes it to be said that life
-resembles a romance, suddenly impoverished the d’Aillanes to enrich
-Madame d’Ionis. The validity of this last deed was incontestable; the
-date, later than that of the first one was clear and precise. M.
-d’Aillane pleaded the childish condition of the testator and the nature
-of the pressure M. d’Ionis had brought to bear upon him in his last
-hours. This latter argument was sufficiently apparent; but the condition
-of dotage could not be proved in any manner whatever.
-
-Besides, M. d’Ionis assumed, rightly, that d’Aillane, pressed by his
-creditors, had ceded the property to them for less than its real value,
-and he demanded what was for them a very considerable sum, since it
-represented the last wreck of his adversaries’ fortune.
-
-M. d’Aillane did not expect to succeed. He was conscious that his case
-was a weak one; but he was bent upon clearing himself from the
-accusation brought against him, of having known or even suspected the
-existence of a second will, of having engaged the person with whom it
-was deposited to keep it concealed for three years, and of having
-hastened to utilize the inheritance so as to practically escape from the
-consequences of the future. There had been besides a discussion upon the
-real value of the property, exaggerated more or less by the two parties
-in the debates, previous to my father’s intervention in the suit.
-
-My father and I were discussing this last point and were not quite of
-the same opinion, when Baptiste announced M. d’Aillane, the son, captain
-of the —— regiment.
-
-Bernard d’Aillane was a handsome young man of about my age, proud,
-sensitive, and very outspoken. He expressed himself very politely,
-appealing to our honor, as one who recognized our strict observance
-thereof, but towards the close of his exordium, carried away by his
-natural vivacity, he distinctly threatened me, in case I should, in the
-course of my speech, chance to express any doubt of his father’s perfect
-loyalty.
-
-My father was more disturbed by this challenge than I, and a lawyer at
-heart, he expressed his indignation in words. I saw that a quarrel was
-likely to result from a project of reconciliation, and I begged the two
-speakers to listen to me.
-
-“Permit me, father,” said I, “to call M. d’Aillane’s attention to the
-fact that he has just committed a serious imprudence, and that, if I
-were not, thanks to my profession, of a cooler temperament than himself,
-I would take pleasure in provoking his anger, and in making use of every
-argument that my case might require.”
-
-“What do you say,” cried my father, who in his heart was the most
-amiable of men, but easily carried away in the exercise of his duties,
-“I sincerely trust, my son, that you will use every argument, and if
-there is the least occasion in the world to suspect the good faith of
-our adversaries, it is neither M. le Capitaine d’Aillane’s little
-moustache and little sword, or his father’s great moustache and large
-sword that will prevent you from proclaiming it.”
-
-Young d’Aillane was perfectly infuriated, and being unable to vent his
-rage upon a man of my father’s age, he was strongly tempted to vent it
-upon me. He made some very bitter remarks to me, of which I took no
-notice, and, continuing to address my father, I answered:
-
-“You are perfectly right in believing that I will not allow myself to be
-intimidated; but we must pardon M. d’Aillane for having entertained such
-an idea. Were I to find myself in a similar situation, and your honor in
-question, reflect, my dear father, that I would not be any more polite
-or reasonable than necessity required. Have some consideration then for
-his anxiety, and since we cannot relieve it, do not let us be so harsh
-as to add to it unnecessarily. I have examined the affair sufficiently
-to be convinced myself of the extreme delicacy of the entire d’Aillane
-family, and I shall consider it as much of a pleasure as of a duty to
-acknowledge this on all occasions.”
-
-“That is all I wanted, monsieur,” cried the young man, grasping my
-hands, “and now go on and gain your suit, we ask nothing better.”
-
-“One moment, one moment,” replied my father, with the same spirit he
-showed in his discussions in court. “I do not know exactly, my son, what
-your ideas about this perfect loyalty may be, but as for myself, if I
-find circumstances in the history of this affair where it is manifest,
-there are others that seem suspicious to me, and I beg of you to promise
-nothing, before weighing the objections that I was engaged in submitting
-to you when monsieur honored us with his visit.”
-
-“Allow me, my dear father,” I replied with firmness, “to inform you that
-slight appearances will not be sufficient to make me share your doubts.
-Without considering M. le comte d’Aillane’s well-established reputation,
-I have the evidence of certain testimony in his favor.”
-
-I paused, while reflecting that this testimony of my sublime and
-mysterious friend, was something I would be unable to bring forward
-without being laughed at. It was nevertheless so serious a consideration
-with me, that nothing in the world, not even apparent facts, could make
-me doubt it.
-
-“I know of what testimony you speak,” said my father, “Madame d’Ionis
-has a great affection——.”
-
-“I hardly know Madame d’Ionis!” interrupted young d’Aillane quickly.
-
-“And I am not speaking of you, monsieur,” my father smilingly replied.
-“I am speaking of Count d’Aillane and of mademoiselle his daughter.”
-
-“And I, father,” said I, in my turn, “I was not speaking of Madame
-d’Ionis.”
-
-“May one ask,” said young d’Aillane, “the name of the person who has had
-this fortunate influence over you, so that I may know to whom I owe my
-gratitude?”
-
-“With your permission, monsieur, I would prefer not to tell you, this is
-something that concerns myself alone.”
-
-The young captain begged my pardon for being so indiscreet, took leave
-of my father rather coldly, and retired, expressing his gratitude to me
-for my good will.
-
-I followed him to the street door, as if out of politeness. There he
-again gave me his hand; this time I withdrew mine and begged him to come
-for one moment into my room which opened on to the vestibule. I once
-more declared that I was convinced of the nobility of his father’s
-sentiments, and thoroughly determined not to cast the slightest
-aspersion on the honor of his family. After which I said:
-
-“As this matter is settled, monsieur, you will permit me to ask you why
-you should have insulted me, by doubting my pride so far as to threaten
-me with your resentment. If I have not done so before my father, who
-seemed to urge me on, it was because I knew that when his feeling of
-anger will have passed away, he would consider himself the most
-unfortunate of men. I have also a very tender mother, and for this
-reason I ask you to keep our explanation here a secret. Charged with the
-interests of Madame d’Ionis, I plead her cause to-morrow; I beg of you
-then, to grant on the following day, after leaving the palace, the
-meeting that I now ask of you.”
-
-“No, _parbleu_! I will do nothing of the kind,” cried the young man,
-throwing his arms around my neck. “I haven’t the least desire to kill a
-fellow who has shown so much feeling and justice towards me. I was
-wrong, I acted without reason, and I am now quite ready to beg your
-pardon.”
-
-“That is altogether useless, monsieur, for you were forgiven before. In
-my position, one is exposed to such offenses, and they do not affect an
-honest man, but there is none the less necessity for me to fight you.”
-
-“_Oui—da! Et pourquoi diable_, after having begged your pardon?”
-
-“Because that has been done in private, and your visit has been public.
-There is your horse pawing the ground at our door, and your soldier in
-uniform, attracting the attention of everyone. You know very well what a
-little provincial town is. In one hour from now, all the world will know
-that a brilliant officer has been here to threaten a little lawyer, who
-is conducting a suit against him, and you may be pretty sure that,
-to-morrow, when I shall have observed for you and yours all the
-consideration I look upon as your due, more than one malicious soul will
-accuse me of being afraid of you, and will laugh at the contemptible
-figure I will cut beside you. I resign myself to this humiliation, but
-this duty accomplished, I will have another to fulfill which will be to
-prove that I am no coward, unworthy of practicing an honorable
-profession, and capable of betraying the confidence of my clients
-through fear of a sword thrust. Consider that I am very young, monsieur,
-that I have a character to establish, now or never.”
-
-“You make me realize my mistake,” answered M. d’Aillane. “I did not
-appreciate the importance of my behavior, and I owe you a formal avowal
-in public.”
-
-“It will be too late, after my speech, they will always believe that I
-have yielded to fear; and it will be too soon before; they might think
-that you feared my revelations.”
-
-“Then I see there is no way out of this difficulty, and that all I can
-do for you, is to give you the satisfaction that you require. Depend
-upon my word and my silence. On leaving the palace to-morrow, you will
-find me at whatever place you may appoint.”
-
-We made our arrangements. After which the young officer observed with a
-mournful and affectionate air:
-
-“This is a bad piece of business for me, monsieur, for should I be so
-unfortunate as to kill you, I believe I would then kill myself for
-having placed a man of so much feeling as yourself in a position, where
-he must of necessity stake his life against mine. God grant that the
-result may not prove too serious. It will be a lesson for me. And
-meanwhile, whatever happens, bear in mind my repentance, and do not have
-too poor an opinion of me. It is too true that the world brings us up
-badly, we young men of family. We forget that the _bourgeoisie_ is as
-good as we are, and that the time has come to recognize this fact. Come,
-give me your hand now, while we prepare to cut each other’s throats!”
-
-Madame d’Ionis was to come to town the next day to be present at the
-trial. I had received several very friendly letters from her in which
-she no longer strove to influence my sense of duty as a lawyer, and in
-which she contented herself with advising me to respect the honor of her
-relatives, who could not, she said, be despised or offended without
-reflecting disgrace upon herself. It was easy to see that she counted
-upon her presence to restrain me, in case I should be carried away by
-oratorical fervor.
-
-She was mistaken in thinking that she exercised any power over me. I was
-now governed by a higher influence, by a souvenir of an altogether
-different nature than her own.
-
-Again I conversed with my father in the evening and prevailed upon him
-to leave me at liberty to take my own view of the moral side of the
-affair. He bade me good-night, saying at the same time in rather a
-reproving tone, which I understood no more than I did his words:
-
-“My dear child, have a care. Madame d’Ionis is thine oracle I know, but
-I greatly fear that she is only making use of thee to advance the
-interests of another.” And as he observed my astonishment, he added:
-
-“We will talk that over later on. Think only of acquitting thyself well
-to-morrow, and of doing honor to thy father.”
-
-Just as I was getting into bed, I was surprised to see a bow of green
-ribbon pinned to my pillow. I took it up and felt that it contained a
-ring; it was the emerald star which I remembered but as a feverish
-dream. This mysterious ring really existed then; it had been given back
-to me.
-
-I put it on my finger and touched it a hundred times to assure myself
-that I was not the victim of an illusion; then I took it off and
-examined it with a care which I had not been equal to in the Castle of
-Ionis, and there deciphered this device in very ancient characters:
-
-“Thy life belongs to me alone.”
-
-Was it a command for me not to fight? Was the immortal nymph still
-unwilling for me to rejoin her? This was a great blow to me, for I was
-consumed with a thirst for death, and I had hoped that circumstances
-would authorize me to rid myself of life without being either rebellious
-or cowardly.
-
-I rang for Baptiste whom I could still hear walking around the house.
-
-“Come,” said I, “thou must tell me the truth, _mon ami_, for thou art an
-honest man, and my reason is in thy hands. Who has been here this
-evening? Who has put this ring in my room, on my pillow?”
-
-“What ring, monsieur? I have seen no ring.”
-
-“But don’t you see it now? Isn’t it on my finger? Haven’t you already
-seen it at the château d’Ionis?”
-
-“Certainly, monsieur, I see it and recognize it perfectly. It is the
-same one that you lost over there and that I found between two tiles;
-but I swear upon my honor, that I don’t know how it came here, and when
-I turned down your bed I saw nothing on your pillow.”
-
-“Perhaps thou canst tell me one thing at least, that I have never dared
-to ask thee since that fever that made me delirious for several hours.
-Who was it that took this ring away from me at the castle d’Ionis?”
-
-“I know no more than you, monsieur. Seeing that it was not on your
-finger I thought you had hidden it—so that you might not compromise——.”
-
-“Whom? Explain thyself.”
-
-“_Dame_, monsieur; did not Madame d’Ionis give it to you?”
-
-“Certainly not.”
-
-“To be sure, monsieur is not bound to tell me. But it must be she who
-sent it back to you.”
-
-“Hast thou seen any one from her house here to-day?”
-
-“No, sir, no one. But whoever carried out the directions, nevertheless,
-knows the ways of the house.”
-
-As I saw that I would gain nothing by the examination of material
-things, I bade Baptiste good-night and gave myself up to my accustomed
-reveries. This affair could no longer be explained naturally. This ring
-contained the secret of my destiny. I was grieved to disobey my immortal
-nymph, and at the same time I was happy in thinking that she was keeping
-her promise of watching over me.
-
-I did not close my eyes that night. My poor head was sick as well as my
-heart. Ought I to disobey the arbitress of my destiny? Ought I to
-sacrifice my honor to her? I was too much involved with M. d’Aillane to
-retract my words. At times I entertained the thought of suicide so that
-I might escape from the torment of an existence which I no longer
-understood, and then I comforted myself with the idea that this terrible
-and delightful device—“Thy life belongs to me alone”—did not have the
-same meaning that I had at first supposed, and I resolved to pay no
-attention to it, persuading myself that the maiden would appear to me at
-the place of meeting, if she wished to prevent it.
-
-But why did she not now appear to me in person if she wished to put an
-end to my perplexities? I called upon her with the ardor of despair.
-
-“The trial is too long and too cruel,” said I, “it will cost me my life
-and my reason. If I must live for thee, if I belong to thee——.”
-
-A loud rapping at the street door made me tremble. It was not yet
-daylight. I was the only one in the house awake. I dressed myself
-hurriedly. A second knock was heard, then came a third, just as I rushed
-into the vestibule.
-
-I opened the door all in a tremble. I know not what connection there was
-in my mind between this nocturnal visit and the cause of my anguish; but
-whoever the visitor might be, I had a presentiment that all would now be
-satisfactorily arranged. And such proved to be the case, although I
-could not then understand the connection with subsequent events that
-were soon to extricate me from my position.
-
-The visitor was one of Madame d’Ionis’ servants who came post haste with
-a letter for my father or for myself, as it was addressed to both.
-
-While they were getting up in the house to answer the summons, I read
-the following: “Stop the law suit. I have this moment received and now
-transmit to you a serious piece of news which releases you from your
-engagements with M. d’Ionis. He is no more. You will receive the
-official tidings during the day.”
-
-I carried the letter to my father.
-
-“_À la bonne heure_!” said he. “This is a fortunate piece of business
-for our beautiful client, if this disagreeable dead man does not leave
-her too many debts; a fortunate thing, too, for the d’Aillanes. The
-court will lose the opportunity of rendering a fine judgment, and thou
-that of making a fine speech. Come—let us go to sleep again, since there
-is nothing better to do.”
-
-He turned over towards the wall; then called me back as I was leaving
-the room.
-
-“My dear child,” said he, “one thing worries my mind, and that is if you
-are in love with Madame d’Ionis, and if she is left penniless”——
-
-“No, no, father,” I cried, “I am not in love with Madame d’Ionis.”
-
-“But you have been? Come, speak the truth, and that is the cause of this
-change for the better in thee. The ambitious tastes which thou hast
-developed and the melancholy which worries thy mother so much.”——
-
-“Certainly,” said my mother, who had been awakened by the knocking at
-such an unaccustomed hour, and who came into the room in her nightcap
-while we were talking, “be sincere now, my dear son. You love this
-beautiful lady and I even think you are beloved by her? Well then,
-confess to your parents.”
-
-“I am perfectly willing to confess,” I replied, kissing my mother. “I
-was in love with Madame d’Ionis for two days; but I was cured on the
-third day.”
-
-“Upon your honor?” said my father.
-
-“Upon my honor.”
-
-“And the reason for this change?”
-
-“Do not ask me, I cannot tell you.”
-
-“I know the reason,” said my father, laughing and yawning at the same
-time, “it is because little Madam d’Ionis and this handsome cousin ‘who
-doesn’t know her.’ But this is no time for gossip upon such subjects. It
-is only five o’clock, and since my son will neither make love or make
-speeches to-day, I intend to sleep all the morning.”
-
-Relieved from anxiety concerning the duel, I took a little rest. During
-the day, the news of M. d’Ionis’ decease, which took place at Vienna
-fifteen days before (news did not travel so quickly then as now), was
-published in the city, and the suit suspended in view of a speedy
-arrangement between the parties concerned.
-
-In the evening we received a visit from young d’Aillane. He came to beg
-my father’s pardon, and this time I granted it gladly. Notwithstanding
-the serious manner in which he spoke of M. d’Ionis’ death, we could
-easily see that he concealed his joy with difficulty. He took supper
-with us; after which he followed me into my room.
-
-“My dear friend,” said he, “for you must allow me to call you such
-henceforth, I would like to unburden my heart to you, which overflows in
-spite of myself. You do not consider me so interested, I hope, as to
-think I am so wild with joy, over the close of this suit. The secret of
-my happiness”——
-
-“Don’t speak of it,” said I, “we know it, we have guessed it.”
-
-“And why should I not speak of it to you, who deserve so much esteem and
-inspire so much affection? Do not think that you are a stranger to me.
-It is now three months since I have been giving an account of all your
-actions and your successes to”——
-
-“To whom, pray?”
-
-“To Madame d’Ionis. She was very anxious about you for some time after
-your stay at her house. To such an extent that I became jealous. She
-reassured me on that point, however, by explaining to me that you were
-seriously ill there for twenty-four hours.”
-
-“Then,” said I, with some anxiety, “as she has no secrets from you, she
-must have told you the cause of those hours of delirium?”
-
-“Yes, don’t worry yourself about it; she has told me everything, and
-without either of us thinking of making light of it. On the contrary, we
-were very sad over it, and Madame d’Ionis reproached herself for
-allowing you to tamper with certain ideas of a dangerous nature. All
-that I know about it myself, is that though I may swear like a trooper
-that I do not believe in the green ladies, I would never have had
-sufficient courage to summon them a second time. And, besides, if they
-had appeared I would have certainly broken everything in the room, and
-you whom I so stupidly irritated yesterday, your bravery, as regards
-supernatural affairs, far excels my curiosity.”
-
-This amiable youth, who was then on leave of absence came to see me
-every day, and we soon grew very intimate. He could not show himself yet
-at the château d’Ionis, and he awaited with impatience the time when his
-beloved and beautiful cousin would permit him to present himself, after
-she had consecrated the first period of mourning, _aux convenances_. He
-would have preferred taking up his abode in some town nearer her
-residence, but she had forbidden him to do so in due form, unwilling to
-rely upon the prudence of a _fiancé_ so much in love.
-
-Besides, he said that he had business at Angers, although he could not
-explain what it was, and he did not appear to interest himself much in
-it, as he passed all his time with me.
-
-He told me all about his love affair with Madame d’Ionis. They had been
-destined for each other and their love had been mutual from infancy.
-Caroline had been sacrificed to ambition and placed in a convent to
-break up their intimacy. They had seen each other secretly before and
-since her marriage with M. d’Ionis. The young captain did not consider
-himself bound to make any mystery of it, as their relations had been
-always of a perfectly pure nature.
-
-“Had it been otherwise,” said he, “I would not be quite so confiding.”
-
-His confidences, which I had at first repelled, ended by winning me
-over. His was one of those frank and open natures which no one could
-resist. He questioned me persistently, and seemed to understand the art
-of doing so without appearing either curious or importunate. You could
-not help feeling that he was really interested in you, and that he
-wished those whom he loved to be as happy as himself.
-
-I allowed myself then to go as far as to tell him the whole of my story,
-and even to confess the strange passion that dominated me. He listened
-to me very seriously and assured me he saw nothing absurd in my love.
-Instead of trying to make me forget it, he advised me to complete the
-task I had set myself of becoming a good and worthy man.
-
-“When you have accomplished this,” said he, “either some miracle will
-happen to you, or rather your mind, no longer perturbed, will recognize
-that it has wandered in pursuit of some sweet chimera; some still
-sweeter reality will then replace it, and your virtues as well as your
-talents will none the less prove blessings of inestimable value.”
-
-“Never,” I replied, “I will never love another than the heroine of my
-dream.”
-
-And in order to prove to him how all my thoughts were absorbed, I showed
-him the verses and prose that I had written under the empire of this
-exclusive passion. He read and reread them with the frank enthusiasm of
-friendship. Had I been willing to accept his decision, I would have
-thought myself a great poet. He soon knew the best pieces in my
-collection by heart, and recited them to me with fervor, in our walks to
-the old castle of Angers and in the charming environs of the city. I
-resisted his desire that they should be printed. I could make verses for
-my own pleasure and for the relief of my troubled soul, but it would not
-answer for me to seek the renown of a poet. At that period, and among
-the people with whom I lived, it would have cast great discredit upon my
-profession.
-
-At last the day came when he was allowed to make his appearance at the
-château d’Ionis, which Caroline had never left during the three months
-of her widowhood. He received a letter from her and read me the
-postscript. I was invited to accompany him in terms at once ceremonious
-and affectionate.
-
-
-
-
-                              CHAPTER VI.
-                              CONCLUSION.
-
-
-We reached our destination on an evening in December. The ground was
-covered with snow, and the sun was setting in superbly shaded violet
-clouds, but with an air of melancholy. I did not wish to interfere with
-the first effusions of two lovers’ hearts, and so ordered Bernard to
-precede me to the château. Besides, I needed the sole companionship of
-my thoughts for the first few moments. It was not without a great
-emotion that I again beheld the spot where I had lived centuries in the
-space of three days.
-
-I threw Baptiste the reins of my horse, and he proceeded towards the
-stables, while I went in alone through one of the small doors of the
-park.
-
-This beautiful spot, stripped of its flowers and verdure, had now a
-grander character. From the sombre pines, frosty showers fell upon my
-head, and the branches of the old lindens, clad in ice formed delicate
-arcades of crystal, above the arbor of the alleys. One might have
-thought them the naves of a gigantic cathedral offering all the caprices
-of an unknown and fantastic architecture. But I again found Spring in
-the rotunda of the library. They had separated it from the contiguous
-galleries by fitting the arches with glass windows, so as to make a sort
-of temperate hothouse. The waters of the fountain still murmured amid
-exotics that were even more beautiful than those I had seen before, and
-this flowing water, whilst without all sources slept enchained in ice,
-delighted alike the eye and ear.
-
-It was with some difficulty that I decided to look at the Naiad. I found
-her less beautiful than the memory left me of her whose form and
-features she recalled. Then, gradually, I began to admire and love it,
-as one cherishes a portrait which in general appearance and in some of
-the features at least, resembles a beloved one. My feelings had been
-contained and over excited for so long a time that I burst into tears
-and, overwhelmed with emotion, remained seated on the spot where I had
-beheld one whom I no longer hoped to see.
-
-The sound of a silken robe caused me to raise my head, and I saw before
-me a very tall and slender woman, but of most graceful mien, who
-regarded me anxiously. For an instant I confounded her with my vision,
-but the darkness which was rapidly advancing prevented me from clearly
-distinguishing her face, and besides a woman in panniers and furbelows
-so little resembles a nymph of the renaissance, that my illusions were
-quickly dispelled, and I arose to salute her simply as a mortal.
-
-She also bowed, hesitated for an instant to address me, then decided to
-do so, and I trembled at the sound of her voice which penetrated to the
-very core of my being. ’Twas the silvery voice, the voice without its
-equal upon earth, of the divinity. And I was dumb and incapable of
-replying. As when in the presence of my immortal nymph, I was too
-bewildered to understand what she was saying.
-
-She seemed greatly embarrassed by my silence, and I made an effort to
-shake off this absurd stupor. She asked me if I were not M. Just
-Nivières.
-
-“Yes, madame,” I at last answered. “I beg of you to pardon my
-preoccupation. I was a little indisposed, I was dozing.”
-
-“No,” replied she with adorable sweetness, “you were weeping! That was
-what drew me here from the gallery where I was awaiting the signal of my
-brother’s arrival.”
-
-“Your brother?”
-
-“Yes, your friend, Bernard d’Aillane.”
-
-“So you are Mademoiselle d’Aillane?”
-
-“Félicie d’Aillane, and I dare affirm your friend also, although you do
-not know me and I am seeing you for the first time. But the high opinion
-my brother has of you and all that he has written about you have caused
-me to feel a sincere interest in you. So it was with real sorrow and
-anxiety that I heard you sobbing. _Mon dieu!_ I hope that you are not
-grieving over any family affliction; if your worthy parents of whom I
-have also heard so much good, were in trouble, you would not be here.”
-
-“Thank God,” I replied, “I have no cause to distress myself about any of
-those dear to me, and the personal grief that I experienced just now was
-dispelled by the sound of your voice, by the sweet words you have
-spoken. But how does it happen that having such a sister as you, Bernard
-should never have mentioned it?”
-
-“Bernard is absorbed by an affection of which I am not in the least
-jealous, and that I very well understand, for madame is a tender sister
-to me. But did you not come with him, and how is it that I find you here
-alone and unannounced?”
-
-“Bernard went on before me.”
-
-“Ah! I understand. Well, let us leave them together a little longer;
-they have so much to say to each other, and their attachment is so
-noble, so fraternal, and of such long standing. But come by the fire in
-the library, for it is rather chilly here.”
-
-I saw that she did not think it proper to remain with me in the dark,
-and I followed her regretfully. I feared to see her face, for her voice
-deluded me into the belief that my immortal nymph was stopping to
-converse in common language with me, on details that concerned the world
-of the living.
-
-There was a fire and light in the library, and I could then see her
-features, which were marvelously beautiful and which in a vague fashion
-recalled those that I had thought well fixed in my mind. But while
-scrutinizing them as closely as politeness would permit, I realized that
-the three images of the Naiad, the phantom and that of Mademoiselle
-d’Aillane were so confused in my mind, that it was impossible for me to
-separate them so as to render to each one the admiration that was its
-due. It was the same type, of that I was very sure; but I could no
-longer decide what constituted the difference, and I perceived with fear
-this uncertainty of my memory in regard to the sublime apparition. I had
-brooded over it too much. I had put too much faith in seeing it again.
-It no longer appeared to me save through a cloud.
-
-And then, after several moments, I forgot my anguish in the sole
-contemplation of Mademoiselle d’Aillane, beautiful as the purest and
-most elegant of Diana’s nymphs, and as frankly affectionate with me as a
-child who confides in a sympathetic face. There was, so to speak, a
-shining purity about her, an adorable expansion of heart without the
-least thought of coquetry; and no trace whatever of the always rather
-reserved manners that a young girl of quality was in the habit of
-observing when conversing with a _bourgeois_. It seemed as if I were a
-relative, a friend of her childhood with whom she was renewing her
-acquaintance after a separation of several years. Her limpid gaze was
-not at all like the concentrated fire of Madame d’Ionis. It was a serene
-light like that of the stars. Impressionable and nervous as I had become
-in consequence of so many exciting vigils, I felt rejuvenated, rested,
-and deliciously refreshed under this benign influence. She conversed
-without art, and without pretention, but with a natural distinction and
-clearness of judgment which evinced a moral education far above what was
-then regarded as sufficient for women of her rank. She had none of their
-prejudices, and it was with angelic good faith and even with a certain
-generous childish enthusiasm that she accepted the conquests of the
-philosophical mind that was drawing us, without our knowledge, towards a
-new era.
-
-But above all she possessed an irresistible charm of sweetness, and I at
-once succumbed to its influence without a struggle. Without remembering
-that in the secrecy of my soul, I had pronounced a sort of monastic vow
-which consecrated me to the worship of an impalpable ideal.
-
-She spoke openly of the joys and sorrows of her family, of the part that
-I had played in the events of these latter days, and of the gratitude
-that she considered she owed me for the way in which I had spoken to
-Bernard of her father’s honor.
-
-“Since you know all these things then, you ought to appreciate all it
-has cost me to take sides against you.”
-
-“I know everything,” said she, “even about the duel that you came near
-having with my brother. _Hélas!_ he was entirely in the wrong, but he is
-of a nature that rises after committing a mistake, and his esteem for
-you dates from that time. My father, whose affairs have kept him in
-Paris all this time, will soon be here, and longs to tell you that
-henceforth he looks on you as one of his own children. You will like
-him, I am sure; he is a man of superior mind and of corresponding
-character.”
-
-As she spoke thus, the noise of a carriage and the barking of dogs
-without caused her to start from her chair.
-
-“It is he!” she cried, “I will wager it is he who is coming! Come with
-me to meet him.”
-
-I followed her, much excited. She had put the candlestick in my hand and
-had run before me, so slight and lissome was she, that no sculptor could
-have conceived a purer ideal of nymph or goddess. I was already
-accustomed to seeing this ideal creature, costumed in the fashion of the
-day. Besides her toilette was of an exquisite taste and simplicity. I
-fancied I could even trace a symbolical resemblance in the color of her
-changeable silk dress, which was creamy white, with shadows of delicate
-green.
-
-“Here is M. Nivières,” said she, presenting me to her father, when she
-had joyfully embraced him.
-
-“Ah, ah!” he replied in a tone that seemed strange to me, and that would
-have troubled me, had he not at once come towards me, stretching out
-both hands with a cordiality no less surprising, “do not be astonished
-at my pleasure in seeing you, you are the friend of my son, consequently
-my own, and I know your value through him.”
-
-Madame d’Ionis and Bernard now ran forward; I found Caroline beautified
-by happiness. Some moments afterwards we all met again at the table,
-with the abbé Lamyre, who had arrived that morning, and the good
-Zéphyrine, who had closed the eyes of the dowager d’Ionis several weeks
-before, and who wore mourning like everyone else in the house. The
-d’Aillanes not being related to the d’Ionis, except by marriage, could
-dispense with a formality that would have seemed only an act of
-hypocrisy on their part.
-
-The supper was not lively. They were forced to abstain from gayety and
-expansiveness before the servants, and Madame d’Ionis realized so well
-the exigencies of her situation, that she restrained herself without
-effort and kept her guests up to the same pitch. The hardest person to
-silence was the abbé Lamyre; he could not resist his habit of humming
-two or three couplets, in the style of a philosophical _résumé_, during
-the conversation.
-
-Notwithstanding this sort of constraint, joy and love were in the air of
-this household, where no one could reasonably regret M. d’Ionis, and
-where the contracted ideas, and shallowness of the dowager’s heart had
-left a very small vacancy. We inhaled a perfume of hope and of delicate
-tenderness which penetrated my very soul, and which I wondered did not
-sadden me—I, who was betrothed to eternal solitude.
-
-It was true that since my intimacy with Bernard I had made rapid strides
-towards recovery. His character was so enterprising that, in spite of
-myself, he had snatched me from my mournful reflections; and in
-possessing himself of my secret he had also released me from the fatal
-influence which was drawing me to a separation from all other ties.
-
-“A secret without a confidant is a mortal illness,” he had said, and he
-had listened to all my vagaries, without appearing to perceive my
-madness; sometimes he had seemed to share it, sometimes he had
-skillfully suggested doubts that had won me over to his way of thinking.
-I had come to think, a greater part of the time, that were it not for
-the inexplicable fact of the ring, my imagination alone was responsible
-for all my fantastic adventures.
-
-I found in M. d’Aillane all the superiority of heart and mind that his
-children had spoken of. He evinced a sympathy for me, to which I
-responded with all my soul.
-
-We separated as late as possible. As for myself, when twelve o’clock
-struck and Madame d’Ionis gave the signal for a general good evening, I
-experienced a sensation of grief as if I had fallen from delicious
-dreams into sombre reality. I had for so long a time reversed the order
-of life, regarding it as a dream, and dreams as waking, that the dread
-of being again alone was actually a terrible shock, and thoroughly
-unnerved me.
-
-I certainly did not as yet wish to admit that I could love another; but
-it was certain that without thinking myself in love with Mademoiselle
-d’Aillane, I had an extraordinarily friendly feeling for her. I had
-observed her very carefully when she was not addressing me, and the more
-familiar I grew with her beauty, which was of an uncommon order, the
-more I was assured that I again experienced the same sensations awakened
-by the adorable phantom; only this was a gentler fascination and
-imparted a wonderful sense of spiritual bliss. That clear countenance
-inspired absolute confidence and a sentiment of tranquil ardor
-resembling faith.
-
-Bernard, who had no more idea of going to sleep than myself, talked with
-me until two o’clock in the morning. We had lodged in the same room, no
-longer “_la chambre aux dames_” nor even the one where I had been ill,
-but a pretty apartment decorated in the style of Boucher, with the
-rosiest and gayest of designs. There had been no more question of the
-green ladies than if we had never heard them mentioned. While Bernard
-was talking to me about his dear Caroline, he asked me what opinion I
-had formed of his dear Félicie. At first I did not know how to answer
-him. I feared to say too much or too little. I evaded the question by
-asking him, in my turn, why he had spoken to me so little of her.
-
-“Is it possible,” I said, “that you like her less than she likes you?”
-
-“I would be a strange animal,” he replied, “if I did not adore my
-sister. But you were so taken up with certain ideas, that you would not
-even have listened to my praises of her. And then, situated as we were
-at that time, my sister and myself, it would not have looked very well
-for me to appear as if I were proposing her to you.”
-
-“And how could you have had the appearance of doing me such an honor.”
-
-“Ah! because a singular fact exists that I have been many times on the
-point of mentioning to you and that you must have certainly already
-remarked, the surprising resemblance between Félicie and the nymph of
-Jean Goujon whom you were so much in love with as to bestow its features
-upon your phantom.”
-
-“Then I was not mistaken,” I exclaimed, “mademoiselle is a beautiful
-counterpart of this statue.”
-
-“Beautiful! thank you for her. But you see that you are impressed by
-this resemblance; and that is the reason why I refrained from mentioning
-it beforehand.”
-
-“I understand, you feared suggesting pretensions—that I cannot indulge
-in.”
-
-“I feared to be the means of your falling in love with a young person
-who could not aspire to a union with yourself; and that is all I feared.
-As long as the state of Madame d’Ionis’ fortune is not known, we must
-consider ourselves poor. Your father and mine fear that her husband has
-left nothing, and that in appointing her universal legatee, he has only
-made her the victim of a bad joke. In that case we will never accept the
-little fortune that she wishes to give up to us, and to which our rights
-may be disputed, as you well know. I shall marry her all the same, since
-we love each other, but I will not allow her to bestow the smallest
-piece of property upon me in this contract. Then, my sister, without any
-dowry whatever—for my wife will not be rich enough to give her one, and
-Félicie will never permit her to inconvenience herself on her account—is
-resolved to become a nun.”
-
-“A nun, she? Never! Bernard, you must never consent to such a
-sacrifice.”
-
-“Why not, my dear friend?” said he, with a feeling of sadness and pride
-that I could well understand. “My sister has been brought up with this
-idea, and she has always shown a taste for seclusion.”
-
-“You mustn’t think of such a thing! It is impossible for one so
-accomplished not to condescend to constitute the happiness of some
-honest man; it is still more impossible that no such honest man should
-be found who would beg her to bestow this happiness upon him!”
-
-“I do not say that such may not be the case. That is a question that the
-future will solve, and should Madame d’Ionis have some money, I would
-not put any obstacles in the way of her giving my sister a dowry, modest
-but sufficient for the simplicity of her tastes. Only, we know nothing
-as yet, and in any case it would come with very bad grace from me, to
-say to you, ‘I have a charming sister, who embodies your ideal.’ That
-would have been as much as to say, ‘Think about it.’ It would have been
-throwing a girl at your head who was much too proud ever to consent to
-enter any family richer than her own, by means of a young poet’s
-exaltation. Now, what I then thought, I still think, and I beg of you
-seriously my dear friend, not to lay too much stress upon my sister’s
-resemblance to the Naiad.”
-
-I was silent for a moment; then feeling, in spite of myself, that this
-warning troubled me more than I could have believed, I said with brusque
-sincerity:
-
-“Why then, my dear Bernard, did you bring me here?”
-
-“Because I thought my sister had left. She was to have rejoined my
-father at Tours, and he was not expected here for a fortnight. Events
-have frustrated my plans. I am none the less easy on my sister’s
-account, knowing what kind of a man you are.”
-
-“Are you as easy on my account, Bernard?” said I, in a reproachful tone.
-
-“Yes,” he replied, with some emotion, “I am easy because you have
-sufficient strength of mind to say to yourself, this: A girl of heart
-and of worth has a right to be sued for by a man whose heart is free,
-and she would not feel much flattered some day to discover that she only
-owed this distinction to a chance resemblance.”
-
-I so well understood this answer that I added no more, and I resolved
-not to look too much at Mademoiselle d’Aillane, lest I should deceive
-myself. I even determined to go away, lest I should end by being too
-much disturbed by this fatal resemblance, and my fears were justified on
-the following day.
-
-I felt that I was falling frantically in love with Mademoiselle
-d’Aillane, that the vision of the Naiad was fading in her presence, and
-that Bernard perceived the fact with anxiety.
-
-I took my leave, pretending that my father had only allowed me
-twenty-four hours liberty. I had decided to open my heart to my parents,
-and to ask their permission to offer my soul and life to Mademoiselle
-d’Aillane. I did so, with the greatest sincerity. The recital of my past
-sufferings made my father laugh and my mother weep. However, when I had
-thoroughly described the state of despair, into which at times I had
-fallen, and which had made me contemplate the idea of suicide with a
-species of rapture, my father grew serious again, and cried, while he
-looked at my mother:
-
-“So, here is a child who has been a victim of monomania under our very
-eyes, and we never suspected it! And you thought, _mamie_, that he was
-hiding his flame for the beautiful d’Ionis who is so thoroughly alive,
-while he was wasting away for the beautiful d’Ionis who is dead, if it
-so be that she ever lived! Truly strange things come to pass in poets’
-brains, and I was perfectly right to mistrust this devilish poetry from
-the very first. Well, let us give thanks to the beautiful d’Aillane who
-resembles the Naiad and who has cured our madman. We must marry him at
-any cost, and we must ask for her at once, before it is known whether
-she will have a dowry, for should such be the case she will consider
-herself too grand a lady to marry a lawyer. Why the deuce didn’t Madame
-d’Ionis confide the case of the liquidation to me? We would know how to
-act better than this old Parisian lawyer, who won’t get through with it
-in six months. Do they ever really work in Paris? They mix themselves up
-in politics and neglect their business.”
-
-The following day, my father and I returned to Ionis. Our request was
-submitted to M. d’Aillane, who began by embracing me, after which he
-gave his hand to my father and said, with an air of thoroughly chivalric
-frankness:
-
-“Yes, _and thank you_!”
-
-I threw myself again into his arms and he added:
-
-“Wait, however, until my daughter consents, for above all I desire her
-happiness. As to myself, I give her to you without knowing whether she
-will be rich enough for you; for if she should be, I have decided that
-you are noble enough for her. You are incurring every risk. _Eh bien,
-mordieu!_ I wish to do as much and not fall behind the example you set
-me. You have no ambition for money, and for my part I have no prejudices
-in favor of nobility. So we both agree. I have your word and you have
-mine. Only I insist upon my daughter deciding the matter. And my dear M.
-Nivières, you must allow your son to pay his own addresses, for his love
-is so recent, that it depends upon him to prove its sincerity. As to his
-character and his talents, with those we are familiar, and there can be
-no objections on that score.”
-
-I was thus allowed to become a constant visitor at the château d’Ionis,
-and this was, as regards the past, the happiest time of my life. I
-loved, under the ordinary conditions of life, a being above the ordinary
-region of life, an angel of goodness, of sweetness, of intelligence and
-of ideal beauty.
-
-She did not leave me without hope and freely expressed her esteem and
-sympathy for me, but when I spoke of love, she seemed doubtful.
-
-“Do not deceive yourself,” said she, “have you never loved, before you
-met me, and more than you loved me, a certain lady whose name my brother
-has refused to tell me?”
-
-One day she said to me:
-
-“Do you not wear on your finger, a certain ring that you regard as a
-talisman, and if I were to ask you to throw it into the fountain, would
-you obey me?”
-
-“Certainly not,” I exclaimed, “I will never part with it, for it was you
-who gave it to me.”
-
-“I, what do you mean by that?”
-
-“Yes, it was you, do not try to conceal it any longer. It was you who
-enacted the role of the green lady to please Madame d’Ionis, who wished
-through you to pronounce her own ruin, and who thought she had found in
-me the person ‘worthy of belief,’ whose testimony her husband required.
-It was you who, yielding to her idea, appeared before me in fantastical
-guise, and prescribed my duty in conformity with your delicacy and pride
-of soul.”
-
-“Well, yes, it was I!” she said. “It was I who came near destroying your
-reason, and who repented bitterly on learning too late, how much you had
-suffered from this romantic adventure. Once before they had tried you in
-a ghost scene, with which I had nothing to do. When they saw how brave
-you were, more courageous than the abbé Lamyre, upon whom Caroline had
-played a similar trick, to amuse herself, they thought they could treat
-you to an apparition, in which there would be nothing very terrifying. I
-happened to be here, secretly, as the dowager d’Ionis would not
-willingly have suffered my presence. Caroline, struck with my
-resemblance to the nymph of the fountain, conceived the idea of
-arranging my hair and dressing me in a similar style so that I should
-deliver my oracle in due form. Although the dictum was not such as she
-desired, it was nevertheless one that you have obeyed religiously, in
-not forgetting the care of our honor for a single moment. I left the
-next morning, and they kept me in ignorance of the fact that you had
-been seriously ill here, owing to this apparition. After your quarrel
-with Bernard, I was at Angers, and it was I who sent you the ring that I
-caused you to find in your room. This episode was due to Madame d’Ionis,
-who had two very old rings exactly alike, and who had previously
-arranged everything to carry out the romance. It was she who took it
-away from you during your fever, fearing that you should be too much
-excited by this appearance of reality, and preferring that you should
-think it all a dream.”
-
-“And I never thought so, never! But how did it happen that you regained
-possession of this ring that was not your own?”
-
-“Caroline had given it to me,” said she, blushing, “because I thought it
-pretty.”
-
-Then she hastened to add:
-
-“When Bernard had won your confidence, I learned at last by what sad
-experiences and virtuous deeds you deserved to again behold the green
-lady. I then resolved to be your sister and your friend, in order to
-repair by the devotion of a life-time, an act of imprudence into which I
-had allowed myself to be drawn, and thus to compensate for the trouble I
-had caused you. I never expected to please you as much by daylight, as
-by the light of the moon. Well, since such is the case, know that you
-have not been the only unhappy one, and that”——
-
-“Go on,” I exclaimed, falling at her feet.
-
-“Well, well,” said she, blushing still more, and lowering her voice,
-although we were alone by the fountain, “know that I have been punished
-for my temerity. On that day I was but a merry, unthinking child, my
-part came very easily to me; and my _two sisters_, Bernard, and the abbé
-Lamyre, who were listening behind these rocks, thought that I displayed
-a gravity of which they would not have deemed me capable. The truth was
-that in looking at you, and listening to you, I was suddenly seized with
-an indescribable vertigo. To begin with, I imagined that I was really
-dead. Destined for the cloister, I spoke to you as a being already set
-apart from the world of the living. I lost myself in my part, and I felt
-that I was becoming interested in you. You addressed me with a passion
-that penetrated my very soul. If you could see my face, I also could see
-yours—and when I reentered my convent, I feared the vows that I was
-about to assume, and I felt that while I had tampered with your liberty,
-I had yielded and lost my own.”
-
-As she spoke thus to me, she grew animated. The shrinking modesty of her
-first avowal had given place to a burst of enthusiastic confidence, she
-entwined my head in her beautiful, long, supple arms and kissed my
-forehead saying:
-
-“I had promised you solemnly that you should see me again, and I was
-broken-hearted when I made it, for I feared I could never keep it; and
-still, something divine, a voice from heaven whispered in my ear—‘Hope,
-for thou lovest!’”
-
-We were united the following month. The settlement of the affairs of
-Madame d’Ionis (who had now become Madame d’Aillane) was not yet
-terminated, when the Revolution broke out, which put an end to all
-contesting on the part of her husband’s creditors, until a new order of
-things should be established. After the “Terror,” she found herself in
-easy circumstances, but not wealthy; I then had the joy and pride of
-being the sole support of my wife. The beautiful château d’Ionis was
-sold, and the grounds cut up. Some peasants, blinded by a stupid
-patriotism, had broken the fountain, taking it for the bathing-place of
-a queen.
-
-One day they brought me the head and an arm of the Naiad, which I bought
-of the mutilator and which I still preserve religiously. But what no one
-had been able to destroy, was my domestic happiness; and what had
-withstood, and will continue to withstand all political tempests,
-unchangeable and pure, is my love for the most beautiful and best of
-women.
-
-
-                                 FINIS.
-
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-
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-
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-                          TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
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- 1. Silently corrected obvious typographical errors and variations in
-      spelling.
- 2. Retained archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings as printed.
- 3. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
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